Our Musicians

  ROBERT AULER - pianist
Robert Marshall Auler is Assistant Professor of Piano at the State University of New York at Oswego, and maintains an active national and international performing career. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in June of 2005 and recently presented a series of concerts throughout Venezuela, performing modern works of American and Venezuelan composers. As a winner of the Young Keyboard Artists’ Association Piano Prize, Auler presented concerts throughout Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark, receiving critical acclaim for his performance of Gershwin’s Concerto in F. He has also appeared in concert in New York, Detroit, Dallas, Syracuse, Indianapolis, Louisville, Santa Barbara, Rochester, Greensboro, Austin, and other cities. [Read More]
     
  KEITH BRAUTIGAM - baritone
Keith Brautigam joined the music faculty of Calvin College in 2003 as Professor of Music. A national and international performer, Dr. Brautigam made his Cleveland Orchestra debut singing the baritone solo in Orff’s Carmina Burana. He returned to Severance Hall in Cleveland as the baritone soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt. As an oratorio and concert soloist, Dr. Brautigam’s other credits include the Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem , Handel's Messiah, J. Ravel's Chanson Madecasses, Bach's Coffee Cantata, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Haydn's Creation at the historical Moody Church in Chicago, and performances with the Bach Festival at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. [Read More]
     
  MATTHEW DANIEL - tenor
Tenor MATTHEW DANIEL has been a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Chorus for 5 seasons. He has performed many opera roles, including Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in La Boheme, Hoffmann in Tales of Hoffmann, Canio in I Pagliacci, The Duke in Rigoletto, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and Triddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. His other opera credits include performances with Indiana Opera North, the Aspen Opera Theater (Colorado), Opera Lenawee and Opera Grand Rapids (Michigan), Light Opera Works (Illinois), and the Harrisburg Opera in Pennsylvania. [Read More]
     
  ZOFIA GLASHAUSER - violinist
Zofia Glashauser was born in the beautiful and historically-rich city of Krakow, Poland. She is an avid performer who has been a member of such groups as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as a fellowship scholar, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. She is currently the Concertmaster of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and the Lira Orchestra of Chicago, and is the Assistant Concertmaster of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra. She has worked under the batons of Daniel Barenboim, Claudio
Abbado, Sir Neville Marriner, Raymond Harvey, Tsung Yeh, Cliff Colnot, and many others. [Read More]
     
  RUDOLF HAKEN - violist
Rudolf Haken has been on the music faculty of the University of Illinois since 1996, having previously served as Viola Professor at West Virginia University. Professor Haken enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest and most versatile violists and composers of his generation, as well as a leading teacher and mentor for young musicians. Haken has performed under such renowned conductors as Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Neville Marriner. His European tours have received critical acclaim: the Badische Zeitung praised him for his “absolutely infallible intonation, intense concentration, and endless variety of interpretation,” while the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung lauded him for his “extroverted, resonant tone” and the “delicate, yet strong intensity” [Read More]
     
  KIMBERLY E. JONES - soprano
Soprano Kimberly Eileen Jones is an alum of the Ryan Opera Center with the prestigious Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her performances there include the slave girl, Margru, in the world premiere of Anthony Davis' Amistad, which was just released nationally on the New World label. She also portrayed the feisty Olga in Fedora, Princess Xenia in Boris Godunov, Pedro in Don Quichotte and the spitfire Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte. With the Ryan Opera Center, she portrayed Laetitia in Menotti's Old Maid and the Thief. Additionally, she made her Grant Park debut as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Adele (Die Fledermaus) the following season. Kimberly performed in Houston Grand Opera's colorful production of the Magic Flute (Papagena), and reprised her role of Xenia in Boris Godunov. Also with Houston, she participated in their production of Porgy and Bess, as Clara. [Read More]
     
  NANCY AMBROSE KING - oboe
Nancy Ambrose King is the first-prize winner of the Third New York International Competition for Solo Oboists, held in 1995. She has appeared as soloist throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances with the St. Petersburg, Russia, Philharmonic conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo, the Janacek Philharmonic in the Czech Republic conducted by Kimbo ISHII-ETO and Petr Vronsky, the Festival Internacionale de Musica Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina conducted by Dominique Fanal, the New York String Orchestra conducted by Alexander Schneider, the Sinfonia da Camera conducted by Ian Hobson, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony conducted by Catherine Comet, and at the American Academy of Music in Rome. [Read More]
     
  WILLIAM KING - clarinetist
William King is a clarinetist with the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra. He has performed and toured for ten years with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has played with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Phoenix Orchestra. He held tenured positions in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra where he was Principal Clarinet for four seasons, the Illinois Symphony, and the Sinfonia da Camera of the University of Illinois. He frequently performs with the orchestras of Windsor (Canada), Ann Arbor and Flint, Michigan, and is Principal Clarinet with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. He has appeared as soloist with the Sinfonia da Camera, (Champaign), the Prairie Ensemble (Urbana), the Millikin Symphony Orchestra (Decatur), [Read More]
     
  NICOLAS ORBOVICH - violinist
Nicolas Paul Orbovich is fast becoming one of the American Mid-West’s most recognizable and sought-after violinists. His highly acclaimed career spans a wide variety of musical styles and genres, while expanding into prolific artistic entrepreneurial endeavors. As a performer, Nic has been honored widely. In 1987, he was awarded the Bronze Medal at Her Royal Majesty’s International Festival Competition in Aberdeen, Scotland (UK). Orbovich was also a semi-finalist at the 1995 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Amherst String Quartet. More recently, in 2001, he was featured as a soloist on the Grammy Award nominated release, “The Hot Springs Music Festival: Louis Moreau Gottschalk” (Naxos). [Read More]
     
  SUNNY GARDNER-ORBOVICH - director of educational programs
Sunny enjoys a growing reputation as one of Northwest Indiana’s most respected artistic pedagogues for children. She has developed a unique general curriculum of arts education which includes cultural diversity, world and natural history, folk idioms and ideas and disciplines from the most current educational research minds. Currently, “Mrs. G.O.” (as she is affectionately called by her students) is an Art Teacher in the Michigan City Area Schools Systems. Her artistic and musical experience, however, go far beyond the conventional limitations of public schools. [Read More]
     
  DAVID PESHLAKAI - cellist
David Peshlakai is a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and is principal cellist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. He has served as principal cellist with many orchestras across the state of Michigan including those in Detroit, Jackson, Lansing, Flint and Battle Creek as well as in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Iowa. He has been a soloist with the Jackson, Battle Creek and Michigan State University Symphony Orchestras as well as with the Hillsdale and Albion College Orchestras. In England, he performed with the Arlington String Quartet, giving thirty concerts in a four-week tour. [Read More]
     
  GABRIEL SCHLAFFER - violist
Gabriel Schlaffer graduated from the New England Conservatory with a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance in 2002, and recently finished his Master of Music degree at DePaul University. Currently in his fourth season as Principal Violist with the South Bend and Rockford Symphonies, he has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Elgin, Northwest Indiana, and New World Symphonies. His chamber music activities include performances with the Callisto & Nagaokakyo Ensembles, the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, and recitals in Boston, Chicago, and Nagoya, Japan principally as Violist, but he doubles skillfully on the violin as well. [Read More]