Musicians – Stoughton Chamber Music Festival

**Micah Behr** received his Doctorate in Viola Performance at UW Madison where he studied viola with Sally Chisholm and collaborative piano with Martha Fischer. His compositions and transcriptions have been premiered by the Madison Bach Musicians, Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, Trio With(out) and the Griffon String Quartet. He also composes music for Geneva Campus Church where he serves as Music Director. In 2023, his one-act operetta based on the life of Sarah Bernhardt received second place in The American Prize for composition.

Philip Bergman is a cellist, musician, and educator based in Northwest Illinois. Highlights of his wide-ranging career thus far include collaborating in performance with Yo-Yo Ma, sharing the stage with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with a chorus of ten thousand on national television in Japan, creating and implementing a residency of interactive performances in a memory care facility, soloing on Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, performing alongside rapper Vic Mensa, and playing under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner.

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.

Stoughton Violist & Violinist **Madlen H. Breckbill** lived in Berlin (Germany) for four years working as an orchestral trainee with *Konzerthaus* *Berlin*, as the violist of the TAÏGA String Quartet in Denmark and as a chamber music trainee with *Villa-Musica* in Rheinland Pfalz. As an orchestral player, Madlen toured China and Japan, and performed under the batons of Sir Roger Norrington, Leon Fleisher, Christian Eschenbach, & Ivan Fischer. As a chamber musician, Madlen has performed across Europe, Canada, and the US, collaborating with Martin Beaver, Ernst Kovacic, Steven Dann, and cellist Richard Lester (to name just a few).
Since her return, Madlen has performed with the Bach Dancing Dynamite Society, Midsummer Music, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, The Happenstancers in Toronto, West End Micro Music Festival, Madison Bach Musicians, and on countless recitals.
Madlen has performed as soloist with the Itasca Orchestra in Minnesota and UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of UW-Madison and the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, Madlen has studied with David Perry, Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, Erica Raum and Steven Dann. She recently completed a Masters in Viola performance at UW-Madison with Prof. Chisholm as a Collins Fellow.
Madlen founded the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival in 2019.

Cited for his “technical prowess [and] perfect conveyance of…wit, humor, and effect” (Sarasota Herald-Tribune), **Brad Cherwin** is one of “Toronto’s best young chamber musicians” (Bachtrack). His playing has been lauded as “astounding” and “a total success … as flexible in tone as possible” (Calgary Herald). Cherwin is a 2019 Dora Award winner for his performances as clarinetist in Vivier’s Kopernikus with Against the Grain Theatre. For the 2024/2025 season, Cherwin will act as Curator-in-Residence with Toronto’s Soundstreams as part of their *New Voices* programme for curators of contemporary music.
Highlights of Cherwin’s recent seasons included performances with Barbara Hannigan and Equilibrium Young Artists, and a sold-out European debut at Hamburg’s Tonali Saal with Ema Nikolovska, Hagar Sharvit, and Daniel Gerzenberg.
Cherwin is the Artistic Director of Toronto’s West End Micro Music Festival. Following two fully-sold out seasons, the festival returned for its 3rd season in November 2023 with ANACHROPHONIA. With four performances and some of Toronto’s boldest artists, ANACHROPHONIA featured music by Nahre Sol, Cassandra Miller, Linda Catlin Smith, J.S. Bach, and more. Performances of Thomas Adès’ *Alchymia —* recorded at the 2024 festival with the LeWitt Quartet — were recently featured on CBC Radio’s *About Time* with Tom Allen.
Cherwin is also the 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 thankful for the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the SOCAN Foundation, and FACTOR Canada in the presentation and development of his work.

