Northbrook Symphony

It's Joshua Brown, Violinist and Mina Zikri! Soloist and conductor are looking forward to tomorrow's concert at 4pm with Brahms' Violin Concerto and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. Get your tickets at www.northbrooksymphony.org .

Thanks to Jan Weller of WFMT for paying tribute to our founder and first music director Sam Magad, and announcing his passing on the morning news. He made many fine recordings in his other job as Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including a solo turn on Scheherazade.

We mourn the loss of Samuel Magad (1932-2026), our founder and first music director. Maestro Magad led the Northbrook Symphony from 1980 to 2001 while working as Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 35 years. A tribute to Sam is on our website - link in comments.

Shiva and service are this Friday in Skokie, and our concert Romantic Essentials this Sunday will be dedicated to his memory.

Photos:
1) Larry Kane, 1999.
2) Jim Steere courtesy of the Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, 1990s.
3) Larry Kane, 1995.

It's Musician Mondays, when we feature one player in your professional orchestra.

Lee Kessler, a native of upstate New York, has played clarinet with the Northbrook Symphony since 2003. He is a former member of the Northshore Concert Band and has also performed with several other local orchestras. As an honors graduate with degrees in music and American history from the University of Pennsylvania, he studied clarinet with Ronald Reuben, longtime bass clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

During the day, he is an independent copywriter for the financial industry. In his rare free time, he loves traveling, biking, learning languages, reading, baseball, and following his daughter's softball team. Lee and his wife, Janene, a high school band director and former horn player in the Northbrook Symphony, are residents of Highland Park, where they live with their daughter and occasionally hear from their son in college.

Lee is playing in this Sunday's concert, Romantic Essentials. If you're interested in sponsoring his clarinet chair or the clarinet section, talk to us: call (847) 272-0755.