The Musicians
Emily Seaberry Graef is the founder and the flutist of the Juliani Ensemble. Ms. Graef is a graduate of The University of Michigan School of Music where she won the Nelson Howenstein Award for outstanding flute performance. Emily did post graduate study at The University of Maryland and at The Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, Austria where she studied with Helmut Zangerle. She spent two summers as the Principal Flute and soloist with The Rome Festival Orchestra in Rome, Italy and has performed as flutist with The Chicago Winds, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW series and twice on the nationally acclaimed and broadcast Dame Myra Hess series. Emily was previously the co-founder of The Galena Chamber Ensemble, a chamber music organization which performed in Galena, Illinois for 10 years in historic Turner Hall. She has been an artist in residence at the People's Music School and is a former faculty member of the Merit School of Music. Ms. Graef has maintained a teaching studio in her home for more than 20 years.
Richard K. Graef is currently Assistant Principal/ Acting Principal Flutist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor of Flute at Northwestern University. A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Richard received his Bachelor's Degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a Certificate from the Mozarteum Academy of Music, Salzburg, Austria, and his Masters of Music degree from Indiana University, School of Music. He also attended the Aspen Music School, Aspen, Colorado, and the Baroque Performance Institute of Oberlin College.
Richard was previously a member of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and he joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1968. He has remained an active solo member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Music Directors, Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, and in the future, Maestro Riccardo Muti.
In 1986, on leave from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Richard joined the faculty of Indiana University School of Music, as Professor of Flute. In that year, he was honored with a Grammy Award as " Best New Classical Artist" for his recording with the Chicago Pro Musica., a Chicago based chamber music ensemble.
With is wife, Flutist Emily Graef, he founded the Galena Chamber Music Ensemble in Galena, Illinois, and is currently a frequent performer with her in the Juliani Ensemble and the Chicago Cultural Center. In addition to his career as a symphony flutist, chamber musician, and educator, Richard is a performer on Period Instrument Flutes, and teaches a class in Baroque Flute techniques as Northwestern University. He is the owner of a rare crystal flute made by Claude Laurent in 1819, and several other important historic instruments, which he uses in performances.
Outside of music, Richard and his family are restoring about 40 acres of Tall Grass Prairie and Oak Savanna woodland on their property in Wisconsin. This restoration has preserved at least three threatened plant species to date on their property, and they have received a commendation award from the US Fish and Wildlife service.
Roger Moseley is a post-doctoral fellow in music history at the University of Chicago. His research interests include the music of Brahms, Schumann, Faure, and Poulenc; the performance and reception of art song; and theories of musical play. Before coming to Chicago in 2007, Roger held a Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford. In 2007, he completed an MMus. in piano accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where he studied with Graham Johnson. He also extemporizes in late 18th and early 19th century idioms, and runs a weekly workshop on historically inspired musical improvisation at the University of Chicago.
Frank Babbitt is currently a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Juliani Ensemble. Mr. Babbitt received a B.A. in Theatre and Music from Lawrence University and completed a Masters in Violin Performance at S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Grant Park Orchestra, Music of the Baroque and many other organizations in Chicago. As a chamber musician he has appeared as a guest with members of the Vermeer Quartet and Orion Ensemble. In 2001 he gave the world premiere performance of Ralph Shapey's "Night Musicll" for violin, viola and tape, a performance the Chicago Tribune called "....a tour de force of dexterity and timing." Also a trained singer, Mr. Babbitt has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and recently made his Grand Teton Music Festival debut in a performance of Samuel Barber's "Dover Beach". He has served on the faculties of Lawrence University SUNY Stony Brook and the Merit School of Music.
Cornelia Babbitt is currently a member of the Chicago Philharmonic as well as the Juliani Ensemble. She received her Performers Certificate and Pedagogy Degree from Detmold Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, and has studied with Andre Navarra for seven years. Ms. Babbitt has taken part in performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera Orchestra and is a former member of the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, Tibor varga. She enjoys photography and meditiation as well as teaching private cello lessons from her home in Northbrook.
Jo Rodenburg's voice was described by critics in Germany as, "warm, lustrous and heart-rendingly beautiful," after her 2002 concert tour featuring songs of Richard Strauss and Johannes Brahms. An avid champion of new vocal works, Ms. Rodenburg has presented premieres of works by Bruce Adolphe, John Corigliano and Gordon Parmetier, whose opera, The Lost Dauphin, was filmed for Wisconsin Public Television.
In Chicago, Ms. Rodenburg was the featured soloist along with David Byrne for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's premiere performance of The Forest by composer David Byrne, the former lead singer of the band "Talking Heads." Ms. Rodenburg has appeared in performances with Chicago Opera Theater, Light Opera Works of Chicago, Pamiro Opera, Union Avenue Opera of Saint Louis and Chamber Opera Chicago and lists among her operatic credits the roles of Carmen, Prince Orlofsky, Dorabella and Charlotte. She has appeared on the Chicago concert stage as soloist under conductors Sir Georg Solti, James Levine and Margaret Hillis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as with numerous regional orchestras and choruses throughout Chicago and the Midwest.
Most recently, Ms. Rodenburg performed with the Waukegan Symphony performing selections from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Her concert repertoire also includes Elgar's Sea-Pictures, Handel's Messiah and Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, a performance that the Dubuque Herald described as 'Phenomenal, gorgeous and bravely edged" Ms. Rodenburg maintains a busy schedule teaching in her downtown Chicago voice studio.