By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
Five southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois college students got the opportunity this season to play in a community orchestra through a new Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra program.
During the 2013-14 season for the first time, the orchestra sponsored a Fellows Program as part of a new educational initiative to give orchestral playing opportunities to undergraduate string students in the region. Preference was given to music majors but non-music majors were also welcome to apply. In addition to auditioning, applicants outlined their short-term and long-term musical goals. All Fellows were required to play in their college of university orchestra.
Over the course of the season, the Fellows attended 34 rehearsals and performances and received a modest travel stipend.
The 2013-14 Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra Fellows are violinists Amber Burgermeister, Deanne Carloni, Emma McAlister and Mackenzie Wiley, from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and cellist Cassidy Miller from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Amber Burgermeister
Burgermeister, a 2011 graduate of Nathan Hale High School in West Allis will complete a Bachelor’s Degree in music in spring 2015 and aims to build a studio for teaching private lessons to young children.
Burgermeister began playing violin in kindergarten through a Suzuki program that she said was ideal in keeping “the parents closely involved with the kids and their teacher.”
“LGSO rehearsals started in September, and our weekly meetings quickly grew to be my favorite part of the week,” Burgermeister said.
She said the experience involved “a relaxing commute to Lake Geneva from Whitewater, friendly and smiling faces once we arrived at rehearsals with a patient yet focused conductor, David Anderson.”
Burgermeister said she treasured her conversations with Dave Murray with whom she was assigned to share a music stand for the February concert.
“We immediately connected over our love for playing Bach,” she said.
“Being a LGSO Fellow was my first experience being in a community orchestra and it made me realize that it is something I should always keep in my schedule,” Burgermeister said.
Deanne Carloni
Carloni graduated from UW-W last month with a Bachelor’s Degree in music education and a Spanish minor. She is a 2009 graduate of Greendale High School.
“I began playing violin in third grade because I loved the challenge of learning notes and rhythms and I loved that string instruments could play so many different styles of music,” Carloni said.
During the summer, Carloni will teach orchestra lessons in Mukwonago, assisting at the UWW String Camp and playing in the pit orchestra for the Divine Savior Holy Angels High School Summer Musical Theatre production of “Ragtime,” along with searching for a job.
Mallory Bray, the concert master of the LGSO in 2012-13 and a graduate of UW-W, encouraged Carloni to look into the Fellows Program. “I have grown leaps and bounds as a musician because of playing such great repertoire from different styles of music and I believe this has helped increase my knowledge of different composers and how to approach teaching difficult passages of music to my future string students,” Carloni said. “Performing with a group of genuinely kind musicians who are so dedicated to their craft was very inspiring and made my time with the LGSO a lot of fun.”
Anderson said that besides gaining orchestral experience, “Fellows are mentored by members of the orchestra who have careers in music education or performance through a series of talks, as well as through informal conversations.”
The talks covered topics like “graduate school audition tips,” “what life can be like as a free-lance musician” and “a day in the life of a music educator.”
Carloni reported that getting information on “different ideas for rehearsal techniques, applying for jobs and how to set up a studio … made me feel more hopeful that there is always a way to somehow make music an important part of your life.”
Emma McAlister
McAlister is a 2010 graduate of Chippewa Falls Senior High School and an upcoming August UW-W graduate in music performance. McAlister started playing violin in sixth grade.
“I had always wanted to play violin,” she said.
McAlister intends to audition for acceptance into a graduate school program for violin performance and to increase the number of her violin students.
McAlister learned about the LGSO Fellows program through an email Anderson sent to her UW-W violin professor, Leanne League.
“David Anderson was extremely helpful,” she said.
McAlister said being a LGSO Fellow was “a great opportunity to be exposed to more repertoire, to play in a group that is not all college students and to meet other musicians in this area.”
McAlister believes that the Fellows Program is also beneficial to the other members of the LGSO.
“Multiple LGSO members have come up to the Fellows to thank us for helping improve the quality of our sections,” she said.
