Faculty and Staff

Flutist Hideko Amano was born in Japan and came to the United States at the age of 12. She studied flute under Ms. Susan Levitin, and soon won many young artist competition awards. Her performance debut occurred in 1990 at Symphony Center, where she performed as a soloist for Chaminade’s Concertino for Flute and Orchestra.  

Ms. Amano earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied under the prominent flutist Ms. Paula Robison. She gave a joint performance with Ms. Robison in a concert series for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. She continued her musical education in Paris, France, studying with Mathieu Dufour, who was the principal flutist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. While studying in Paris, she also performed in many international Chamber Music Festivals and concerts in Italy, England, Israel and Morocco. She has continued her career as an active recitalist and has performed on the WFMT 98.7 Monday Evening Series and Dame Myra Hess Concert Series at Cultural Center. In 2018, she was invited to the International Flute Festival in Lima, Peru, as their guest artist to perform with the orchestra, giving recitals and masterclasses.

In addition to her performing career, Ms. Amano also maintains a growing private studio. Her students have won numerous competitions and studied at major universities. Ms. Amano was also an adjunct professor of flute at DePaul University. Currently she serves as an adjunct professor at Carthage College, Harper College and is an instructor at Midwest Young Artists.

Facilitator of the Dance Program and Instructor, Jamie Cage was honored to receive an Excellence Award in 2015 from Northeastern Illinois University. She began dancing following a competitive gymnastics career. After earning her B.A. in Dance with a Business Management minor, she moved to Chicago to train and perform. In addition to teaching at Northeastern Illinois University, Cage has been a company member of Venetia Stifler's Concert Dance, Inc. since 2005, and currently serves as the Rehearsal Director. She is an Emmy-nominated dancer for her work in the 2007 PBS documentary revival of "Billy Sunday." Cage is grateful for her performance opportunities with Chicago Dance Crash, Corpo Dance Company (Assistant Artistic Director), Impetus Dance Theatre and Rasa Dance Theatre. She continues to share her passion through private dance organizations in the Chicago area and acts as the Artistic Director of a youth dance company.

Described as “… an artist of great skill and rare sensitivity,” Andrew Carpenter has performed as a saxophone recitalist and soloist throughout the Chicago area and the United States. He has presented recitals on Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series broadcast on WFMT-FM and on Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Noontime concert series (“Recommended” by the Chicago Tribune). Carpenter has performed on several Chicago-area concerts featuring new music, including a performance of a concerto for alto saxophone and wind ensemble by Stacy Garrop with the Carthage College Wind Orchestra. He performs frequently with orchestras in the Midwest, including engagements with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, and has performed and recorded for Naxos with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. A committed educator, Carpenter is pleased to be the saxophone instructor at NEIU. He also teaches private saxophone and clarinet students of all ages. Carpenter earned a bachelor of music degree from Ithaca College and a master of music degree from Northwestern University. His saxophone teachers are Dr. Steven Mauk and Dr. Frederick L. Hemke.  

Ricardo Castañeda, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance from Northwestern University. He was a student of Ray Still, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Castañeda is currently Principal Oboist with the Chicago Sinfonietta and English Horn/Oboe chair with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a member of the Chicago Ensemble and Barossa Woodwind Quintet. Previous positions include Principal Oboist with the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra and English Horn soloist with the Mexico City Philharmonic.

Mr. Castañeda has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Latin America, Europe, Japan and the United States.

An active freelance oboist, Mr. Castañeda has performed as extra/substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as principal oboist for orchestras for Chicago Opera Theater, the Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet and Joffrey Ballet as well as numerous Broadway in Chicago musical productions. Mr. Castañeda is also the oboe instructor for Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Wisconsin, where he also serves as Program Director for the Symphony Session.

Flutist Ruth Cavanaugh (she/her) is passionate about mentoring future music educators in her role at NEIU. Her three-decade career in the Elgin District U-46 Public Schools included Middle and High School Choral Directing, Instrumental Coaching and Advanced Placement Music Theory, as well as Elementary General Music.  

As the Director of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra Flute Choir, Cavanaugh enjoys programming repertoire by living composers. She began playing cuatro, recorder and flute in Caracas, Venezuela, as a child and is currently studying Brazilian Choro music. She welcomes musical collaborations with musicians of all ages and enjoys teaching privately.  

Her awards include the Surdna Arts Teacher Fellowship, the Northwestern University Music Teacher Fellowship and the 2022 Elgin Symphony Orchestra Arts Educator Award.

Professor Peter Chang teaches Music History that comprises a sequence of three undergraduate courses. He also teaches graduate research seminars and seminars of selected composers, as well as courses in a given musical style period. For non-music majors, he teaches World Music, a music appreciation course of non-Western cultures that fulfills the general education requirements. In the area of applied music, he directs chamber music ensembles, the String Program, and has taught applied violin.

