Alyce Johnson is a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Grant Park Symphony, and the Music of the Baroque Orchestra. She joined the DePaul School of Music flute faculty in 2012 and the faculty of the Bienen School of Music in 2019 as part-time lecturer in piccolo studies.

    Ms. Johnson began her professional career as the principal flutist of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, a position which she held for four years.  She left Shanghai to become a member of the New World Symphony where she was a winner of their concerto competition.

Recently, Ms. Johnson held a one year position with the National Symphony Orchestra and went on tour with them to Carnegie Hall.

Alyce Johnson received both her Master's Degree and a Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and earned her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has participated in various summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Festival, Music Academy of the West and the Aspen Music Festival. Ms. Johnson has adjudicated various National Flute Association competitions and has been featured in recital at the NFA's annual flute conventions.

Robert Morgan recently completed a long tenure as solo English Horn and Assistant Principal Oboist of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is a founding member of Rembrandt Chamber Musicians . An active teacher as well as performer, Mr Morgan is Senior Lecturer in Oboe Performance and Chamber Music at Northwestern University Beinen School of Music and maintains a private studio. Morgan has been featured soloist with many local musical organizations including Music of the Baroque, Chicago String Ensemble, the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and American Chamber Symphony performing concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Strauss, Vaughn Williams, Joan Tower and the world premiere of Jon Polifrone’s Oboe Concerto. At the invitation of Sandor Salgo, he was Principal Oboe of the Carmel Bach Festival for three seasons. In addition, Mr. Morgan served as Acting Associate Principal Oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Acting Assistant Principal Oboe of the St Louis Symphony, and performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and on their regular subscription concerts. He has performed under noted conductors, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davis and many others. He has also performed with the Guarnieri Quartet. An avid supporter of new music, Morgan has commissioned and performed works by David Schrader, Jon Polifrone, Sebastian Huydts, Howard Levy and Ilja Hurnik.

Robert Morgan received his BM and Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University. He studied with Ray Still privately and at Northwestern University, John Mack for several years, Marc Lifschey when at home in California, Arnold Jacobs and wind master teacher, Keith Underwood. He also studied Alexander Technique with John Henes

A native of Heredia, Costa Rica, clarinetist Wagner Campos graduated from Baylor University and DePaul University, where he is now Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music.

Besides his teaching, he is currently a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. As a guest artist outside Chicago, Mr. Campos has performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, New World Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In addition to his own solo recording, Romantic Songs for Clarinet and Piano, he has also recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the St. Charles Chamber Singers.

Keith Buncke began his tenure as Principal Bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in July 2015, having been appointed to the position by Music Director Riccardo Muti. He previously served as Principal Bassoon of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a post he was appointed to in 2014 while at the Curtis Institute of Music.

At the age of eleven, Keith heard a recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, with prominent parts for the oboe and bassoon, and was immediately struck by the sound of bassoon, inspiring him to start playing it. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, he went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute. He has also studied at the Pacific, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals, as well as Music Academy of the West. His principal teachers include Daniel Matsukawa, Dr. Eric Stomberg, and Mark Eubanks.

Keith has performed chamber music both in Chicago and around the country at festivals like Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, and Chamber Music Northwest. He has been a guest artist and teacher at Aspen Music Festival and Interlochen Academy and Camp, and has given masterclasses at universities across the country. He is an adjunct faculty at DePaul University.

Rebecca Oliverio is currently a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra. Ms. Oliverio has performed with various Chicago-based ensembles including Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Tower Brass Ensemble and the Bach Week Festival. She has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Grant Park Orchestra and the Peninsula Music Festival.

Ms. Oliverio spent one season with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She received her Master of Music degree at Northwestern University where she studied with David Bilger, Channing Philbrick, Thomas Rolfs, Michael Sachs and Robert Sullivan.

During her undergraduate degree at Boston University she studied in London at the Royal College of Music with Mark Calder and Paul Sharp on natural trumpet. Her teachers at BU were Terry Everson, Thomas Rolfs and Thomas Siders. Summer engagements during her studies included fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West and the National Repertory Orchestra. In addition, she was a member of the New England Brass Band as a cornet player and soloist.

Ms. Oliverio is dedicated to inspiring young musicians in pursuing rich and fulfilling careers in music. She has given master classes at DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Northern Illinois University and Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Bogotá, Colombia) and is currently on the Artist Faculty at Roosevelt University.

Mason City, Iowa native Mark Fisher is Assistant Principal Trombonist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and is recently retired as Principal Trombonist with the Santa Fe Opera after 31 seasons. He has performed with every major ensemble in Chicago and as substitute with many of the nation's leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony.

