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Deby and Jamie Fellowes
Author Archives: Camerata Chicago
2023 Academy Spring Concert
ACADEMY SPRING CONCERT
4 PM, MAY 7, 2023
St. John Lutheran Church
WHEATON
The Academy Spring Concert will take place on May 7 and will feature the Koussevitzky Concerto for Double Bass performed by Lawrence Hall.
The Academy Orchestra will perform Elgar’s Spanish Lady Suite and Rhosymedre by Vaughan Williams – a Welsh tune meaning “lovely” arranged for string orchestra. There will be short illustrations and introductions and lyrical works.
The Academy was featured in 2021 on the 98.7 WFMT radio show Introductions.
Enjoy a delightful afternoon for only $20 a ticket. Students (16+) can attend for $5 and children can attend for free!
Pictured: Double Bass Soloist Lawrence Hall (Top Left and below) and the Camerata Chicago Academy Orchestra.
Camerata Chicago Academy Roster
Academy Orchestra
Musicians Roster
Violin I
Amelia Piscitelli, concertmaster *
Audrianna Hall
Abby Edwards
Violin II
Tabitha Rea
Sarra Gadzhieva
Heide Brazier
Laine Van Cleave
Viola
Helen Gordeuk
Joanna Nerius *
Aleksia Nenadovich
Cello
Zoe Douthit *
Nathan Yu
Bass
Lawrence Hall
* Faculty
Concert Venue St. John Lutheran Church
Venue:
St. John Lutheran Church, Wheaton
410 N Cross St
Wheaton, IL 60187
Messiah 2022 Video Highlights
Handel’s Messiah Video Highlights
November 12, 2022
College Church, Wheaton
Performed by the Camerata Chicago Chamber Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Drostan Hall, on November 12, 2022 at College Church Wheaton.
Soloists
Josefien Stoppelenburg, Soprano
Lauren Decker, Mezzosoprano
Martin Luther Clark, Tenor
Peter van de Graaff, Baritone
2023 The English Connection
With Soprano Katherine Petersen
In a celebration of the music of England, amazing Soprano Katherine Petersen performs Les Illuminations by Benjamin Britten with the Camerata Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
Conducted by Maestro Drostan Hall. Camerata Chicago will also perform famous lyrical English classics:
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams
The Spanish Lady Suite by Edward Elgar
St. Paul Suite by Gustav Holst
Suite for Strings by John Rutter
April 21
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April 23
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Presented by Camerata Chicago
April 22 Wheaton Concert
First Presbyterian Church
April 23 Naperville Concert
New Covenant Church
Both concerts will have a physical audience and masks will be optional.
If you have a coupon / discount code
(for example from our concerts schedule
newsletter) please note it is valid only for
concerts presented by Camerata Chicago
– the April 22 and April 23 concerts..
It is valid online only and not at the door.
Using-a-discount-code
Academy Biography
Founded in 2014, the Camerata Chicago Academy is an elite chamber orchestra program comprising advanced students. The Academy provides a marvelous opportunity for young musicians to perform in a professional atmosphere with the Camerata Chicago faculty which manifests the educational spirit of Camerata Chicagoís founder and Music Director Drostan Hall. Maestro Hall has thirty years experience training aspiring young musicians. Many of the Academy’s members plan to study music at university and subsequently go on to have professional careers in music.

The Junior Academy Orchestra
Amelia Piscitelli, violin
Amelia Piscitelli graduated as Salutatorian from Hammond Baptist High School (Schererville, IN) in May 2019. She is currently enrolled as a Music Performance major at Hyles-Anderson College, a Bible college in Crown Point, IN. Amelia has played violin since 2005 and began to study violin seriously with Stephanie Allen in 2008. From 2009-2014 her violin studies continued with Debbie Edwards (Downers Grove Suzuki Strings) followed by Drostan Hall (Hall School of Music) from 2014 to the present.
She joined Camerata Chicago Academy in 2015 and has been Concertmaster since 2017. In December 2016 she performed live on WFMT’s Introductions (Chicago, IL). Since then her professional experience with Camerata Chicago has also included solo opportunities. Her professional solo debut performing the Svendsen Romance in 2016; performing the Bach Double with Mathias Tacke in 2017; soloist for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in 2017 and 2018; soloist as part of the Wheaton College Artist Series in 2019. DMD Records recently released her first solo recording in July 2019 of the Vivaldi Four Seasons. She is often requested to participate in vocal groups at FBC Hammond as a violinist and vocalist.
Katherine Petersen Biography
Katherine Petersen is an engaging Soprano specializing in the performance of 21st Century repertoire for Voice/Saxophone and Russian Art Song. Her recent collaborations with Decho Saxophone Ensemble include performances at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Vienna (2022), Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (2022), Women Composers Festival of Hartford (2022), International Saxophone Symposium (2020) and an ensemble residency at Ohio University and the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. Her doctoral dissertation “Russian Repertoire: Developmental Perspectives” investigates the paucity of Russian Song Repertoire in the American Voice studio and recital hall.
Based in Chicago, Katherine performs regularly with Folks Operetta, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. Recent roles include Margot in Die Kathrin, Bessie Throckmorton in Merrie England, Brigitta in Iolanta, Contessa in Marriage of Figaro, Counsel to the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Lady of the Lake in Masque at Kenilworth, and Sylva Varescu in Csardas Princess.
Previous regional performances include appearances with Opera Columbus, Bay View Music Festival, and the Russian Opera Workshop. Highlights of previous roles include Musetta in La bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Francesca in Rachmaninoff’s Francesca di Rimini, and Micaëla in Carmen. Concert repertoire highlights include soprano soloist in Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer 1915, Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No.5, and Handel’s Messiah.
Dr. Petersen is also Associate Professor of Voice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where she teaches Pedagogy, Song Literature, Studio Voice and Diction for Singers. She holds a DMA in Voice Performance from Ohio State University and a MM in Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College. During her time at OSU, Katherine was head of the Swank Voice Lab for Research and Pedagogy and taught several courses including Voice Pedagogy and Advanced Measurement Techniques for Voice. She was a participant in the 2018 Voice Pedagogy Summit II at the University of Southern California and the 2017 NATS Intern Program in Toronto; she was co-host of the International Voice Pedagogy Summit I at Ohio State University in 2015, as well as co-host of the NATS Summer Intern Program in 2014.
She has presented research at several conferences including those hosted by the Central Region NATS (2020 and 2021), the Hawaii International Conference for Arts and Humanities (2019), the Chicago Chapter of NATS (2018), the International Congress of Voice Teachers (2022, 2017), and the Pan American Vocology Association (2017). Katherine has been a board member with the Chicago Chapter of NATS for four years and currently serves as the Director of Auditions.