"It's Time to Play"
Stringing the generations together!
Guest Conductors/Artists
Meet WIO's Guest Conductors
Jonathan Winkle - December 2024
Jonathan Winkle is an accomplished educator, conductor, trombonist, and arts administrator.
Mr. Winkle’s conducting experiences range from serving as the current Co-Director of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s (MYSO) Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, to Music Director of the Carthage College Chamber Orchestra and University of North Texas Brass and Percussion Ensemble, and Artistic Director and Conductor of Cathedral Brass. He currently serves as the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra’s Assistant and Cover Conductor for the annual Nutcracker production. He has guest conducted various ensembles at MYSO, the Carthage College Wind Ensemble, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Symphony Band and Wind Ensemble. Mr. Winkle has taught conducting courses at the college level, and also privately.
As an arts administrator, Mr. Winkle currently is Executive Director of the Racine Symphony Orchestra. He has held positions as Executive & Artistic Director of Performance Santa Fe, President & CEO of the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, and Executive Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. He also served as Vice President of Community Engagement for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to having performed regularly as a substitute/extra musician with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, he performed with Present Music for 20 years, and has held tenor trombone and bass trombone positions with the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Breckenridge Chamber Orchestra, Waco Symphony Orchestra, Los Colinas-Garland Symphony Orchestra, East Texas Symphony Orchestra, Waukesha Symphony Orchestra, Music Under the Stars, Knoxville Wind Symphony, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Racine Symphony Orchestra, and Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the East Side Jazz Orchestra in Dallas-Fort Worth, Director of the Starliner Big Band, and performed regularly with the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra. He has performed for many of the national touring Broadway productions as part of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts series over the past 27 years.
Mr. Winkle was the Manager of the Edwards Instrument Co., a division of the Getzen Company, where he participated directly in instrument design, sales and marketing, and worked intensively with members of the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and many others.
Mr. Winkle serves as the President the Board of Directors for the Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras (AWSO). Previously, he has served on the Board’s and Executive Committee’s of the International Trombone Association, Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation, Arts Wisconsin, Present Music, Civic Music Association of Milwaukee, and Kenosha Symphony Orchestra.
John H. Steinke - December 2024
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John H. Steinke is a retired musician and music educator. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in music performance and a Master of Music degree in conducting.
His performance experience covered a broad range of styles and venues. Besides serving as Principal trombonist with the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra for nearly three decades, he played many years with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison, the Waukesha Symphony, and the Newberry Brass Quintet.
Odd career memories that stand out include his years playing in the pit at the old Melody Top Theater, the Holiday On Ice shows, Liberace, and some of the very first Summerfest events (before permanent plumbing was
a thing). My mentors taught me music is an art, but they never warned me it would be such an incredible adventure.
Julie Stringer - Composer/Conductor
Ms. Stringer studied viola with Bernard Zaslave of the Fine Arts Quartet, earning a BFA degree in Music Education. She began graduate course work in music technology at the Vander Cook College of Music in Chicago and in 1998 completed a Master of Education Degree in Educational Computing at Cardinal Stritch University. Her teaching career of thirty-three years included the Suzuki Method (K-3) as well as a traditional program fourth through twelfth grade. In 1985, together with colleague Judy Halat, she founded the West Allis-West Milwaukee Strolling String ensemble. Beside traveling to Strolling String gatherings in Oklahoma City, Newburg, New York, Minneapolis and St. Louis with their students, they hosted both Regional and National Strolling String events in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ms. Stringer has arranged for solo violin over synthesized backup, String Orchestra for several different levels and recently, began to compose her own pieces for String Orchestra. She is a member of the American String Teachers Association and performs with the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra.