Artistic Leadership
Christopher Ramaekers, Principal Conductor
Christopher Ramaekers is currently Director of Orchestras at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Associate Conductor of the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Davis Theater Concert Series for Access Contemporary Music. During the 2018-2019 season he was Interim Assistant Conductor of the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Quad-City Youth Orchestras. He has been Music Director of the Orchestra of St. Vincent’s and the Hyde Park Youth Symphony, Principal Conductor of the Ravenswood Community Orchestra, and spent 9 summers as Director of Orchestras at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the Kalamazoo Symphony, Skokie Valley Symphony, Salt Creek Chamber Orchestra, Lake Forest Civic Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Opera Vanguard, and internationally with the Berlin Sinfonietta.
Dr. Ramaekers has held fellowships with the Allentown (PA) Symphony Orchestra and the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, WI. He was winner of the 2011 American Prize in Orchestral Conducting and holds degrees from Western Michigan University and Northwestern University.
Mindy Taranto, Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director
Mindy Taranto and Larry Bevic have enjoyed close to 30 years each playing clarinet in community orchestras and chamber groups in the Madison area. They decided to start the MCO in 2010 when they had the confidence the community had both the players and the audience to support such an undertaking. Well connected to the local music community and with great motivation, it was nonetheless a significant commitment, which has proved to be as successful as it has been rewarding.
Mindy fell in love with the clarinet at a young age and started playing in seventh grade. Prior to founding the MCO, Mindy enjoyed a long career lobbying and negotiating contracts on behalf of public sector workers, while continuing to perform with local and community ensembles in and around Dane County. Her labor relations career ended with Wisconsin Act 10, allowing her to devote herself full time to running the MCO and playing her clarinet. Her work in labor advocacy has served her well in her efforts to keep an orchestra of close to 100 musicians happy most of the time, and ideally all of the time
Larry Bevic, Co-Artistic Director and Executive Consultant
Larry’s two-year study at the UWM School of Music was interrupted by a thirty-year career in structural engineering. He became principal bridge engineer and project manager with a regional consulting firm. Also during this time, he continued to play clarinet in bands and community orchestras. He changed directions again when he left the technical world and owned and managed a hardwood lumberyard for more than seven years. He also established a custom furniture business.
While playing in a community orchestra, he had the good fortune to meet Mindy. Eventually, Larry sold his business and put the furniture making aside. He then suggested that Mindy and he start their own orchestra. The rest is history.
Kaleigh Acord, Concertmaster
Violinist Kaleigh Acord completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music in December 2020. At UW, she was a student of Soh-Hyun Park Altino and a recipient of the Paul Collins Fellowship. Kaleigh holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, as well as a Masters of Music and an Undergraduate Diploma from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. She was a recipient of Peabody’s Valerie Slingluff Violin Scholarship for the 2016-17 year. Her previous teachers include Violaine Melancon and Laura Bossert. In March 2014, she made her radio debut on WQXR’s McGraw Hill Financial Young Artist Showcase playing Schoenfield’s Souvenirs for Violin and Piano. Notable chamber music collaborations include those with the Hausmann Quartet, cellist Michael Kannen, and Tchaikovsky International Gold Medalist Sergey Antonov. Her debut album of unaccompanied violin works, Twenty-First Century American Storytellers, is now available to stream through Spotify.
Thomas Kasdorf, Artist in Residence and Artistic Advisor
Thomas Kasdorf is a collaborative pianist inspired by connections through various art forms merging through the piano. Active in the fields of chamber music, art song recital, opera, and musical theatre, he has concertized throughout the US and Canada. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in May 2020 at the Mead Witter School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a Paul Collins Distinguished Fellow. He currently serves on the faculty as the music director and opera coach for UW Opera’s productions.
Thomas has long held an interest in musical theatre. He has performed in over 200 productions as an actor, pianist, musical director, stage director, and conductor. With a special interest in the works of Stephen Sondheim, he has been called upon to prepare productions or perform in reduced orchestrations in Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Putting it Together, Side by Side by Sondheim and Sweeney Todd. He is currently Artistic Director of Middleton Players Theatre (MPT) in Middleton, Wisconsin, where he resides.
Thomas has performed a major piano concerto annually with the Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO) since its inception in 2010 and has also engaged the orchestra to collaborate in staged productions of Carousel and Sweeney Todd with MPT.
Support Team
Audrey Lanners, Graphic Designer
Audrey Lanners is a graphic designer and creative director in Minneapolis, MN. Originally from Middleton, Audrey graduated from Middleton High School and attended the University of Minnesota. She grew up playing piano, and played bassoon in band and orchestra through college. She has a deep love for music and was thrilled when Mindy contacted her in 2010 to design a logo for the newly-formed Middleton Community Orchestra. Audrey currently owns her own freelance design business, and enjoys working for a variety of clients in the midwest.
Alex Ford, Recording Engineer
Alex Ford is an IT and music professional in Verona, WI who loves to combine his tech and music worlds doing music production. Alex grew up in Iowa playing piano since the age of 3, started playing trombone in middle school, then added organ after the church organist joked that he would replace her graduating organ student. He studied church music and Management Information Systems at Luther College where he had the opportunity to learn ensemble recording from Bruce Larson, formerly of Minnesota Public Radio. After moving to the Madison area for work, Alex was an inaugural member of the trombone section of the Middleton Community Orchestra but transformed into the recording engineer when he launched Classical Music Solutions. He has since made a guest appearance on organ for Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3. Alex is also an active church musician and maintains a day job in IT.
Steven Wilke, Website Designer
Steven Wilke is currently a Senior at Northwestern University pursuing degrees in Economics and Violin Performance, studying with Professor Blair Milton. Active in the Madison-area music scene from a young age, Steven was concertmaster of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras in 2019 after having been a member for 8 years. Additionally he was concertmaster of the Madison West High School orchestra in 2019 and concertmaster of the WSMA State Honors Orchestra in 2018. Outside of music he enjoys hiking, reading, and cooking.
Brian Ruppert, Photographer and Digital Archivist
Brian Ruppert works as an IT Systems Engineer for a Madison-based communications company. His wife Erin is a violinist in the orchestra, and he has enjoyed capturing images of the orchestra over several years and a variety of locations. Outside of work, family, and photography, Brian enjoys volunteering with various local groups, and was the 2015 PBS Wisconsin Volunteer of the Year.
Dave Alcorn, Videographer
Dave Alcorn is a digital marketing specialist and videographer with a focus on the performing arts. He has recorded over 500 concerts and performances and has created videos and promotional material for a wide range of music, theatre, and dance groups in Wisconsin. With a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in percussion performance, Dave has a unique perspective for video creation. Dave is the Director of Digital Marketing at Overture Center for the Arts and the President of Microtone Media.