Specializing in the music of the twentieth-century, Professor Chang has worked on the study of the mechanism for musical synthesis in contemporary music. His articles have appeared in Asian Music (1991, and 2001), Community of Music (1993), Imago Musicae (1995), Contemporary Music Review (2007), Ethnomusicology (2007), as well as articles published in The Symphony World (2006), the Journal of Central Conservatory of Music (2016), and Peoples’ Music (2009) in China. He is the author of Chou Wen-Chung: The Life and Work of a Contemporary Chinese-born American Composer (2006). He has been invited to give lectures, and to teach courses at several universities and conservatories in China.

Professor Chang treats all of his students with respect, and wants to make their learning experience at Northeastern a rewarding one.

Dr. Cofer served as chair of the music department from 2003-2016.

Claire DiVizio (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist, administrator, and educator whose body of work includes stage direction, theatrical design, performance, poetry and prose, visual art, and music composition, along with administrative leadership and arts education. Claire founded Thompson Street Opera Company with the desire to create a space where singers, composers, and production personnel could take risks on truly new operas in a safe, supportive, joyful environment. Using their background as a classically-trained singer, Claire approaches productions with a respect for the skills and needs of performers, and encourages all artists to take ownership of the act of creation. Their writing has been set to music in both art song and opera, and their long history with contemporary vocal music has expanded in the last few years to include music composition. Their first complete opera (Requiem for Five: a comedy), co-written with composer Jasmine Thomasian, was premiered at Chicago Opera On Tap’s Halloween Spooktacular in 2021. In the fall of 2022, Claire will be joining the faculty of Northeastern Illinois University’s School of Music, directing their opera workshop program.

Emma Draves is a dance artist and educator navigating intertextual spaces of identity. She draws from trainings in modern, bharatanatyam, ballet, jazz, and ethnography, to weave work of kinesthetic narrative - derived through colliding multiplicities of physical effort, idiosyncrasy, and emotional landscape.

Emma’s choreographic work has been shown internationally in Edinburgh (UK) and Vancouver (BC), as well as at NYU, Hamlin Park, High Concept Labs, Links Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Columbia College Chicago, and Comfort Station; and commissioned by Danceworks Company and UW-Milwaukee. Scholarly works has been presented through Dance Studies Associate, World Dance Alliance, and Dance Across the Boards.

As a performer, Emma has worked with several companies and as an independent artists. Notable experiences include Mordine & Company, Hedwig Dances, Jonathan Meyer, and Archana Kumar; and theatrical productions at Victory Gardens and Lookingglass Theatre.

Trained in bharatanatyam under Smt. Hema Rajagopalan, Emma has enjoyed a long association with Natya Dance Theatre as a performing artist - participating in several national tours and international collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma & Silk Road Project, NanJombang (Indonesia), and Astad Deboo (India) - grant-writer, archivist, and Executive Director.

Emma holds a GLCMA & MFA - and has served on faculty at Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, Northeastern Illinois University, and OK State University.

Born in Madrid, violinist, Jaime Gorgojo, combines his performing career with his pedagogic vocation. He is a Violin and Viola instructor at Northeastern Illinois University. In addition to his teaching pursuits, Dr. Gorgojo is in great demand as a performer. In 2010, he was appointed Concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and has performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as Ricardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Essa-Pekka Salonen and Cliff Colnot. He has been a guest Concertmaster for the Green Bay Symphony, and Assistant Concertmaster of the International Beethoven Festival in Chicago. As the newest member of Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, he plays first violin and will be appearing with the ensemble this season in Chicago, Canada and Florida.

Recent highlights in Dr. Gorgojo’s career are chamber music appearances with Yo-Yo Ma on the Chicago Symphony Center Presents series, and on the DePauw Discourse at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestra musician in Spain, the U.S., France, Mexico, Canada and the Middle East. For two seasons, Dr. Gorgojo worked with the MusiCorps Program, a training and access program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that provides performances in schools and city parks around the Chicago metropolitan area. He is also the face of the CSO Institute in their 2010-2011 edition of “A Year in Review.”

Dr. Gorgojo is the recipient of the La Caixa Scholarship, the Spanish Culture Minister Scholarship, Indiana University Merit Award, the Bloomington Camerata Scholarship for Excellence in Orchestra Playing, and winner of the “Juventudes Musicales de Madrid Award.”

He recently completed his Doctor of Musical Arts thesis on Manuel Quiroga and Jesus de Monasterio Violin Caprices.

Besides music, Dr. Gorgojo has a wide range of interests. He speaks Spanish and English fluently, and he has intermediate knowledge of French and German. Before he came to the United States, he started college studies in physics. He performs on a Dalphin Violin made in 2005.

Originally from Connecticut, cellist Leah Hagel-Kahmann completed her DMA with Benjamin Karp at the University of Kentucky as a recipient of a Kentucky Opportunity Fellowship. Dr. Hagel began her studies at the University of Michigan as a Rogel Scholar before transferring to the University of Wisconsin to study with Uri Vardi. She completed her MM at Boston University where she served as Assistant to the String Department under Michael Reynolds.

An avid teacher as well as performer, Dr. Hagel has taught at the University of Kentucky, Centre College, and at Grand Valley State University. Additionally, while maintaining a large private studio in Kentucky, she served on the faculty of the Central Music Academy, the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts, and as Director of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras' "Friends in Music", an after-school string mentoring opportunity reaching students in underrepresented populations. Dr. Hagel also worked with CKYO's Preparatory String Orchestra as the Assistant Conductor.  She has coached chamber music at the University of Wisconsin, for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, for CKYO, and for the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras. In 2014, Dr. Hagel was named KY ASTA's "Studio Teacher of the Year."