Mackenzie Wiley
Wiley is a 2009 graduate of Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill., and an instrumental music education major at UW-W who hopes to be “either a high school orchestra director or a freelance musician” following graduation.
Wiley began playing violin when she was 7 years old “because my sister played” and learned about the LGSO Fellows program from her friend, Josh Wang, a pianist.
“I decided to look into it more,” she said. “It turned out to be a great opportunity that I was happy to take advantage of.
“Being a Fellow was extremely valuable to me. It was my first time being in an orchestra outside of school and it really showed me how an orchestra is run at a more professional level.
“The talks we had were also helpful for really finding out what being an adult in the music community is like, whether it was as a school teacher, a private teacher or a conductor. I learned a lot of useful real-world knowledge.”
In addition to learning new pieces, Wiley said she appreciated the opportunity to working with a different conductor.
“Playing under David Anderson made me a much better accompanist with an orchestra,” she said. “It’s a specific skill that not everyone learns, but it is vital to be able to accompany a soloist well and I feel that David really helped me learn how to do that.”
As a Fellow, Wiley cites concert master Lisa Gauslow as having had great influence on her.
“She gave a talk to the Fellows about balancing life as a freelance musician, private teacher, wife and mother,” Wiley said. “Seeing someone succeed at what they love is always inspiring.”
Wiley said the regular members of the LGSO are also on the receiving end of a “win-win” program.
“We are trained musicians who love playing and I hope our passion and skill was obvious and contagious,” she said. “The members we sat near would often ask questions of us, and we did our best to help. By the end, we were thanked by many members of the orchestra, so I’d like to think that we did something right.”
Cassidy Miller
Miller transferred from Illinois Wesleyan University to the College of DuPage where she is majoring in cello performance. After completing her undergraduate studies, Miller would like to “get into a professional orchestra, still teach cello, as well as bring music wherever I can.”
When she was in fifth grade, Miller set her heart on learning to play the double bass, but her teachers thought that she would experience more success on a different instrument.
“I was devastated as they told me that I should learn cello and switch to double bass in high school,” she said. “I ended up crying afterwards, but now that I look back, I am so glad that I was forced into cello. There is nothing that I love more than cello.”
While attending the College of DuPage, Miller hoped to find an orchestra to play in to broaden her musical experience and thought of the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, thanks in part to having had Anderson as a conductor for the Elgin Youth Symphony.
“I happily joined the Fellows program after an audition in February,” she said.
Despite a 90-minute drive to orchestra rehearsals and performances, Miller said she loves being a Fellow.
“It’s definitely worth the long drive for all the wonderful musical experience,” she said.
Miller also welcomed the opportunity to “make great music with other highly talented musicians.”
“Through being in the LGSO, I now have a better idea of how it works to be in a symphony orchestra,” she said. “It gives me a highly valuable introduction into the rest of my life as a musician.”
At the same time, Miller also sees the value of the Fellows program for the other members of the orchestra.
“I think it is always nice to have a fresh outlook from the new generation of musicians in college, thus adding a new dimension to the music-making process,” she said.
Boon to members
In a similar vein, Anderson emphasized that thanks to the Fellows program, “the LGSO gains talented players to help us as we continue to raise the bar of excellence.” Who knows, in the next few years, these college musicians may be producing their own music by taking assistance from companies like Unison Audio, or from similar ones that can support these budding artists in their endeavor to become successful musicians.
Coming back, Richard Schwinn, a violinist with the orchestra since 2004, believes that the Fellows program provides an excellent educational opportunity for promising college student musicians and increases the orchestra’s pool of talent.
“While the orchestra continues to grow, it can be helpful to have additional string players, especially for works like Shostakovitch’s ‘Symphony No. 5,'” Schwinn said.
“I learn from my fellow musicians,” Schwinn said. “To the extent that we have these talented players rehearsing and performing with us, there are always techniques to be gained. Allowing us to play a wider range of music is another key advantage.”
The Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra is seeking sponsors to continue the Fellows program during the 2014-15 season. For more information about sponsoring the program, call (262) 359-9072 or visit lakegenevaorchestra.com, click on the “contact” link and leave a message.
