at First United Church
848 Lake Street, Oak Park, Il.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concert No. 1

Mio Nakamura

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6

Jay Friedman, conductor

Pre-concert Conversations: with Jack Zimmerman

begins at 3:00 P.M. and concert seating begins at 3:30 P.M.

Single tickets may be purchased at the box office on concert day. Adult tickets are $20, senior and college students are $15, and children through high school age are free.

Charles Pikler joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a violinist in 1978 and, in 1986, he was named principal violist. The Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest is very proud to welcome Mr. Pikler as the orchestra's new concertmaster.

Charlie studied the piano with his parents and violin with Ben Ornstein, Bronislaw Gimpel at the University of Connecticut, and Roman Totenberg at the Tanglewood Young Artist Program at the Berkshire Music Center. He appeared as soloist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, and Manchester Civic Orchestra, among others. He holds a degree in mathematics with distinct honors from the University of Minnesota.

He launched his career as a violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra in 1971, later becoming a member of the Cleveland Orchestra (1974 to 1976) and the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1976 to 1978).

He has been featured as a soloist with the CSO, as well as with other orchestras in the Chicago area. Additionally, he has also been soloist with the Kingsport Tennessee Symphony, Orchestra of the Pines in Nacogdoches, Texas, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra

The Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest has several string internships available for qualified young musicians. Students in junior high through college may apply.

Interns will have the opportunity to play alongside well-accomplished amateur and professional musicians and learn exciting pieces from the standard repertoire as well as innovative new works. In addition, interns will be featured in the symphony program/ad book which will be distributed at each concert. A $600 stipend will be given to each intern at the end of the symphony season.

Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings, 7:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M., September through April in the bandroom at Concordia University.

To schedule an internship audition or for more information please e-mail bhgavriel@aol.com or call 708-218-2648.

We hope you will join us for Conversations and meet our new pre-concert speaker - raconteur, author, musicologist and a manager for Lyric Opera - Jack Zimmerman. Jack's lively and informative talks will begin at 3:00 P.M. and end at approximately 3:30 P.M.

Jack Zimmerman grew up on the Southwest Side of Chicago and graduated from the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He spent four years in the Navy during the Vietnam War and has worked as a college instructor, piano tuner, newspaper columnist, Ravinia PR man, and was a trombone player on WGN's Bozo's Circus. For the past seven years he has worked as the subscriber relations manager of Lyric Opera of Chicago. His novel Gods of the Andes was published in September and a collection of his newspaper columns, 10,000 Years in the Suburbs, was published in 1994. Jack lives in Chicago with his wife, Charlene, Lyric Opera's principal clarinetist and they have two grown sons.

Special Note: There will not be a pre-concert talk at the Family Concert on January 20, 2008.

The Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest is delighted to welcome Philip Blum to our orchestra as our new principal cellist. Mr. Blum first played with our orchestra when he was in high school.

Phil was born into a family of musicians in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. Music has always been an integral part of his life. His first lessons came from his father, Carl, who taught music at Lane Technical High School, where he also influenced many other future Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians.

As a child, Philip was exposed to a full range of chamber music by playing in the family string quartet with his parents and older brother, Richard, who went on to become the violist of the Pro Arte String Quartet. By high school, Philip was immersed in orchestral playing, performing as soloist and principal cello with the Lane Tech Orchestra, Chicago Youth Orchestra, Oak Park Civic Symphony, and North Side Symphony, as well as performing as soloist with the CSO at the Youth Concerts.

He attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He played in the Rochester Philharmonic and later played cello and cornet in the U.S. Marine Band for three years. Returning to Chicago, he was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1955 by Fritz Reiner.

I have had the opportunity to hear a number of performances by the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest -- and quite frankly, I have found the high level of musical quality to be astonishing. Very rarely in a suburban community orchestra does one encounter the level of professionalism displayed by this ensemble. Under Jay Friedman's dynamic leadership the orchestra has tackled major challenges and brought them off stunningly. Music lovers in the Oak Park River Forest area, and in any of the western suburbs of Chicago, are extremely fortunate to have this musical resource in their midst. Those who have yet to experience it should take their first opportunity to do so. They will be amply rewarded -- even thrilled -- by what they hear.

Henry Fogel
President , American Symphony League
Former President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The mission of the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest is three-fold:

To provide the opportunity for orchestral and vocal musicians to perform symphonic works together at the highest possible level of artistry.

To provide the opportunity for all of the members of our diverse local community to experience symphonic music in live performances of high quality.

To foster the appreciation, understanding, and enjoyment of symphonic music by present and future generations.