Randal Swiggum - Artistic Director and Youth Symphony Conductor

Celebrating his fifteenth season with the EYSO, Randal Swiggum has helped raise the profile of the EYSO as one of the premier regional youth orchestras in the country. Under his tenure, the EYSO has more than tripled in size, drawing students from a wide geographical range of over sixty communities in Illinois and Wisconsin, with five orchestras, a brass choir, a vibrant chamber music program and performances at Ravinia, on NPR's From the Top, and with superstars Midori and Yo Yo Ma, as well as headlining the Aberdeen International Festival in Scotland. A frequent guest conductor of orchestral and choral festivals, he recently conducted the Scottish National Youth Symphony in Glasgow, the APAC Festival Orchestra in Seoul, Korea, the first ever Pennsylvania ACDA/PMEA All-State Junior High Choir, the New York City InterSchool Festival, the Singapore American Schools Music Festival, the MENC All-Northwest Honor Choir in Portland, and American Mennonite Schools Orchestra Festival, the Northern Arizona Honors Orchestra, and both the Wisconsin Middle Level Honors Choir and Orchestra. In recent seasons, he conducted both the Illinois and Georgia All-State Orchestras.

Swiggum also serves as Education Conductor for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. His acclaimed young people's concerts with the ESO have prompted invitations to create and conduct similar concerts in Scotland, with the Boise Philharmonic, and The Florida Orchestra where his original concerts such as "Beethoven Superhero" and "The Amazing Technicolor Orchestra" have introduced literally thousands of young people to the wonder of symphonic music. In 2007, he made his subscription concert debut with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and "The Mambo Kings." In 2008 Swiggum was recognized by the Illinois Council of Orchestras with a Conductor of the Year award.

A passionate advocate for a richer learning experience in choir, band, and orchestra, Swiggum has served as Chair of the Wisconsin CMP (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance) Project, now in its 35th year. A frequent presenter at MENC, ASTA, and ACDA conferences, he has addressed the Pennsylvania MENC on "The Art of Rehearsing," as well as the Maryland MENC, the ACDA North Central Division in Des Moines and Eastern Division in Hartford, CT, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, and national conventions of the MENC in Phoenix and Kansas City. He has conducted successful performance tours to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Scotland, and throughout the U.S. His choirs performed throughout Italy under the auspices of UNESCO, in Brazil as guests of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Intercultura Brasil, and with the Icelandic National Symphony in Reykjavik under the direction of Lukas Foss. He conducted the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. In 2012, he led the EYSO Youth Symphony in an innovative Civil War tour which combined performances and travel throughout the South and East with in depth study of some of the "big ideas" of this significant American historical event. Well known to Wisconsin theatre audiences as a conductor of opera and musical theatre, he has music directed over thirty stage works including the 1991 premiere of the Theatre X opera, Liberace. He created the music for celebrated director Eric Simonsen's new production of Moby Dick for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, named by TIME magazine as one of the 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2002.

As a writer, Swiggum has served as music critic for the Milwaukee Journal, as author of the book Strategies for Teaching, published by MENC (1998), and as a co-author of Shaping Sound Musicians (GIA, 2003). He has served on the League of American Orchestra's Board of Directors-Youth Orchestra Division. He was Artistic Director of the Madison Children's Choir from 1996-2000, and currently conducts the Madison Boychoir's top two choirs, Britten and Holst. He has taught at Whitefish Bay High School (Milwaukee), and at the University of Wisconsin and Lawrence University. His degrees are in music education (B.M.) and orchestral conducting (M.M.) and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin

 

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David Anderson - Philharmonia Orchestra

June 2012 marked the end of a successful five-year tenure as the director of the EYSO Chamber Music Institute. In addition, he is the music director for the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra and conductor-in-residence at Beloit College.

A native of Clovis, New Mexico, David received his initial musical instruction on piano He attended Baylor University where he earned two degrees in piano performance (BM summa cum laude and MM with distinction). During his residence at Baylor, David performed extensively, receiving numerous awards. At the same time, he began conducting studies under the guidance of Stephen Heyde.

At the University of Illinois, David earned an MM in orchestral conducting with Donald Schleicher. He served as ensemble manager for the University of Illinois orchestra program and Assistant Conductor for the Quad City Symphony. He was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship for the 2006-07 academic year, which funded travel throughout the country to study with master conducting teachers. In 2006, he was a finalist for the Conductors Guild's prestigious Thelma A. Robinson award.

David has collaborated with soloists Midori, Rachel Barton Pine, Brant Taylor, Matthew Treviño, Timothy Ehlen, Rick Rowley, and the Chicago cast of The Jersey Boys. He has worked with the Quad City Symphony, the Fox River International Orchestra, the orchestras, opera, and new music ensemble of the University of Illinois, Baylor Symphony Orchestra, and the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra. He has given clinics for the orchestras of Olivet Nazarene University, District I Jr. High IMEA, NCJC (a Northern Illinois junior high honors orchestra), and numerous schools throughout the Chicago suburbs. David received additional instruction at workshops under the guidance of Larry Rachleff, Gustav Meier, Leonard Slatkin, Giancarlo Guerrero, Kenneth Kiesler, Victor Yampolsky, David Hoose, Christopher Zimmerman, Kenneth Woods, Emily Freeman Brown, and Peter Bay.

