“Chamber music – a conversation between friends.”
– Catherine Drinker Bowen
Experience classical music in a whole new way. The Shoreline Music Society transforms a concert experience into a conversation among friends. Your ticket brings you an up-close-and-personal experience with the music, Artistic Director Robert Nordling, and Shoreline’s world-class performers. Welcome to the conversation – welcome to the Society.
Looking for a good educational and team-building opportunity? Shoreline Music Society holds team-building workshops in Michigan and beyond. Participants are invited to engage with professional musicians from around the world. These workshops strengthen communities; participants will be encouraged to collaborate and communicate in new ways, leading to better work and school environments.
The Team
Robert Nordling serves as the Music Director of the Bandung Philharmonic (Indonesia), the Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival (Northern Michigan) and the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra (Chicago). Robert has appeared in orchestral performances across the world, and conducts orchestra clinics, music educational workshops and master classes in schools in the USA and abroad. He has served on the music faculty of the Calvin College Music Department and Trinity International University, where he conducted the orchestras and taught in the areas of music history, music appreciation and conducting.
A grand-prize winner of the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, Matt is the current Principal Trumpet of the Midland Symphony and Associate Principal trumpet of the Traverse Symphony. He is the Executive Director of the Beaver Island Performing Arts Alliance and Director of its annual Baroque on Beaver Festival (Beaver Island, MI).
Wendy Traschen is the strategic account director and principal at B+B Marketing Communications, a global business communications firm, based in Midland, Michigan. There, she pilots creative ideas with resounding drive and passion, the same creative vision she brings to Shoreline Music Society. She also co-owns a wine bar and restaurant.
Lauren Murphy is the principal bassoonist of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and the contrabassoonist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Lauren has participated in a number of summer music festivals, including Baroque on Beaver, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center Institute and Festival, the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, the Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, and the Thy Masterclass Chamber Music Festival in Denmark.
Susannah Thomas is a human resources director for The Dow Chemical Company, advising business executives on strategic Human Resources matters including talent management, leadership development, and organizational culture. With an MBA from Michigan State University in HR and Finance, Susannah has 15 years of management experience.
Amanda Sewell is the music director at Interlochen Public Radio, where she oversees the station’s 24-hour classical music service. She holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Indiana University. Her scholarship has appeared in music journals, encyclopedias, and textbooks, and her biography of American composer Wendy Carlos is available from Oxford University Press.