Kristin Figard is a recent graduate of Northwestern University with a double major in Viola Performance and Harpsichord Maintenance and Studies.  She studies Viola with Almita and Roland Vamos and Harpsichord with Stephen Alltop.  For twenty-two years of her life she focused primarily on Violin and Piano, winning numerous competitions including the Elgin Symphony and Waukegan Symphony on Violin.  She was invited as one of four Americans to participate in the semi-final round of the 3rd International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition for Young Musicians in 1997.

In 2006 Kristin won the Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Scholarship Competition.  She also performed Alexander Tchaikovsky’s “Distant Dreams of Childhood” for Violin and Viola with her sister, Tracy, on the violin at the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. In 2001 Kristin won the college division of the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation of Chicago in 2001, just one year after winning the high school division in 2000.  That same year she also won the college division of the Chicago Viola Society Competition and the First Prize of the Holland-America Music Society Competition.  As a result, Kristin performed on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and the “Live from Studio One” Series both broadcast live on WFMT.  She also performed both the Karl Stamitz and J. C. Bach Viola Concertos with the Highland Park Strings and she and her sister also recorded their first CD on the Holland-America Music Society label. 

In the year 2000, Kristin won the Highland Park Music Club Scholarship Competition and the Evanston Music Club Scholarship Competition both on the Viola.  She performed the Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra (1919) with the Skokie Valley Symphony, the Bartok Viola Concerto with the Evanston Symphony, and Mozart’s Symphonia Concertante with the North Suburban Symphony with her sister Tracy on the Violin.  During this year she was the Principal Violist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

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Mark Lekas was a full scholarship student at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Paul Katz of the Cleveland String Quartet.  Other teachers have included Zara Nelsova, Steven Kates, Michael Haber and Leonard Chausow.  Mr. Lekas was a member of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, the New American Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Salem String Quartet.  He currently enjoys an active musical life in Chicago as Principal Cello with the Indiana Symphony, as a member of the Lake Forest Symphony, and the Grammy-nominated Nashville Chamber Orchestra.  In addition, he is a regular substitute cellist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  Mark frequently performs chamber music with the North Park Chamber Players, the Brass String Chamber Ensemble, the Pilgrim Chamber Players, and the Lekas Trio.  He has performed many times on WFMT’s Live from Studio One series.  He is also an active studio cellist, recording for television and radio jingles, and has just received a gold album certification for his work on Michael W. Smith’s CD Healing Rain. He also plays musicals for Broadway in Chicago, and is presently the cellist for the show Wicked.  He is currently on the faculty of North Park University.

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Michele Lekas received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from the Quebec Conservatory of Music in her native Canada and later studied in the United States with Jaime Laredo, David Cerone and Sally Thomas.  She has performed with Canadian ensembles such as the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and Les Violons du Roy, and in Switzerland with the Camerata Lysy Gstaad.  She also performed with the New American Chamber Orchestra on a year-long tour of Europe.  Michele is currently concertmaster of the Northwest Indiana Symphony, the Rockford Symphony, the New Philharmonic Orchestra and the Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, and is a substitute musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  She has performed on WFMT Live from Studio One with both the North Park Chamber Musicians and the Pilgrim Chamber Players, and she has also appeared in recital over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

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Faye Seeman, harp, is founder of the group Kithara, comprised of flute, cello and harp which performs widely in Chicago and throughout the country. She is principal harpist of the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra and the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra.  She has just finished her 16th year as faculty member of the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County.  She is also on the faculty at Wheaton College. Faye will perform as soloist with the Rockford Chamber Orchestra in November, 2007 in a new work by composer Gustavo Leone.

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