CCPA Symphony Orchestra

Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) Symphony Orchestra presents a concert under the direction of CCPA Orchestra Director Stephen Squires. This performance also features CCPA Student Solo Competition Winner, Sava Velkoff, in Bartók’s Viola Concerto. For more information about CCPA, visit roosevelt.edu/ccpa.

Program

Essay No. 1, Op. 12 – Samuel Barber
Viola Concerto – Béla Bartók, featuring Sava Velkoff, viola
Symphony No. 8 – Antonín Dvořák

—

Stephen Squires is a musician with a career that blends his passions for conducting, teaching, and performing. Mr. Squires has had the honor to conduct for many exceptional artists, including Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, Janos Starker, Pinchas Zuckerman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, John Browning, Leon Bates, Stewart Goodyear, Richard Stoltzman, Ani Kavafian, Wendy Warner, James Tocco, Kevin Cole, Vadim Gluzman and most of the principal players of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera Orchestras. Fully committed to conducting the music of living composers, he has premiered well over 100 new works.

Mr. Squires received his musical training at the Preparatory School of the Eastman School of Music and the Crane School of Music, in his home state of New York. He earned his Master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting/Trumpet Performance at California State University, Northridge. Further conducting studies were with Helmuth Rilling, Maurice Abravanel, Daniel Lewis, Tsung Yeh, and at the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Squires has conducted recordings for the Delos, Spring Hill (a division of EMI), MEDR, Editions de la Rue Margot, MSR Classics, Albany, and Centaur labels.

Professor of Conducting in the Music Conservatory at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University, he currently serves as the Director of the Orchestra and Wind Ensemble programs. Prior to this appointment he served on the artist faculty of the Northern Illinois University School of Music for nineteen years, where he received the prestigious “Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.”

Mr. Squires’ current professional appointments include Music Director of the Fox Valley Orchestra (Aurora, IL), Music Director of the Millar Brass (Evanston, IL), and Music Director of the Illinois Brass Band (Arlington Heights, IL). He is the former Resident Conductor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and former Music Director of the Illinois Chamber Symphony. Mr. Squires has guest conducted the Chicago Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, the Columbus (OH) Symphony, and the Chicago Composers Orchestra. In addition, he is an accomplished recital accompanist and frequent guest conductor at educational festivals throughout the country.

—

Sava Velkoff is a Violist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She attended Western Michigan University where she studied with Professor Igor Fedotov and graduated with her Bachelor of Music in 2022. She has studied with Li-Kuo Chang, Roger Chase, Igor Fedotov, and Lawrence Newman at Roosevelt University’s CCPA and graduated in the Spring of 2024 with a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Studies.

Sava has participated in multiple summer music festivals including the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, the Vienna Summer Music Festival, the Berlin Opera Academy, and the Opera Festival of Chicago. Sava displays her passion for leadership by sitting principal violist in the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra, and previously in the Roosevelt University CCPA Symphony Orchestra. For two seasons, Sava was awarded a position in the viola section of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra through Western Michigan University’s Artist Scholar Program. In 2021, Sava won the position of Assistant Principal Violist of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra. Sava is a current member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and won a position with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in Fall of 2023.

Sava has performed in masterclasses led by outstanding musicians such as Adrian Anantawan, Roger Chase, Paul Coletti, Jameson Cooper, Gela Dubrova, Vladimir Dyo, Mark Holloway, Scott St. John, Peter Leonard, Jun-Ching Lin, Paul Neubauer, Lawrence Neuman, Ellen Rose, Yizhak Schotten, Phil Setzer, Paul Swantek, Sophie Tang, Steven Tenenbom, Hellen Weiβ, and MingHuan Xu.

Sava was the winner of the 2016 Kent Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition, the 2017 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and was the first Student in Western Michigan University’s history to have won the Western Michigan University Concerto Competition in two consecutive years 2021 and 2022.