Bill McGlaughlin

Host

For millions of music fans, the intimate voice of Bill McGlaughlin signals another adventure into the heart of music-making. Whether he's chatting with one of the great string quartets, hosting an intermission at the Met or seated at the piano with a Beethoven score, Bill's insight and magnanimous charm are a cornerstone of classical broadcasting.

William McGlaughlin's introduction to music came late; he was fourteen before he took his first piano lessons. "Happily, I understood immediately what a wonderful thing I'd stumbled into. I can remember thinking as I walked away from my second piano lesson — 'Well, that's it. I'll be a musician.' Of course, I had no idea what that decision meant exactly.'"

Over the years, McGlaughlin was to discover that 'being a musician' could embrace a great many paths. He has served as an educator, as a performer — a trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony, and as a conductor — seven years as Associate Conductor with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, followed by periods as music director of orchestras in Eugene, Tucson and San Francisco, and most recently, a twelve year engagement as Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony. He has also been active as a guest conductor, leading the Baltimore Symphony, Denver Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, New Orleans Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Opera Theatre St. Louis, American Music Theater Festival and San Antonio Festival.

McGlaughlin has also been active in broadcasting, serving as host of the popular public radio program St. Paul Sunday since its inception in 1980. In 1996 the program received the highest honor in broadcasting, the George Foster Peabody Award. McGlaughlin has also been active with PBS, the BBC and is now in his eighth season as co-host of the chamber music program Center Stage From Wolftrap. In November 2002, the NEA announced a special grant to the WFMT Radio Network to fund the development of a new daily program: Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, which began syndication on October 6, 2003. McGlaughlin has also also contributed a number of features to Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, including programs on Debussy, Stravinsky and a recent interview with James Levine on the opera Wozzeck.

It was not until 1997 that McGlaughlin made a public debut as a composer. His Three Dreams and a Question: Choral Songs on E. E. Cummings — a work dedicated to memory of the young composer and pianist Kevin Oldham — was enthusiastically received by audience, performers and press at its premiere with the Kansas City Symphony and was quickly followed by five more premieres within a ten month span. Aaron's Horizons, a work dedicated to the spirit of Aaron Copland, with whom McGlaughin worked in the 1970s, has been heard nation wide in a broadcast with members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

In the summer of 1998 McGlaughlin signed a contract with Subito Music, which now publishes all of his work. His recent works include Walt Whitman's Dream, for large chorus and orchestra, a work commissioned by Continental Harmony, a Millennium project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Composers Forum. He has also composed a piece in collaboration with Garrison Keillor, Surveying Lake Wobegon, which had its premiere at the Ravinia Festival on September 3, 2000 and continues to be played by orchestras from coast to coast. In addition, he contributed a piece for a 'quartet of neglected instruments' for the December 23, 2000 Prairie Home Companion broadcast from Town Hall in New York. Angelus, composed in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra, had its premiere on March 17, 2002. Three Pieces for Wind Trio was given its first performance at the Kemper Museum in Kansas City on June 1, 2002.

McGlaughlin served as guest composer in residence at The Chamber Music Festival of the East in Bennington, Vermont in the summer of 2003 and composed two pieces which received their premieres at the Festival — Echoes, for horn trio and Three by Six for chamber ensemble. In October of 2003 McGlaughlin led the Tucson Symphony in the premiere of The Bells of St. Ferdinand. In October 2005 the Las Cruces Symphony played the premiere of Remembering Icarus, a performance which has subsequently been broadcast on NPR's Performance Today.

Jesse McQuarters

Producer

Jesse McQuarters came to work for WFMT after graduating from Indiana University, where he earned degrees in double bass performance and audio engineering. Since moving to Chicago, he has worked extensively as a radio producer, bassist, teacher, and recording engineer.

Jesse's credits as a producer include Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble, Lang Lang, Gustavo Dudamel, the Mendelssohn Project, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Northwestern University, Gabriela Montero, and James Conlon. He currently produces Exploring Music, and has also contributed production work to broadcasts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Choral Arts Society of Lincoln Center

As a bassist, Jesse has had the opportunity to play extensively in and around Chicago, at venues such as Orchestra Hall, the Green Mill, the Athenaeum Theatre, the Chicago Cultural Center, and countless others. His articles have been published in the Journal of the International Society of Bassists, and he is on the double bass faculty of the Colorado Suzuki Institute and the Music Institute of Chicago.

