Kathryn Hilger, Artistic Director
Violist Kathryn Hilger is a Kansas City based freelance musician and music educator. Ms. Hilger holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Viola Performance from the UMKC Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, respectively.
Currently, Ms. Hilger serves as the Artistic Director and Principal Violist for Midwest Chamber Ensemble, the Acting Principal Violist for the Topeka Symphony and regularly works as a substitute violist with the Kansas City Symphony.
When not performing, Ms. Hilger works as a Teaching Artist for Harmony Project KC, a non-profit organization that aims to provide deserving students with a path to higher education through free music instruction and community support. Ms. Hilger also maintains a small private studio.
Past achievements include: Solo performances with the Medical Arts Symphony and Midwest Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Coordinator for Midwest Chamber Ensemble, positions with the Lee’s Summit and Firelands Symphonies, viola instructor at the Cleveland School of the Arts, section viola in the National Repertory Orchestra and Principal Viola for the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute. Kathryn also has experience in stage managing, box office, string instrument repair and bookkeeping.
Grace Hemmer, Personnel Manager
Grace Hemmer began playing violin at the age of four studying with Milwaukee Symphony member Jerome Franke. She received her Bachelor of Violin Performance from the UMKC Conservatory, studying under Joseph Genualdi. Grace went on to earn her Master of Violin Performance from CU Boulder, studying under Takács Quartet founding member Károly Schranz. While at CU she participated in several masterclasses, including one with renowned violinist Augustin Hadelich. After graduating, Grace became the orchestra teacher at Boulder Valley Waldorf School. She continued performing with local groups such as Boulder Chamber Orchestra and Boulder Philharmonic. Grace recently moved back to KC and enjoys reading, hiking, and skiing.
Sara McClure, Musicologist
Sara has served as both the Music Director at Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie Village, KS, and the Artistic Director of Midwest Chamber Ensemble’s annual ChoralFest for over a decade. She is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Kansas and the Musicologist-in-Residence for MCE.
Sara has a wide range of research interests, but her dissertation focuses on classical music and elitism through a study of orchestral ensembles in nineteenth-century St. Louis. She has taught classes at KU, UMKC’s Flossie Pack Center for Lifelong Learning, and recently taught a course for first-semester students at UMKC. A native of the Philadelphia, PA, suburbs, Sara holds degrees in musicology and choral conducting from the College of William & Mary, East Carolina University, and UMKC.
Steve Lewis, Music Director Emeritus
Steve N. Lewis Jr. has enjoyed a diverse musical career as both a conductor and French hornist. Steve is the Music Director of the Medical Arts Symphony of Kansas City and is principal conductor of the Midwest Chamber Ensemble. Under his direction the Midwest Chamber Ensemble won Third Place in the American Prize. Lewis has collaborated with such guest artists as pianists Charl Louw, Mary Rose Norell, and Keith Kirchoff, French hornist Brett Hodge, soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson and countertenor Jay Carter. He has conducted the Kansas City Metro Opera, the Missouri Symphony, OvreArts (PA), the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, the Wilson Symphony (NC), the University of Central Missouri Orchestra, the Emporia State University Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra
As a French hornist Steve has performed at the Stamford International Music Festival (UK) and the Brevard Music Center (NC), as well as concerts with the Mahlerfest Orchestra (CO) and the Missouri Symphony.
Steve teaches musicianship and music business as a faculty member of the Institute of Audio Engineering Arts. From 2012-2013 Lewis served as conducting fellow of the Kansas City Youth Symphony where he led many rehearsals and coached the brass section. He also has a growing private studio of horn students.
Steve attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied French horn with David Jolley. Steve holds degrees from East Carolina University (BM, Theory/Composition) where he studied French horn with Mary Burroughs and the University of Missouri- Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (MM, Orchestral Conducting) where he studied conducting with Robert Olson and French horn with Ellen Campbell and Martin Hackleman. He was twice awarded the EAMA/Florence Gould Foundation Michael Iovenko Fellowship to study conducting in Paris as part of the European American Musical Alliance at the historic Schola Cantorum. While there Lewis received special mention in both solfege and counterpoint. Steve has attended the South Carolina Conductors Institute and the International Conductors Institute workshops in Round Rock Texas and New York. He has received career and continuing education grants from the ELCA Central States Synod, Anna Sosenko Trust, and the Koch Cultural Trust. His many arrangements for French horn and other ensembles are published by Cimarron Music.