The IVSO Board

Peter Janssen, Peru, President
Richard Crum, Ottawa, Vice President
Terri McTaggart, Ottawa, Secretary
Peggy Etheridge, Peru, Treasurer
Larry Ault, Ottawa
Pamela Butler, Arlington
Laurel Maze, Peru
Niki Perrin Wujek, Troy Grove

General Manager/Personnel

Barbara Lukancic, Spring Valley

Endowment Manager

Joseph Wolf, LaSalle

Daniel Sommerville

The 18th music director and conductor of the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra is also professor of music at the Conservatory of Music of Wheaton College, where he directs the award-winning Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra and teaches conducting. As a conductor, he has collaborated with such notable artists as vocalists Sylvia McNair and Lawrence Brownlee, composers/pianists Marvin Hamlisch and Michael W. Smith, Broadway starJoel Grey, the Hubbard Street Dance Company II, jazz trumpeter Rob Parton, classical guitarist Ernesto Bitetti, and many of the outstanding faculty performers of the Conservatory of Music.

Dr. Sommerville grew up in Wisconsin and received his Bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. His masters and doctoral degrees are from Northwestern University, in conducting and composition. He has studied conducting with eminent conductors Sir Georg Solti, Herbert Blomstedt, Franz Allers, and John P. Paynter. Past conducting posts include the Elkhart County Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Westminster Chamber Orchestra (Illinois), and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Chicago. He has been guest conductor of the Sarajevo (Bosnia) Philharmonic, Marquette Symphony, DuPage Symphony, Fox Valley Symphony, and most recently Camerata Chicago. In addition, he is active as conductor and clinician for Illinois high school honors orchestras and festivals.

IVSO History and Mission

  Since their first season in 1949-50, the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra has been striving to fulfill its mission "to entertain and inspire the community by performing live orchestral music." Music from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary Periods has been prepared under the direction of seventeen conductors from the first, Russell Harvey (1949-60) to the Brazilian-born Lucia Matos (2009-2018) and beginning with the 2019-2020 season, Dr. Daniel Sommerville. Local and international soloists have appeared with the IVSO and traditions - including the annual Pops Concert and the bi-annual Nutcracker ballet - have developed over the years. The business and development of the orchestra are overseen by a Board of Directors made up of community members throughout the Illinois Valley.
 

     The vision of the IVSO involves engaging and educating the community. To meet this vision the annual Young Performers Competition and Concert was begun in 1968 encouraging Illinois Valley youth to audition as soloists and, if selected, perform with the orchestra. The first performance of Tchaikovsky's, The Nutcracker, in 1969, has lead to a performance of the ballet every other year with local dance academies supplying the dancers and choreographers. Community singers have also been engaged for periodic performances of Handel's, The Messiah, and other choral/symphonic works. Another ongoing educational program of the IVSO has the orchestra performing every year at area schools.
 

     The most ongoing vision of the IVSO, however, is to entertain "a growing audience by performing quality music." Symphonic works from the great masters to new composers provide the finest music from throughout music history and a variety of genres. Guest performances by local soloists and nationally and internationally acclaimed instrumentalists and vocalists provide the Illinois Valley audiences with the finest quality performers. Notes in the programs and comments from the conductor are designed to educate the IVSO audiences about the music they are hearing and the composers who wrote.

 
     Through a long and successful history the IVSO has "entertained and inspired the community by performing live orchestral music." As we look to the future the orchestra is constantly looking for the best musicians, the finest soloists and Board Members who continue the highest quality performances and work to inspire an ever growing audience.