2008 Chamber Music Workshop Faculty
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Robert Bassill, Chamber Music Program Coordinator, Camp Director and Orchestra Director, violin, received his Bachelors of Music from DePaul University and his Masters of Music Education from Case Western University. Mr. Bassill is the Director of Orchestras and Music Theory at Lake Forest High School and is on the chamber music faculty at Midwest Young Artists. As a performer, Mr. Bassill freelances around the Chicago area playing in local orchestras. In addition to performing, Mr. Bassill conducts the Summer Concert Orchestra at MYA and has served as conductor for the Centerstage musical in Lake Forest, IL, and as Assistant Conductor for the Case Western University Orchestra.
Susan Bates, viola, is an instructor of chamber music and viola at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division. She has directed and instructed at Summer Music West, California Summer Music and currently the Lake Tahoe Music Festival’s Summer Music Academy. Ms. Bates is the 1992 recipient of the Chamber Music America’s Gruber Award for Excellence in Chamber Music Teaching.
Annie Chalex, violin, is first violinist of the Harrington String Quartet, Concertmaster of the Amarillo Symphony, and a faculty member at West Texas A&M University. She was the recipient of the American Prize, awarded by Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Competition, a Prizewinner at the Irving Klein Competition, and a finalist in the 1992 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Ms. Chalex received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California and her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School.
Sally Chisholm, viola, is a member of the Pro Arte Quartet and Professor of Viola at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a founding member of the award-winning Thouvenel String Quartet, was a finalist of the Naumburg Competition, and performed on NBC’s Today Show. She performs annually in the Festival Der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland, and is a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota.
Dr. Allan Dennis, Festival Orchestra Conductor, is the Executive Director of Midwest Young Artists. He conducts the MYA Concert and Symphony Orchestras and is currently the conductor of Kankakee Symphony Orchestra. Former youth orchestra conducting positions have included the American Suzuki Institute, the North Shore Youth Orchestra, and the Northern Iowa Youth Orchestra. Former professional orchestra conducting positions include associations with the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony. He has conducted and taught at the University of Evansville, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Skidmore College. His conducting teachers have included Gunther Schuller, Harold Farbermann, and David Effron. Dr. Dennis received his doctorate degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, and his bachelor and master degrees from the State University of New York at Fredonia.
Jean-Michel Fonteneau, cello, is currently the Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Fonteneau is a founding member of the award-winning Ravel String Quartet and the piano trio Le Nouveau Trio du Val-de-Marne. In 1993, the Ravel String Quartet received the Les Victoires de la Musique Classique award for Best French Chamber Music Ensemble. Mr. Fonteneau has served as the assistant professor of cello at the Lyon Conservatoire Superieur.
Peter Kupfer, Theory and Music History Teacher, bassoon, is a 1997 MYA alumnus and is currently in his third year of the Ph.D. program in historical musicology at the University of Chicago. Peter attended Amherst College and graduated with degrees in music, computer science, and German. In addition to his position as Director of Music Theory at MYA, Peter is a Fulbright Scholar and an accomplished bassoonist.
David Perry, violin, is currently the 1st violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet and Professor of Violin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is concertmaster and faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and is a frequent guest concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Philharmonic in Chicago.
Charles Pikler , viola, joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a violinist in 1978. In 1986 he was appointed principal violist. Charlie is presently a member of the North Park University and Northwestern University faculties. Charlie also served on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was the featured soloist on the Sewanee Symphony's recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy for Solo Viola and Orchestra under Victor Yampolsky. Charlie has appeared as soloist with many other orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Charlie has given master classes throughout the world and is an active chamber music performer. He also enjoys coaching viola sectionals of the Midwest Young Artist orchestras, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, as well as those of other orchestra and chamber ensembles.
Gene Purdue, Summer Program Artistic Director, violin, achieved nationalrecognition as a founding member of the Thouvenel String
Quartet. As first violinist, he won first prize at the Weiner
String Quartet Competition, performed on NBC’s Today Show,
and was a finalist in the Naumberg Competition. Currently, he
is a member of the chamber music faculty of Midwest Young
Artists. His teachers include Josef Gingold, Tadeusz Wronski, Franco Gulli, Daniel
Guilet and Dorothy Delay.
Thomas Rosenberg is nationally known as a dynamic performer, chamber music coach, and teacher. He is a prize winner at the Munich ( Germany ), Portsmouth ( England ) and Chicago Discovery Competitions, and is a three-time Naumburg Chamber Music Award finalist. Mr. Rosenberg was a founding member of the highly acclaimed Chester String Quartet and was solo cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble. He currently plays in 4 piano trios and frequently performs with both the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Since 1981 he has been Artistic Director of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He is on the faculties of the University of Minnesota , Macalester and Carleton Colleges and has been named String Teacher of the Year by ASTA Minnesota.
Tatyana Stepanova, piano, is originally from Kiev, Ukraine. She graduated from Tchaikovsky Kiev State Conservatory and Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg (Russia) Conservatory of Music, where she worked as an assistant professor while pursuing her doctoral program in piano performance. Her concert appearances include chamber concerts with faculty Northwestern University School of Music, DePaul University School of Music, performances with the Storioni Ensemble, live WFMT performances with the Heritage Trio, the Piano Duo concerts, and many others.
