Discussion Panel

Robert Levine has been the Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony since September 1987. Before coming to Milwaukee Mr. Levine had been a member of the Orford String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with whom he toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and South America. Prior to joining the Orford Quartet, Mr. Levine had served as Principal Violist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for six years. He has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, and the Oklahoma City Symphony, as well as serving as guest principal with the orchestras of Indianapolis and Hong Kong.

He has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, the Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco), and numerous community orchestras in Northern California and Minnesota. He has also been featured on American Public Radio's nationally broadcast show "St. Paul Sunday Morning" on several occasions.

Mr. Levine has been an active chamber musician, having performed at the Festival Rolandseck in Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Palm Beach Festival, the "Strings in the Mountains" Festival in Colorado, and numerous concerts in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. He has also been active in the field of new music, having commissioned and premiered works for viola and orchestra from Minnesota composers Janika Vandervelde and Libby Larsen.

Mr. Levine was chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians from 1996 to 2002 and currently serves as President of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras. He has written extensively about issues concerning orchestra musicians for publications of ICSOM, the AFM, the Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the League of American Orchestras.

Mr. Levine attended Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. His primary teachers were Aaron Sten and Pamela Goldsmith. He also studied with Paul Doctor, Walter Trampler, Bruno Giuranna, and David Abel.

He lives with his wife Emily and his son Sam in Glendale.

David Patrick Stearns has been a Philadelphia Inquirer classical music critic and general arts writer for the past six years, having come there from a 17-year stint at USA Today, where he contributed to one of the original prototypes and worked as classical music and theater critic. His most formative years were spent at the now-defuncted Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union, 1977-83, where regularly heard and reviewed the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman as well as concerts at the Eastman School of Music featuring then faculty members such as the Cleveland Quartet, Jan DeGaetani and composer Warren Benson at their considerable artistic peaks.

In his freelance life, Stearns has contributed to publications from Cosmopolitan to Opera News, TV Guide to Gramophone, and has had ongoing relationships with Stereophile, BBC Music Magazine, The Independent (in London) and The Guardian (in Manchester). For six years, he was music commentator on NPR's Morning Edition program.

Stearns is originally from Sycamore, Illinois, holds a BA in journalism from Southern Illinois University, and, much more recently, earned a masters in musicology at New York University in 1996.

John Kieser,Director of Operations and Electronic Media, has been with the San Francisco Symphony since 1984. His responsibilities include overseeing symphony performances, Davies Symphony Hall operations, national and international tours, and all three SFS stores. John Kieser directs San Francisco Symphony electronic media activities ranging from the production of a television series and multimedia project titled Keeping Score: MTT on Music, the management of close to one-hundred local, national and international radio broadcasts a year, and the recording of albums—including the SFS’s self-released Mahler series which has won Grammy© Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Performance. During his tenure with the San Francisco Symphony, the organization has also won an Emmy Award for its production of Sweeny Todd and a Peabody Award for the radio series produced in association with Minnesota Public Radio .

Paul Frankenfeld is Associate Principal Violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra . He began his musical studies in the Long Beach Unified School District under the supervision of Fred Ohlendorf. For ten years, he studied viola with the renowned concert violinist and pedagogue Vera Barstow. Paul Frankenfeld performed as Principal Viola with the Stanford University Symphony, Chamber, and Opera Theatre orchestras under Sandor Salgo while studying viola with Rolf Persinger and David Abel. After his graduation with a degree in German Studies and Humanities from Stanford, he served as viola teaching assistant to Milton Thomas at the University of Southern California School of Music and as Principal Viola of the USC Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Lewis. An active chamber musician, Mr. Frankenfeld has performed at the Taft Museum Concerts in Cincinnati, the Brand Library Series in Glendale, California, and frequently with the Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Players concerts. His teaching and coaching activities have included master classes at Belmont University, Ball State University in Indiana, and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Interested in many aspects of the symphonic realm, Mr. Frankenfeld has served since 1986 on the orchestra committee of the Cincinnati Symphony, and is currently the orchestra's representative to the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, as well as Secretary of Local 1 of the American Federation of Musicians.

