Around the Music Festival

Two veteran Chicago Symphony Orchestra players will retire in September. James Ross, percussionist, and Loren Brown, cellist, have been with the orchestra for 45 and 39 years, respectively. Both joined the orchestra during the reign of its eighth music director, Georg Solti.

Ross joined the orchestra in 1979. His father was also a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s percussion section, working with the orchestra from 1954 to 1967 under its sixth music director, Fritz Reiner, and its seventh, Jean Martinon. He studied music at Northern Illinois University and spent six years with the Grant Park Orchestra before joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

He has participated in over 50 national and international tours, and in 1986 was the soloist in Milhaud’s “Concerto for Percussion” under the direction of Erich Reinsdorf. He just gave his last performance at the Ravinia Music Festival this past August 18. He is also a percussion coach for the Chicago Civic Orchestra and an adjunct instructor at Northwestern University and the Eastman School of Music.

Brown, on the other hand, joined the orchestra in 1985. Prior to that, he was principal cellist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. He has participated in more than 40 national and international tours, including the orchestra’s first tours of Russia and Australia, and in 1992 he took part in the orchestral premiere of David Ott’s “Concerto for Two Cellos. He has performed in concerts with the Silk Road Ensemble led by Yo-Yo Ma.

Both have worked with Solti, Daniel Barenboim, the 9th Music Director, Riccardo Muti, the 10th, Claudio Abbado, Principal Guest Conductor, Bernard Haitink, Chief Conductor, and Pierre Boulez, Chief Guest Conductor and Conductor Emeritus.

PHOTO：Chicago Symphony Orchestra