Raquel Winnica YOung

Raquel Winnica Young was a finalist of the Vocal Art Song Discovery Series DC, two-time winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Artist Competition and a finalist for The American Prize in Art Song and Oratorio. Her career has taken her to concert halls and opera houses across the Americas and Europe such as Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, Teatro Nacional Sucre of Quito, Severance Hall (Cleveland), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Casa da Música (Porto), Teatro Comunale Claudio Abbado (Ferrara). As a soloist of oratorio and chamber music Raquel has also participated in major international festivals, like Bach Festival in (Lausanne),  Festival Martha Argerich,  (Buenos Aires),  Festival Llao Llao,  (Río Negro),  Festival Camino de las Estancias, (Córdoba) ; and closer to home at the Strings Music Festival, (Steamboat), Colorado. In the US, she appeared in concert with Chatham Baroque, The Newberry Consort, The Rose Ensemble, and Apollo’s Fire. She recently appeared in an online project about the life and music of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz with Les Délices, a baroque ensemble from Cleveland. Born in Córdoba, Argentina, Ms. Winnica Young holds a degree from the Instituto de Arte del Teatro Colon and an Artist Diploma from Duquesne University. She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Advance Studies in Theatre through Universidad Nacional La Rioja UNIR. Ms. Winnica Young is Adjunct Faculty in Voice at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Applied Voice and Vocal Repertoire and Literature. She resides in Pittsburgh with her husband Lenny Young and their dog Luna.

charles gorczynski

Minneapolis-based composer and bandoneonist Charles Gorczynski works in contemporary tango, new music, and studio production. He leads the acclaimed modern tango outfit Redwood Tango Ensemble as well as Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet, Twin Cities Tango Collective, and his studio project IVYASA. Charles is an established musician and community organizer with a distinct voice in creative new music, stemming from an upbringing in jazz/improvised music and decades of tango composition and performance. His projects Redwood Tango Ensemble and Colorlist have toured extensively in North America and Europe, playing up to 100+ performances annually and producing original contemporary tango records. Charles has premiered compositions with Chamber Music Northwest Festival and Intermusic SF, where he was twice awarded grants commissioning new work for a tango chamber ensemble. He has collaborated, recorded, and toured with many international tango projects, including Mariano Barreiro Tango Trio, Tango BC Quartet, Alejandro Ziegler Cuarteto, Maxi Larrea Trio, Maldito Tango, and Los Tangueros Del Oeste. On the production side, Charles is a Latin Grammy-nominated mixing engineer who has produced or contributed to more than 100 albums. He licenses and composes bespoke music for various media, and has worked with record labels Serein Records, Ropeadope, 482 Music, and Front Forty Press. Charles manages Caverns Records as a hub for his music, a small label to cultivate and catalog new visions of instrumental music with no stylistic restriction.

Dr. Jaime Gorgojo, Violin I

Dr. Jaime Gorgojo frequently appears as a soloist and chamber musician both nationally and internationally. Recent appearances include recitals at the Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Grand Teton Music Festival, Strathmore Hall in Washington DC, and Chicago Symphony Presents Chamber Music, solo and alongside artists like Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax. Dr. Gorgojo is a 2018 recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago to produce the recording of an album titled “Iberia,” featuring Spanish and Georgian music for violin and piano.

Dr. Gorgojo is a Violin and Chamber Music Professor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival, a prestigious summer program for young talented musicians, currently in its ninth season. Dr. Gorgojo is a member of the Metropolis Oboe Quartet, The Chicago Ensemble, and the Metropolis String Quartet and frequently appears as guest concertmaster with orchestras in Illinois. He was concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2010 - 2012 and since 2018 he joins the Haymarket Opera Company. Dr. Gorgojo holds a Doctorate of Music Literature and Performance from Indiana University where he graduated with a thesis on the works for solo violin by Manuel Quiroga and Jesús de Monasterio. Dr. Gorgojo performs on a Pierre Dalphin violin in 2005.

James Sanders, Violin II

The son of a Dominican mother and U.S.-born father, violinist James Sanders grew up in an ethnically-mixed Chicago neighborhood. He began violin studies at the age of 7, attended DePauw University on a full scholarship, and eventually studied with Sidney Harth at the Yale School of Music, earning a Master’s Degree in Performance. He joined the Chicago Sinfonietta in 1993. He has also performed as a member of several other orchestras and ensembles across the region, including the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Black Music Repertory Ensemble, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Joffrey Ballet. In 2004, Sanders was a featured soloist on the Sinfonietta’s Chicago premiere of Chris Brubeck’s Interplay. 

In addition to classical music, Sanders has a parallel career as an in-demand jazz violinist. He formed the James Sanders Trio in 1990 and then created the highly-regarded Latin jazz ensemble Conjunto in 2002, which he continues to lead. In 2011, a special expanded edition of Conjunto headlined at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion before an audience of nearly 10,000. James has recorded and performed internationally with such notable musicians as Kahil El-Zabar, Dee Alexander, Harrison Bankhead, Alfonso Ponticelli, and more, performing at prestigious festivals in Poland, France, Italy, Brazil, and Chicago. He has released four CDs on Amadeo Records, including 2013’s critically-acclaimed Blue Violin, which was a Top 10 most-played record on nearly 100 jazz radio stations in the United States and Canada.

