ACO Musicians 

Recognized as one of the Midwest’s best young ensembles, ACO has been thrilling audiences in the Chicago area for the last two years.  ACO earned its reputation by bringing youthful energy and enthusiasm to diverse concert venues throughout the Chicago area. The foundation of ACO’s season is the Masterworks Concert Series, with subscription performances in Hinsdale and Naperville, IL.  This series includes works from all musical periods and styles, with a special emphasis on the Baroque period.

Sally Chisholm, violist of the Pro Arte Quartet and Professor of Viola at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has had an extensive career in chamber music. As a founding member of the Thouvenel Quartet of Texas, Ms. Chisholm toured Europe, China and Tibet. Internationally known for its commissioning of great American composers, including Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Ernst Krenek and Mel Powell, the Thouvenel won first prize at the Weiner International Chamber Music Competition, was a finalist of New York's Naumberg Competition, and performed on NBC's TODAY Show. Since joining the Pro Arte in 1991, Ms. Chisholm has performed at the Warsaw Conservatory in Poland, was a juror at the Tadeusz Wronski Solo Violin Competition in Warsaw, performed at the XXIII International Viola Congress, and has been featured on five CD's, including Piano Quartets by Beethoven, Faure, Mahler, Schumann, and Strauss, the Trauermusik for Viola and Orchestra by Hindemith, and the Beethoven Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola. She performs annually in the Festival Der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland and is a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, whose collaborating artists include members of the Juilliard String Quartet and musicians from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has given masterclasses at the San Francisco Conservatory, performed for the Louis Krasner Memorial Concert at Jordan Hall in Boston with artists Felix Galimir, Young-Nam Kim, Samuel Rhodes, Joel Krosnick and Gilbert Kalish, and gave the world premiere of the Andrew Imbrie Piano Quartet with Bonnie Hampton, Nathan Schwarz and Young-Nam Kim.

David Perry, violin,  joined the Pro Arte Quartet and the UW-Madison faculty in 1995, and was granted a Paul Collins Endowed Professorship in 2003. Concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Chicago Philharmonic, Professor Perry has frequently served as guest concertmaster of such groups as the China National Symphony Orchestra (Beijing), the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the American Sinfonietta. He has been active since the late 1980s with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He may be heard on many of the Deutsche Grammophon recordings and has performed, often as concertmaster, in Carnegie Hall and most of the major cultural centers of North and South America, Europe and the Far East. Other recordings include solo performances of Mendelssohn and Sarasate on the Sonos and Sonari labels and numerous Pro Arte releases.

A 1985 U. S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, his first prizes have included the International D'Angelo Competition, National MTNA Auditions, and the Juilliard Concerto Competition. Professor Perry has soloed with numerous orchestras in the U. S. and abroad, including the symphony orchestras of St. Louis and Chicago. Four years ago he became a founding member of the Aspen Ensemble, a quintet of faculty artists of the Aspen Music Festival, which regularly tours the U. S. and Japan. A native of Illinois, his early training was with John Kendall and Almita Vamos, followed by studies with Dorothy DeLay, Paul Kantor, and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School.

Roxana Pavel

Guest Artists

Sally Chisholm, Viola

David Perrry, Violin

Mary Stolper, Flute

Andrews University Choir

Grace Chamber Singers