Tentative Program

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
On Melancholy Hill - Gorillaz
Tormenta - Gorillaz (feat Bad Bunny)
DARE- Gorillaz
Some Kind Of Nature (feat Lou Reed) - Gorillaz
19-2000 - Gorillaz
The Narcissist - Blur
Song 2 - Blur
Girls & Boys - Blur
Tender - Blur
The Universal - Blur
Coffee & TV - Blur

The Artists

Janis Sakai has performed orchestral, chamber music, and solo works internationally. She has been studying the violin since the age of 5, winning numerous awards in competitions, and has performed with world-renowned artists such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Herbie Hancock, James Ehnes, Lang Lang, Radu Lupu, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, and Har Mar Superstar.

Janis currently serves as Concertmaster of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Concertmaster of Lakeview Orchestra, Associate Principal Second Violin of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and Section First Violin with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Janis also served as Co-Concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Prior to this, she performed with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan for three years. Since moving back to the U.S., Janis has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Music of the Baroque, Ensemble Dal Niente, the New World Symphony, and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, among others. Janis holds degrees from the University of Denver and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her primary teachers were Yumi-Hwang Williams and Detlef Hahn.

Violinist and co-founding member of the KAIA String Quartet, Naomi Culp is a dedicated performer and educator in the greater Chicago area. Culp has performed extensively throughout the United States and world wide in notable concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Perth Concert Hall in Australia, Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Symphony Center in Chicago. As first prize winner of the 2003 National Fine Arts Festival Competition in Washington, D.C., she performed in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

In 2011, Culp was invited to perform Schubert's Cello Quintet with Yo-Yo Ma for Chicago Symphony's Citizen Musician's Week at the Fortnightly Club of Chicago. As a member of the KAIA Quartet, she has worked with the Muir String Quartet and renowned composer, Joan Tower, during her residency at Utah Symphony's Deer Valley Music Festival.

With an extensive orchestral career, Culp served as Concertmaster of the Chicago Composer's Orchestra, Assistant Concertmaster of Miami Symphony, and as section player with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Chicago. Culp is an alumna of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago where she had the privilege of working with world renown conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Ricardo Muti and Gustavo Dudamel. Currently she performs as Principal Second with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago as well as the Northbrook Symphony.

Outside the classical world, Culp enjoys collaborating with other ensembles and artists in jazz, independent rock, folk, and world music projects. She has also performed with touring and local musical theatre productions in the Midwest area.

In addition to her performance career, Culp maintains a studio at DePaul University Community Music Division as well as her private studio in Northern Chicago. She has recently accepted the position of Academy Coordinator and Orchestra Manager for the Music Institute of Chicago Academy.

Culp holds a Master of Music degree from Northern Illinois University and Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Roosevelt University's Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Betty Haag, Desiree Ruhstrat, Yang Liu, Ilya Kaler and Mathias Tacke.

Dominic Johnson has called Chicago home for over 20 years, and hails originally from the Pacific Northwest. In the 90's he played viola in an indie-rock band based in the Midwest called rachel's, and subsequently felt the Windy City's magnetic pull inexorably draw him into its heady orbit. Career highlights have included co-founding and executive directing the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago from 2005-15, a solo show of his own work at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, and performances backing up artists like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and The Who. The 2020's have found Mr. Johnson often working from his home studio, employing skills honed over three seasons in the music department at Comedy Central's Emmy-nominated show Drunk History. Other recent activities have included arrangements, music direction, and live performance for Sudan Archives' 2020 NPR Tiny Desk concert, strings for Josh Whitehouse's song "Before Christmas" in Netflix's 2019 rom-com The Knight Before Christmas, and 2021-22 membership in the Grossman Ensemble at the University of Chicago. More about Dominic can be found at www.dominicjohnson.me.

Mara McClain, cello, is currently a freelance musician in the Chicago area. She was most
recently a member of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra from 2006-2018. Prior to her position with the Alabama Symphony, she attended the Cleveland Institute of Music in both the pre-
college Young Artists Program and for her Bachelor of Music studies. Her teachers were

Richard Aaron and Merry Peckham. She has participated in many summer festivals, including
the Aspen School of Music, Spoletto Festival USA, and the Pacific Music Festival. She served as principal cellist of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago before her appointment to the Alabama Symphony. She is currently a member of the Illinois Philharmonic and plays as a substitute cellist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Philharmonic and the Chicago Ensemble.