General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

The career of violinist Edita Orlinyte reflects the intense training and performance experience she received in her native Lithuania, which reinforced her distinguished gifts as a musician. At the age of 10 she won first prize at the national Lithuanian competition for young string players, and later was a prizewinner in the Lithuanian Music Academy Mozart Contest. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the Music Academy of Lithuania in her native city of Vilnius. Her studies there were comprehensive and included piano instruction as well as thorough training in every aspect of violin playing: as soloist, chamber musician and orchestra member.

In 1989 she became a member of the State Symphony Orchestra and then was invited to join the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in 1992 with tours throughout Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. She gave solo recitals in Lithuania and appeared as soloist with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as well as the Austrian International Symphony. In addition to many solo appearances with chamber orchestras, she was a member of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra with tours throughout Europe and in Greece. Her performances with them and the St. Petersburg Camerata were recorded by SONY records. She performed regularly with the Music Academy String Quartet, toured in Europe and was heard frequently on Lithuanian Radio and TV in the solo, chamber musician and orchestra repertoire. In 1996 Edita came to the United States to study with the world-renowned violinist, Albert Markov. Her American activities have included appearing as soloist with the Central Jersey Symphony Orchestra, with recitals in New York, Chicago and Boston. She served as concertmaster of the Connecticut Festival of Sacred Music, and performed with the New England Bach Soloists and the Lumina String Quartet. Other orchestral appearances have been with the Fairfield Symphony Orchestra, the New England Orchestra, the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and the Ridgefield Symphony. In between her American concerts she continued performing tours in Europe and recorded her solo album, which was released in 2007. Currently she is a member of the Greenwich Symphony.

Li-Pi Hsieh, pianist, was born in Taiwan. While on concert tour in the Orient, renowned American pianist Richard Goode heard her play and suggested that she come to New York, where she continued her studies with him. Ms. Hsieh also studied with other famous pianists Claude Frank and Peter Serkin, and chamber music with Felix Galimir and Klaus Adam. Ms. Hsieh has performed both as a soloist and in chamber music groups in America, Canada, Europe and Asia. She has also collaborated with Cassatt, Manhattan, and Sequoia String Quartets, as well as with such artists as Cho-Liang Lin and Aaron Rosand. Her recordings include interpretations of the sonatas of Beethoven, Brahams, and Debussy with German violinist Wolfram Konig. She has participated in festivals in Ost-Friesland, Germany and Norfolk, Connecticut, and in the Arkandor festival in Bras d'Or, Nova Scotia. Ms. Hsieh has taught piano at Mt. Holyoke College, Smith College, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Ms. Hsieh currently resides in Stamford, Connecticut, where she conducts piano classes at her studio between concert appearances.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

Christiane Klonz, a concert pianist and composer, resides in a small village beside Plauer Lake in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. She began her studies at the Parchim Music School and continued at the Rudolf Wagner-Régeny Conservatoire in Rostock (under music director Walther Heinecke-Oertel and Karl-Heinz Will), and later at the Hanns Eichler Academy of Music in Berlin (under Juergen Schroeder) where she graduated with high honors. Ms. Klonz further developed her technique in master classes and studies with such noted professors as Justus Franz (Hamburg), Walter Blankenheim (Saarbruecken), Amadeus Webersinke (Dresden) and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling (Hannover).

In 1985, Ms. Klonz was awarded a diploma in the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, and in 1987 the gold medal. In 1996, she was awarded a one-year artist's scholarship by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, being the first pianist to receive this distinction. For her commitment and creative contribution to cultural life, Ms. Klonz was awarded the 2004 Art and Culture Prize of the Rural District of Parchim, and the following year was named a Steinway Artist.

Recordings of works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Chopin, Liszt and Shostakovich are evidence of her ability to give convincing interpretations in different historical periods and styles. In addition to her memorable presentations of major repertoire, Ms. Klonz's creative gifts also manifest themselves in her own compositions. In Germany, she has been commissioned for radio and television, and various programs of her performances have been broadcast on German radio.

Since 1992, Ms. Klonz has performed regularly in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Summer Festival, as well as the 2003 MusikSommer Star Guest series. Her tours have taken her to Austria, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, North Korea and Cyprus. She has also appeared with such notable orchestras as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonia and the New Elbland Philharmonia. .

