Tributes

Robert Levine has been the Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony since September 1987. Before coming to Milwaukee Mr. Levine had been a member of the Orford String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with whom he toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and South America. Prior to joining the Orford Quartet, Mr. Levine had served as Principal Violist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for six years. He has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, and the Oklahoma City Symphony, as well as serving as guest principal with the orchestras of Indianapolis and Hong Kong.

He has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, the Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco), and numerous community orchestras in Northern California and Minnesota. He has also been featured on American Public Radio's nationally broadcast show "St. Paul Sunday Morning" on several occasions.

Mr. Levine has been an active chamber musician, having performed at the Festival Rolandseck in Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Palm Beach Festival, the "Strings in the Mountains" Festival in Colorado, and numerous concerts in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. He has also been active in the field of new music, having commissioned and premiered works for viola and orchestra from Minnesota composers Janika Vandervelde and Libby Larsen.

Mr. Levine was chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians from 1996 to 2002 and currently serves as President of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras. He has written extensively about issues concerning orchestra musicians for publications of ICSOM, the AFM, the Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the League of American Orchestras.

Mr. Levine attended Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. His primary teachers were Aaron Sten and Pamela Goldsmith. He also studied with Paul Doctor, Walter Trampler, Bruno Giuranna, and David Abel.

He lives with his wife Emily and his son Sam in Glendale.

Roger Oyster, Principal Trombonist in the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Music Director, has performed as Principal Trombonist, as member or guest musician, for the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Grant Park Symphony, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Prior to his career as an orchestral musician, he was the Principal Euphonium and Euphonium Soloist with the United States Marine Band, the "President's Own," where he was a featured soloist on two national tours and over 80 concerts. On euphonium and bass trumpet, he has peformed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Atlanta Symphony. He was a featured soloist on trombone with the St. Louis Symphony and on euphonium with both the St. Louis Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony. As a member of the St. Louis Symphony, he appeared on over 40 commercially released recordings, including several Grammy nominated recordings and one Grammy winner, and has also recorded with the Atlanta, Detroit, and Kansas City Symphonies. He has performed as Principal Trombonist at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Donald Runnicles, Music Director, since 1988. His reviews of classical music CDs have appeared in Audiophile Voice and Listener magazines, and writes a regular column in the Kansas City Symphony program magazine, entitled, "...For the Record", recommending recordings for the repertoire performed. He lives in Independence, MO, with his remarkable wife Susan, their professional baby girl Erin, and they see his three older children, Reeves, David, and Zachary, as often as possible.

Heralded as a "sterling cellist" by the Washington Post, Steven Honigberg has emerged as one of the outstanding cellists of his generation. Mr. Honigberg gave his New York debut recital in Weill Hall and has since performed to critical acclaim throughout the United States in recital, in chamber music, and as a soloist with orchestra. A member of the National Symphony Orchestra, he has been featured numerous times as soloist with that ensemble. He won rave reviews for the 1988 world premiere of David Ott's [i]Concerto for Two Cellos[/i] performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, with repeat performances on the NSO's 1989 and 1994 United States tours.

Mr. Honigberg is noted for his explorations of important new works, such as Lukas Foss' Anne Frank (1999), Benjamin Lees' Night Spectres (1999), Robert Stern's Hazkarah (1998), Robert Starer's Song of Solitude (1995) and David Diamond's Concert Piece (1993), written for and premiered by Mr. Honigberg.

Mr. Honigberg graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with a Master's degree in Music, where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. Other important cello teachers included Pierre Fournier and Karl Fruh.

Voted "Best New Chamber Music Series" by the Washington Post, Steven Honigberg was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's chamber music series director from its inception in 1994 until 2002. Mr. Honigberg is a member of the Washington DC-based Potomac String Quartet, which has released landmark projects -- the complete string quartets (eleven - 4 CDs) of David Diamond and Quincy Porter (nine - 2 CDs). Mr. Honigberg also has recorded [i]Homage to Rostropovich[/i], a CD of solo cello works written for the great late cellist; Frederic Chopin's complete works for cello and piano; Ernst Toch's cello compositions; Ludwig van Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano; an album of 20th century American cello works; the chamber music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and recordings of music performed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -- four volumes of Darkness & Light.

Recent performances include a May 2006 recital at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and a performance of Bela Bartok's Concerto in August 2006 with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, where he has performed as principal cellist and as soloist since 1990. Steven Honigberg performs on the [i]Stuart[/i] Stradivarius cello made in 1732.

Robert Levine has been the Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony since September 1987. Before coming to Milwaukee Mr. Levine had been a member of the Orford String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with whom he toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and South America. Prior to joining the Orford Quartet, Mr. Levine had served as Principal Violist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for six years. He has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, and the Oklahoma City Symphony, as well as serving as guest principal with the orchestras of Indianapolis and Hong Kong.

He has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, the Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco), and numerous community orchestras in Northern California and Minnesota. He has also been featured on American Public Radio's nationally broadcast show "St. Paul Sunday Morning" on several occasions.

Mr. Levine has been an active chamber musician, having performed at the Festival Rolandseck in Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Palm Beach Festival, the "Strings in the Mountains" Festival in Colorado, and numerous concerts in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. He has also been active in the field of new music, having commissioned and premiered works for viola and orchestra from Minnesota composers Janika Vandervelde and Libby Larsen.

Mr. Levine was chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians from 1996 to 2002 and currently serves as President of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras. He has written extensively about issues concerning orchestra musicians for publications of ICSOM, the AFM, the Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the League of American Orchestras.

Mr. Levine attended Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. His primary teachers were Aaron Sten and Pamela Goldsmith. He also studied with Paul Doctor, Walter Trampler, Bruno Giuranna, and David Abel.

He lives with his wife Emily and his son Sam in Glendale.