Since arriving in Illinois, Dr. Hagel has enjoyed playing in many of the great local orchestras while welcoming her son and daughter to the world. In addition to her home studio, she teaches in the D200 and U-46 school districts. She is also on faculty of the Continuing Education Division at Harper College and is the Instructor of Cello at McHenry County College.

Dr. Travis Heath is Professor of Trumpet at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) in Chicago, IL, where he teaches applied lessons and conducts the NEIU Wind Ensemble. Equally at home in orchestral, chamber and jazz genres, he has played Principal Trumpet with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Lead Trumpet with the American Rhapsody Orchestra and is Principal Trumpet of Camerata Chicago. Dr. Heath played lead trumpet for Ray Charles on PBS broadcasts and with MAS Records' blues band The Fins at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in Cork, Ireland. His international tours include performances in Japan, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Czech Republic and Canada at prestigious music festivals.

Dr. Heath is an original member of the acclaimed Brass Roots Trio. Touring and performing since 2003, the trio has given performances throughout the United States and Europe. The trio has recorded four albums: Reflections of Peace (2004), Con Brio (2005), American Impressions (2008) and Brass Roots Christmas (2016). American Impressions garnered an invitation to a command performance at the White House for the President and First Lady in December 2009. A pioneer of the piano, trumpet and horn instrumentation, Brass Roots Trio has played to standing ovations and rave reviews in every corner of the United States and United Kingdom since 2004. Their tours have included performances at the University of Oxford; St. James Piccadilly in London, England; and the Chicago Brass Festival as well as on community concert series, chamber music series and National Public Radio (NPR).

In demand as a performer and clinician, Dr. Heath has presented at several universities and International Trumpet Guild conferences. His articles have been published in The Instrumentalist, The Brass Herald and the ITG Journal. His debut solo recording, Point of Departure, was released by the Mark Records label to high acclaim. Dr. Heath recorded the pedagogical exercises for the 3rd edition of Scott Whitener's A Complete Guide to Brass, a text used in approximately 100 universities. He serves on the board of Brass for Beginners, a pedagogical curriculum for starting brass players on modified natural trumpets, and is Director and Founder of the Chicago Brass Festival.

A fifth generation native Floridian from Vero Beach, Dr. Heath began studying piano at an early age, taking up trumpet at age 13. Two years later, he was selected by audition to perform with the Bell South Youth Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. While in Florida, Dr. Heath won the 1995 Florida Trumpet Festival Solo Competition and performed frequently with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Brevard Symphony Orchestra and commercially at Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World.

Dr. Heath holds a DMA and MM from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, where he studied with Dr. Scott Whitener and William Fielder and received the John I. Bettenbender Memorial Performance Award for outstanding artistic achievement upon graduation. He holds a BM from the University of Central Florida, where he studied with John Almeida and Lyman Brodie.

Matthew Hogan began teaching at Northeastern Illinois University in 2019. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in bassoon performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he served as Associate Instructor of the Bassoon Studio. His bassoon teachers include David McGill, Kim Walker, and Arthur Weisberg. He is also the bassoon instructor at VanderCook College of Music.

Matthew holds the positions of second bassoon with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. An active freelance bassoonist, he has worked with many orchestras including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and Fulcrum Point New Music Project.  As a performing member of the Chicago Philharmonic, he has worked frequently with the Joffrey Ballet.  

Matthew is also Director of Music and Organist at St. Peter’s UCC in Elmhurst, Illinois. He has previously held similar positions at churches in Chicago and Indianapolis. Several chamber music series in Indiana and Illinois have featured him as bassoonist, pianist, and organist.

As an active collaborator, pianist Kay Kim performs an average of 50 concerts a year both domestically and internationally. She has been one of the pianists of Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s conductor’s rehearsals where she played for such artists as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Andrey Boreyko, Stephane Deneve, Manfred Hoeneck, Leonidas Kavacos, Hannah Chang, Ian Bostrich, Mathieu Dufour and Branford Marsalis to name a few. Ms. Kim also performed with the Stradivari Society artists and collaborated with Chicago Chamber Musicians. She has appeared on CBS' Early Show with violinist Itzhak Perlman and in recitals with musical luminaries including violinist Soovin Kim, Kristof Barati and Axel Strauss, hornist Gail Williams, trombonist Peter Ellefson, clarinetists Karl Leister, Mark Nuccio, Philippe Cuper, Steve Cohen, John Yeh and Jorge Montilla, flutists Stefan Hoskuldsson, Jennifer Gunn, John Thorne, Demarre McGill, Carol Wincenc, Lorna Mcghee, bassoonist William Ludwig, oboist Elaine Douvas and tubist Daniel Perantoni. Ms. Kim has been a guest on WFMT radio broadcast programs as well as First Monday Series by Chicago Chamber Musicians and have performed in the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, the Jewel Box Series. As a member of a musical ambassador group Trio Chicago and Friends since 2006 for seven years, Ms. Kim toured to Jordan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Djibouti, Paraguay, Australia, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Papua New Guinea and Botswana presenting a comprehensive array of American music. 