James Sanders is married to fellow violinist Tamara Glassburg. Their son, Robert, is also a violinist and is currently participating in the Vienna Philharmonic Academy program. In addition to his performance activity, Sanders teaches and coordinates Middle School String Education in School District 25 Arlington Heights, Illinois. 

Jeff Yang, Viola

Jeff Yang is a multi-instrumentalist hailing originally from Taiwan. He has performed as the violin and recorder soloist for the band Mannheim Steamroller and was the first violinist for Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues for ten years and can be seen all around Chicago in various ensembles and orchestras. Yang is currently the artistic director for In the Realm of Senses arts organization and president of the Chicago Strings violin shop in Evanston. He has served as concertmaster for the New Millennium Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Spoleto Opera, and Emerald City Philharmonic and holds bachelor's degrees in music, arts, and industrial engineering from the University of Washington, master of music from Northwestern, and a Performance Certificate from DePaul.

Matthew Agnew, Cello

Matthew Agnew studied Suzuki cello from age four with Marilyn Kesler in Okemos, Michigan. In High School, he had the benefit of orchestra instruction and guidance from Shirley Mullins, a Janos Starker student, and cello instruction from Jane Katsuyama of the Dayton Philharmonic. He attended DePaul University on scholarship and studied with William Cernota from the Lyric Opera Orchestra. In 2001 he won second place at the Lansing Matinee Musicale Richardson Awards.

Matthew is the principal cellist of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2002. Since that time he has also served as principal cellist for dozens of Chicago Opera Theater performances, including many Chicago premiers. For nearly a decade, ending in 2019, he was the principal cellist for the Joffrey Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” each December. He frequently performs with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra as principal or assistant principal, and in 2005 he was awarded the assistant principal position with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, a summer festival orchestra in Lancaster, Ohio. He can be found on recordings made by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, and Music of the Baroque.

As a soloist, Matthew has been performing concertos since high school, when he premiered a cello concerto composed by his father at the Dayton Art Institute. Since then he has had the privilege of soloing often with the Elgin Symphony, including concertos by Haydn and Vivaldi, and the Crouching Tiger cello concerto by Tan Dun. In February 2020 he performed the Saint-Saens cello concerto with the Fox Valley Orchestra. He has also appeared in recitals throughout the Chicago area and conducted masterclasses for the Elgin Symphony, The New Music School, and most recently North Park University. In 2020 he joined the Metropolis String Quartet, performing a unique mix of classical music, pop, and jazz concerts throughout Chicago.

Matthew is the father of three boys, who keep him very busy when he is not playing the cello. In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar and making music with his kids.

Christian Dillingham, Bass

Grammy award-winning bassist Christian Dillingham is a rare musician who excels in both the classical and jazz worlds. Dillingham studied at Youngstown State University under the instruction of Tony Leonardi in jazz studies. He continued at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, working with Jeffrey Turner and receiving a master’s degree in classical studies.

Dillingham enjoys crossing genres and has performed with the Lyric Opera, the Grant Park Symphony, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Chicago Opera Theatre, and is a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Chicago Philharmonic. Dillingham has performed throughout the world and appears regularly at Chicago venues such as the Jazz Showcase, Constellation Chicago, the Hungry Brain, as well as the Chicago Jazz Festival. He has performed with dozens of celebrated musicians, including Herlin Riley, Peter Bernstein, Kevin Mahogany, Willie Pickens, Dee Alexander, Victor Goines, Bobby Broom, Sean Jones, Greg Ward, and Mike Reed. As a recording artist, Dillingham has recorded with a wide range of artists including Kirk Franklin, John Legend, and Ledisi, among others.

Kit Bridges, Pianist

Kit Bridges, one of the most popular pianists in the Chicago area, has performed in every major concert venue, including recital series at the Chicago Cultural Center, Grant Park, Steinway Hall, and the University of Chicago, and broadcasts on NPR, WFMT, and PBS. Bridges grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, where he had his public debut at age 15 playing Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. After lessons at Texas Christian University with the legendary Mozart interpreter Lili Kraus, Bridges continued his studies with Gui Mombaerts at Northwestern University where he received a doctorate in piano performance in 1986. Bridges' doctoral thesis, A Cognitively Oriented Concept of Piano Technic, was published in 1985. An expert in the Viennese classicists, Bridges won the Schubert Prize in the International Piano Recording Competition in 1979. In 1988 he was a finalist in the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Competition and had his Chicago solo debut at Orchestra Hall in 1993, in a recital consisting of music by 20th Century Russian composers. As a collaborative artist, Bridges has performed with Chicago's finest instrumentalists and singers and was long the official accompanist for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions held yearly at Symphony Center. As a member of the Seitz-Bridges piano duo, Bridges has appeared around the country in recitals with repertoire ranging from Bach to Bernstein. Bridges collaborated with French hornist Kathryn Ann Buss on a recorded anthology of piano-French horn repertoire for Catalyst Recordings and has performed across the country with such artists as Bruce Tammen, Virginia Croskery, Suzanne Mentzer, and Samuel Ramey. In addition to his performance career, Bridges has been a member of the music faculties of North Park University and DePaul University. Bridges currently maintains a private music studio in Evanston.