Stephen Balderston joined the DePaul University School of Music faculty as professor of cello in 2003 after ten years as assistant principal cello with the Chicago Symphony Orchesra.  He has performed solo works and chamber music with such artists as Daniel Barenboim, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Menahem Pressler, and Pinchas Zukerman, and has debuted as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Bobby McFerrin.  He has been featured at the Ravinia Festival, Bargemusic in New York City, the Affinis Music Festival in Japan, the OK Mozart International Festival in Oklahoma, and the International Music Festival in Shanghai, and has also served as principal cello at the Grand Teton Music Festival.  Balderston’s summers have been spent working with students at a variety of venues.  He was the cello coach for Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Workshop in 1999, 2001 and 2003.  Most recently he has taught and performed at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the Marrowstone Music Festival, and Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute. 

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Born in London, Roger Chase studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk, also working for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis, whose Montagnana viola he now plays.

He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979, and in 1987 appeared as a soloist at a Promenade Concert at The Royal Albert Hall in London. He has since played as a soloist or chamber musician in major cities  throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East, India, most of Eastern and all of Western Europe and Scandinavia.

Roger Chase has been a member of many ensembles including the Nash Ensemble for more 20 years, the London Sinfonietta, the Esterhazy Baryton Trio, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of  London, and the London Chamber Orchestra.  His most recent recording of music by Benjamin Dale was named Recording of the Month by MusicWeb International: “outstandingly performed … undoubtedly one of my Records of the Year for 2008.”

Mr. Chase has been invited to play as principal viola with every major British orchestra and many others in North America and Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  He has recorded for EMI, CRD, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin and Floating Earth Records, demonstrating his diverse interests by playing with a folk group on an amplified viola, as a soloist on an authentic instrument and as an exponent of the avant-garde.

Roger Chase has taught at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Northern College of Music.  He has been a professor at Oberlin College, and taught at Roosevelt University in Chicago.  His playing has inspired many composers to write for him, from solo pieces to concertos and chamber works. With pianist Michiko Otaki  he has played  works inspired by and dedicated to Lionel Tertis in many venues including at the National Gallery in Washington (featured on NPR’s Performance Today), Princeton University, and in Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, and elsewhere.

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California native Jelena Dirks is the third generation of professional women musicians in her family. She played in the oboe section of the Chicago Symphony for the 2004-2005 season, and will continue in a permanent sub position into the 2005-2006 season where she is sharing the stage with her mother, Chicago Symphony violist Karen Dirks.

Ms. Dirks began study of the violin at age three, the piano at age four, and began playing chamber music with her mother at age 10. The following year her enthusiasm for music expanded to include the study of the oboe. She has two Bachelors degrees from St Olaf College and two Masters degrees from the University of Michigan: one of each in oboe performance and piano performance. In 1999, Ms. Dirks moved to Chicago and began study with oboist Alex Klein. Since that time, she has enjoyed collaborating with Mr. Klein in numerous performances and projects.

As the newest member of the Prairie Winds Quintet, Ms. Dirks joined one of the premier wind quintets of America. Renowned as pedagogues as well as performers, the quintet is on the woodwind faculty of the Madeline Island Music Festival, and has given numerous masterclasses, lectures, and coachings, including a weekend in residence at the 2003 Chamber Music of America conference.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an “accomplished and virtuosic” performer, she is a two-time winner of the Musical Merit Foundation Scholarship Competition. Ms. Dirks has performed in concert on both the piano and the oboe, in recitals, chamber music concerts, and with orchestras across the United States, and at international venues in China, Canada, and the Caribbean. Her chamber performances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians have been praised as “polished, technically superb and beautifully balanced.”

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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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Born in Costa Rica, clarinetist Elizandro Garcia-Montoya is a nationally sought after chamber and orchestral musician. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Jacksonville Symphony and the State of Mexico Orchestra in Toluca, Mexico. An active freelancer in Chicago, Mr. Garcia-Montoya performs with some of the most important music organizations in the Chicago area. A prizewinner in the 1999 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Mr. Garcia-Montoya continues to pursue his chamber music career in Chicago. As a member of the Barossa Quintet, he regularly performs educational outreach programs for the Ravinia Festival and the International Music Foundation. Mr. Garcia-Montoya has also performed with groups such as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Fulcrum Point, Millenium Chamber Players and The Chicago Ensemble, among others.

Mr. Garcia-Montoya completed his Master's degree at Rice University, where he received the Michael Hammond President’s Scholarship award. He also earned a Bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Throughout his studies, Mr. Garcia-Montoya performed at numerous music festivals including Tanglewood, National Repertory Orchestra, Kent/Blossom Music, International Festival at Round Top, Spoleto/USA and Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. His major teachers include Franklin Cohen, Richard Shanley, Michael Webster and Larry Combs.