Ms. Klonz is a faculty member at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 38, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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David Thye, Principal Conductor-in-Residence with MidAmerica Productions in New York City, is a passionate conductor, educator, lecturer and clinician. With over 30 years of leadership experience in music, Mr. Thye has conducted and managed numerous music and drama organizations, from elementary to high school, university to adults, and community to professional ensembles-encompassing such varied genres as jazz, symphonic works, musical theatre, opera and oratorio. After having earned his undergraduate degree in music education and voice from the University of Sioux Falls, he began his teaching career as a public school choral director. By 1992, he had earned both a master's and doctoral degree in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Under his direction, various high school, collegiate and professional choral organizations have been selected to perform in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City, in Los Angeles with the Young American's National Invitational Choral Festival, for the State Music Educators and ACDAs of Kansas, South Dakota, Montana and Arizona, and for the MENC North Central Convention. In recognition of his outstanding success, the University of Sioux Falls presented him with its Alumni Pacesetter Award. Before coming to MidAmerica Productions, Mr. Thye was founder of the Southwestern College Music Department in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was professor of music, director of choral activities, and music department chairman until 2005. Additionally, he taught at both the University of Montana in Missoula and the University of Sioux Falls. In addition to his work at MidAmerica Productions, Mr. Thye is the Robert L. Burton Chair of Graduate Conducting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and chorus master of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Giselle Elgarresta Rios is director of choral and vocal studies at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She has earned her degrees from the University of Miami with a master's degree in vocal performance, and a doctorate in choral conducting under the guidance of Lee Kjelson, Donald Oglesby, Robert Gower, and Jo-Michael Scheibe. Additional studies include: American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria; Salzburg Music Program, Salzburg, Austria; Corso Internazionale di Musica Antica, Urbino, Italy; and Conservatorio di Musica, L'Aquila, Italy. Ms. Rios has performed throughout Europe and the United States as a soprano soloist and conductor. Her most recent conducting engagements include Carnegie Hall, Notre Dame Cathedral and Eglise Madeleine in Paris, and venues in Italy. For the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Rios was appointed guest conductor and vocal instructor for the Corale Novantavove in L'Aquila, Italy. She continues to perform as a soloist and serves the South Florida community as a voice clinician and choral consultant.

Conductor Mark Deakins' professional experiences, while widely varied, have focused primarily on conducting and church music. As a music minister, he has ministered to churches in Indiana and Ohio building large church music programs. Mr. Deakins is the College/University Chair for District 8 of the Kentucky Music Educators Association and serves as the host of the District 8 festival choruses and all-state chorus and string auditions for Eastern Kentucky. He has served the past 15 years as a church music consultant for Berean Christian Store in Canton, Ohio, selecting choral music, presenting seasonal music workshops, and hosting the "Choral Music Celebration" which brings together top Christian music publishers in America. Since 1989, he has served as a music educator at Kentucky Christian University, building a choral program that has a national reputation for excellence. Among the numerous accomplishments in the choral field, the KCU Concert Choir has performed 5 times in Carnegie Hall-twice under the baton of composer and conductor John Rutter and three times Mr. Deakins. He was guest conductor in Carnegie Hall with MidAmerica Productions in a performance of Duruflé's Requiem in April, 1999, and Vivaldi's Gloria in April, 2002. In April, 2004, the KCU Concert Choir performed at the International Choral Festival (Corhabana) in Havana, Cuba. Mr. Deakins has prepared the Concert Choir for performances with the West Virginia Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and as back-up vocalists for Judy Collins' Christmas Concert.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

A native of Sterling, Illinois, Margaret Cornils began piano lessons at the age of five and flute at the age of seven. She received her masters degree from Northern Illinois University in flute performance and was a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota. Her teachers have included the late Geoffrey Gilbert (teacher of Galway, Wye and Bennett), Tadeu Coelho, Immanuel Davis, the late Charles Delaney, Mary Louise Poor, Gale Coffee, the late Jacob Berg and Peter Middleton. She has been fortunate to have also performed with such notable artists as Garrison Keillor, Anne Murray, Isaac Stern and Mstislav Rostropovich. She has judged flute contests for many years including the International Young Artist Competition for the National Flute Association.

Currently a flute professor at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, she is also a published and recorded composer as well as a professional piano accompanist. She has a flute CD entitled The Voice Outside.