In recent years, Ms. Kim has performed in Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s subscription concerts with sopranos Sasha Cook and Jennifer Zeltan and members of CSO, given a recital with violinist Fumiaki Miura at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall Series, performed "Le bourgeois gentilhomme" by Richard Strauss in Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra’s subscription concerts, performed with Grammy winner Howard Levy, performed in Lyric Opera’s chamber music series and assisted members of Dallas Symphony, Pittsburg Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in recitals.

Ms. Kim has been taking part in a U.S. domestic concert and teaching tour with her former colleague and mentor Gail Williams and Daniel Perantoni upon the release of a new chamber music recording titled "Conversations" on Summit Records. She can also be heard on a recording titled "A la maniere de Defaye" with trombonist Peter Ellefson.

Ms. Kim has performed annually in the Conservatory Project at the Kennedy Center 2006-2009 during her appointment at Northwestern University as a lecturer in collaborative piano and has given numerous performances with Fast Fish Puppet Company as a solo pianist performing "The Pictures at an Exhibition."

Ms. Kim currently serves as a full-time staff pianist and as an instructor of Collaborative Piano at Northeastern Illinois University. Her previous teaching and staff pianist positions include the Jacob School of Music at Indiana University, Northwestern University, and the Juilliard School during the academic year and The Perlman Music Program and Music in the Marche in Italy during the summer.

A native of South Korea, Ms. Kim attended Seoul National University for her undergraduate study and University of Michigan for her graduate degrees. She holds a doctoral degree in piano performance from Northwestern University. Her teachers were Jung-Kyu Kim, Louis Nagel, Anton Nel, David Kaiserman and James Giles.

Instructor, Jeffrey Kowalkowski, is a composer who has focused primarily on collaborative forms of composition for the past several years. He was Artistic Director of the Milkwood Foundation from 1998-2012; a not-for-profit sound art production company, which he co-founded. In 2009, he co-founded the Chicago Scratch Orchestra.

His opera collaboration Bosch tapped the gas pedal and the Caprice moved forward was premiered in Hamburg in 1996, and subsequently released on CD by No Harm Done Digital Media and Publishing, New York, 2000. With Marquette, MI percussionist, Carrie Biolo, he toured and released three CDs under the name Jack the Dog (Uvullittle Records, Maidson, WI).

His music has been performed by ensembles in both the U.S. and Western Europe: Chicago Scratch Orchestra and Prop Theater Group (Chicago); Ensemble Modern (Cologne); Interzone Perceptible (Essen); Het Trio and ASKO Ensemble (Amsterdam), and Ensemble Integrales (Hamburg). His radio works have been broadcast in Ireland (A.A.R.T.), Canada (Boreal), Berlin (Sender Freies), and the U.K. (BBC 3). He has been invited to the Center Acanthes in Avignon, France; June in Buffalo; the Gaudeamus; and Darmstadt festivals; and he received a commission from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago for a sound installation and CD.

Jeff completed a sound installation for the Chicago Park District/Experimental Sound Studio's Floresonic Series at the Lincoln Park Conservatory (Fern Room). His most recent installation, "Holly," was chosen for the DePaul Art Museum's faculty show, summer 2013.

In 2011 Jeff was the recipient of an ‘Award of Artistic Achievement’ from the Helen and Tim Meier Foundation for the Arts, which recognizes artists with over twenty years of innovation in their discipline.

As a keyboardist, Jeff has recorded and toured with Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, and he also is music director for Julia Miller's Articular Facet; an improvised opera company, which is holding a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, IL in the summer of 2014.

As a composer and guest-lecturer, Jeff has taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council Arts-in-Education grants. He received a Met Life Meet the Composer Grant for the composition of a double percussion concerto, which was premiered by the Marquette Symphony in 2009. Jeff has performed and toured with the Chicago art collective Lucky Pierre since 1998, and co-organized the ‘New Music at the Green Mill’ concert series since 1991.

He recently completed two film scores of original music for Mark Siska's Compass Cabaret 55, a documentary about the pioneering comedy troupe from the late 1950s in Hyde Park; and Patrick Meegan's Cinewava, which is a short virtual-reality/interactive play.

A full catalogue of Compositions by Jeff Kowalkowski (including over 40 original scores), discography, and complete CV are available upon request.

Percussion Instructor, Tina Laughlin, was born in Elgin, Illinois, and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. In addition to her performance studies at DePaul University, she holds a minor in Art History. Her musical training also included eight years with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she performed under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Sir Georg Solti. As a freelance artist, Laughlin performs with many orchestras and theaters in the Chicagoland area including the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Lake Forest Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta, Light Opera Works and the Elgin Symphony.