Mr. Garcia-Montoya is currently principal clarinetist of the New Hampshire Music Festival and the New Millennium Orchestra in Chicago. A dedicated teacher, he teaches clarinet privately and at the British School of Chicago.

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Steven Honigberg is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins.  He is currently a member of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and founder of the Potomac String Quartet.  As soloist he has appeared with many leading orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra and has appeared in concert at the Ravinia Festival.  He has recorded extensively, most notably the complete String Quartets of David Diamond which John von Rhein, music critic for the Chicago Tribune, chose as one of his top 20 CD choices for 2003.  Steven Honigberg has also recorded the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano, and in a new release,  the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano with his mother, Carol Honigberg, pianist. He has been the Director of Chamber Music at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC since its inception and has participated in extensive recordings of concerts held at the museum, including the music of Erick Wolfgang Korngold and of Ernst Toch.  Recent performances in the Chicago area as soloist with orchestra include the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Ars Viva Orchestra, the Elgar Concerto with the New Philharmonic, and the Dvorak Concerto with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Idaho where he has performed as principal cellist since 1990.  Steven Honigberg performs on the “Stuart” Stradivarius cello made in 1732.

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A native of Seattle, Michael Hovnanian began playing the bass at the age of nine. He attended the University of Washington and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. He has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra and the University of Washington Symphony. He was principal bassist with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (British Columbia) and joined the San Antonio Symphony in 1988. Since 1989 he has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In addition to playing in the CSO, he is active performing solo and chamber music in the Chicago area including performances in the CSO chamber music concerts at Symphony Center and at the Art Institute, with Chicago Pro Musica, at the Winter Chamber Music Festival at Northwestern University and with the Pilgrim Chamber Players. He is a co-founder of the International Bottesini Society which promotes the legacy of this famous 19th century double-bass player and composer.

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Nisanne Howell’s varied career encompasses impressive credentials as a soloist, recitalist, and orchestra musician. She is a member of the first violin section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; she played here for a brief period in the 1970s and rejoined the Orchestra in 1986.

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Nisanne began violin lessons at the age of seven, attended the Eastman School of Music, and then continued her studies at The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, and Meadowmount Summer School of Music. Her teachers have included Ivan Galamian, Carroll Glenn, and Jascha Brodsky. In 1984 she took a series of private lessons from the legendary Jascha Heifetz, “one of the great experiences of my life.” 

Nisanne was the first-prize winner in competitions sponsored by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Music Teachers’ National Association and participated in the Marlboro Music Festival under Pablo Casals. She has toured with the New York Philharmonic and appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Rochester Philharmonic, Hudson Valley Philharmonic under Sir Neville Marriner, Erie Philharmonic, and the New York Christmas String Orchestra, which made appearances in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Solo appearances in Canada have included L’Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec and the CBC Radio Orchestra. Her credits also include several recordings for CBC Radio. Before coming to Chicago, she was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1986. She has great affection for the “old school” of violin playing as practiced by Heifetz and Elman.

Nisanne lives with her children, Tony, Phil, Loretta and Teddy, in Evanston.

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Lewis Kirk is a member of the orchestras of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Santa Fe Opera, playing both bassoon and contrabassoon. He performs with Chicago Opera Theater, Bach Week in Evanston, Fulcrum Point, the Champagne Players, Music of the Baroque, and the Chicago Philharmonic. He has appeared as a guest with the Chicago Symphony, and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. His formal music studies were at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and at the Manhattan School of Music. His bassoon teachers include Crawford Best, Phillip Kolker, Stephen Maxym, and Darlene Jussilla. Mr. Kirk played five seasons with the Städtischen Orchester of Bremerhaven, Germany and three seasons with the New Orleans Symphony. He is a Lecturer in Bassoon at Northwestern University and resides in Evanston with his wife Melissa and daughters Eleanor and Cynthia.

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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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Concertmaster Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Samuel Magad is a native Chicagoan who made his debut with the CSO at the age of eleven.  After studies with Paul Stassevich, Magad was asked to become the CSO’s assistant concertmaster by the then-music director Fritz Reiner. He was later appointed concertmaster by Sir Georg Solti and has made regular appearances as soloist with the CSO during his tenure, in addition to numerous chamber music concerts.  Magad was founder, music director and conductor of the Northbrook Symphony which, in 1977, was named Orchestra of the Year.  He was also concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Orchestra.  Among his many awards are the Distinguished Alumni Award from DePaul University, the Governor’s Award from the National Academy of Recording Art and Sciences, and Conductor of the Year Award in 1998 from the Illinois Council of Orchestras.  A 1710 Stradivarius violin, known as the Vieuxtemps, is his instrument of choice. 

