Piano

Inah Choi

Faculty at Music Institute of Chicago

DMA, Peabody Conservatory of Music; MM, BM, Indiana University; student of Ellen Mack, Edward Auer, Michelle Block; master classes with John Browning, Gyorge Sebok, Gilbert Kalish; soloist with Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra; performances in the Peabody's Best series, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial concert series, Music in the Loft series, and the Chicago Symphony Chamber Music series; participant of Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival; winner of Grace Welsh Competition, Society of American Musicians Competition, Harrison L. Winter Competition, Baltimore Music Club Competition; performances broadcast on WJHU radio-Baltimore and WFMT radio-Chicago.

Source: Music Institute of Chicago Website

James Giles

Faculty at Northwestern University

James Giles has earned a reputation as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation, acclaimed for the dynamic brilliance and communicative power of his playing. The 2002-03 season included solo recitals in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Washington, D.C., London, and Helsinki. One London critic wrote that his Wigmore Hall recital last season was "one of the most sheerly inspired piano recitals I can remember hearing for some time" and added that "with a riveting intelligence given to everything he played, it was the kind of recital you never really forget." The critic for Helsinki's main newspaper wrote that "Giles is a technically polished, elegant pianist, who is capable of drawing a natural, beautiful sound from the piano....

Dr. Giles is on the piano faculty at Northwestern University. He has recently been a guest professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland and at Indiana University, where he taught the students of Menahem Pressler. He has formerly served on the faculties of the University of North Texas and the Interlochen Arts Academy. He is the founder of the Las Vegas Piano Institute, an educational summer program for young pianists, and is the chair of the piano department at the Eastern Music Festival during the summers.. . " . . . more

Source: James Giles Website

Abraham Stokman

Faculty, Music Institute of Chicago

Abraham Stokman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he began his piano studies at the age of six.  He came to the United States at the age of 12, when he was offered a scholarship from the Julliard School in New York City, where he obtained his bachelor's and master's degree with his teacher, Edward Steuermann. For five years, he served as a vocal coach at the Juilliard's opera department.  Then in the ensuing years, he proceeded to give solo and chamber concerts at the United States and Canada. In 1969, he moved to Chicago and became the artist-in-residence and assistant professor at the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University for six years, and subsequently served as chairman of the piano department at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. . . . .

Mr. Stokman is currently teaching piano and improvisation at the Music Institute of Chicago, where he has founded the contemporary music series, "Music for a While" For the past ten years, this series has featured contemporary composers and their music, presented in a format that made their music more accessible to the audience. Most performers that play in this series are from the faculty of the Music Institute. Some advanced students are coached and asked to participate in these concerts. After all, they will be the future performers of modern music... more

Source: Arlene Stokman

Alan Heatherington

Music Director of Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra

Alan Heatherington is the Music Director of Ars Viva. Heatherington has been described by John von Rhein (Chicago Tribune) as "one of the area's finest conductors" and "a first-rate conductor [who] promises something new or unusual at almost every concert, and he does so with musicality and taste, not gimmicks." Wynne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times says "Heatherington is a gifted conductor who built a reputation for presenting outstanding concerts, often with unusual repertory and always with some of the city's best musicians...

Currently Director of Music Ministries at the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, Heatherington is also the Music Director of the Lake Forest Symphony and has been Music Director of Chicago Master Singers (formerly the New Oratorio Singers) since 1989. He is the Artistic Director and co-conductor with Weston Noble of the Innsbruck International Choral Festival, and he has conducted choral concerts in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary". . more

Source: Ars Viva! Symphony Orchestra website

Ilya Kaler

Faculty, DePaul University

The only violinist ever to win Gold Medals at all three of the world's most prestigious competitions, the Tchaikovsky, the Sibelius and the Paganini competitions, Ilya Kaler is already being compared to the likes of Heifetz and Perlman. Kaler's recordings of the Paganini Caprices have been deemed by American Record Guide to be, "in a class by themselves" combining "the perfection, passion, and phrase-sculpting of Michael Rabin with the energy, excitement, and immediacy of Jascha Heifetz." His recordings of both Paganini Concertos and Caprices, the Schumann Sonatas, both Shostakovich Concertos, the Dvorak Concerto and the Glazunov Concerto have met with equally superlative acclaim. The Washington Post unabashedly lauds him as, "a consummate musician, Kaler is in total control at all times, with a peerless mastery of his violin......

In recent years, Mr. Kaler has performed with the Detroit, Baltimore, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in the United States, and has toured Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, England, Venezuela and Japan. In Japan, he played with the New Japan Philharmonic, the Century Symphony Orchestra and the Hiroshima Symphony. Also an active chamber musician, Mr. Kaler has performed for several summers at the Newport Music Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. He was Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music, and for five years served as Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently, From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Kaler served as Distinguished Professor of Music (Linda and Jack Gill Chair in Violin) at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. Most recently, he has just been appointed Professor of Violin at DePaul University, School of Music in Chicago. His most recent recording for Ongaku is the Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time with Jonathan Cohler which will be released shortly....". . more

Source: Ongaku Record Inc, Artist Bio webpage

Also visit the DePaul University Faculty webpage for more information.

Joyce Noh

Violinist, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Joyce Noh, a member of CSO since 1979, started playing the violin when she was five years old and went on to win numerous competitions throughout her native Seoul Korea. She was discovered by renowned writer Pearl S. Buck, who invited the violinist to the United States in 1968 to further her studies at the New School of Music in Philadelphia with Jascha Brodsky, at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian, and chamber music studies with Felix Galimir and Robert Mann.

She joined the Baltimore Symphony in 1977 and the Chicago Symphony in 1979. In addition to television and radio broadcasts, she has appeared as a soloist with Seoul National Orchestra and given recitals in many American cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston.

She is also active as a dedicated educator, teaching young students and performing at various schools throughout Chicago area.

Rami Solomonow