Deborah Sobol, Artistic Director
Deborah Sobol’s 30-year career in the arts world is comprised of distinctive elements in concert performance, arts advocacy and community building. In addition, she is a highly sought-after music educator and arts organization consultant.
She enjoys both a solo and chamber music career as a concert pianist, partnering in international venues with artists such as Larry Combs, Earl Wild, Nobuko Imai, Anner Bylsma, Gary Karr, Yang Wei, Mathieu Dufour, and Hila Plitmann. She has recorded for Cedille and Summit Records. Her articles on music and the piano have appeared in Clavier magazine and London’s Piano Journal. Ms. Sobol has also served as an adjudicator for the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe’s Intercollegiate Piano Competition.
As a veteran community builder, Ms. Sobol has conceived numerous out-of-the-box programs and organizations to both create community through great music and to redefine the ways in which music has traditionally been presented in communities. She was the founding artistic director of The Chicago Chamber Musicians in 1986, introducing to Chicago the then-unique concept of a mixed chamber ensemble of internationally recognized artists, sharing their gifts with a broad spectrum of citizens in Chicago. Under her tenure as artistic co-director and executive director, she brought the new organization to a place of critical acclaim in Chicago among traditional concertgoers and new audiences alike. Her creative vision fostered the establishment of ten distinct programs of artistic nurture, educational and community in-reach, recording and touring. Ms. Sobol’s leadership laid the groundwork for the national reputation the organization enjoys today, including Grammy nominations and nationally syndicated broadcasts on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.
Ms. Sobol repeated her role as innovative creator in establishing the nationally recognized Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral in 2000, a free summer-long series of “great music for busy lives,” which draws capacity crowds of over 400 attendees weekly, 20 % of whom are under the age of 40. Under her leadership as Artistic Director, Rush Hour Concerts was recognized by both the “Artbeat” series on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, and, in 2008, on the “What Works” series of the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Over the last decade, Rush Hour has come to serve as a model for attracting younger audiences and making great classical music more relevant to everyday life.
An educator and long-time advocate for improving arts education, Ms. Sobol will join the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University as Artist-Teacher of Piano in August 2009, and has previously held faculty posts in piano and chamber music at the Longy School of Music and Northwestern University School of Music. She was the architect of the award-winning arts education program of The Chicago Chamber Musicians for the Chicago Public Schools, as well as its Professional Development Fellowship Program for young professional ensembles, for which she continues to serve as career mentor.
Principal of Studio 1301, Ms. Sobol generates and implements ideas for new ways to bring the fulfilling experience of art into people’s everyday lives. She heads a studio in Chicago serving all ages, where she is in demand for private piano instruction, chamber music coaching, masterclasses and seminars. She authors a wide range of educational materials and works with arts organizations to generate clear vision and strategy.
Ms. Sobol graduated magna cum laude from Smith College and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. She received her Diplom in Klavier Konzertfach from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Vienna, and her pedagogy degree at London’s Royal College of Music. She was a member of the first public international masterclasses of Alfred Brendel in London in 1975. Her teachers have included Anne Liva, Lory Wallfisch, Hans Petermandl, Carola Grindea, and Leonard Shure.
Ms. Sobol served on the board of The Chicago Chamber Musicians from 1986 – 2005. She has further worked in the community through strategic planning for the St. James Cathedral Youth Ministry Program, planning events and directing fundraising projects for Near North Montessori and Phillips Academy Andover, and through her marketing and public relations, event planning, and media production volunteer work for the Arthritis Foundation.
She makes her home in Chicago with her husband, Dr. Rowland W. Chang. Together, they have two children.
Julie Hutchison, Managing Director
Julie Hutchison is Managing Director of Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral and Principal of Studio 1301.
Ms. Hutchison has served as Managing Director of Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral since 2004 and oversees marketing, public relations, audience development, and concert production. She was instrumental in creating the groundbreaking format of the Rush Hour series. She co-created Rush Hour’s innovative internship program in 2006 and founded Fanfare, a group of young professionals devoted to expanding Rush Hour’s outreach to new audiences, in 2007. Under her tenure, Rush Hour’s audience has increased 125% to a capacity crowd of 450 attendees weekly, 20 percent of whom are under age 40, and Rush Hour has gained national recognition through the “What Works” series on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and the “Artbeat” series on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. Ms. Hutchison found additional notable success in attracting a new community demographic through technological avenues, designing and programming the series’ website, blog, e-newsletters, and podcast series and launching the series’ innovative “In-A-Flash” initiative.
Ms. Hutchison co-founded Studio 1301 with Deborah Sobol in 2008 and brings great skill as an editor, connector of concepts and strategy, and creative organizer. She edits educational materials, manages the studio’s private instruction and immersion courses, and works with organizations to create success planning out of vision.
Ms. Hutchison graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in Film Scoring. Her work as a freelance music editor has included Buena Vista Pictures’ Under the Tuscan Sun and the independent film Little Erin Merryweather. A soprano, Ms. Hutchison performs with several Chicago choral ensembles, including the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus and the St. James Cathedral Choir, and appears on numerous independent rock albums. She has also taught voice, music theory, and composition privately.
Ms. Hutchison’s community volunteer work has included outreach projects through the Boston Arts Academy and Berklee Cares in Boston, the Bill Foundation in Los Angeles, and St. James Cathedral in Chicago. She and her husband, attorney William Chang, live in Chicago.