A proponent of new music, Laughlin appears regularly on the New Music DePaul concert series, performs with the CUBE New Music Ensemble, has performed several of John Eaton's operas, as well as countless other projects. In 2000, Laughlin became a core member of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. In the fall of 2003 Laughlin performed in the Midwest premieres of the Philip Glass operas “The Sound of a Voice” and "Hotel of Dreams" at the Court Theatre in Chicago. In May of 2009 Laughlin recorded Michael Abels’ “Aquadia” which played at the Shedd Aquarium as accompaniment to the live show “Fantasea.” She was featured live on WFMT radio in January 2010, performing with the CUBE New Music Ensemble. In March of that same year, Laughlin premiered “Charged and Calm Surfaces” by Chicago composer George Flynn; a work written for and dedicated to Laughlin and clarinetist Christie Miller.

Laughlin has recorded with Millar Brass Ensemble, Chicago Sinfonietta, The Elgin Symphony and the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago. Laughlin is also seen in the film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” as the cymbal player in Carnegie Hall. She has taught at DePaul University for over 15 years and is in her fifth year of teaching percussion at ChiArts, Chicago’s only tuition free high school dedicated to teaching students in the arts. She also really likes to dance salsa.

Originally from El Paso, Texas, hornist Anna Mayne, joined the Northeastern Illinois University faculty in January of 2012. She is a member of the South Bend and Illinois Symphonies, and actively freelances throughout the tri-state area. Ms. Mayne has played with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra; the Milwaukee Symphony; the Green Bay Symphony; the Northwest Indiana Symphony; the New Philharmonic Orchestra; Chicago Sinfonietta; Mannheim Steamroller; the Marin Symphony; the El Paso Symphony; El Paso Opera; the Southwest Symphony (NM); Chicago Arts Orchestra; and the Oistrach Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, she has been a member of the CINCO Brass Quintet since 1998. As a member of CINCO, Ms. Mayne was a semi-finalist at the Carmel, Coleman, and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions. In 2003, CINCO was the first ensemble to be invited to take part in the Chicago Chamber Musicians (CCM) Professional Development Program which partnered CINCO with members of CCM on several subscription concerts and live radio broadcasts on WFMT (98.7). CINCO has performed all over Chicago, most notably at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, the Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier, the Rush Hour Concert Series at St. James Cathedral, and the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series at the Chicago Cultural Center. 

Ms. Mayne’s principal teachers include William Barnewitz, Dale Clevenger, Robert Ward, and Gail Williams. She received fellowships to attend the Colorado College Summer Chamber Music Festival; the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival; and the Aspen Music Festival.

Her playing has been critically acclaimed, and she can be heard on several recording labels, including the Arsis label and most notably on Albany Records with the Houston Grand Opera and the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble. In addition to her busy performance schedule, she maintains private horn studios throughout the Chicagoland area. 

Director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor Christopher Owen earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting; specializing in choral, symphonic, and wind ensembles from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Owen served as interim associate director of choral activities where he directed choirs and taught in the music education department. His research interests include the choral music of Jeffrey Van, the mentoring of induction phase music teachers, and interdisciplinary studies in K-12 educational settings, specifically the connection between music performance and visual art creation.

He has conducted the Minnesota Chorale and the Minnesota Oratorio Society in concert, and has coached the professional men's vocal ensemble, CANTUS, in addition to being an active adjudicator and clinician.

Dr. Petersen was most recently heard singing the role of Mimi with Opera Columbus in their production of "La bohème." She also appeared with Opera Columbus last spring in their main stage production of "La Traviata" as Annina. Season 2015/2016 highlights include concert performances with several chamber orchestras throughout Utah performing concert repertoire including "Dona Nobis Pacem" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Barber’s "Knoxville: Summer 1915," Villa-Lobos’s "Bachianas brasileiras No.5," and the soprano solos in Handel’s "Messiah." She has appeared as Musetta in Bay View Music Festival’s production of "La Bohème" and in the spring of 2014, Katherine sang the role of Valencienne in the Opera Columbus OOTE production of "The Merry Widow." With the Russian Opera Workshop in Philadelphia, she performed the title roles in Rachmaninoff’s "Francesca di Rimini" and Tchaikovsky’s "Romeo and Juliet." Her other roles include Pamina, "Die Zauberflöte;" Micaëla, "Carmen;" the Mother/Sandman, "Hänsel und Gretel;" Una Conversa, "Suor Angelica."

An active pedagogue and teacher, Katherine is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where she teaches Studio Voice and Diction for Singers. She holds a DMA in Voice Performance from Ohio State University where she studied with Scott McCoy. During her time at Ohio State University, Katherine was head of the Swank Voice Lab for Research and Pedagogy and taught several courses including Voice Pedagogy and Advanced Measurement Techniques for Voice. She co-hosted the 2014 NATS Summer Intern Program and the 2015 International Voice Pedagogy Summit. Katherine’s doctoral dissertation “Russian Repertoire: Developmental Perspectives” investigates the paucity of Russian Song Repertoire in the American voice studio and recital hall. From her research, Katherine has created a repertoire selection guide and lecture recital to better acquaint singers and teachers with Russian Art Song.

In June 2017 Katherine traveled to Toronto, Ontario, to participate in the NATS Summer Intern Program, an intensive training program that seeks to pair expert and recognized master teachers with talented young members of NATS.