Paul Frankenfeld is married to violinist Kristin Frankenfeld, and tries to find time outside of raising their two children, Peter, 18 and Laura, 16, to swim and keep bees.

Bradford Buckley has been the contrabassoonist with the Saint Louis Symphony since 1968. Besides playing concerts, touring and recording with the Saint Louis Symphony, Buckley has lectured on the performance practice of the contrabassoon at the International Double Reed Society, and recorded with Greg Hennegar, contrabassoonist of the Boston Symphony, the Six Red Hot Duets for 2 Contrabassoons by noted American composer Donald Erb.

Mr. Buckley is the bassoon instructor at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as Chairman of the International Conference of Symphony Opera and Ballet musicians (ICSOM), Chairman of the ICSOM media committee, Vice President of Local 2-197 AFM in St. Louis, and as Co-chair of the National Endowment of the Arts orchestra panel. He is currently Chairman of the St. Louis Symphony Musicians Council.

David Patrick Stearns has been a Philadelphia Inquirer classical music critic and general arts writer for the past six years, having come there from a 17-year stint at USA Today, where he contributed to one of the original prototypes and worked as classical music and theater critic. His most formative years were spent at the now-defuncted Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union, 1977-83, where regularly heard and reviewed the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman as well as concerts at the Eastman School of Music featuring then faculty members such as the Cleveland Quartet, Jan DeGaetani and composer Warren Benson at their considerable artistic peaks.

In his freelance life, Stearns has contributed to publications from Cosmopolitan to Opera News, TV Guide to Gramophone, and has had ongoing relationships with Stereophile, BBC Music Magazine, The Independent (in London) and The Guardian (in Manchester). For six years, he was music commentator on NPR's Morning Edition program.

Stearns is originally from Sycamore, Illinois, holds a BA in journalism from Southern Illinois University, and, much more recently, earned a masters in musicology at New York University in 1996.

Bradford Buckley has been the contrabassoonist with the Saint Louis Symphony since 1968. Besides playing concerts, touring and recording with the Saint Louis Symphony, Buckley has lectured on the performance practice of the contrabassoon at the International Double Reed Society, and recorded with Greg Hennegar, contrabassoonist of the Boston Symphony, the Six Red Hot Duets for 2 Contrabassoons by noted American composer Donald Erb.

Mr. Buckley is the bassoon instructor at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as Chairman of the International Conference of Symphony Opera and Ballet musicians (ICSOM), Chairman of the ICSOM media committee, Vice President of Local 2-197 AFM in St. Louis, and as Co-chair of the National Endowment of the Arts orchestra panel. He is currently Chairman of the St. Louis Symphony Musicians Council.

David Patrick Stearns has been a Philadelphia Inquirer classical music critic and general arts writer for the past six years, having come there from a 17-year stint at USA Today, where he contributed to one of the original prototypes and worked as classical music and theater critic. His most formative years were spent at the now-defuncted Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union, 1977-83, where regularly heard and reviewed the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman as well as concerts at the Eastman School of Music featuring then faculty members such as the Cleveland Quartet, Jan DeGaetani and composer Warren Benson at their considerable artistic peaks.

In his freelance life, Stearns has contributed to publications from Cosmopolitan to Opera News, TV Guide to Gramophone, and has had ongoing relationships with Stereophile, BBC Music Magazine, The Independent (in London) and The Guardian (in Manchester). For six years, he was music commentator on NPR's Morning Edition program.

Stearns is originally from Sycamore, Illinois, holds a BA in journalism from Southern Illinois University, and, much more recently, earned a masters in musicology at New York University in 1996.

Violinist Fiona Simon, a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1985, made her Philharmonic solo debut in November 1989, performing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins. Ms. Simon began her career in her native England, where she studied with Szymon Goldberg and won major prizes in the Carl Flesch and Jacques Thibaud competitions. For three consecutive years, she was London’s Young Artist of the Year. She has performed with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, and the English Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has also been featured in many recitals and concerts broadcast over the BBC and has made numerous appearances throughout Europe. Ms. Simon is a member of the Arioso Trio, the Vanderspar String Trio, and the Simon String Quartet. She was married to the late New York Philharmonic violinist Richard Simon and has a son, Michael Paul, currently a junior at Brown University.