The Illinois Wind Symphony is the premier wind ensemble of the University of Illinois School of Music, comprising approximately sixty of the university’s most accomplished undergraduate and graduate musicians. Selected through competitive audition, its members represent a wide range of majors from both the School of Music and the broader university community.

Known for its artistry and versatility, the ensemble performs repertoire spanning cornerstone works of the wind band tradition, chamber music, and newly commissioned compositions. A strong commitment to contemporary music has led to recent collaborations with guest composers including Christopher Cerrone, Gala Flagello, Patrick Harlin, James Lee III, Joel Puckett, Hilary Purrington, Erik Santos, and Augusta Read Thomas, as well as guest artists Julian Bliss, Hub New Music, and Lindsay Kesselman, among many others.

The Wind Symphony has appeared at major venues and events throughout the United States, including performances at numerous ABA and CBDNA conventions, Chicago’s Symphony Center, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. Alumni of the Illinois Wind Symphony serve in major orchestras, premier military bands, and university faculties throughout the United States and abroad.

Kevin M. Geraldi is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Illinois, where he conducts the Illinois Wind Symphony and leads the graduate program in wind conducting. Before joining the Illinois faculty in 2022, he served for seventeen years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as Director of Instrumental Ensembles and Professor of Conducting.

Geraldi has conducted performances throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and is active as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. Ensembles under his direction have appeared at national and state conferences and have released recordings on the Equilibrium, Centaur Records, and JustinTime labels. He has collaborated with numerous composers and performers and is committed to commissioning and presenting new works for wind band and chamber ensemble.

He is co-author of The Elements of Expressive Conducting, a textbook used in undergraduate conducting courses across the United States. His articles on conducting, rehearsal techniques, and repertoire have appeared in leading professional publications, and he has contributed conductor’s guides to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series.

A native of Elmhurst, Illinois, Geraldi holds degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan, where he studied conducting with Michael Haithcock and H. Robert Reynolds. He is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and other leading professional organizations dedicated to conducting and music education.

Lindsay Kesselman is a twice GRAMMY-nominated soprano recognized for her work as a performer, educator, and advocate for contemporary music. She collaborates regularly with orchestras, wind ensembles, chamber groups, opera companies, and new music organizations throughout the United States, and has premiered more than 100 works written for her by living composers.

Kesselman has performed a wide range of contemporary repertoire, including Christopher Cerrone’s Darkening, then Brightening, Caroline Shaw’s Is a Rose, Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and John Mackey’s vocal works with orchestras and wind ensembles across the country. Her operatic appearances include roles in works by Kurt Weill, Mark Lanz Weiser, Amy Beth Kirsten, Louis Andriessen, and Philip Glass.

Kesselman has served as resident soprano of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for more than a decade and is a founding member of HAVEN, a chamber ensemble with clarinetist Kimberly Cole Luevano and pianist Midori Koga. Through HAVEN, she has helped commission and tour new works throughout North America, including projects supported by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition and Chamber Music America.

In addition to her performance career, Kesselman is Assistant Professor of Voice and Choral Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches voice and conducts the UNCG Treble Ensemble. She is also co-director of the Heretic’s Guide to Musicianship, a score study and interpretation workshop for performers and conductors. Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance and music education from Rice University and Michigan State University.

Founded in 2013, Hub New Music is one of today’s leading contemporary music ensembles. The quartet—flute, clarinet, violin, and cello—has expanded its repertoire through more than two dozen commissions from many of today’s most celebrated composers, presenting programs built exclusively around works written for the ensemble.

Hub has appeared at major venues and festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including performances presented by Tanglewood, the Seattle Symphony, the Morgan Library, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, King’s Place in London, and the Celebrity Series of Boston. Recent collaborations and commissions have featured composers including Angélica Negrón, Nico Muhly, Tyshawn Sorey, Donnacha Dennehy, Christopher Cerrone, Carlos Simon, and Kati Agócs.

The ensemble’s recordings have received widespread critical acclaim. Its album Requiem for the Enslaved with Carlos Simon received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Classical Composition, while earlier releases have been praised for their artistry, imagination, and emotional depth.

