Jean and Jim Berkenstock are the musical instigators of Midsummer’s Music. They are Principal Flute, and Principal Bassoon at Lyric Opera of Chicago, positions each has held for over thirty years. They both served on the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Jim is also a Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University. They are principal players with the Chicago Philharmonic and for over thirty years, each served as principals in the summers at the Grant Park Music Festival on Chicago’s lakefront.
Jean is a former member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras and in chamber music performances throughout the Chicago area. She is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, and received additional training in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago while studying with Donald Peck. Jean has performed on numerous occasions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Contemporary Chamber Players at the University of Chicago, and many ballet orchestras. She particularly enjoys opportunities to spend time in her home near Gills Rock with Jim, sewing, cooking, hiking, and reading.
Jim graduated from Northwestern University with a Ph.D. in music history and is co-author of Joseph Haydn in Literature: A Bibliography, published by the Haydn Institute. His undergraduate degree is from George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Jim has made numerous solo appearances with Chicago area orchestras and has extensive experience in radio and television commercials. In 2002, Jim received the Presidential Scholars’ Teacher Recognition Award from the Department of Education. His hobbies are stone masonry, exploring the woods, juggling, and finding lost chamber music masterpieces. Jim and Jean have three children and six grandchildren, all of whom enjoy Door County.
Pianist William Billingham has served as an Assistant Conductor for Lyric Opera of Chicago since 1995, working with many of the world’s leading opera singers and conductors. Active as a recital accompanist and chamber musician, Dr. Billingham holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Southern California, where he studied accompanying with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Brooks Smith. He started his opera career in Germany, spending five years as a repetitor in the opera houses of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf. He has also been a pianist/coach for the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Florentine Opera (Milwaukee, WI), Los Angeles Opera, Midsummer’s Music Festival (Door County, WI), and Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. Bill resides with his wife and three children in Wheaton, Illinois.
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.
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 Orchestra. John has also performed with the Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Cornet Band, and many other groups. John is married to Laura, also a hornist, and they are the parents of Elizabeth, currently a music student at St. Olaf College.
Allyson Fleck, received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Viola Performance with a minor in instrumental conducting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently living in Atlanta, Allyson is on the faculty at Kennesaw State University and performs with the Amati String Quartet. Allyson performs with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra and subs for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Opera. Allyson and her husband Mike (conductor), have two boys, Jacob (4) and Eli (2) and one cat, “Cleo the cat”.
A native of South Dakota, Jason Heath joined the bass sections of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and Sioux City Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. He is a member of the Elgin Symphony and previously served as co-principal bass of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee and assistant principal bass of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. Jason has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, and Chicago Opera Theater. He is on the board of directors for the International Society of Bassists and is the director of technology for the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association. He teaches orchestra in suburban Chicago at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook and Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, and he is a member of the double bass faculty at DePaul University in Chicago.
Jason has toured internationally with the American-Russian Young Artists Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and he has also performed with the Spoleto USA Festival, Britt Music Festival, and Des Moines Metro Opera. An active clinician and author, Jason has presented clinics for the Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference and the IL-ASTA Teacher Enrichment Workshop, and he has been profiled in International Musician, the New Yorker, and Time Out Chicago. He has also served as double bass faculty for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Trinity International University, and Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute.
William Koehler has taught piano at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb since 1985. He studied with Moreland Roller, Adele Marcus, and William Race, and his competition awards include first prizes in the 1984 San Antonio International Keyboard Competition and the 1989 New Orleans International Piano Competition. Koehler received his doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986.
He is an active performer of chamber music throughout the Midwest and has recorded for Cedille Records, Canti Classics, and Centaur Records as a collaborative pianist. In March of this year, he performed a recital and taught masterclasses at the Fernando Soria Piano Festival in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. Koehler is a past president of the Waubonsee Valley chapter of the Illinois State Music Teachers Association and is the pianist for DeKalb’s First United Methodist Church.
Paula Kosower is an active performer and teacher currently residing in Chicago. Recent performances include concerts with Fulcrum Point New Music Project, CUBE contemporary music ensemble, Chicago Chamber Musicians, the International Beethoven Project Chamber Players, Dempster St. Pro Musica, and the Advent Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed for several broadcasts this season on WFMT 98.7, and for Wisconsin Public Radio at the Chazen Art Museum in Madison. She also serves as a cello sub for both the Chicago Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras.
Ms. Kosower teaches cello pedagogy at Northwestern University, chamber music at the Merit School of Music where she is a member of the faculty piano trio, and teaches private lessons at the Northwestern University Academy. She received her B.M. and M.M. degree at Indiana University where she was a scholarship student of Janos Starker. She also served as his graduate teaching assistant. She completed her D.M. degree at Northwestern University where she studied with Hans Jorgen-Jensen.
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.
Violinist David Perry has appeared as soloist with the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, among others. For many years concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Symphony, he is first violinist with the Pro Arte Quartet and concertmaster of the Chicago Philharmonic. A frequent guest concertmaster with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Perry is now Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His recording of concertos by Ignaz Pleyel with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra has recently been released to acclaim on the Naxos label.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. David lives on Lake Kegonsa with his wife, violinist Isabella Lippi, and two children.
Stephanie Preucil has been teaching violin privately for thirty five years and currently has a studio of fifty 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. She served on the faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan summer festival. Currently, she enjoys giving sectionals and coaching chamber music for the Schaumburg Youth Symphony Orchestra.
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. She also has performed with 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. Stephanie’s hobbies include swimming, biking, hiking, running, skiing, and racing triathlons. Stephanie and her husband, Walter, have three children: Zachary, (cellist and composer); Anthony, (violinist and violist); and James, (violinist).
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.