Espressivo Music for Violin and Organ Michal Sobieski has been a violinist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1979, and has also appeared with the SPCO as soloist and chamber musician. In 1994, he won praise as soloist in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons as a last-minute substitute for an ailing Iona Brown. He has performed on five Lifescapes Series recordings for Target Stores and taught violin at Gustavus Adolphus College from 1992 to 1996. Prior to joining the SPCO, Mr. Sobieski was concertmaster of the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, where he was first violin of the resident string quartet. He previously served as concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico and co-concertmaster of the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Sobieski graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Music and was a member of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and leader and soloist of the well-known Polish chamber orchestra, Con Moto Ma Cantabile. Under the auspices of the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Bureau, Mr. Sobieski made extensive tours of Poland as a soloist and recitalist. He came to the United States after winning a special diploma of honor at the 1970 Sibelius International Violin Competition and a subsequent fellowship to study at Indiana University. At Indiana he studied with Josef Gingold, served as Franco Gulli’s teaching assistant, and won the university violin competition. James Biery has served as Director of Music at the Cathedral of Saint Paul since 1996. Previously he held a similar position at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut. A Pi Kappa Lambda graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music in Evanston, Illinois, his principal organ teachers were Grigg Fountain and Wolfgang Rübsam. Mr. Biery holds the Choirmaster and Fellowship Certificates of the American Guild of Organists, winning the Fellowship Prize for his highest marks on the FAGO exam in 1986. He has over one hundred organ and choral compositions in print, published by MorningStar, Concordia, Augsburg Fortress, GIA, Oregon Catholic Press, and Boosey & Hawkes, and is the recipient of 2006, 2007, and 2008 ASCAPlus awards. He has recorded the music of Marcel Dupré for AFKA and Naxos. In August 2007, Mike and Jim played duo concerts in Poland and Germany. The Poland concerts were performed at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw (where Chopin’s heart is entombed) and the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Poznan (the oldest Cathedral in Poland). In Germany, they performed at the Quirinus Münster in Neuss, St. Paul’s sister city. Marilyn Biery is Associate Director of Music at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She is an organist, conductor, text writer, and composer. Her music is published by Alliance, Augsburg Fortress, Concordia, GIA and MorningStar. Twin Cities composer David Evan Thomas studied at Northwestern University, the Eastman School, and with Dominick Argento at the University of Minnesota. His work has been commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and published by ECS, Augsburg Fortress and MorningStar. A few years ago, he served as composer-in-residence at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. The Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of the nation’s most significant houses of worship. The cross at the top of the dome reaches to a height of 307 feet and the nave can accommodate nearly 3,000 worshipers. This vast acoustical space enhances music with its reverberation time of nine seconds. There are two pipe organs: a 1927 E. M. Skinner in the sanctuary and a 1963 Aeolian-Skinner in the gallery.