2001-2002 Season Soloists Bobby Lewis, Trumpet and Jazz Trio Mathieu Dufour, Flute Donald Moline, Cello Cornelius Chiu, Violin Aaron Lay, Cello

Bobby Lewis, Trumpet

Bobby Lewis received his Masters Degree in Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He performs on trumpet (B flat, C, piccolo, high E flat, low F alto) flugelhorn, cornet, bugle, and he sings. As a first-call full-time recording studio musician, Bobby has played over 7000 recording sessions (TV and radio commercials, records, and films). He has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, to mention a few. He has toured and recorded with Jack Teagarden and Tex Beneke, and has been conductor, music director, and featured soloist with Peggy Lee. The list of artists with whom Bobby has worked includes such familiar names as Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Mel Torme, and Harry Belafonte. His solo album trilogy, Inside This Song, Passion Flower, and Here I Go Again, has been released by Southport Records. All three CD recordings have received rave reviews. Flugel Gourmet, blending classical and jazz themes, released in September, 1997 on Southport, also has received international acclaim. Just Havin’ Some Fun, with four new works by Bobby, was released in 1999. Bobby received two composition fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts: The Trumpet Section Suite, a four-movement work presenting an historical capsule of great trumpet players, and Trumpetry, a piece in three movements for ten trumpets and percussion. He has composed and arranged music for various stage ensembles, a French horn sonata, and a trumpet étude book. He has participated in jazz festivals, concerts, and brass conferences in India, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Canada, and throughout the United States. His honors include the 1997 Musician of the Year award from the Dal Segno Musicians Club of Chicago; he particularly appreciates the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000 from his alma mater in the city of his birth, Oshkosh West High School. The Bobby Lewis Trio consists of the following superb musicians: Jim Ryan on the piano, Thomas Kini on the electric bass and Jerry Colman on the drums.

Mathieu Dufour, Flute

A native of Paris, France, Mathieu Dufour began his flute study at the age of eight with Madeleine Chassang at the National Regional Conservatory in Paris. At the age of fourteen he was awarded the school’s gold medal by unanimous vote. He subsequently studied with Maxence Larrieu in 1990. Additional awards include second prize at the Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Competition (1990), third prize at the International Flute Competition in Budapest (1991), and second prize at the International Flute Competition in Kobe, Japan (1997). Mathieu Dufour became the Chicago Symphony Ochestra’s principal flute in 1999, succeeding Donald Peck who retired following the 1998-1999 season. Mathieu had been principal flute soloist of the Paris National Opera Orchestra since 1996. Prior to his appointment there, he served as principal flute of the Orchestra National du Capitole de Toulouse for three years. A member of the Georges Cziffra Foundation and Juventus, Mathieu has given numerous recitals and concerts throughout Europe and Japan as part of their Young European Soloists ensemble. Dufour is said to be one of the most valuable additions to the Chicago musical community in recent years. The NSO’s “From Classic to Modern” Concert will feature Mathieu in two pieces by Vivaldi: “The Night“ and “The Goldfinch”, concertos for flute and orchestra. In a recent review which appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Michael Cameron described Dufour's playing as having “effortless technique, flawless intonation, a wide range of colors, and a knack for giving clear direction to all of his phrases.” The Northwest Symphony Orchestra feels very fortunate to have Mr. Dufour as soloist.