When not editing, practicing, or playing, Jesse enjoys walks on the beach at sunset with his best friends: his wife Rebecca and their two dogs, Dylan and Sadie.

E-mail Jesse: jesse@exploringmusic.org

Bill Siegmund

Technical Director

Recording engineer Bill Siegmund has been active in the New York audio community for over 17 years. Born and raised in Hawai'i, he came to the mainland to study at New York University. After he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Music Technology, Bill became the Chief Recording Engineer at the Manhattan School of Music.

Since 1991 he has owned Digital Island Studios, a recording company specializing in the production of classical music. He has recorded James Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, Alec Baldwin, Paquito D'Rivera, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, John Lithgow, Gunther Schuller and the greatest Diva of them all, Miss Piggy. His CD recordings have been released on Sony Classical, Phillips and numerous other labels from Arabesque to Zuma.

He has also worked on audio production for film, television and radio, doing production editing, sound effects, ENG, orchestral score recording and in-studio dialogue recording. Projects have been for distribution and live worldwide radio and internet broadcasts for the BBC, the ABC (Australia), NPR, WNYC, WQXR, WFMT, ABC-TV, ESPN and Jim Henson Productions.

Bill has been the audio engineer for Exploring Music since its inception.

He is an active member of the Audio Engineering Society, currently serving as Secretary of the New York Section. In the past he has served as Section Chairman, and also was the Special Events Chairman for the 2003 AES Convention in New York City.

Bill resides in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife, Lucy, and their daughters Clara and Willa.

Cydne Gillard

Producer

Cydne Gillard joined the Exploring Music team in early 2007. Throughout her life Cydne has worked within the classical music community and over the past five years has worked in the production of classical music programs for public radio. She found her way to Exploring Music through years of working for CD Syndications on Indianapolis On The Air, Center Stage from Wolf Trap, Concerts from the Library of Congress and marketing Composers Datebook for American Public Media.

In the late 1980s, Cydne organized the California Summer Arts Chamber Music workshop at California State University and she has spent many summers volunteering at the Marlboro Music Festival. In addition to holding many different positions related to classical music, she is an amateur musician- "I am a well-trained bad bassoonist and avid recorder player," she says. Cydne has played the bassoon with the Morse Wind Ensemble at Yale University, the Windham Hill Chamber Orchestra, Vermont Bach Festival, Arkansas Music Festival, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and the Livermore Symphony.

Since moving to Chicago in 1993, Cydne has taught music to children 5th through 12th grade. She has coached music ensembles and beginning band at the Chicago Waldorf School and currently has a small private studio of bassoon and recorder students.

Cydne lives in Evanston and in her spare time is an artist and enjoys creating mythical monsters out of sheet copper. She also dreams of having a fine collection of rare books; so far she has collected and sold hundreds of books, but her permanent collection is now comprised of three beautiful books.

Noel Morris

Continuity Director

In 1994, Noel Morris began producing her first national broadcast, Indianapolis On-the-Air, with Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  The show debuted on 186 stations, and has since grown to close to 300 stations.

Noel created Center Stage from Wolf Trap in 1999, an award-winning chamber music series featuring international talent. The shows feature a mixture of live performances from The Barns at Wolf Trap and CD recordings offering the finest in new music. In 2000, Center Stage exceeded 300 stations to become one of the most widely circulated music programs in public radio.

Noel's other productions include a series of two-hour broadcasts from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the Choral Arts Society of Washington.

Noel has worked with Bill McGlaughlin and WFMT on Exploring Music since October 2003, and produced the program from its inception until 2008. Exploring Music focuses on one subject per week, offering an in-depth exploration of composers and compositions.

In October 2003, Noel made her debut as playwright with The Imagination Symphony's inaugural production "The Little Wizard," featuring actors from Chicago's Apple Tree Theatre Company.

Noel's radio announcing credits in Chicago include stations WBEZ, WNIB and WFMT.

E-mail Noel : noel@exploringmusic.org