Music Director

Benjamin Firer joined the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts in August 2025 as Assistant Professor of Conducting.  Firer’s multifaceted role at CCPA includes directing the orchestras, conducting the opera theatre, and teaching conducting.

Based in Chicago, he also serves as Music Director of the Harper Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of Harmonie North. Guest conducting engagements for the 2025–2026 season include Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra, Lake Forest Civic Orchestra, Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra, Williamsport Symphony Orchestra and cover conducting the Orlando Symphony Orchestra. 

A dynamic and sought-after guest conductor, Firer has appeared with orchestras nationally and internationally, including the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra (Hungary), Milwaukee Symphony, Altoona Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, DuPage Symphony, Miami Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, and Orchestre de la Francophonie (Canada). He has also served on the conducting staff of the Quad Cities Symphony, Dubuque Symphony, and Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra.  He previously directed collegiate orchestral programs at Northeastern Illinois University, Penn State University, Juniata College and Lewis University.  Firer serves as a conducting mentor with the Illinois Council of Orchestras devoted to supporting budding orchestral conductors and music educators.

Passionate about inspiring the next generation of musicians, Firer has held conducting positions with several of the nation’s leading youth orchestras, including the New York Youth Symphony, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, and the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies. Engaged as a teaching artist through the Yale University Music in Schools Initiative, he taught at the John C. Daniels Magnet School while serving as Music Director of the Yale-Saybrook College Orchestra.

Firer’s contributions have been recognized by numerous awards and fellowships. He was recently awarded “Orchestra of the Year” by the Illinois Council of Orchestras for his leadership of the Quad City Symphony Youth Orchestra, and is the recipient of the 2024 Williamson Music Education Grant.  He has been named an Emerging Conductor with the Peninsula Music Festival, Associate Conductor at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and a Conducting Fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival.  Additionally he was a scholarship recipient at the National Orchestral Institute, Chautauqua Music Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival and Norfolk New Music and Chamber Music Festivals.  

Equally at home in the operatic world, Firer has conducted fully staged productions of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Copland’s The Tender Land, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Walton’s The Bear and Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein.

Other distinctions include The American Prize in Conducting, the Woolsey Concerto Competition, Yale Chamber Music Competition, the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, the Long Island University Conductors Award, the SUNY Thayer Fellowship in the Arts, and the Emma Peters Hooper Endowed Award. As an orchestral musician, he has recorded on the Naxos and Albany labels.  Firer holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University and a Master’s Degree from Yale University.

Ever since music became his passion at the age of 10, Jim Stephenson has enjoyed a wonderful trifecta of professional musical careers: performer, composer, conductor.

Fresh out of college, he joined the Naples (FL) Philharmonic as its youngest member to date, where he would continue as professional trumpeter for another 17 seasons. It was during his time there that he discovered another musical outlet: composition.

As a composer, Jim Stephenson's music has been described as "astonishingly inventive" (Musical America) and "deserving to be heard again and again" (Boston Herald). Foremost in his style is the ability to create music that resonates with musicians and audiences alike.  Since becoming a full-time composer in 2007, he has enjoyed premieres in all walks of the musical landscape, including The Chicago Symphony (Muti), San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Boston Pops, and "The President's Own" US Marine Band. The latter premiered his "Fanfare for Democracy" at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden.

Other orchestras premiering Stephenson's works include the Minnesota Orchestra (twice), St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and many others. The one-act comedy opera, Cåraboo - "the true story of a false princess" - premiered in June, 2023, marking his first foray into the world of opera. Recent projects include his fifth symphony, a piano concerto, several overtures, and two new forthcoming concertos.

His award-winning catalog currently contains five symphonies (the 2nd being performed over 50 times around the world), and concertos and sonatas written for nearly every instrument, with premieres having been presented by renowned musicians across the globe. Using music to tell a story is a foremost and recent passion, fueling his growing catalog in opera and ballet. His educational work for young audiences, "Once Upon a Symphony", is also indicative of that, having received nearly 400 performances world-wide. He will compose "Orchestral Odyssey" his newest young-audience work, during the 2025-26 season.

A conductor as well, Stephenson has led orchestras such as the Traverse City Philharmonic, the Chattanooga Symphony, Boston Pro Arte, and symphonies of Modesto, Southwest Florida, Bozeman, among others. He recently had his conducting debuts at the New England Conservatory (his alma mater), and the Oregon Ballet Theatre. This season marks his first appearance with the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra.

Stephenson resides with his wife, Sally, in Lake Forest, IL, and is the proud father of four beautiful children. He spends his non-composing time traveling, doing athletic activity of almost any kind, sometimes mowing the lawn, sometimes shoveling snow, and sampling good wine with good friends.

Benjamin Klemme is Associate Professor of Music and Symphony Orchestra Conductor at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. 

Previously, he was a music faculty member at Gordon College, Associate Conductor at the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor at the Cleveland Pops and National Repertory Orchestras. He directed the university-wide Campus Orchestra program at the University of Minnesota and served as Orchestra Conductor at Augsburg University. He was the founding Music Department Chair at New Mexico School for the Arts and has been Music Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association, and Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles. 

Klemme studied conducting with Mark Russell Smith, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Carl Topilow, Louis Lane, and Rebecca Burkhardt, and holds degrees in conducting from the University of Minnesota and Cleveland Institute of Music, and a degree in music education from the University of Northern Iowa.

Nicholas L. Wallin is a Professor of Music at Lake Forest College where he conducts the orchestra and teaches other courses, primarily in music theory. In addition to his faculty position at Lake Forest College, Wallin recently stepped down after serving for 17 seasons as the Music Director and Conductor of the Mid-Columbia Symphony in Richland, WA. He holds degrees from Northwestern University, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and the University of Minnesota.

Wallin has conducted numerous ensembles across the country including the Spokane (WA) Symphony and Hartford (CT) Opera Theater. He has served as guest conductor or adjudicator for orchestras and music festivals across Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. His conducting teachers have included Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, Akira Mori, and Craig Kirchhoff, and he has conducted in workshops and masterclasses for numerous leading conductors, including Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Gunther Schuller.

He and his wife, Alice Swan, live in Evanston, IL with their rescue dogs, Bella and Milo.