Donald Moline, Cello

Grammy Award winner Donald Moline has been a musician most of his life, including while serving with the U.S. Peace Corps in Africa. He currently is a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As soloist, recording artist, recitalist, teacher, lecturer, chamber musician, and orchestral player, his career has taken him to every corner of the globe. A native Texan, Don was a full scholarship student at Hartt College of Music, where he studied with Luigi Silva, David Wells, and Bernard Greenhouse. He earned a Master of Music degree while serving as a teaching assistant at Indiana University, where he was a student of former CSO principal cello Janos Starker. On the other side of the lectern, he has taught at Dartmouth College, Northwestern University, and the University of Tulsa. Mr. Moline’s extensive recording career has earned him a Grammy Award for his work with the Chicago Pro Musica for the Reference label. He recorded much of the string quartet literature for WFMT with the Chicago Arts Quartet, which performed at the Bruckner Festival in Linz, Austria, and on college campuses in the United States and Japan. With organist Randall Swanson, he recorded a CD of music for cello and organ, The Last Song of Summer, currently available on the Dorian Discovery label. Another solo CD release, on the Centaur label, is Napoleon’s Cellist, with pianist Daniel Paul Horn, featuring music of Jean-Louis Duport (1749-1819), which Don discovered in a library in France. His latest Centaur release, entitled Melange, with harpist Rachel Ferris, is a CD of music for cello and harp by Jean-Louis Duport and Nicholas Bochsa. Planned is another CD, Cathedral Cellist, featuring Marcel Dupre’s Sonata for Cellos and Organ and a set of Four Seasons, which Don commissioned by composer Peter Mathews. It will be recorded at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral with organist Samuel Soria and the Cathedral Chamber singers led by Matthew Walsh. Don has been a featured soloist with the CSO, Northwest Symphony, Mid-Texas Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, and many other orchestra throughout the United States. Don performs on a rare instrument made in 1764 by Carlo Antonio Testore. In private life, Don was a six-time winner of ABC-TV’S Family Feud. He has written a novel entitled Murder in Orchestra Hall, a work he describes as “an ongoing process.” An avid jogger who also studies Japanese, he also finds time to do weekly volunteer work as a eucharistic Minister of Care, visiting the sick and dying at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, an activity he describes as “giving something back for the wonderful life in music that I enjoy.” He lives in downtown Chicago and has two married daughters, Michelle and Erin, and one grandson.

Cornelius Chiu, Violin

Cornelius Chiu, the son of Chinese immigrants, began his studies on the violin at the age of six. He graduated from Indiana University School of Music with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music with high distinction, where his teachers were Franco Gulli, Yuval Yaron, and the late pedagogue Josef Gingold. He also received a fellowship and a performer’s certificate from the celebrated institution. Chiu has won, among others, the Irving Klein International String Competition and the National Arts and Letters Competition, and has been a soloist with the Washington Chamber Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He gave his debut at the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in 1993, and became a first violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1996. Since coming to Chicago he has been heard regularly in numerous venues, including the Music in the Loft Recital Series, the Chicago Chamber Series, and the Ravinia Festival. Having an interest in contemporary music, he has worked with composers Ricardo Lorenz and Augusta Read Thomas and has performed with the Cube Ensemble and the Grammy Award winning Pro Musica chamber group. Chiu comes from a musical family. His brother Frederic is a concertizing pianist and his wife Inah, also a pianist, is on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago. With his wife he forms a duo that has performed throughout the United States. He is the proud father of three children.

Aaron Lay, Cello

Aaron Lay took his first cello lesson at the age of four on a cello that was no bigger than a standard violin. He was born in Hong Kong in 1983, and his first lessons were with Ki-Ling Lui. Since 1993, when his family moved to the Chicago area, he has studied with Nell Novak at the Music Institute of Chicago in Winnetka. While in high school at New Trier, he was the principal cellist of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Aaron was a finalist in the Chicago Youth Symphony Concerto Competition in both 2000 and 2001. In addition, he won second prize in the Skokie Valley Young Artists Competition and was given an opportunity to perform the DvoÅrák Cello Concerto in B minor with the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra. Aaron also has won second and third places, as well as honorable mentions, in various competitions hosted by the American Music Teachers’ Society, the Chicago Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, and the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. In 1998 he performed as a soloist at the Young Steinway Concert Series, presented by the Skokie Public Library. In 1996 Aaron was selected as a member of the North American Chinese Youth Orchestra, which performed in Dallas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles before touring Taiwan. He also toured Eastern Europe in 1999 with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the New Trier High School Chamber Orchestra, he traveled to China in 2000. Aaron also has been a member of the Illinois District Orchestra and the Illinois All-State Honors Orchestra. Aaron also participates actively in chamber music. In 1999 his piano trio qualified as a quarterfinalist at the national Fischoff Chamber Competition. In 2000 he was a member of the Voltaire String Quartet, which was invited to play on NPR’s “From the Top” radio show, which was broadcast and recorded at the Jordan Hall in Boston. Music has been a major part of Aaron’s life, but not its only one. During his high school years, he explored other interests—basketball, tennis and swimming among them. But the cello reigned supreme at the time. Now a freshman at the University of California–Berkeley, Aaron is studying to become a physician, and intends to follow in his father’s professional footsteps. However, music and the cello will always remain a vital and satisfying part of his life.