In addition to its performance activities, Hub is widely recognized for its educational work, serving in residencies at leading universities and developing innovative programs that connect composers, performers, and students through creative collaboration.

Michael Avitabile is a flutist, entrepreneur, and educator dedicated to contemporary music. He is Founder and Executive Director of Hub New Music, a Boston-based mixed quartet (flute, clarinet, violin, cello) recognized as a leading ensemble in new music performance and commissioning.

Avitabile’s work as an educator focuses on arts entrepreneurship and organizational development for musicians. His workshops address topics such as self-management, nonprofit infrastructure, commissioning models, and building sustainable artist-led organizations. He has presented at institutions including Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Colorado Boulder, New England Conservatory, and the University of Texas at Austin.

As a performer, he has collaborated with composers including Harrison Birtwistle, John Zorn, Brett Dean, and Christian Wolff, and has performed with ensembles such as the National Repertory Orchestra, Banff Festival Orchestra, and New World Symphony. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan and New England Conservatory, where he received honors including the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music. Avitabile is a Haynes Flutes Artist.

Jesse Christeson is a cellist active as a performer, educator, and chamber musician. He is a member of Hub New Music and currently serves as Principal Cellist of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, a position he also previously held with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Christeson is a founding member of the Inaugural Piano Trio in Jackson, Mississippi, and performs regularly with ensembles including New JXN, Phoenix, and the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra. His earlier professional work included an active freelance and teaching career in Houston, where he performed with the Houston Grand Opera and Bach Society of Houston choruses and maintained a private cello studio and teaching positions in local schools.

Christeson has appeared at major summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Brevard Music Center, and the National Orchestral Institute. At Tanglewood, he performed with the New Fromm Players and in festival orchestra settings. He holds a Master of Music degree from Rice University, where he studied with Norman Fischer, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Stetson University, where he studied cello with David Bjella and also pursued studies in voice and philosophy.

Gleb Kanasevich is a clarinetist, composer, and improviser whose work spans contemporary classical music, experimental electronics, and noise-based practices. He frequently performs with modified instruments and feedback systems, often incorporating minimal electronic processing in solo and collaborative contexts. Kanasevich has worked across a wide range of genres, collaborating with chamber ensembles, improvisers, experimental musicians, and heavy music artists. His recordings include Asleep (Unknown Tapes) and Subtraction (Flag Day Recordings), both of which received critical attention in experimental music circles.

As a composer, his work has been commissioned by ensembles including Ensemble Intercontemporain, Callithumpian Consort, and No Exit New Music Ensemble. In 2020, he released Capacity, an improvisation project for modified recorder and amplified guitar, issued as a limited edition lathe-cut vinyl release. Subsequent works expanded into composed pieces for cello and bass clarinet, commissioned by ensembles including NakedEye Ensemble and Cultural Council of Australia–supported projects.

Kanasevich has been a member of Ensemble Cantata Profana since 2013 and later served as Associate Artistic Director. He has also worked in curatorial and media roles, including contributions to ScoreFollower. In 2021, he founded Unknown Tapes as a platform for experimental and improvisatory music, later evolving it into a community-focused recording initiative. He has been a member of Hub New Music since 2022.

Magnolia “Meg” Rohrer is a violinist and violist specializing in contemporary and experimental chamber music. They are a member of Hub New Music and also performs regularly with Virago, a Michigan-based quartet combining contemporary chamber music and free improvisation, and appears in additional collaborative projects including string quartets, improvising duos, and electronic music settings. Their work spans structured contemporary repertoire, improvisation, and electroacoustic performance, including solo projects exploring microtonality and live processing.

As an orchestral and solo performer, Rohrer appears regularly with ensembles such as the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and has served as guest concertmaster with the Michigan Philharmonic. Their concerto appearances include performances in the United States and internationally, including Taiwan and Thailand.

Rohrer is also active as an educator, with training in the Suzuki method and influences from multiple contemporary pedagogical traditions. They have taught and led workshops through organizations including the Sphinx Organization, Crescendo Detroit, the Crowden Music Center, Interlochen Arts Camp programs, and community-based music initiatives in Detroit, Flint, and Ypsilanti, with a focus on improvisation and creative musicianship. They hold a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University.