Discussion Panel

A member of the ICSOM Governing Board for one year and ICSOM Media Committee for three years, [b]Stephen Lester[/b] is a double bassist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , joining in 1978 after playing in the Milwaukee Symphony and the Chicago Lyric Opera. Active in committee representation since 1985, he has been Chairman of the CSO Members Committee and Negotiating Committee in recent years. Stephen teaches bass at Roosevelt University in Chicago (1979-present). He has two children, Andy, 25, living and working in Dallas, and Diana, 19, attending the University of Chicago. Stephen and his wife Rachel, a violinist in the CSO (and current ICSOM delegate) live in downtown Chicago, a short walk from Orchestra Hall.

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.

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.

Aaron A. Flagg was named dean of The Hartt School of the University of Hartford in March of 2009 by President Walter Harrison and Provost Lynn Pasquerella. As dean, he oversees a performing arts college for music, dance, and theatre with approximately 750 undergraduate and graduate students and 250 faculty and staff.

Originally from Baldwin Park, CA, Dr. Flagg is a professional trumpet player and received his undergraduate and master's degrees from The Juilliard School and his doctorate from the University of Michigan. His diverse experience includes concerto, recital, orchestral, and chamber music performances in classical, jazz, and new music.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Hartford, he was Executive Director of Music Conservatory of Westchester (2005-2009), a graduate faculty member and Director of Educational Outreach at The Juilliard School (2000-2005), and Director of the Jazz Studies program at the University of Connecticut (1999-2000).

As a trumpet player, Dr. Flagg has given concerto and other solo performances with orchestras, toured with chamber music groups, and performed numerous recitals. He has given master classes and recitals at Jackson State University and Fayetteville State University, and presented lectures at the Curtis Institute, Oberlin College, and Carnegie Hall.

His jazz performances include the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Music Outreach Jazz Ensemble, and the Aaron Flagg Quartet. He has toured with the Tania Leon's Son Sonora Ensemble; recorded with Roberta Flack and operatic soprano Barbara Conrad; and performed with the New York Philharmonic, Manhattan Virtuosi, Lansing Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Wynton Marsalis, Gladys Knight, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among others.

Dr. Flagg is currently a board member of the League of American Orchestras in New York. He has served on numerous grant panels and was New York Metro Area chapter chair for the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. He has been a consultant with arts presenting organizations and universities around the country, while also being a teaching artist for 15 years with organizations including the Lincoln Center Institute, Carnegie Hall Education, New York Philharmonic Education, Memphis Arts Council, Guggenheim Museum, and the New York City Opera. He was named a national spokesman for the Music Educators National Conference in Virginia in 1999 and received the Rising Star Award for Westchester's "Forty under Forty" in 2008.

Geneviève Cimon is Acting Director of Music Education at Canada’s National Arts Centre. At the NAC, she has been responsible for producing family and school programs as well as national education resources for teachers. For 2006-07, she will replace Claire Speed, and will assume overall responsibility for NAC education programs that comprise young artist training, teacher training, youth and family programming, community engagement, and music education advocacy on a national and international scale.

Geneviève holds degrees and certificates in Piano Performance and Musicology. She has taught music privately and in elementary schools, and has mentored music education students from McGill University teaching in inner city schools in Montreal.

Charles Burke is the Director of Education for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as the Artistic Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles. Under his direction, the DSO’s commitment to community engagement, high-caliber music training, and meaningful partnerships have grown and become one of the preeminent orchestral educational programs in the nation.

As an executive administrator, Burke leads a diverse array of innovative and cutting-edge programs - concert presentations, training programs and institutional partnerships. His efforts in music exposure have led to the popular DSO’s Young People’s Concerts, Tiny Tots, the DSO’s Educational Concert Series and Super Saturday’s at the Max. These programs regularly reach more than 50,000 students and families a year.

Burke also serves as the Artistic and Executive leadership for the DSO’s Civic Youth Ensembles, as it continues to serve as a leading supplemental music training program in the United States. Located in the Max M. Fisher’s Pincus Music Education, the Civic Youth Ensembles hosts more than 600 students per week in 10 ensembles and teaches young people in jazz, classical, chamber and wind ensemble with world-class artists. Past and future artists include Yo Yo Ma, Midori, Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis, Herbie Hancock and Peter Oundjian. Burke founded and administers ACES (the Association of Civic Ensembles), a separate non-profit parent organization that financially partners with the DSO to insure the growth of the programs.

As a conductor, Burke was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestras in 1999, a post he relinquished in 2006 to become Artistic Director. In 2000, Burke was the Music Director of the Lake St. Clair Symphony Orchestra in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Burke has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the 2001-2002 Educational Concert Series – attended by more than 16,000 children. Burke has served as a guest conductor, clinician and television educator - guest conducting the San Francisco Youth Symphony, the Interlochen High School Orchestra, the Detroit Chamber Strings, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, the United States Army Band, the United States Herald Trumpets, Wayne State Symphony Orchestra and appearing as musical host on the WTVS production of “Mozart, Math and Music” and Backstage Pass with the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestras.

Prior to his appointments with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Burke studied orchestral conducting at the University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan, Burke was appointed as Music Director of the Campus Symphony Orchestras as well as the Assistant Conductor of the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestras. Before his tenure at the University of Michigan, Burke was an active and sought-after guest conductor, adjudicator and clinician throughout his native Washington DC metropolitan area. Burke was the Music Director and founder of the Fairfax Chamber Orchestra, as well as a conducting and composition fellow at several international music festivals. In 1999, Burke served as a conducting fellow at the Oregon Bach Festival under Maestro Helmut Rilling.

The son of two professional musicians, Burke began playing piano at the age of five. At age nine, he made his professional debut with the title role of Amahl in Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. Burke began his conducting training at the age of seventeen and has continued his studies with Neeme Järvi, Kenneth Kiesler, Martin Katz, Anthony Maiello, Mallory Thompson, Harold Faberman and Daniel Lewis.

Mr. Burke’s work in music education earned a nomination for the National Sallie Mae Outstanding Teaching Award. Under Burke’s leadership, his collegiate instrumental and elementary choral performance groups have been received critical acclaim for their outstanding achievements. Mr. Burke holds degrees from West Virginia University and George Mason University.