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Maureen Catherine Murchie was raised in Sendai, Japan, where she attended Japanese elementary and secondary schools. Upon graduation from Japanese senior high school, she attended Baylor University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree (magna cum laude) and Master of Music degree. Her doctoral work was in violin performance under Peter Schaffer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently teaches both academic and applied music at EIU, and serves as concertmaster of the Eastern Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Murchie has served as concertmaster of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, Baylor Opera Theater, the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and UI Opera Theater. She also served as Assistant Concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Principal Second Violin of Opera Illinois and the Sugar Creek Opera Festival, and as a member of the Sinfonia Da Camera. Recent solo performances include Vivaldi’s “Spring” concerto with the University of Illinois Chamber Orchestra and the principal viola solo in a performance of Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Danville Symphony Orchestra. In addition to her widely ranging orchestral experience, Ms. Murchie is also in demand as a chamber musician, both on violin and viola. She performs regularly with Kansas City-based Trio Fontana.
Violinist Terry Coulton is a native of Seattle Washington. She received a bachelor's degree in violin performance from Fort Wright College in Spokane Washington, where she was a student of Sr. Xavier Courvoisier. She holds a Master of Music degree in violin performance from the University of Notre Dame, having studied with Adrian Bryttan, and chamber music with Karen Buranskas and William Cerny. She has performed as a member of the Spokane Symphony, Elkhart Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Prairie
Ensemble, and Eastern Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Coulton is a member of Downstate Strings chamber ensemble, and was the second violinist in the LeVeck String quartet. She maintains a private violin studio at her home in Charleston, Illinois.
Elaine Fine grew up in Boston and has lived in Charleston, Illinois, since 1985. She began musical life as a violinist, but received a Bachelor of Music Degree in flute performance from The Juilliard School of Music where she studied with the late Julius Baker. After serving on the faculty of the Stadtmusikschule Schladming in Austria, she studied recorder with Hans Maria Kneihs at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, baroque flute in Boston with Christopher Kruger, and composition at Eastern Illinois University with Peter Hesterman.
She is on the reviewing staff of the American Record Guide, writes articles for the Instrumentalist magazine, has several articles published in Classical Music: Third Ear--The Essential Listening Companion, and has more than 50 of her own compositions published by the Seesaw Music Corp. in New York. In addition to being the principal violist of the Eastern Symphony Orchestra, Elaine teaches at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois, and is the program annotator for the New Philharmonic of Du Page county.
Benjamin Hayek, cellist and gambist, earned
both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in cello performance
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a student of Suren
Bagratuni. Currently enrolled in the DMA program at UIUC, he is studying
baroque performance practice with Charlotte Mattax and is a member of
the early music group Arte Bella. Ben enjoys performing orchestral works,
chamber music, opera, and early music in many central Illinois orchestras
and chamber ensembles. Ben is our most recent addition to our SHIP and
Collegium Musicum programs at EIU.
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