Ms. Arania is considered a leading singer and choral conductor in her native country, Israel. She has performed extensively as a soloist in concert series and festivals with Israel’s leading orchestras such as: Israeli Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel’s Kibbutz Orchestra and many more. She has performed under the direction of Joseph Flumerfelt, Salvador Mas Conde, Thomas Vashari, Avner Itai, Doron Solomon, to name a few, and toured as a soloist with various Israeli ensembles in Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech republic, Hungary, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, and the United States.

Since arriving in the United States, she has performed in opera productions, recitals, and oratorio concerts, with orchestras such as the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Elgin Symphony, Lima Symphony, Chamber Bach Ensemble, The Callipygian Players, Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra, Ohio University Symphony Orchestra and more. Her performances included the leading roles in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, and many oratorio parts, such as in Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, and Psalm 42, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mass in C, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem, Faure’s Requiem, and Rutter’s Requiem. She also performed the American premier of Richard Blackford’s Mirror of Perfection, the world premier of Yeheskel Braun’s Qumodo Sedet Sola and the Illinois Premiere of Richard Danielpoor’s American Requiem. She recently had her Lincoln Center Debut as a soloist in Haydn’s Theresienmesse with Distinguished Concerts International Orchestra New York.

Ms. Arania has been a participant in the International Vocal Arts Institute’s Opera programs, taking place in Italy and in Israel, and has won prizes in singing competitions such as NATS, and the Bel Canto Foundation. She has also been the recipient of numerous scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, both in voice and in choral conducting. She recently received her Doctor of Music degree in Voice and Opera Performance from Northwestern University.

After holding part time lecturer positions at Northwestern University and North Park University, Ms. Arania is currently a full time Assistant Professor of Voice at Northern Illinois University, and is also a faculty member in the prestigious summer program for singers, V.O.I.C.Experience, (Disney World, Orlando) led by Mr. Sherrill Milnes. She is also an assistant conductor and a singer in the Lakeside Singers.

Stephen Boe received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Indiana University School of Music, where he served as assistant to Henryk Kowalski, Josef Gingold, and Franco Gulli.  Stephen subsequently joined the IU School of Music faculty as an Assistant Professor of Violin.  He has also been a member of the faculty of DePauw University and Ohio University.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Boe has performed in Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, as well as in venues throughout Europe, China, South America and the United States.  In 1991, he was awarded a prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.  From 1993 to 1995 Mr. Boe performed as an Artist in Residence for the National Endowment for the Arts.  He was also a founding member of the New Artists String Quartet and first violinist with the Brooks Unstrung Quartet.  In chamber music collaborations, Stephen has worked with the Ying and Lark Quartets. 

Mr. Boe has served as concertmaster for the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicagoland Pops, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic and the Indiana University Festival Orchestra.  In addition to serving as concertmaster, he has appeared as soloist with several of these ensembles.   

Stephen has given masterclasses at many festivals and music schools, including the Beijing Central Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in Sweden.  He has been a performer at numerous music festivals including Villa Musica in Germany, Festival Filarmonico in Ecuador, Sarasota Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and Indiana University summer festival.  Stephen has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and live broadcasts on KUNI and WFMT.  

Mr. Boe is currently on the Violin Faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago.

Born in Heredia, Costa Rica, Wagner Campos studied at Baylor University with Dr. Richard Shanley and at DePaul University with Larry Combs and John Yeh.  He performs regularly with groups such as the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Musicians, CSO MusicNow, The Callisto Ensemble, Ondas Ensemble, Broadway in Chicago and the Fulcrum Point Project.

His love for teaching has brought him to the faculties of the Costa Rican Youth Symphony, Colombian Youth Symphony, Chicago Merit Music Program, Lake Forest Academy, and the Sherwood Conservatory. He has given master classes in Bogota, Colombia; San Jose, Costa Rica; and in San Juan, Puerto Rico.   

As a guest artist outside Chicago, Wagner has participated in concerts with The   Milwaukee, Alabama, and Charleston Symphonies. He has toured with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra in different tours, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The New World Symphony, and The Galicia Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, he was invited to join the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for a full season as Principal Clarinetist.

In addition to his own recording, Romantic Songs for Clarinet and Piano, under the Southport Label, he has also recorded with The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and St. Charles Chamber Singers.  
Currently Wagner Campos serves as Clarinet and Chamber Music Instructor at DePaul University. 

Leslie Grimm is one of Chicagoland's most prominent freelance clarinetists and has worked as an extra player in all of the area’s great orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Grant Park Symphony, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Joffrey Ballet and the Chicago Philharmonic.

