musician

 

Broadway veteran, recipient of shared Emmy, Tony, Grammy, and Grand Prix du Disque and other multiple awards, Barbara Hedlund enjoys an active career as orchestral and chamber musician, solo and recording artist, fine arts administrator, music editor and publisher, orchestra founder/manager/librarian, university professor, adjudicator, associate producer for Public Radio and Television, concert producer, Urbana Public Arts Commissioner, and young artist scholarship sponsor.

With 30-plus years of performance, management, and educator experience, she demonstrates dedicated commitments to live music, arts education, innovative program building, collaboration, customer service, and management oversight. Her professional history includes successful accomplishments in the creation of orchestral, operatic, and ensembles combined with fundraising, external relations, marketing, venues, programming, human resources, public relations, board of director service, concert production and promotion, development and coordination of arts education programs for schools and community groups, performance, teaching, community service, and philanthropic support.

Her current professional affiliations include: Principal Cellist for the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Danville Symphony Orchestra, Heartland Festival Orchestra, and Sugar Creek Opera; Coordinator and Performer for CUSO In-School Concerts; Personnel Manager and Operations Coordinator for the Heartland Festival Orchestra; Founder/CEO of 1st Choice Music Services Artist Representatives and VCello Music Publications; Urbana Public Arts Commissioner; and Instructor for Cellobration Studios and Youth Orchestra Cello Coach. More information may be found on her website at www.barbarahedlund.com.

 

Professional harpist Molly Madden is an active performer and dedicated music educator. In addition to maintaining a private harp studio, Molly serves as principal harpist for the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra and Heartland Festival Orchestra, and she frequently performs with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Illinois State University Wind Symphony, and other ensembles in Central Illinois.

Raised in a musical home, Molly fell in love with the harp when she was just two years old. After receiving her first harp at the age of seven, she began taking harp lessons, studying with Lynne Kirkwood and Joy Yu Hoffman, and continued her music education in college at the University of Illinois School of Music. There, Molly received awards and scholarships and earned Bachelor’s degrees in Harp Performance and Music Education and a Master’s degree in Harp Performance. Under the instruction of Dr. Ann Yeung, she received extensive training in solo harp performance, ensemble playing, and harp pedagogy. Molly completed her student teaching in Champaign-Urbana for grades K–8, teaching band, music technology, and general music.

 

Clarinetist J. David Harris has won critical acclaim for his elegant and expressive playing. As the principal clarinetist with Sinfonia da Camera, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Harris combines technical mastery, depth of musicality, and a solid ensemble style to his playing. In addition, he has been featured as a soloist, performing many of the standard concerti by Weber, Mozart, Nielsen, and Bernstein, among others.

Professor Harris joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign music faculty in 1990. Prior to that, he served on the faculties of Louisiana State University, Kent State University, and Interlochen Arts Academy. Celebrating his thirtieth year as a university Professor, Harris’ success as a teacher is found in his students who hold positions in universities and orchestras across the country.

During the summers, he has performed and taught at many music festivals, including Sewanee Summer Music Center in Tennessee, Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin, Great Music West in Wyoming, and Ohio Light Opera in Wooster, Ohio. From 1973 to l983, Harris performed over 100 concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra under such notable conductors as Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez, James Levine, and Erich Leinsdorf in some of the world’s greatest venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Symphony Hall in Boston, and the grand opening ceremonies at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Harris can be heard as the bass clarinetist in the Telarc recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Lorin Maazel. Under the baton of Frederick Fennell, Mr. Harris is the featured first clarinetist on the highly acclaimed recordings of the Cleveland Symphonic Winds.

In the summer of 2001, Harris served as the president of the Clarinet Jury for the Jeunesses Musicales International Clarinet Competition in Bucharest, Romania, and performed a solo recital at the American Cultural Center. Harris is an active member in several clarinet societies and has been a featured performer in national and international venues for the International Clarinet Society Congress, ClariNetwork International, and the International Double Reed Society. In the summer of 2006, Harris was a featured soloist at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest in Atlanta, Georgia. As a member of the Illinois Quartet, along with colleagues bassoonist Timothy McGovern, flutist Jonathan Keeble, and oboist John Dee, Mr. Harris toured the Southeastern United States, South Korea, and Spain during the 2006 season, giving a series of master classes and concerts.