Lígia Pucci is an educator, conductor and pianist from São Paulo, Brazil. She began her music studies as a pianist at the São Paulo State Conservatory under the tutelage of Daniel Matos. Pucci graduated in 2019 as a teaching fellow with a masters degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she studied choral conducting with Drs. Geoffrey Boers and Giselle Wyers.

Lígia’s creative output is broad-reaching, stemming from an eclectic background. After immigrating to the United States, they have served as music director at the Florida Repertory Theater, assistant conductor while a student at Florida Gulf Coast University, assistant conductor at The Choir School at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, and music director for the Das Blumelein Project in Dallas; as a pianist, Lígia is passionate about collaborative work and championing new music by living composers, having collaborated with Duo Scordatura and Syzygy in the premiere of new works.

Kimberly Rocks currently serves as the Band Director at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Glenview, Illinois. She has eight years of experience as a band director, primarily in Chicago. Kimberly has worked in many settings including public, private and charter schools, teaching marching band, pep band, concert band, guitar, general music, percussion, and piano to students in grades K-12. While teaching in the Noble Network, Kimberly organized an honor band and choir festival to provide students with a high quality clinic and performance opportunity at no cost. Her students have been selected for honor bands and earned Superior ratings at adjudicated events. Her interest in mentoring pre-service music teachers developed while working with clinical and student teachers from Northeastern. Kimberly is passionate about music education, equitable access to music, and culturally responsive teaching.

Faye Seeman is established as one of the most versatile harpists in the Midwest. She is principal harpist of the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra, which has featured one of her compositions “Fayed to Blue” with harp, steel pan and orchestra. She is on the music faculty at Wheaton College, Northern Illinois University, and Northeastern Illinois University. Faye has played with many area ensembles, such as Fulcrum Point, the Elgin Symphony, the Lake Forest Symphony, and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few. An avid explorer of instrumental combinations off the beaten path, Faye began a collaboration with steel pan virtuoso Liam Teague, forming the cutting-edge “Pangelic” Duo. The duo has been on stage at the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County, Wisc., the Harper College recital series, Northern Illinois University and frequently perform recitals throughout the Midwest. Their innovative original compositions and individual musical skills put them on top of the charts as “vibrant, exciting, and creative”. Since 1984, her “Kithara” flute, cello and harp trio has been featured on WTTW’s “30 Good Minutes” Sunday Evening television program, WFMT radios’ “Dame Myra Hess” noontime broadcast, and has presented countless recitals in the Chicago area. Noted British composer Sir Jonathan Wilcocks composed “Sweet Music’s Power” for the trio, which premiered at the Green Lake Music Festival in Green Lake, Wisc. The “Kithara” trio has two recordings to their credit, and has published many arrangements through the Lyon and Healy West label. During the summer, Faye is on the faculty of the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County, Wisc., and the Midwest Harp Festival held in Wheaton, Ill.

Dr. Rose Sperrazza maintains an active schedule as a performer and teacher. She is a tenured Associate Professor of Music at Northeastern Illinois where she regularly appears as a soloist and chamber musician. Prior to coming to NEIU, Sperrazza taught for over a decade at Harper College and has been on the faculties of University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Akron University as a teaching assistant.

Her local performing credits include work with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Light Opera Works, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, New Philharmonic Orchestra, CUBE ensemble, and the Madison Symphony Orchestra. She is also on the Vandoren Artist Roster.

In 2007, Dr. Sperrazza founded the Chicago Clarinet Ensemble as an in-residence professional and community ensemble at NEIU. Together with notable guest artists including Larry Combs, John Yeh, Anthony McGill, Michael Lowenstern, Stanley Drucker, Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr, Charlene Zimmerman, Eric Mandat, and Jorge Montilla, Sperrazza has provided mentoring opportunities, workshops, educational competitions, newly-commissioned repertoire, and symposiums for aspiring clarinetists throughout the United States.

Sperrazza spent eleven years as a student of William R. Gasbarro, and later, after moving from her hometown of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, studied with Larry Combs, David Bell, and Dr. Linda Bartley.

Heidi J. Stirling is a professional musician and established music educator who has been teaching and performing in Chicago for over two decades. She currently teaches General Music at Solomon Elementary School in Chicago and acts as a teacher-leader, team member and advocate in many capacities within the school and broader community. Outside of the classroom, Heidi is a member of the Chicago ArtsEd Leadership Advisory Committee and the CPS Arts Plan 2.0 Working Group, both which advise CPS leadership on collective strategies and advancing a common agenda of arts education equity in Chicago Public Schools.  Heidi is thrilled to be teaching adjunct at Northeastern Illinois University and to be supporting future teachers in their academic careers. Heidi holds a B.A. in Music Education from Millikin University, a M.A. in Voice from Northeastern Illinois University, and a M.A. in Educational Leadership from the American College of Education.  She is also an ISBE Certified Teacher Evaluator, an ASPIRE Teacher Coach, and an experienced Teacher Mentor for the Chicago Public Schools New Teacher Cohort. Heidi is a two-time Grammy award-winner for Best Choral Performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Irma Suarez Ruiz,of Mexican – Puerto Rican descent, was born in Chicago. Her formal dance training in classical ballet and Spanish dance began with Dame Libby Komaiko in 1979 at Northeastern Illinois University. During that year, she received a scholarship apprenticeship to the Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater (E.E.S.D.T.). In 1980, she became a company dancer and in 1986 was promoted to First Dancer. She has also studied with important Spanish dancers/choreographers Maria Alba, Edo, Paco Alonso, Victorio Korjhan, Juanjo Linares, Roberto Lorca, Timo Lozano, Manolete, Carmela Greco; ballet with Ana Czajun, and Juan Mata & Ana González, founding members of the National Ballet of Spain. In Spain, she studied with Cristian Almodovar, Aida Gomez, Rafaela Carrasco, Belen Maya, La China, El Guito, Paco Romero and Candela Soto at the Amor de Dios Spanish/Flamenco dance studios.

