Rico McNeela, viola, and Robert Ballinger, piano
December 2, 2005
Rico McNeela is Director of Orchestral Studies and the conductor of the University of Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his conducting duties, he is the violinist in the Toledo Trio and teaches studio violin and viola. He came to the University of Toledo in the fall of 2002 from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville where he taught for 18 years. He has also taught at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, and at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA.
Mr. McNeela studied at the Cleveland Institute with David Cerone and Linda Sharon, and also at the University of Michigan with Paul Makanowitzky and Eugene Bossart. He has performed extensively throughout the United States as conductor, and in solo and chamber music. He has performed in The Hot Springs Music Festival, the Arkansas Music festival, the Allegheny Music Festival. He has been concertmaster of The North Arkansas Symphony, The Fort Smith Symphony, the Kalamazoo Symphony, and the Canary International Opera Festival.
Robert Ballinger is widely known to audiences throughout the area as a conductor, solo pianist, chamber musician, accompanist/ coach, lecturer, adjudicator and violist. A graduate of DeVilbiss H.S., he attended the University of Miami (Fla.), and holds degrees from the University of Toledo (cum laude) and Northwestern University, where he was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the national musical honorary society, with further studies at the University of Michigan.
In his capacity as Lecturer at the University of Toledo he serves as Director of The Opera Workshop, Staff Accompanist, Instructor of Accompanying and classroom presenter in Music History and Literature and Music Theory. Additionally, he served nine seasons as Music Director/Conductor of the Sylvania (formerly JCC) Community Orchestra, often featuring University of Toledo faculty and alumni as soloists.
Mr. Ballinger's artist/teachers have included Frederick Fennell, Robert Porter, Frederick Ockwell and Bernard Rubenstein (conducting), as well as Helen Blanchard, Rosalina Sackstein, Paul Schoenfield, Wanda Paul, John Browning and Theodore Lettvin (piano). Described as "both fiery and sensitive; equally comfortable in widely divergent styles," he has performed throughout the Midwest, Florida, Central and South America, and is a member of the College Musical Society and The Conductors’ Guild. |