 

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Jason Flaks - Brass Choir

Jason Flaks begins his fifteenth season as Associate Conductor of the EYSO and conductor of the EYSO Brass Choir. Flaks, a native of Elgin, began playing trumpet at age ten and has been involved with youth orchestras since his high school days as a trumpet player with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the McHenry County Youth Orchestra. In high school and college, Flaks toured the U.S. and Europe with groups ranging in musical style from classical to punk rock and ska. He received his Bachelor's Degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and earned his Master's Degree in music education at Northwestern University in the summer of 2003. Flaks serves as Director of Bands at both Geneva Middle Schools and performs throughout the Chicago area as a free lance trumpet player. His previous teachers have included John Aley, Bruce Daugherty, William Scarlett, and James Thompson.

 

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Daniel Beder - Sinfonia

Daniel Beder joined the EYSO conducting staff in 2009 as the Prelude Orchestra conductor and then as founding conductor of Sinfonia. Originally from the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, he played cello in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, the largest youth orchestra program in the country. Daniel is a graduate of Oberlin College, where he earned degrees in music history and theory, as well as mathematics, and studied cello with Catharina Meints and conducting with Steven Smith. Later, as a graduate student at New York University, he served as Assistant Conductor for the NYU Symphony Orchestra. Daniel received his music education certification at UWMilwaukee, where he also studied conducting with Margery Deutsch. After teaching middle school orchestra in Naperville for four years, Daniel is returning to graduate school to pursue Masters degrees in conducting and music education at the University of Illinois.

 

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Andy Masters - Prelude Orchestra

Andy Masters now begins his second season leading the Prelude Orchestra. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Andy has enjoyed a diverse and unique musical background. He began playing violin at age nine and trumpet at age ten and completed four European tours with the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony and Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras before finishing high school. As a chorus member, he performed in Carnegie Hall with Kinderchor and in 2000 he was selected to perform with the National Youth Honors Orchestra in Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. Andy received a BM in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music with a double concentration in both violin and trumpet. At CCM, he performed with the Concert Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Jazz Lab Band, and Wind Symphony. He studied violin with Dr. Phil Baldwin, James McCullough, Constantine Kiradjieff and Anna Vaiman and trumpet with James Underwood, Alan Siebert, Rolff Holly, and Brad Goode. With his unique background Andy is very dedicated to helping young musicians make the most of their musical journey. Since 2004, he has served as orchestra director at Bell-Graham and Wasco Schools in the St. Charles Community Unit School District. He earned his Masters Degree in music education from Northwestern University in 2010. Besides teaching and making music, Andy is very passionate about cooking and gardening. He lives in North Aurora with his wife Jenny, also a violinist and orchestra director in Orland Park.

 

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Beth Mazur Wood - Primo Orchestra

Beth Mazur Wood was welcomed as the conductor of the Prelude Orchestra in 2004. She has worked with the Prelude or Primo Orchestras since that time and will continue as director of the Primo Orchestra for the 2012-2013 season. Beth is well known in the Elgin area -- indeed, she herself is an alumna of the EYSO, having played under previous conductors Elizabeth Prielozny, Colin Holman, and Robert Hanson. Beth studied violin with Betty Haag and later studied with Desiree Ruhstrat and Cyrus Forough. In addition to playing with the EYSO, she also sang with the Elgin Children's Chorus and was selected for the Elgin Community College Apprentice Program with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. She went on to receive degrees from ECC and Roosevelt University, where she was awarded the B.M. in Music Education. She has also completed a Master of Arts Degree in School Leadership from Concordia University. Beth's passion is working with young string players and she is especially gifted at assessing student playing from physical set-up and posture and translating it into good musicianship. She has served as Orchestra Director at Carpentersville Middle School since 2001. Beth resides Crystal Lake with her husband Brian, daughter Madeline and two dogs, where she is enjoying learning to garden and working on home improvement projects.

 

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JACQUELINE FISHER - Chamber Music Institute Director

Jacqueline Fisher is thrilled to begin her first season as Director of the Chamber Music Institute (CMI). Jackie began her violin studies at the age of 5 with Betty Haag-Kuhnke, and as member of the Performing Group at The Betty Haag Academy was able to participate in five tours to Europe, a concert at Carnegie Hall, and performed for many world dignitaries such as Pope John Paul 11, Princess Margaret and Oprah Winfrey. Mrs. Fisher then continued her studies at the University of Illinois with Catherine Tait and Peter Schaffer. She received her Bachelors and Masters of Music Performance from the University of Illinois, where she was one of only three undergraduate women in Fine and Applied Arts to receive the Smith Scholarship, and she won the concerto competition to perform with the Illini Symphony Orchestra. Upon graduation, Mrs. Fisher began teaching at the Betty Haag Academy and has been a member of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra since 1998. She has taught at numerous workshops in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and many of her students have gone on to become music educators and performers as well. Mrs. Fisher has been recognized twice by Who's Who Among American Teachers by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts.

 

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