Pianist Maho Nabeshima has given solo and chamber music recitals in Japan, Germany and the United States. She has been a featured pianist on the Steinway Society Concert Series, the Walden School Concert Series as well as on the Liszt Gala Concert hosted by the American Liszt Society, CA. Ms. Nabeshima-Wright has also performed live on WQED Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette said of her world premiere of Alan Fletcher's Second Romance at the U3 Music Festival: "Pianist Maho Nabeshima infused the work with a lambent tone, giving the work's subtext, 'looking back to an idealized time,' both the warmth and bittersweet flavor of nostalgia." Ms. Nabeshima has also performed as a soloist with the Essex Symphony Orchestra in Andover, Massachusetts. Most recently, she performed with pianist Izumi Tateno in Tokyo, Japan where they gave the world premiere of Inori (prayer) for piano 3 hands, composed by husband Cody Wright.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 38, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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D'Walla Simmons Burke, conductor, is a native of Fort Valley, Georgia. She was educated in the public schools of Peach County (GA); Hampton Institute (VA); The University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign (IL); The University of South Carolina of Columbia (SC); and has pursued doctoral studies in music education with triple minors in research methodology, administration leadership and music history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Mrs. Burke has held teaching positions in the Fulton County Public Schools (GA), Voorhees College (Denmark, SC) and presently at Winston-Salem State University where she is the director of choirs and coordinator of vocal studies. She is also the founder of The Winston-Salem State University Burke Singers, and has performed frequently as a soprano and in such operas as Lost in the Stars, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and The Old Maid and the Thief. On February 19, 2004, Mrs. Burke debuted with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in a celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Ms. Burke has been the recipient of several teaching awards, including the Winston-Salem State University Patterson Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award (1996) and the Winston-Salem State University Cedric Rodney Service Award (2006). Mrs. Burke is listed in Outstanding Young Women of America and holds memberships in many other organizations such as the Music Educators National Conference; the American Choral Directors Association; the National Association of African American Studies; the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music; The Intercollegiate Music Association (board member); the National Associations for African American, Asian, Hispanic, and Latino Studies; The Intercollegiate Musicians Association (board member; choral music coordinator); The Piedmont Opera Theatre (board member); Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and The Links, Inc. She is often sought after as a sacred music and multicultural music clinician/ lecturer and soloist in the area and neighboring states.

Gabriel Statom , conductor, received a bachelor of music education degree with a voice and piano emphasis from the University of Mississippi, a master of music degree in choral conducting, with organ as principal instrument, from Florida State University, and is currently pursuing a doctor of worship studies degree. Mr. Statom is director of the Lake Wales Chorale, has led workshops for the Central Florida Bach Festival and has begun a professional ensemble specializing in the sacred music of J. S. Bach, which performs on the First Presbyterian Church concert series. He has served in various Presbyterian and Baptist churches as choral director, accompanist, and minister of music. He has conducted extensively throughout the southern states, including performances at the Spoleto Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, Carnegie Hall, and with orchestras such as the Memphis Symphony and the Mississippi Symphony.

Brian T. Wolfe, conductor, is the director of bands at Rincon/University High School. A native of Arkansas, he attended the University of Arkansas where he received his bachelor of music education with an emphasis in horn performance and conducting. While at the University of Arkansas, Mr. Wolfe served as the head drum-major for the 300-member Razorback Marching Band; he also performed in the North Arkansas Symphony and numerous premiere ensembles at the university. In 2004, Mr. Wolfe graduated with a master's degree in wind band conducting from the University of Arizona. During his time there, he assisted with the Pride of Arizona Marching and Pep Bands, and conducted the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, and Campus Band. Mr. Wolfe is a former conducting student of Gregg I. Hanson and Thomas Cockrell. While at Rincon/University High School, Mr. Wolfe's ensembles have received Superior and Superior with Distinction ratings at area and state festivals. In addition, the jazz band has performed at the North Texas Jazz Festival. The Ranger Marching Band will be representing the state of Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl National Band Championship and Parade in December of 2008. During the summers, Mr. Wolfe serves as a lead clinician for the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, working with students in Arkansas, Arizona, California, and Texas to further student leadership and conducting within the marching band setting. Mr. Wolfe has served as a clinician and adjudicator throughout Arizona, Arkansas, California, Oklahoma, and Texas. His professional and honorary organizations include the Arizona Music Educators Association, College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Tau Beta Sigma.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

The ARCO Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1989 at the Moscow Conservatory by Levon Ambartsumian. Among its hand-picked charter members were a few instructors, students, and several recent graduates from the Conservatory. Almost immediately, ARCO performances throughout Europe drew high critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience responses.

