"... the premier classical music ensemble in the region."
Erik Eriksson, Northeast Wisconsin Music ReviewMake a Joyful Noise!
Artistic Director James Berkenstock is a principal bassoonist of the Chicago Philharmonic and, for the past 38 years, of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is a former professor of music at Roosevelt University and Northern Illinois University. He joined the Grant Park Symphony, the Orchestra of Illinois, and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago. He has appeared as soloist with Concertante di Chicago, the Illinois Chamber Symphony, Symphony II, and the Grant Park Symphony, and he has made numerous recordings, both classical and commercial. In 1991, Jim and his wife Jean founded the Midsummer's Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. The ensemble has two recordings on the Centaur label.
Jean Berkenstock is principal flute of the Chicago Philharmonic and has been principal flute of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for more than 36 years. Prior to that, she was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She is a former professor of music at the College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and is a founding member of the Midsummer's Music Festival. From 1968 to 2000, she was principal flute with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, and with many ballet orchestras.
Jean has appeared as a soloist with the Grant Park Symphony, the Orchestra of Illinois, and the Illinois Chamber Symphony, and she frequently performs in the Chicago area in recital and chamber music performances. She is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, received advanced training in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and has studied with Donald Peck.
When time permits, she spends it with her husband Jim in their vacation home near Gills Rock and enjoys sewing, cooking, hiking, and reading.
Clarinetist David Bell received his training at Oberlin Conservatory where he was a student of Lawrence McDonald and at Northwestern University as a student of Robert Marcellus. Other teachers include Larry Combs, Arnold Jacobs, and Clark Brody. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Milwaukee Symphony and has toured internationally with the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Solaris Wind Quintet.
Mr. Bell has held faculty positions at the Oberlin Conservatory, Lawrence University, Beldwin-Wallace College, the University of Akron, West Virginia University, and Western Illinois University. He is a member of the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra and has held principal chairs with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, and Akron Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Bell performs frequently with the La Crosse, Fox Valley, and Green Bay Symphonies and is active as a soloist and chamber musician through the Midwest. In addition to his musical activities, he is volunteer and facilities coordinator with the Ephraim Historical Foundation in Door County.
Born in Heredia, Costa Rica, Wagner Campos graduated from Baylor and DePaul Universities. His main teachers were Dr. Richard Shanley, Larry Combs, and John Yeh.
Currently, he serves as Clarinet and Chamber Music Instructor at DePaul University and as a Woodwind Coach for the Protege Philharmonic and the Classical Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Campos has been in the faculties of the Costa Rican Youth Symphony, the Merit Music Program, the Lake Forest Academy, and the Sherwood Conservatory. He has given master classes in Bogota, Colombia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and San Jose, Costa Rica.
Mr. Campos is a very active freelancer in Chicago performing with groups such as the Chicago Symphony, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, the Chicago Ensemble, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, CSO Music Now, Concertante di Chicago, Callisto Ensemble, the Chicago Lyric Orchestra, and the Fulcrum Point Project. As a guest artist outside Chicago, he has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Elgin Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, and joined tours with the Chicago Symphony, The New World Symphony, and The Gallician Symphony Orchestra in Spain.
Some of his most recent projects include a CD Recording, Romantic Songs for Clarinet and Piano, under the Southport Label, a Commission Work for clarinet and piano, Senderos que se Bifurcan by Chuck Mason, and a set of Published Songs for Clarinet and Piano by Claude Debussy. Mr. Campos has also recorded with The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the St. Charles Chamber Singers, and numerous jingles for TV and Radio commercials.
Sally Chisholm, violist of the Pro Arte Quartet and Professor of Viola at UW-Madison, is a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and a permanent violist of the Festival Der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland. She has appeared as guest artist with the Harrington, Lindsayan, and Kronos String Quartets, and as a member of the Thouvenel Quartet toured China and Tibet, appeared on NBC's /Today Show/, and co-commissioned Elliott Carter's Fourth Quartet.
Since joining the Pro Arte Quartet, Ms. Chisholm has served as a juror in the Wronski Solo Violin Competition in Warsaw, performed annually in Switzerland, performed the Bartok Viola Concerto in Hungary, Prague, and Brno, and premiered Yehuda Yannay's Viola Sonata, John Harbison's The Violist's Notebooks, the Imbrie Sonatina for Viola and Piano, and the revised version of Paul Schoenfield's Viola Concerto. In 2004, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee of Philadelphia, she was a member of an American piano quintet that performed four concerts in Pyang Yang, North Korea.
In addition to her life in music, Ms. Chisholm has a degree in philosophy, recently spent one month in Tibet, and continues to be avid fan of professional basketball, tennis, and great cars.
Violinist David Perry enjoys an international career as chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster, and teacher. As first violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet, he performs live broadcasts on Wisconsin Public Radio and has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Japan. Mr. Perry is on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, where he collaborates with world-renowned artists, and is a founding member of the Aspen Ensemble. Concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Symphony II of Chicago, Perry has served as guest concertmaster with such groups as the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the American Sinfonietta.
