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GRANT PARK ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS. CARLOS KALMAR, principal conductor. CHRISTOPHER BELL, chorus director. presented by the CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT, THE CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, and THE GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION
   
 
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Celebrating the Festival´s 75th Anniversary in 2009

Click here to submit your fondest stories and remembrances, any of which could be used as part of a published history

2008 Season Schedule
Click here for full season schedule

June 2008
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30          
July 2008
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
August 2008
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

Grant Park Music Festival

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Chicago, IL 60601
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Neil Kimel Biography

A native of Chicago, Neil Kimel joined the Grant Park Symphony as its 2nd horn in 2000. Neil began his horn studies with first Mary and then Daniel Gingrich. Later, Neil attended the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee where he continued his horn studies with Barry Benjamin while he earned a BA in cinema studies with an English minor. While living in Milwaukee, Neil became the 3rd horn of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. He auditioned for and was invited to become a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, where he performed under the baton of music director Michael Tilson Thomas. During his tenure there, Neil recorded two orchestral CDs, performed in front of the orchestra in Schumann's Konzertstuck and Telemann's Concerto for Two Horns, traveled with the orchestra on tours of Central America and Europe and was a founding member of the Metropolis Winds woodwind quintet.

In previous summers, Neil has participated in many different festivals, including Spoleto USA, American/Russian Youth Orchestra, Kent/Blossom Chamber Music Festival, Utah Festival Opera, National Orchestral Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center where he was awarded the C.D. Jackson Memorial Prize and the Harry Shapiro Award for Outstanding Brass Playing.

Currently, Neil is the 2nd horn of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra as well as a frequent performer with many of Chicago's finest ensembles, including Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Philharmonic, Ars Viva, Ravinia Festival Orchestra and Lyric Opera of Chicago where he recently played horn and Wagner tuba on Wagner's complete Ring Cycle. Neil has recorded numerous TV commercial jingles as well as two CDs with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. In the winters, Neil is the associate principal horn of Florida’s Sarasota Opera Orchestra, and he has also performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and most recently, the Cleveland Orchestra, touring Vienna and playing Wagner tuba on Bruckner's Symphony No.7.

Neil resides in Evanston, and when he isn't playing his horn, he enjoys cooking and traveling with his wife Sandy as well as reading, racquetball, and movies.
 
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