Jay Friedman
Music Director
Jay Friedman has been Principal trombone of the Chicago Symphony since 1965, touring to every corner of the globe. He is also active as a conductor, having now been named Conductor of the Year a record three time by the Illinois Council of Orchestras.
Find our more about Jay here.
Maurice Boyer
Associate Conductor
Associate conductor Maurice Boyer is associate professor of music at Concordia University Chicago, where he conducts the chamber orchestra and women’s choir (Laudate), and teaches aural skills.
Find our more about Maurice soon.
Associate conductor Maurice Boyer is professor of music at Concordia University Chicago, where he conducts the chamber orchestra and women’s choir (Laudate), and teaches aural skills. He is artistic director of Aestas Consort and music director of the American Kantorei of Saint Louis, MO. Most recently he served as assistant chorus master and subsequently guest chorus master with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Although born in the United States, he began his musical training (piano, voice, and solfège) in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he lived until the age of eighteen. Boyer holds a doctor of musical arts degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a dissertation on the Seventh Symphony of Jean Sibelius. His master of music is in choral conducting and his bachelor of music in sacred music (with piano as his principal instrument). Both were earned at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. His principal conducting teachers have been Joseph Flummerfelt, Kenneth Kiesler, and James Ross. He also studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Among his areas of sustained interest and research are the sacred choral works of J. S. Bach — historical performance practice and theology—and the symphonic music of Mozart, Mahler, and Sibelius.
John Gerson
Concertmaster
John is in his ninth season with the Symphony. A graduate of the Indiana University School of Music, John is a serial performer while also working at Bein & Fushi where he sells fine string instruments and bows.
Find our more about John here.
David Leehey
President
David Leehey is President of the Symphony, MacDowell Artists Association, and a founding board member of Pianoforte Foundation in Chicago. David has lead the orchestra to its multi-award winning status, while maintaining his work as a physician at Loyola University Medical Center and Hines VA Hospital.
Find our more about David here.
William Chin
Chorus Director
William Chin has been preparing choruses for the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest since 2003. He is also founder and director of City Voices, a community chorus based on Oak Park. Mr. Chin is the founder and artistic director of The Oriana Singers, a six-voice ensemble that has presented concerts nationally and internationally since 1979. He is Director of Music Ministries at First United Church of Oak Park, where he directs the Sanctuary Choir and started the Music At First concert series. He is Music Director of the Pro Musica Youth Chorus, directing the two top-level ensembles. Bill was Assistant Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, and one of its singers for over twenty years.
Bill is active as a professional singer in the Chicago area and sings with Schola Antiqua of Chicago, and The Rookery men’s chorus. He has been involved in numerous recording sessions both as a singer and conductor, and conducts choral recordings sessions for GIA Publications. He has been on the adjunct faculty for both DePaul and Roosevelt Universities, directs the Senior Choir at Chicago High School for the Arts, and is a recipient of a Joseph Jefferson Award.
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
Stacey Feuer
Cheryl Flinn, treasurer
Dan Harrison
Barb Hunt
Kristina Lee
Judy Meredith
Sil Peavento
Linda Sabuda
Sue Sentowski
Julie Tumma, secretary
Advisory Board
Catherine Adduci
Roy Benedek
Anthony Calderone
Donna Carroll
Susan Cartland-Bode
Henry Fogel
Carl Grapentine
Terry McIlroy
Melbourne Noel, Jr.
Richard Rizzo
Chatka Ruggiero
Vicki Scaman
Jonathan Vanderbilt
Eugene Wedoff
Peggy Wedoff