The orchestra continued to receive international acclaim in subsequent years, participating in a number of important festivals, including the Festival of German Music in Russia and Germany, the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Festival of Russian Music in Siberia, Moscow Stars and Russian Winter in Moscow. The orchestra has also premiered a number of works by contemporary Russian composers and has toured widely in several countries, including the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, Germany, Romania, France, and Korea.

In 1995, Mr. Ambartsumian joined the University of Georgia's School of Music as the Franklin Professor of Violin, while also remaining the artistic director and conductor of ARCO. The home base of the orchestra shifted to this hemisphere, where the ensemble has now become a talented international blend of musicians.

While the ARCO Chamber Orchestra places special importance on the performance of Russian and contemporary music, the ensemble has a diverse repertoire that includes standard chamber orchestra literature, showpieces, and world premieres. The ensemble has also released several CDs and has recorded for radio and television broadcasts.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

Critics have hailed her performances as "masterful." Concert pianist Aglaia Koras made her debut at age eleven with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Recognition by her mentor, Greek pianist Gina Bachauer, drew the attention of Rudolf Serkin, then Director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where Ms. Koras studied for several years on full scholarship with Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. After receiving the Curtis Alumni Award for three consecutive years, she graduated from Curtis with a Bachelor's degree in Piano. Rudolf Serkin called her "an excellent pianist, a fine musician," and Horszowski called her "a great artist" at her graduation.

In 1983, the City of New York and the Queens Council on the Arts sponsored her New York Debut at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, where she received a standing ovation. She has returned several times to Lincoln Center, and also performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, at the Kennedy Center, at Merkin Concert Hall, and in major concert halls throughout the United States as well as concerts in France, England, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Canada, and Mexico, including both European and American television and radio broadcasts.

This season, Ms. Koras continues her "Beethoven and Chopin Plus" Series at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, sponsored by MidAmerica Productions, Inc. Last season, Ms. Koras performed an all-Mozart 250th Birthday Tribute concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall to a standing ovation. In recent seasons, Ms. Koras has been a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, produced by MidAmerica Productions, Inc; she has performed in a special program for the United States Ambassadors in Washington, DC; in recitals at the Kennedy Center; in concerts sponsored by the National Symphony Orchestra; the Recording Industry's Music performance Trust Fund as arranged by the American Federation of Musicians; in programs in Spain, Greece, and Brazil; on the Smithsonian website; and in concerts sponsored by the Curtis Alumni and Leschetizky Associations.

Ms. Koras has received top prizes in several international and national piano competitions, including: the International Chopin Young Pianists Competition, first prize; the International American Music Scholarship Association Piano Competition, first prize; the International Concert Artists Guild Competition, "Fine Artistry and Musical Excellence Award"; the National Young Musicians Foundation Competition, first prize; the Koszciusko Foundation Competition; the La Gesse Foundation Fellowship of France; the Adopt-An-Artist Award of New York City; the Ruth Slenszynska Award for Piano, as well as other awards. Ms. Koras' musical lineage can be traced to Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Cortot: Horszowski studied with Leschetizky, who studied with Carl Czerny, a pupil of Beethoven; Horszowski's mother studied with Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin; and Bachauer studied with Rachmaninoff and Cortot. This rich heritage, combined with her own unique passion, intelligence, imagination, and tremendous capacity for expression brings an extraordinarily wide range of stylistic insight to her unusually broad repertoire.