Active with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since the late 1980s, he can be heard on over 10 Deutsche Grammophon recordings of that orchestra. Mr. Perry has also performed (often as concertmaster) in Carnegie Hall and most of the major cultural centers of North and South America, Europe, and the Far East. First place winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition and the International D’Angelo Competition, Perry has made over a hundred concerto appearances in the U.S. and abroad, including many with orchestras in Chicago and St. Louis.
A native of Illinois, David’s early training was with John Kendall, followed by studies with Dorothy DeLay and Paul Kantor at the Juilliard School. He currently resides in Madison, where he is Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at the University of Wisconsin.
Violinist Isabella Lippi, whose playing has been described as "flawlessly shimmering and captivating with warmth and urgent skill" (The Washington Post), began performing in public at the age of 10 when she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1989 Isabella Lippi won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition, so impressing Maestro Leonard Slatkin, that she became the first winner in 55 years invited to perform with the symphony in subscription concerts. Of those concerts under Maestro Slatkin, the St. Louis Dispatch declared, "Lippi is a standout, even among virtuosos." In addition to the Chicago Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony, Isabella Lippi has performed with numerous orchestras around the country and the world. In January 1993, Isabella Lippi made her New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts. Born in Chicago, Isabella Lippi’s teachers have included Robert Lipsett in Los Angeles, Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School, and Almita and Roland Vamos in Chicago. Ms. Lippi is currently concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and performs often with Midsummer’s Music Festival.
Walter Preucil is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded a performer’s certificate. His principle teachers have been Janos Starker and Paul Katz. The press has described Walter’s playing as “beautifully expressive” (New York Concert Review) and having “authoritative technique” (Door County Advocate).
A member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago orchestra since 1988, he also enjoys a career as a chamber musician, having performed in every Midsummer’s Music concert since its opening week in 1991. Along with his wife Stephanie and William Koehler, he performs in the Classic Arts Trio, which has raised more than $20,000 for church missions.
Walter teaches at the Interlochen Arts Camp and has formerly served on the faculty of Lawrence University’s community music department as well as the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City. He plays a cello made by Giovanni Fiorillo in 1781 and is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the American Federation of Musicians. His hobbies include astronomy, juggling, and cross-country skiing. He has three sons – Zachary, Anthony, and James.
Stephanie Preucil has been teaching violin privately for thirty years and currently has a studio of forty students. In January 2006 Stephanie was the recipient of the Illinois ASTA Most Outstanding Studio Teacher Award. She enjoys coaching chamber music and teaching theory and history classes to her students. Previously, she was an active faculty member of the Music Center of the North Shore (now Music Institute of Chicago) for ten years. Prior to living in Illinois, she taught in Rochester, New York, Detroit, Michigan, and at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the summer, she is on the faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. She enjoys giving sectionals for the Schaumburg Youth Symphony Orchestra and she is a member of the American String Teachers Association and the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
Stephanie is a member of the Classic Arts Trio along with cellist and husband Walter Preucil (Lyric Opera of Chicago) and pianist William Koehler (Northern Illinois University). She is also a member of the Champagne Players and a violinist with Midsummer’s Music Festival, which performs a chamber music series throughout the month of June in Door County, Wisconsin. She is the former principal second violin of the Illinois Chamber Symphony. Prior to living in Illinois, Stephanie was principal second violin of the New American Chamber Orchestra in Detroit, Michigan, which traveled throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and the Middle East. She also has performed in Chamber Works of Detroit, directed by Baroque specialist Thomas Kuras, the Oklahoma Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Heidelberg Castle Festival, and as an extra musician in the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Stephanie received her Bachelors in Music Performance from the Eastman School of Music under Charles Castleman and went on to pursue graduate studies at Indiana University under Josef Gingold. Early education included studies with Carol Glenn and Oliver Steiner in New York. Additional education included working with Georgy Sebok in Ernen, Switzerland and Norman Caroll and William DePasquale (of the Philadelphia Orchestra) at Saratoga Arts Festival.
Stephanie’s hobbies include swimming, biking, hiking, running, skiing, and racing triathlons. Stephanie and her husband, Walter, have three children: Zachary, age fifteen (cellist and composer); Anthony, age eight (violinist and pianist); and James, age four (violinist).
John Fairfield has been professor of horn and chamber music at Northern Illinois University since 1985. A native of New York State, he received his training as a student at Northwestern University (MM, 1977) and Ithaca College (BM, 1975). He serves as principal horn of the Chicago Sinfonietta (since 1987) and the Illinois Philharmonic (since 1990). He also performs regularly with many other groups, including the Chicago Symphony and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. John has also performed with the Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Mr. Jack Daniel's Original Cornet Band, and others. John is married to Laura, also a hornist, and they are the parents of Elizabeth (born 1992), a budding violinist.
Tage Larsen joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as fourth/utility trumpet in 2002. He came from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, where he served as second trumpet. Mr. Larsen was principal trumpet in the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and served as the solo cornet with the "President's Own" U.S. Marine Band. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Michigan State University and did graduate work at the Eastman School of Music. He studied with Barbara Butler, who presently teaches at Northwestern University. Mr. Larsen is a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the father of two young sons, Zachary and Ethan.