As First Dancer of the EESDT, Irma Suarez Ruiz performs annually at the American Spanish Dance & Music Festival, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and on the international dance series of the Auditorium Theater at Roosevelt University. This series hosts international artists and companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Ballet Nacional de Cuba; and the Kirov Ballet. Ms. Ruiz has danced starring roles in Dame Libby Komaiko’s Bolero (Maurice Ravel), Memorias de Vidas Gitanas, and Pasión Sevillana (Joaquin Turina). Additionally, she has starred in EESDT’s production of El Amor Brujo (Manuel de Falla) in the role of Candela, choreographed by Juan Mata and Ana Gonzalez (founding members and former first dancers of the National Ballet of Spain ). Other starring roles include Dame Libby’s Romance de Triana and Leyenda (Isaac Albeniz), La Boda de Luis Alonso (Geronimo Gimenez) from the zarzuela (Spain’s light opera) La Noche del Encierro,” and Ecos de España, (Rimksi Korsakov).

Ms. Ruiz has received critical acclaim from the Chicago Sun-Times arts critic for her own choreography: “The company’s ‘first dancers,’ Irma Suarez Ruiz and Jorge Perez, in Amor Eterno, their powerful duet of love, rage, abandonment and passion, danced with such scorching intensity that visions of a gypsy campsite came to mind. Talk about burning up the stage.” (Hedy Weiss)

As Artistic Director for Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, she works closely with Dame Libby Komaiko on projects, and has contributed, to critical acclaim, to the company’s choreographies for national and international engagements. Irma is instructor of dance at NEIU, and on the faculty of the E.E.S.D.T. - Flamenco dance workshops open to the community.

She has appeared as a guest artist with Ballet Español's production of Espiritu Flamenco at the Bomhard Theater of the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky; Dances of Spain with the St. Louis Cultural Flamenco Society and Gitana Productions in St. Louis, Missouri; the Chicago Human Rhythm’s Project World Festival of Tap and Percussive Dance, and for Bacchus Group Production’s Ashe of the Americas in Maui, Hawaii; San José, Costa Rica; and Walt-Disney Productions in Orlando, Florida. Her international engagements with the Ensemble Español include the Festival Internacional Cervantino Mexico where she toured 6 cities- Mexico D.F., Acapulco, Guadalajara, St. Luis Potosi, Cuernavaca and Guanajuato. In honor of the 82nd anniversary of the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico she toured 5 cities, San Juan, Ponce, Lajas, San German, and Arecibo. Irma, along with members of the Ensemble Español, toured Poland as American and NEIU ambassadors in honor of Warsaw University's 190th anniversary. This cultural/artistic exchange tour presented two sold out performances at the Polski & Collegium Nobillium Theaters, and three Flamenco dance & music workshops at: Giedroyc College of Communication & Media; Collegium Nobilium Arts Center; and Isadora Duncan Dance Academy. Following the 2008 Olympics, Irma also performed in China in the cities of Shenyang, Anshan & Quinhuandao.

Irma has received numerous awards throughout her career, including a Neighborhood Arts Project Grant from the Chicago Council on Fine Arts, and the 1993 Viva Latina Dance Master Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Ms. Suarez Ruiz was honored with an Artistic Ambassador Award from the Ruth Page Foundation and Northeastern Illinois University in recognition of her international artistic achievements and contributions to dance. On October 16, 2004, Irma Suarez Ruiz, along with dance partner Jorge Pérez were honored with the Twentieth Anniversary Award from the St. Louis Cultural Flamenco Society. In 2006, Irma joined the dance faculty at Northeastern Illinois University teaching Spanish dance in the Department of Music and Dance Programs.

In October of 2007, Ms. Suarez Ruiz was presented with the Northeastern Illinois University Excellence in Fine Arts award. In the Spring of 2008, Ms. Ruiz was invited to choreograph a suite of Spanish dances for the Civic Ballet of the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Performances were presented at the Ruth Page Center and Northeastern Illinois University. Irma is married to Antonio Ruiz and the proud mother of Crystal and Tiffany, as well as new parents of Brandon, Tyler, and Collin.

Susan Tang is Associate Professor of Piano at Northeastern Illinois University and artistic director of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival, an intensive summer workshop for young artists. 