Aaron Fried is a versatile cellist and music educator based in Madison. Recently Aaron has been heard on chamber music series such as Stoughton Opera House’s Music Appreciation series, Midsummer Music (Door County), and Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival (Alabama). Aaron has performed with The Boston Philharmonic,The Cleveland Opera, The Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Opera, and The Traverse Symphony Orchestra (Michigan). Last year, Aaron served as principal cello on “Mahler’s Liederabend” at Colorado Mahlerfest.
Dedicated to pushing the limits of the cello, Aaron is a member of the genre-bending UW Bridge Project and was a member of Cleveland-based Five One Experimental Orchestra. Aaron has appeared on several jazz albums, and recently his arrangements and compositions were heard at Cafe Coda’s Jazz Cello Happy Hour.
Currently Aaron is a Doctoral Candidate at UW-Madison, where he serves as a member of the Marvin Rabin String Quartet, teaches String Fundamentals to Music Education students, and leads cello sectionals for the All University String Orchestra. Aaron also serves as the cello section coach for four orchestras at the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) and is the director of the cello program at Fitchburg’s Eagle School. For the last two years, Aaron has served on the faculty at Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Aaron trained at The Boston Conservatory, and Kent State University, where he also served as adjunct faculty for three years.

Violinist **Jennifer Murphy** has performed in Carnegie Hall, New York, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, and the National Concert Hall, Ireland, and has had performances aired on BBC Radio (UK) and CBC (Canada). Solo engagements with orchestra include a performance of the Korngold Violin Concerto with Grammy award winning conductor Bramwell Tovey in Koerner Hall, Toronto, and Chausson’s Poème with
the RTÉ National Concert Orchestra and David Brophy.
As a chamber musician, Jennifer has performed alongside the Grammy award winning Attacca Quartet, and joined the Grammy nominated ARC Ensemble for a recent concert tour in Italy. Jennifer has performed works by Laurie Anderson, Magnus Lindberg, Osvaldo Golijov, and the Academy Award winning Hauschka, in collaboration with the composers. As first violinist of the Spero Quartet, she has performed around Ireland in
association with the National String Quartet Foundation. She has also performed in Australia, New Zealand and Canada as a chamber musician with Lincoln Center Stage, and was featured on the virtual Banff International String Quartet Festival in 2020. Festival performances include the Rockport and Stoughton Chamber Music Festivals (USA), the Clandeboye and West Cork Chamber Music Festivals (Ireland), Creative Dialogue (France),
Music by the Sea, Toronto Summer Music, Banff Centre Masterclasses, Domaine Forget, and West End Micro Music Festival (Canada). As an orchestral musician, Jennifer has played in the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ National Concert Orchestra (Ireland), the Ulster Orchestra (UK), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet Orchestra of Canada. Jennifer was one of seven emerging artists to be awarded a place in the 2016-2017 Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2014, where she was awarded a Masters in Violin Performance with distinction. She also holds degrees from the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, Toronto.

**Alex Norris** is happily immersed in a diverse and exciting life as a chamber musician. Currently he resides in Green Bay. Wisconsin as a member of the Griffon String Quartet. In addition to this, Alex is a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera and the Stoughton Music Festival, as well as the Quad City Symphony. Earlier chamber music experiences include being a guest artist with Red Cedar Chamber Music in Cedar Rapids, IA, and being a member of the Permian Basin String Quartet in Midland, TX. Alex has a strong background in orchestral playing as well, having formerly been a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and Principal Second Violin in the Illinois Symphony.

Cellist Jacob Nordlinger is an active performer and teacher currently based between Connecticut and New York City. He has a particular love for chamber music collaborations and won first prize in the Ruth Widder String Quartet Competition at Manhattan School of Music and the Fuchs Chamber Music Competition. Jacob has performed throughout New York in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space, The National Arts Club as well as the United Nations. He completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees at Manhattan School of Music, studying with David Geber and Julia Lichten, where he received the Hugo Kortschak Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chamber Music upon graduation. Jacob is currently a member of the Luminae Piano Trio which has been performing actively over the past few years. Recently they were recipients of the Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward Grant, The New York City Artist Corps Grant as well as prize winners in the Lancaster Chamber Music Competition and American Prize Competition in both the American music and chamber music categories. Jacob has attended music festivals such as Music Academy of the West, the Banff Centre and Festival Napa Valley. In February 2017, Jacob joined the faculty of the VerArte String Academy in Arequipa, Peru and is currently pursuing his Doctor of Music Arts degree under the tutelage of Sophie Shao at the University of Connecticut where he received a full scholarship and graduate assistantship as well as the Lenard Scholarship.