Jay Friedman
Music Director
Join us in congratulating Jay Friedman as he opens his 31st season as Music Director of The Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest! His unprecedented tenure with the orchestra includes conducting two world premieres. He has secured numerous world-class artists as soloists with the orchestra and brought Riccardo Muti, Music Director Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to conduct 10 free open rehearsals with the orchestra.
Find out more about Jay here.
Maurice Boyer
Associate Conductor
Associate conductor Maurice Boyer is professor of music at Concordia University Chicago, where he conducts the chamber orchestra and chapel choir (Schola Cantorum) and teaches aural skills, music history and courses in the honors curriculum.
Find out more about Maurice here.
Gwen Brits
Concertmaster
Gwen joined the S/OP&RF in 2021 and works in international student advising at DePaul University. Before moving to Illinois, she was a member of multiple classical and folk music ensembles in Oregon, Utah and Iowa.
Find out more about Gwen here.
David Leehey
President
David Leehey has been President of the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest since 2003. He is also President of MacDowell Artists Association in the Oak Park area, and a founding board member of Pianoforte Foundation in Chicago. David has helped us receive many awards and was Illinois Council of Orchestras’ Board President of the Year in 2013 and 2020.
Find out more about David here.
William Chin
Chorus Director
William Chin, Director of the Symphony Chorus, has been preparing choruses for the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest since 2003. He has been a leading figure in the Chicago choral scene since he started The Oriana Singers in 1979 as part of the vanguard of small choral ensembles performing a wide repertoire that includes historically informed performances of early music. He led its transition from a conducted chamber chorus to a six-voice conductor-less vocal ensemble, again in advance of other local groups with a similar format. In more recent years he founded the Oak Park-based community chorus City Voices and co-founded The Rookery, a professional men’s chorus.
Find out more about Bill here.
Beth Hoover
General Manager
Beth, a retired public school music teacher, has won the Illinois Council of Orchestra’s General Manager of Year Award in 2004 and 2018! She joined the oboe/English horn section of The S/OP&RF in 1978 and our board the following year. A resident of Oak Park for 34 years, she now lives in Woodstock, She and her husband have a blended family of four grown children and six grandchildren.
Butterfly Productions
Videography
Board of Directors
Carole Benson
Diane Doll
Cheryl Flinn, treasurer
Dan Harrison
Barb Hunt
Kristina Lee
David Leehey, president
Judy Meredith
Bernie Metzger
Linda Nyholt-Sabuda
Sil Pesavento
Sue Sentowski
Julie Tumma, secretary
The Symphony of Oak Park River Forest 