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"Like the Romantic ideal of art, Patrice Michaels’ voice is both natural and passionate" says Classical CD Digest. "A formidable interpretative talent" (The New Yorker), Ms. Michaels receives raves for her "poise, musicianship and impressive fioratura" (Los Angeles Times), "a voice that is light, rich and flexible" (Opera News), and "pinpoint-accurate ... bravura" (Boston Globe).

Ms. Michaels has performed on stage, in concert and recital since her debut in 1991. She has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cleveland Opera, Central City, Tacoma, The Banff Centre, and Chicago Opera Theater. She has been featured with the Shanghai, Czech National, St. Louis, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Minnesota Orchestras, the Maryland Handel Festival, Kansas City and Virginia Symphonies, as well as New York’s Concert Royal, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and the Maverick Festival. Recital appearances include three seasons at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana, Cuba, tours of Central and South America, and as guest clinician at the University of Tel Aviv. She has been presented in Music at the Supreme Court, as guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and by the Schubert Club.

Ms. Michaels’ recording credits are extensive, with more than a dozen critically acclaimed releases on the Cedille label, www.cedillerecords.com. She is featured in On Course, the music of Laurie Altman on Albany Records.

A Mozart specialist, Patrice Michaels tours a special concert released in 2002 on the Cedille label, Divas of Mozart's Day. This dramatic program with special guest Peter Van de Graaff was presented in Salzburg during the summer 2006 anniversary celebrations. Ms. Michaels can be heard on the Amadis recording of the Requiem and on Music of the Baroque’s Great Mass in C Minor.

Ms. Michaels serves as Professor of Music at Lawrence University’s Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin and at the Music Institute of Chicago.

www.patricemichaels.com
www.divasofmozartsday.com

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Desirée Ruhstrat made her professional debut at the age of twelve with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  She was the youngest prizewinner ever at Switzerland’s Tibor Varga International Competition and won first prize at the National Young Musicians Debut Competition in Los Angeles.  Numerous engagements have included appearances with the Denver Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Agauscalientes in Mexico.  She has also toured extensively with the Philharmonia De Camera Chamber Orchestra in Germany. 

As a recitalist, Ms. Ruhstrat has appeared in Europe and throughout the United States including at the White House by invitation of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. Her distinguished career as a chamber musician includes appearances with the Colorado Chamber Players, on the Chamber Music Series of the Philadelphia Orchestra, at the University of Wisconsin, and at summer festivals such as the Peninsula Music Festival, the Breckenridge Music Festival and the Utah Music Festival where she also served on its faculty.  Ms. Ruhstrat is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and her teachers have included Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Harold Wipplier and Aaron Rosand. 

She presently is on the music faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago in Winnetka where she is an active performer and teacher.

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Robert Swan was appointed to the viola section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Sir Georg Solti in 1972.

A native of Connecticut, Robert studied viola with David Dawson at Indiana University, where he earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a performer’s certificate. While at Indiana, he studied chamber music with William Primrose, Josef Gingold, György Sebök, and Menahem Pressler.

Principal viola of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and a founding member of the Evanston Chamber Ensemble, Robert Swan also has appeared as guest artist with the Fine Arts Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and the Rembrandt Chamber Players. From 1972 until 1980, he was professor of viola at Northwestern University, and he also served as violist of the Eckstein String Quartet.

He recently retired from the CSO and spends most of his time in Michigan enjoying a traffic-free life.

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Dan Tucker, composer, was born in Chicago in 1925 and attended Lake View High School, Loyola University, and the American Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Composition and in Piano.  After service in the U.S. Army, 1943-1946, Tucker resumed work as a journalist.  He continued to compose through 45 years  as a working newspaperman, and in 1988 retired from the Chicago Tribune editorial board to concentrate on composition.

Dan Tucker's works have been performed by orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles in this country and abroad, notably by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra : a suite from his ballet Hopscotch and Celebration for Orchestra, a work commissioned for the 1976 Bicentennial observance.  The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC under Mstislav Rostropovich performed two works of Tucker: Overture to Tucker's opera Many Moons; and Difference, a set of variations, each with a different ethnicflavor, which was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestraand performed by the NSO in 1988 at its traditional 4th of July concert on the Capital lawn on national Television.

The opera Many Moons, on a text by James Thurber, was performed in Chicago several times, and in 1990 was presented in Budapest, Hungary by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music.  A Dream of the Rood, on an 8th Century text translated from Anglo-Saxon, was premiered in 1988 by His Majestie's  Clerkes (now Bella Voce); and Chamber Symphony, winner of a national prize for composition, was last performed in 1999 by the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra under Alan Heatherington.

In 2000 the Chicago Chamber Music Society commissioned More Rootabaga Stories for voice, flute, cello and piano, on a text by Carl Sandburg. It was performed again at the Newberry Library in 2007. Other performances include the University of Redlands in California commissioned opera The Blue Moose for its centennial celebration.  It had its premiere in 2007.

Dan Tucker and his wife Margaret live in Evanston, Illinois.

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