She has also performed and recorded with both the St. Louis Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras.   In Milwaukee, she held the second/E-flat clarinet contracts in both 1990 and 1991. Additionally, she participated in their East Coast tour including performances in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Leslie Grimm is active in local studio and commercial recording venues and has performed on television/radio commercials for such companies as United Airlines, McDonald's Corporation, General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, Kellogg, GTE, Allstate and Arthur Anderson.

Leslie holds her Masters degree from Northwestern, studying with Robert Marcellus and has been on the faculty of Northwestern University for thirteen years. Previously, she taught in Northern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

Leslie grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is an avid fan of the outdoors. She lives with her husband, son, and two stepchildren.

Gregory Maytan is a member of the Valparaiso University faculty and performs regularly as a soloist chamber and orchestral musician. Maytan has performed extensively in Europe and the US, playing about 50 recitals a year. Upcoming engagements include multiple performances of the Paganini Violin Concerto no 1 with orchestras in Nevada, Indiana, Sweden and China and participation in the prestigious chamber music festivals ‘Musikveckan’ in Junsele, Sweden and the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Schwarzwald, Germany.

Maytan’s recent CD, consisting of music from his native Scandinavia was lauded by the Classical Voice of North Carolina for its ‘great artistry’ and noted that the performance is ‘as polished as any listener could desire’. It was selected by The Strad is the top recital CD of April, 2009 and highly praised by Strings Magazine. Maytan was recently a semi-finalist in the Schadt competition in Pennsylvania.

He has participated in the International Chamber Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, where he was a featured prize winner and has placed and been awarded significant cash awards in the Swedish Royal Academy’s competition for post-graduate violinists during the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has performed and toured with numerous orchestras, and his concerts have been broadcast on radio and television in the U.S. and Europe. He has participated in masterclasses with Zakhar Bron, Leonidas Kavakos and Michela Martin.

He earned his doctorate in violin performance from the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, where he studied with the renowned violinists Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. Other teachers include Igor Petruschevski (London), Federico Agostini (Bloomington) and Alexander Kerr (Bloomington). He performs on a Stefano Scarampella violin from 1896.

Margaret Daly studied in Indiana University and in Freiburg, Germany. She is a member of the Lake Forest Symphony and principal cellist of Chamber Opera Chicago. She plays frequently with Chicago Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Grant Park Symphony. After completing her studies in Freiburg,Germany she also played in the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra in both symphonic repertoire and operas. Margaret has played in various chamber groups on WFMT and WBEZ in Chicago and on Public Radio stations in both Wisconsin and Kansas. She maintains a private teaching studio as well.

Karl Davies,a native of Wales,began his violin studies in Cardiff and London. He completed his studies in Freiburg, Germany,and went on to post-graduate work with Joseph Suk in Vienna. He has played in the Theater Orchestras in both Freiburg and Passau in Germany and is now a member of the Grant Park Symphony (violin) and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra where he plays viola. He is also a sought-after teacher of both instruments. Karl has performed in chamber settings both in live performance and on many radio stations around the country.

Mathias Tacke was the second violinist of the acclaimed Vermeer Quartet, Chicago from 1992 until 2007. He is Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Northern Illinois University and Guest Lecturer for String Chamber Music at Northwestern University. With the Vermeer Quartet Mathias Tacke gave performances in practically all of the most prestigious festivals, including Tanglewood, Taos, Ravinia, South Bank, Lucerne, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein and Edinburgh, to name a few. Three of the Vermeer Quartet recordings were nominated for the Grammy Award.

Mathias Tacke appears internationally as a soloist and chamber player, performing a wide range of repertoire from the Baroque to music of our time. A native of Germany, Mathias Tacke studied with Ernst Mayer-Schierning in Detmold, Germany, with Emanuel Hurwitz and David Takeno in London, and with Sandor Vegh in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. He won first prize in the German National Youth Competition and graduated from the Musikakademie Detmold, where he was later appointed to the faculty.

From 1983-1992 Mr.Tacke was a member of the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, one of the most important professional groups specializing in the performance of contemporary music. In this capacity he gave countless first performances, including works by most of today’s leading composers. He has made numerous recordings for such labels as Sony, ECM. Harmonia Mundi, Naxos and Cedille.

© Copyright 2008-2011, Beatriz Helguera Snow and Andrew Snow
Welcome and Background Photos by Elena Snow, Portraits by Jim Postillion