

Philip is the principal cellist of Orchestra Iowa, where he performs orchestra and chamber concerts, as well as participating in educational concerts in concert halls, schools, and public libraries across the state. Philip is also principal cellist of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra and a section cellist in the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to moving to Northwest Illinois, Philip was a Civic Fellow and cellist in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, performing orchestral and chamber concerts in Symphony Center and across the city of Chicago, planning and implementing interactive concerts in schools. Before his time in Chicago Philip was a cellist and Vorspieler in the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan.
Philip received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Brandon Vamos, cellist of the Pacifica Quartet. He then went on to complete a Master of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying with Uri Vardi.

As a violist and occasional violinist, Lucas has performed chamber music across Denmark, Canada, and the United States. After working with string quartets and assisting the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra, he was recently appointed Associate Principal Violist of Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and Section Violist with Des Moines Symphony. Lucas currently freelances with a variety of ensembles and teaches privately in the Upper Midwest.
As a fiddler, mandolinist, and singer, Blekeberg is a folk and roots musician, performing as a collaborator and solo artist. Also a multi-genre improviser and composer, he shares progressive music live and digitally. His session work has included a Polaris Prize and Juno Award-winning album. His rhythm piano-oriented singer-songwriter EP will be released later in 2023.
Lucas hails from Northeast Iowa, where he studied with Erik Sessions and Tarn Travers and co-founded Bread & Butter String Band. After studying at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Lucas earned degrees from McGill University in Montreal, The Glenn Gould School in Toronto, and The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where his teachers included Felicia Moye, Steven Dann, Lars Anders Tomter, and Asbjørn Nørgaard.
After nearly a decade abroad, Lucas returned to Iowa in 2023, where he works on creative projects which can be followed on his social media. Catch him in concert with orchestras, chamber ensembles, folk bands, and as a multi-genre solo artist.

Since her return, Madlen has performed with the Midsummer Music, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, The Happenstancers in Toronto, and on countless recitals. In early 2023, she toured with trio with(out), premiering works by Nahre Sol and Micah Behr, alongside trios by Brahms, DU YUN, and Kurtag.
This summer Madlen will solo with the Itasca Orchestra in Minnesota, participate in the Bach Dancing Dynamite Society, and perform at Under the Spire in PEI.
Madlen is a graduate of UW-Madison where she studied with David Perry, and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, where she studied with Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, Erica Raum and Steven Dann. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Viola performance at UW-Madison with Prof. Chisholm as a Collins Fellow.
Madlen founded the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival in 2019.

Highlights of Cherwin’s most recent season include performances with Barbara Hannigan as an Equilibrium Young Artist at the Lunenburg Academy, and a sold-out European recital debut at Hamburg’s Tonali Saal with Ema Nikolovska, Hagar Sharvit, and Daniel Gerzenberg. Cherwin will be returning to LAMP as an EQ Young Artist again in fall 2022.
Cherwin is the Co-Founder and clarinetist for Toronto’s West End Micro Music Festival. After a fully sold-out first season, the festival is returning for its second season, minMAX, featuring some of Toronto’s boldest artistic voices and exhilarating music by Julia Wolfe, Nahre Sol, Steve Reich, Eleanor Alberga, and many others.
Cherwin is the Co-Director of The Happenstancers, a Toronto-based ensemble that features “an obscene amount of talent” (The WholeNote). Their concerts have been praised as “superbly planned, with a rich banquet of textures and colours…Next time these people throw a recital, run, don’t walk” (Lydia Perovic, Definitely the Opera).
Cherwin is extremely grateful for generous support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts.