Fisher has performed as soloist and conductor at several international trombone conferences and has given world premiere performances of solo trombone works by composers Rob Deemer, Phil Snedecor and John Stevens. He has served on the International Trombone Association Board of Advisors. Also an accomplished euphonium soloist, Fisher has been the top prize winner of both the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference Senior Euphonium Division Solo Competition and the WAMSO Young Artists Competition. His WAMSO prize included a solo performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman. Fisher has given numerous solo performances at ITEC. His solo euphonium CD Eufish continues to meet with worldwide acclaim.

In addition to his long association with the award-winning Asbury Brass Quintet, Fisher is the founder and director of the Chicago Trombone Consort, one of the world's leading trombone ensembles. Fisher has been a regular performer with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Music of the Baroque. He performs annually on trombone and euphonium with the Chicago Symphony Brass Section during their December concerts.

Head of the Trombone Department at DePaul University, Fisher has presented recitals and masterclasses throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from DePaul University in 2023. Mark's students include members of many symphony orchestras throughout North America, numerous international competition winners, Fulbright Scholars, college and public school music teachers, and arts administrators. He has served on the trombone faculties of Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, Northern Illinois University and the Banff International Festival, as well as visiting professor of euphonium at the University of Michigan. Mr. Fisher is an honors graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and the New England Conservatory of Music.

David Griffin is the fourth horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Upon graduating from Northwestern University, Griffin began his career with the Rochester Philharmonic and followed with positions in the orchestras of Montreal and Houston before joining the Chicago Symphony in 1995. Griffin has served as guest principal horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Shanghai Radio Orchestra. In September 2017, Griffin traveled to Japan for a solo tour, performing recitals in Tokyo, Nagasaki, and Osaka.

With the wind quintet Prairie Winds, Griffin has performed in more than 25 states and has released two CDs with the group. With the CSO Brass Quintet, Griffin has toured Japan, China, Taiwan, and Mexico. He has released the solo album For You, featuring the world-premiere recording of the Sonata for Horn by Bruce Broughton..

Griffin is artist faculty of French horn at Roosevelt University and has previously taught at McGill University and Northwestern University. He has given master classes at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, San Francisco Conservatory and the Tours Conservatoire (France). Summer festival engagements have included Sun Valley, Grand Teton, Tanglewood, Manchester (Vermont), Madeline Island, Ravenna (Italy) and Galicia (Spain). Griffin has also been a featured recitalist and clinician at the annual symposium of the International Horn Society.  

Vadim Karpinos was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2001 by Maestro Daniel Barenboim. He was born in Kiev, Ukraine and began showing an interest in percussion at a very early age. He and his family moved to New York in 1991, and he attended the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton and Don Liuzzi.

Karpinos was a Tanglewood fellow and has performed with numerous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, the New York City Opera, Grant Park Symphony and the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

He has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Chicago Symphony and at Roosevelt University, where he has been an adjunct faculty member since 2005. Karpinos is also on the board of advisors to The New Music School in Chicago, and he gives percussion clinics worldwide.

Karpinos has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Louis Smadbeck Scholarship, the Dr. Randolph Goodman award, the Morton Gould Memorial Award, the ASCAP Leiber and Stoeler Scholarship, first prize winner of the Soviet Union’s Young Virtuoso competition and several other concerto competitions. He is an active chamber musician and has made many recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Karpinos endorses Zildjian and Innovative Percussion.

In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball, traveling and spending time with his wife, Danielle, and their children, Anya Nessa and Aria Thea, in their home in River Forest.

Ilana Setapen Since her solo orchestral debut at age 15, Ilana Setapen has been flourishing as a violinist with a powerful and original voice. She is hailed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a violinist with “a sparkling sound” and “the kind of control that puts an audience completely at ease.” She is currently the First Associate Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

In recent seasons, Setapen has had solo performances with the Milwaukee Symphony, Festival City Symphony, and the Amarillo Symphony, among others. She also held the Assistant Concertmaster position of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago for 6 years and is a favorite guest concertmaster with the Chicago Philharmonic. In recent summers, she has performed at the Olympic Music Festival on Bainbridge Island and the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota. She has also served on the faculty at Luzerne Music Center summer festival in Lake Luzerne, New York and is currently on the faculty at Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan.

At the age of 21, Setapen won the concertmaster position of the Riverside Philharmonic in Los Angeles. She has also held concertmaster positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the USC Thornton Symphony. As a committed chamber musician, Setapen is in demand as a collaborator throughout the Midwest. She performs frequently with Present Music. Her talent has led her to collaborations with such distinguished artists as Ron Leonard, Lynn Harrell, Toby Appel, Cynthia Phelps, Joseph Kalichstein, Robert DeMaine, Paul Coletti, the Fine Arts Quartet, Stefan Hersh, David Geber, and Joan Tower. Solo and chamber music performances have brought her abroad to China, France, Brazil, Holland, England, Monaco, and Italy.

