Visible Light & Winter Solstice: Micah Behr (composer, viola, and piano) received his Doctorate in Viola Performance at UW Madison where he studied viola with Sally Chisholm and collaborative piano with Martha Fischer. His compositions and transcriptions have been premiered by the Madison Bach Musicians, Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, Trio With(out) and the Griffon String Quartet. He also composes music for Geneva Campus Church where he serves as Music Director. In 2023, his one-act operetta based on the life of Sarah Bernhardt received second place in The American Prize for composition. Visible Light & Winter Solstice: Philip Bergman is a cellist, musician, and educator based in Northwest Illinois. Highlights of his wide-ranging career thus far include collaborating in performance with Yo-Yo Ma, sharing the stage with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with a chorus of ten thousand on national television in Japan, creating and implementing a residency of interactive performances in a memory care facility, soloing on Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, performing alongside rapper Vic Mensa, and playing under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner.
Philip is the principal cellist of Orchestra Iowa, where he performs orchestra and chamber concerts, as well as participating in educational concerts in concert halls, schools, and public libraries across the state. Philip is also principal cellist of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra and a section cellist in the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to moving to Northwest Illinois, Philip was a Civic Fellow and cellist in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, performing orchestral and chamber concerts in Symphony Center and across the city of Chicago, planning and implementing interactive concerts in schools. Before his time in Chicago Philip was a cellist and Vorspieler in the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan.
Philip received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Brandon Vamos, cellist of the Pacifica Quartet. He then went on to complete a Master of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying with Uri Vardi.Winter Solstice: GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Sarah Brailey enjoys a versatile career that defies categorization. Praised by The New York Times for her “radiant, liquid tone,” she is a prolific vocalist, cellist, recording artist, and educator. Among Dr. Brailey’s career highlights are Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Zorn’s Madrigals at the Louvre in Paris, and The Soul on the world premiere album of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, for which she received the 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Dr. Brailey serves on the voice faculty at UW-Madison, is the Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Chicago, and the Artistic Director of the Handel Aria Competition.Visible Light & Winter Solstice: Madlen H. Breckbill (Viola, Violin) has worked in Europe as an orchestral trainee with KonzerthausorchesterBerlin, the violist of the TAÏGA String Quartet in Denmark and as a chamber music trainee with Villa-Musica in Rheinland Pfalz. As an orchestral player, Madlen toured China and Japan, and performed under the batons of Sir Roger Norrington, Leon Fleisher, Christian Eschenbach, and Ivan Fischer. As a chamber musician, Madlen has performed across Europe and North America collaborating with Martin Beaver, Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann, and cellist Richard Lester (just to name a few). In 2019, Madlen founded the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival– now called Samtalä | Musicians in Dialogue, facilitating chamber music collaborations dedicated to diverse and experiential programing. Madlen has performed with trio with(out), Bach Dancing Dynamite Society, Midsummer Music, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, The Happenstancers and West End Micro Music Festival. You can also find her subbing in the violin and viola sections of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, and the Madison Bach Musicians. Madlen holds a BM and MM from UW Madison, and an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. Her primary teachers include violinists Eugene Purdue, David Perry, Paul Kantor, Erica Raum, Barry Shiffman, and violists Steven Dann and Sally Chisholm.
Winter Solstice: Alex Norris, violin, is happily immersed in a diverse and exciting life as a chamber musician. Currently he resides in Green Bay. Wisconsin as a member of the Griffon String Quartet. In addition to this, Alex is a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera and the Stoughton Music Festival, as well as the Quad City Symphony. Earlier chamber music experiences include being a guest artist with Red Cedar Chamber Music in Cedar Rapids, IA, and being a member of the Permian Basin String Quartet in Midland, TX. Alex has a strong background in orchestral playing as well, having formerly been a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and Principal Second Violin in the Illinois Symphony.Storyteller for our Children’s concert: Australian-born Katrin Talbot’s poetry collection Falling Asleep at the Circus was just released from Turning Point Books and The Devil Orders A Latte is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. The Waiting Room for the Imperfect Alibis was her first full-length collection (Kelsay Books). She has seven chapbooks, two Pushcart Prize nominations and quite a few chickens. She has performed many times as a narrator and has written several children’s books she has yet send out into the world. She is delighted to join the Samtalä | Musicians in Dialogue in this capacity. Visible Light: Violist Ria Hodgson can be heard throughout the midwest playing with a variety of ensembles, including the Superior String Alliance Chamber Players, and the Rockford, Quad City, and Madison Symphony Orchestras. She has appeared as a guest artist at summer festivals in the US and abroad, including the Tuscia Opera Festival, the Vianden Music Festival, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Midsummer’s Music Festival. Ria is a founding member of the Tuuli Quartet, which celebrates the music of contemporary and classical composers as a tool for community building and communication.
A passionate advocate for music education, Ria is the Director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras Music Makers program which works to ensure access to instrumental instruction for all students, regardless of their financial background. Ria earned a Bachelor of Music from Arizona State University, where she studied with Nancy Buck, and a Master of Music degree from DePaul University where she was a student of Rami Solomonow. Additional training comes from her postgraduate study with Sally Chisholm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Visible Light:Mary Deck is an adventurous violinist-violist always seeking to broaden her stylistic horizons and creative possibilities. She recently earned her Artist Diploma in viola performance at the Glenn Gould School in Canada, where she also received teaching certifications in the Royal Conservatory Method. She completed her Bachelor of Music in violin performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she had the honor of receiving a full scholarship for playing violin in the Perlman Piano Trio, the school’s only funded undergraduate chamber group. Mary has performed professionally at chamber festivals such as Midsummer’s Music Festival and Spring Green ChamberFest, and as an undergraduate student was a frequent substitute in the viola section of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Last year, she attended Creative Dialogue France, an intense collaborative experience with young composers and performers at the vanguard of new music. This June, she attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, where she received training on baroque viola and brought new life to rarely performed chamber works. Most recently, she attended Orford Musique as a Young Artist Fellow for the collectif9 program, where she had extensive involvement in planning the final concert. In her programming, Mary searches for new collaborative opportunities and enjoys creating sound worlds with a combination of the ancient and the avant-garde. Outside of the world of music, she can be found at the library or enjoying the great outdoors.