In addition to being an active performing artist, Ms. Koras has served on the faculties of Temple University (where she simultaneously received a master's degree on full scholarship) and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 38, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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John Rutter, conductor, a native of London, is well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a composer, conductor, and recording artist. His compositions span choral and orchestral works, carols, school operas, popular music, and music for television. He was director of music at England's Clare College from 1975-79, later forming the Cambridge Singers, a mixed-voice choir that has recorded over two dozen albums, many for his own label, Collegium. In the last few years, several of his recordings have reached Billboard magazine's Classical Top 25 chart. Recently, he initiated the Collegium Choral Series, a music publishing project aimed at making available to choral groups works performed by the Cambridge Singers.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 38, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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C. Myron Flippin is a graduate of Kansas State University and majored in music education and European history. Mr. Flippin pursued a career in management from 1972 to 1987, and was awarded an MBA certificate by the Wickes Corporation. His successful management style is noted with numerous awards and recognitions, including the Wickes Corporation Rookie Manager of the Year. Flippin returned to music and earned a master's degree in cello performance and voice in 1990 and a doctorate in orchestral conducting in 1994. He studied, performed and conducted in Austria in 1989 and 1992. There, he performed with the Melkus Ensemble and the International Symphony, as well as with Christopher Bunting and Phyllis Young. His graduate studies included cello with Marjorie Cornelius and voice with Sean Daniel, and he also studied privately with Akira Endo. Mr. Flippin also performs in with the White River Trio, and has previously been co-principal cellist with the North Arkansas Symphony. In 2006 he was appointed conductor of the Ozarks Chorale, a quality community choir in northwest Arkansas. He currently is music director of the North Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestras. In August 2007, Flippin was appointed to the Northwest Arkansas Academy of Fine Arts as its first orchestra director. He was formerly assistant conductor and principal cellist of Opera in the Ozarks from 1996-1999. In addition to being at the podium of the Oklahoma Community Symphony from 1991-1994, Flippin was also the choir director for the Putnam City United Methodist Church as well as the Putnam City Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Phillip Posey is a graduate of Florida State University, Eastman School of Music, and the Conservatory of Music/University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has done post-doctoral studies in conducting at the Hochschule for Music in Vienna, Austria, and studied with numerous noted conducting teachers. From 1965-2004, he served as director of instrumental studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. In 1969 he founded the Liberty Symphony Orchestra and served as principal conductor and music director until 2004. Mr. Posey also founded the Metropolitan Youth Symphony of Kansas City and the Liberty Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and served as conductor of the Shaanxi Symphony Orchestra in Xi'an,China in 1993. He has also served as rehearsal conductor for the Kansas City Youth Symphony and has been guest conductor for numerous other community orchestras and bands. As a professional bassoonist, he has performed with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Eastman Philharmonia under Howard Hanson, as well as two seasons with the American Wind Symphony. Presently, Mr. Posey is artist-in-residence and conductor of the Kansas City Wind Symphony at the Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas. This active group of professional musicians, music educators and community members presents six concerts a year and toured China in June, 2007.

Patricia Setser is the associate conductor of the Kansas City Wind Symphony. She started her musical career at age four, learning to read music before words. She joined the school band and studied with Ken and Nancy Seward. After graduating from Ruskin High School, Ms. Setser went to Central Missouri State University and studied with Dr. Russell Coleman. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in music education and later a master's in music education. She has worked for the North Kansas City School District and been the director of instrumental music at Winnetonka High School for 25 years. Ms. Setser also serves as music coordinator for the district. She is a board member of the Warrensburg Community Band and is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, the Missouri Musical Educators Association (MMEA) and the National Association for Music Education (MENC). She was recently named Central Missouri State University Distinguished Music Alumnus.

Terry Hill recently retired as professor of music and director of orchestral studies at Utah Valley State College where he founded the string program. Mr. Hill is a graduate of Brigham Young University and University of Arizona, Tucson. Mr. Hill has served as the assistant conductor and recording director for over 30 years with the Mormon Symphony and Youth Chorus. Concurrently, he acted as cover conductor and score reader for several PBS television specials, winning an Emmy. Mr. Hill has toured to Carnegie Hall (six times), the Hollywood Bowl, and throughout Europe. Terry is formerly the music director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony and Civic Orchestra. In 2001, Mr. Hill was named College Teacher of the Year by the Utah Chapter of the American String Teachers Association with the National School Orchestra Association. Mr. Hill taught music in the Provo City Schools for over 24 years, and is still a popular guest conductor and adjudicator. He is presently conductor of the American Fork Symphony, Centennial and Arbor View High School Orchestras, and maintains his association with the Utah Valley Youth Symphony.

Stephanie Smith is the orchestra director at Saville Middle School. She began her teaching career in 1982 in St. George, Utah, and also taught in the Davis County School district in northern Utah for three years before arriving in Las Vegas. Ms. Smith has been with the Clark County School District since 1987. She studied cello with George Sopkin and the Fine Arts Quartet in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a B.A. in music. In addition to teaching and performing in various orchestras and ensembles, Ms. Smith is also involved in politics. She is a former Nevada state assemblywoman and currently serves as a North Las Vegas City councilwoman. She was elected to the city council in 1997. This past year Councilwoman Smith was named "Elected Official of the Year" by the Nevada League of Cities and Muncicipalities. She is married to Jeff Englehart.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact David Dutkanicz at 212-239-0205 or ddutkanicz@midamerica-music.com