Violinist Liba Shacht was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, where she began her musical studies at age five. Shortly thereafter, her family emigrated to Israel. The recipient of an Artist Diploma with distinction from Tel Aviv University, Ms. Shacht appeared as soloist with the Israeli Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Broadcasting Symphony, the Israeli Sinfonietta, and in chamber orchestras and recitals throughout Israel. She represented Israel at the Jeunesses Musicales World Congress in Korea, Japan, and England, where she performed chamber music at the Royal Albert Hall.

Upon the recommendation of Isaac Stern, Ms. Shacht was awarded a special Fellowship by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation to study with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York. She earned a master’s degree and a doctorate from Juilliard.

Her New York recital debut at Town Hall was marked by a glowing review from The New York Times :

“Miss Shacht plays with Russian intensity, yet her performances are tempered with abundant humor. She delights in her nimble technique, and virtuosic displays present few obstacles. Prokofiev Sonata in D was played with explosive energy, and Schumann's Sonata in a minor was enriched with a dark, songful melancholy."

Ms. Shacht is the winner of several competitions, among them the Artist International Distinguished Artists Award, which led to her first appearance at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. As the winner of the Affiliated Artists national auditions, she has toured the United States extensively, performing with critical acclaim in recitals, playing with orchestras, and conducting master classes. She later performed as soloist in the rarely-played Glazunov Violin Concerto with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Shacht is an avid performer of chamber music. She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival, where she performed with Rudolf Serkin and members of the Guarneri Quartet, as well as the chamber music series at the 92nd Street “Y” in New York.

She is a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as principal second violin of the Grant Park Symphony. Ms. Shacht frequently performs with her husband, cellist John Sharp.

Hailed as “one of the world’s greatest violists” (American Record Guide), and “one of the foremost violists of her generation” (Fanfare magazine), Helen Callus continues to captivate audiences with her lyrical tone, technical command, and profound artistry. Sought after as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, Ms. Callus has performed with such world-class ensembles as the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and delighted audiences around the world, in Russia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and throughout the US.

Ms. Callus’s career includes distinguished work as an award-winning recording artist. Her seven releases include the works of Walton, Prokofiev, Vaughn Williams, J.S. Bach, Gordon Jacob, and more, and have been met with high critical acclaim. The American Record Guide observed, “Only really great artistry can hold a listener in thrall like that, and that is the artistry of Helen Callus.”

Ms. Callus currently holds the appointment of Professor of Viola at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Sought after as a visiting professor, she has given over 200 master classes at many of the world’s leading schools of music. She also served as the first female President of the American Viola Society.

Born in England, Ms. Callus graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Music, and was bestowed an Honorary Associate (ARAM) and Fellow (FRAM) for her achievements in the field. She continued her graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory with Paul Coletti.

Ms. Callus plays on a viola made for her by Gabrielle Kundert which is a copy of the ex-Primrose Amati.

Cellist Eric Kutz has captivated audiences across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He is active as a teacher, a chamber musician, an orchestral musician, and a concerto soloist. His diverse collaborations cut across musical styles, and have ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to jazz great Ornette Coleman. Kutz is also a founding member of the Murasaki Duo, a cello and piano ensemble that performs on chamber music series throughout the nation.

Kutz summers in Chicago as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra’s cello section. He has also appeared in the sections of the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He joined the faculty of University of Maryland School of Music in 2015. He was educated at the Juilliard School and Rice University.

Michael Hovnanian grew up in the Seattle area. His primary teachers were James Harnett and Ronald Simon of the Seattle Symphony. He also studied with Frederick Tinsley of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at California Institute of the Arts, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He was a member of the Victoria B.C. and San Antonio Symphony orchestras before being appointed to the Chicago Symphony in 1989 by Sir Georg Solti, where he remained until 2019. He is currently on the double bass faculty at DePaul University in Chicago.

Michael has appeared as double bass soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Northwest chamber Orchestra and the Highland Park Strings. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Northwestern Winter Chamber Music Festival and the CSO Chamber Series. He his currently a member of Music of the Baroque, The Chicago Philharmonic, The Chicago Opera Theater, and performs with a variety of other local ensembles.

In addition to classical music Michael has an interest in various styles of music. He founded The Growlers: a double bass ensemble. He is also member of The Gunnelpumpers, a drum-and-bass centered, groove-oriented improvisational ensemble.