String quartet to play international folk music concert in Elgin
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra Family Concert Series will present The Pidluski String Quartet, featuring Eric Pidluski and Jen Leckie, violin, Loretta Gillespie, viola and Sara Sitzer, cello, at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at the Gail Borden Public Library, Meadows Community Room, 270 N. Grove Ave., Elgin.
The quartet will play works from folk music traditions of Central America, Africa, Asia and more. Through performance and interactive demonstrations, they will explore the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic properties that make each musical tradition unique. Before the concert at 1 p.m., families are invited to the Musical Instrument Petting Zoo. Meet the artists and enjoy refreshments after the concert.
The concerts are presented in partnership with the Gail Borden Public Library. Free tickets are available at the Main Library and the Rakow Branch. For information, contact the library at (847) 742-2411.
About the musicians
• Eric Pidluski is a native of Fairfield, Connecticut, where he began playing the violin at age 9. He is currently a member of the first violin sections of Elgin and Rockford Symphonies. He has performed with Chicago Opera Theater, Illinois Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Chicago Q Ensemble. He attended the DePaul University School of Music, where he received a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a certificate in violin performance. His principal teachers include Olga Kaler and Mark Zinger.
• Violinist Jennifer Leckie is concertmaster of the Danville Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Grant Street String Quartet and has performed with the Milwaukee and Albany Symphonies, and Promusica Chamber Orchestra. Leckie holds a doctor of musical arts degree from Rutgers University where she studied with Arnold Steinhardt. She obtained bachelors and master's degrees from Mannes College of Music. Leckie teaches private lessons at Downers Grove North and South High Schools and gives chamber music coachings and master classes with the Grant Street Quartet.
• Loretta Gillespie was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She began playing the viola at the age of 10 when her elementary school started a strings program. Not wanting to carry a cello or bass three blocks to school every day and thinking everyone would choose the violin, she chose the viola. She did not know what a viola was. Gillespie has a degree in music performance from Northern Illinois University where she studied with Richard Young of the Vermeer Quartet. After graduating, she completed a two-year internship with the Houston Symphony. She then moved to Louisiana where she played with the Shreveport Symphony for three years. Since 1997, Gillespie has been freelancing in the Chicago area. She enjoys the variety of work including playing assistant principal viola in the Elgin Symphony and playing musicals in downtown Chicago and Aurora. Away from her viola. Gillespie enjoys researching her family tree.
• Sara Sitzer, an active and versatile freelance cellist in Chicago, is a member of Chicago Q Ensemble and the Elgin Symphony, principal cellist of the Elmhurst Symphony, and also performs regularly with orchestras and ensembles including the Milwaukee Symphony, Firebird Chamber Orchestra, New Millennium Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Picosa. Sitzer is founding Artistic Director of the Gesher Music Festival in St. Louis, Missouri, and founding Co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music on the Fox in Elgin. She holds performance degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Boston University, and completed a three-year fellowship with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
For information on the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, visit www.elginsymphony.org/.