An active professional performer, Susan enjoyed a successful New York solo piano debut at Carnegie-Weill Hall as a Winner of Artist International Management Special Presentation Winners Series. Reviews by the New York Concert Review, described her playing as having “well-grounded technique…fluid, elegant readings…highly effective interpretations.” She has also been called a pianist “with an assured playing that sparkled" by the Baltimore Sun and a “fluent pianist” by the Chicago Tribune.

Susan Tang has performed and toured with Mabou Mine’s Dollhouse, a theater company based in New York City as a pianist/actor, has been featured live on New York City’s WQXR and Chicago’s WFMT, performed with the Eastman Symphony Orchestra along with receiving the coveted Performer’s Certificate. Invitations to perform and teach have taken her throughout Canada, United States, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Colombia. She was a top prize winner at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Associations National Piano Competition in Montreal and received the special jury prize at the Thousand Island International Piano Competition. She has studied at the Banff International Keyboard Festival, Van Cliburn Piano Institute and the Leipzig Summer Academy of Music. She is also the co-editor with Marc Ponthus of Elliot Carter: A Centennial Celebration, and has published articles in Clavier Magazine. She has been invited to perform at the Ravinia Festival, Jewel Box Series, Dame Myra Hess, Savannah Music Festival, University of Minnesota-Duluth, McNeese University, Dominican University, Blue Ridge Concert Series, Loyola University, Quest University, and Shriver Hall Concert Series. As an active clinician and adjudicator, Susan was the guest artist for the North Dakota Music Teachers Association state conference and is often invited to present for the local MTNA chapters. She has also presented at both the MTNA and College Music Society’s national conferences and is a member of the Royal Conservatory Of Music's college of adjudicators.  

Susan Tang received her BM and MM from the Eastman School of Music and DMA from Manhattan School of Music. Her principle teachers include Nelita True, Nina Svetlanova, Robin Wood, and Susan Magnusson.

Brian Torosian, an active soloist and chamber musician on guitar, lute, and mandolin, has performed in concerts throughout North America. In addition to the standard six-string guitar, he plays baroque guitar, Terz guitar, and 10-string guitar replicas, the latter two made for him by R. E. Bruné after 19th-century Viennese instruments. Concert performances include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, His Majesties Clerkes, and Classical Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Torosian completed his doctoral studies at Northwestern University with Anne Waller, and also studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy where he received Diplomas of Merit, and an honorary scholarship. He has taken numerous master classes with Eliot Fisk, Paul O'dette, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Robert Guthrie, Sérgio and Odair Assad, David Starobin, Mark Maxwell, Nigel North, Eduardo Fernandez, and David Russell as well as early music and continuo studies with Mary Springfels and David Schrader. Brian is the current president of the Chicago Classical Guitar Society.

Long an exponent of the music of nineteenth-century virtuoso guitarist and composer J. K. Mertz, Torosian's doctoral dissertation, Mertz in America, chronicles the music of Mertz in the United States in the early twentieth century. Brian's published editions include Mertz's Opern-Revue, Mertz's trio for violin/flute, viola, and guitar, Divertissement, Op. 32 (DGA Editions); an anthology of operatic concert works entitled Selected Operatic Fantasies of Mertz (Mel Bay); as well as new editions of Mertz's selected works published by Chanterelle Verlag, Heidelberg. His recordings include a track on the harp guitar compilation Christmas Present and a collection of Mertz’s guitar and piano duos, which features premiere recordings of newly-discovered concert works. Brian is also an accomplished electric guitarist, with over 100 compositions in contemporary popular styles.

Northeastern music majors specializing in guitar performance often elect to supplement their classical studies with lessons on jazz guitar, early music performance practice, mandolin, or lute. These students can receive permission to access to the university's guitars, mandolin, and renaissance lute.

Chicago-based bassist/composer and bandleader Matt Ulery has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures and expressionistic emotionalism, Ulery’s music, from small, diverse chamber ensembles to full orchestras, is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk–specifically American, South American, Balkan and other European folk styles. He has been performing for 25 years on upright, electric and brass basses.

For over two decades, Ulery has been the leader of his own groups and frequent collaborator. Ulery has produced and released 12 albums of all-original music under his name. Ulery holds music degrees from DePaul University and Roosevelt University and is in high demand as a bassist in Chicago. As a composer, Ulery has collaborated with diverse ensembles such as Eighth Blackbird, Miami String Quartet, New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago, Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, Axiom Brass, Wild Belle, Guimaraes (Portugal) Jazz Festival, Projeto Arcomusical, and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition.

When not touring parts of the U.S. and Europe, Matt is extremely active in the Chicago area music scenes and has performed with his own groups at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, NYC Winter Jazz Festival, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Millennium Park Pritzker Pavillion, Chicago Cultural Center, The Krannert Center, Jazz Showcase, The Metro, Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Guimaraes Jazz Festival, and countless other fine music listening rooms.

Matt Ulery leads and composes all the music for several of his own ensembles, including Sifting Stars Orchestra (orchestral art songs), Loom Large (jazz big band), Loom (jazz quintet), Delicate Charms (jazz quintet), Pollinator (jazz brass band), By a Little Light Ensemble (chamber jazz nonet), string quintet, and various other pet projects.