In addition to his orchestral responsibilities, Mr. Gingrich is an active soloist and chamber musician. He is a member of the Grammy Award-winning Chicago Pro Musica chamber ensemble. He resides in Wilmette with his wife, Mary, an artist and musician. They have a daughter, Dawn, who is a violin student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Alibek Toleubekovich Alpiyev, 21, a native of Almaty, Kazakhstan, is currently an undergraduate piano major in the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He is a scholarship student of Dr. Ludmila Lazar, Chair of Keyboard Studies. Alpiyev has played the piano since he was 5 years old, and attended the Special Musical School for Gifted Children. He also studied at the Almaty Musical College, where he received a diploma in 1997.

He continued his studies at the Moscow Central Music School in Russia, the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre in Hannover, Germany, and the Almaty State Conservatory in Kazakhstan. His principal teachers have included Ludmila Loupan and Zhanija Aubakirova in Kazakhstan, Vladimir Krainev in Germany, lgor Ryabov in Moscow, and Ludmila Lazar in Chicago.

Alpiyev has performed recitals in his native country, at the Moscow Conservatory Great Hall in Russia, and the Kiev Philharmonic Great Hall in Ukraine, as well as in Germany and the United States. He was a laureate of the “New Names” International Competition held in Ukraine in 1992.

He also performed in 1992 at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall as part of a cultural exchange concert with the Betty Haag Suzuki Academy, now a division of Roosevelt University.

Susan Nigro, a native of the South Side of Chicago, has made a name for herself as one of the very few soloists on the contra-bassoon in the USA. Her mission is to bring to this important but little-known instrument the long-overdue attention and respect it richly deserves.

Ms. Nigro earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Northwestern University and obtained an additional graduate degree from Roosevelt University. Her bassoon teachers have been Burl Lane, Ferdinand Del Negro, Willard Elliot, Leonard Sharrow, Sherman Walt, and Wilbur Simpson. She gained ensemble expertise in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was awarded the Henry B. Cabot Prize.

Among her many other awards, Susan received an honorable mention prize in the Rome Festival 2000 Concerto Competition, a competitive national audition. She was the winner of a Pro Musicis International Career Development Grant, and a finalist in the Chicago Park District Talent Search. Her orchestral experience has included regular subbing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, occasional work with the Saint Paul (MN) Chamber Orchestra and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and extensive freelancing in the Chicago area. She is a founding member of the Chicago Bassoon Quartet and also of “The Two Contras,” probably the only contrabassoon duo in existence.

In addition, Susan has been listed on the State Artists Rosters of eight US states. She has been a guest artist at the Rome Festival in Italy, the Aspekte Festival of Salzburg, and at the Grand Teton (WY) Music Festival, and also was an artist-in-residence at the 3rd Annual Contrabassoon Festival in Utah.

Susan’s emphasis is on solo contrabassoon performance, and during the last several years she has presented dozens of recitals and made many solo appearances with numerous orchestras, ensembles, and bands. On several occasions she has been a featured artist at the annual conferences of the International Double Reed Society. Her solo performances are frequently accompanied by master classes, workshops, or lecture-demonstrations designed to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the instrument’s unique sound and surprising versatility.

In her quest for contrabassoon solo literature, Ms. Nigro has commissioned and performed many new compositions, and she has premiered more solo works for this instrument than any other musician. Some of the newly commissioned pieces have been published as the “Susan L. Nigro Contrabassoon Recital Series.” Susan's first solo CD, “The Big Bassoon,” contains six of these pieces. Her second is entitled “Little Tunes for the Big Bassoon.” Her newest solo CD, “The Bass Nightingale,” includes a performance of the Stamitz concerto which she plays today with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.