Jeanyi Kim ~ Violin
Jeanyi Kim (violin) is the Associate Concertmaster (Third Chair) of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Concertmaster of Milwaukee Musaik (formerly known as the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra). A Toronto native, Kim’s versatile musical experiences have brought her to illustrious venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Salle Pleyel, and the Concertgebouw. She has also appeared as Assistant Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra (UK) under Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev, Concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Principal Second of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and substitute musician of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Recent solo appearances include performances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra and Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra. A passionate and energetic chamber musician, Kim is a founding member of the Philomusica Quartet, and is a regular artist at the esteemed Sunflower Music Festival.
Kim has held faculty positions at various institutions, including University of Wisconsin-Parkside and University of New Haven, and during summers has taught at several festivals, including the Carvalho International Music Festival (Brazil) and the Elm City ChamberFest. Under her guidance, many of her students have gone on to win various prizes and honors. Kim is also a frequent adjudicator of competitions. Her major teachers include Erick Friedman, Kyung Yu, Rebecca Henry and Berl Senofsky, and important mentors include Aldo and Elizabeth Parisot, Sidney Harth, and Tokyo String Quartet. As a graduate student at Yale, she served as a teaching assistant to Erick Friedman. Kim holds a DMA from Yale University, where she also earned her BA, MM, and MMA degrees.
Kim recorded for a Boosey & Hawkes publication/CD entitled, 10 Violin Solos from the Masters, released by Hal Leonard. She performs on a 1705 Petrus Guarnerius violin.
She and her husband, violinist and conductor Alexander Mandl, enjoy the adventures of raising their two young children, Miranda and Nikolas, frequenting their favorite coffee shops, biking, sailing, and traveling.
Alexander Mandl ~ Violin
One of the foremost violinists and conductors of Brazil, Dr. Alexander Mandl maintains an active and diverse career as soloist, conductor, educator, chamber and orchestra musician. A versatile artist, Mandl appeared internationally at renowned halls, including Alice Tully, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Music Hall, Sprague Hall, the Mellon Institute, the Memorial of Latin America and Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada, Spain.
Currently, Mandl holds conducting posts as Music Director/Conductor of the Lakeshore Youth Philharmonic, Conductor of the Chamber Ensemble at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Conductor of the Elm City ChamberFest Chamber Orchestra, guest conductor with the Paraiba Symphony Orchestra, Brazil. Recent engagements include the Kenosha Symphony, Lake Geneva Symphony, Timothy Dwight Chamber Orchestra, UFPB Chamber Orchestra and the Eleazar de Carvalho Festival Faculty Orchestra, among others. In 2004, Mandl conducted the South American premiere of Ezra Laderman’s Nonete. Prior conducting posts include the Cardinal Stritch University Chamber Orchestra (2003-2005), and the Hopkins Chamber Ensemble (1997-2003).
As a soloist and orchestra musician, he has collaborated with notable conductors, such as Eleazar de Carvalho, Gunther Herbig, Claudio Santoro, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Robert Shaw, Juan Pablo Izquierdo, Sidney Harth, and Krzysztof Penderecki, among others. Most recently, Mandl has appeared as soloist with the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Beloit-Janesville Symphony, University of Wisconsin-Madison Symphony, and Paraiba Symphony Orchestra. He is the Concertmaster of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Racine Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and artist at the Sunflower Music Festival.
Nathan Hackett ~ Viola
Nathan Hackett is a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra for the last 7 years of its existence and was Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra for 15 years.Â
Hackett is a founding member of the Philomusica String Quartet, resident string quartet of Wisconsin Lutheran College. Highlights from their first eight seasons include a rare performance of the Bartok Piano Quintet, the entire Beethoven cycle, radio broadcasts on Chicago’s WFMT and a performance at Yale University. They have collaborated with many leading musicians from the Milwaukee and Chicago area such as Mathiue Dufore, Principal Flute, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Susan Babini, Principal Cellist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Winston Choi, piano department head, Roosevelt University.Â
The Philomusica Quartet is also featured on a recently released recording of the complete works for clarinet by composer, James Grant, performing his Sextet for Strings and Bass Clarinet with MSO colleagues William Helmers and Zachary CohenÂ
Since 2002 Hackett has been the violist with the Washington Island Music Festival; an annual, summer chamber music festival in NorthernÂ
Wisconsin comprised of players from The Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis and Colorado symphonies. From 1992-2001 he was the Principal Violist of the Woodstock Mozart Festival where his frequent chamber music partner had been Russian violin virtuoso, Mark Peskanov.
Hackett is also a sought after teacher, having guided talented high school violists to successful auditions at some of the nation’s top music schools. He is a coach with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and has held faculty positions with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and Carroll University.
Hackett received training in orchestral and chamber music performance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee under the tutelage of the world renowned, Fine Arts Quartet. Other influential teachers have been Peter Slowik and Burton Kaplan.