About Chamber Music on the Fox

Sara Sitzer
Executive Director and Artistic Director
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Sara Sitzer, whose playing has been described as “rich” and “lustrous” by the Chicago Classical Review, is an active and versatile freelance cellist and entrepreneur in Chicago. A member the Elgin Symphony, Sara also performs regularly with orchestras and ensembles including the Milwaukee Symphony and Chicago Opera Theater, as well as on Broadway in Chicago.  Ms. Sitzer is founding Artistic Director of the Gesher Music Festival in St. Louis, MO, and founding Co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music on the Fox in Elgin, IL. She spends her summers performing and teaching at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sara holds performance degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Boston University, and completed a 3-year fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Mark Fry
Director of Operations and Artistic Director
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Mark Fry is currently the acting bass trombonist of Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as the bass trombonist of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Lake Forest Symphony and Chicago Philharmonic. Mr. Fry performs regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta and Chicago Opera Theater.  He has performed with numerous orchestras in the United States, including Grant Park Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra (Oregon), Sarasota Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. In the summer of 2001, he performed in the orchestra of the Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy.  Before moving to Chicago, he was the bass trombonist of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra in Honolulu.  Mr. Fry has recorded with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Mannheim Steamroller, New Black Music Repertory Ensemble and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra.  In addition to being a founding artistic director of Chamber Music on the Fox, he is also the trombone instructor at Elgin Community College.

Kelly Langenberg
Education Director
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Kelly Langenberg (M.M., De Paul University, B.M., B.M.E., Baldwin-Wallace University) is a classical musician and horn teacher based in Elgin, IL.  Kelly currently serves as Applied Faculty at Northern Illinois University and University of Illinois-Chicago, and as a Classroom Music Instructor at Elgin Community College. Prior to her collegiate positions, Kelly taught elementary general music and held an Ohio teacher’s license.  Kelly has presented clinics on teaching and music at the Illinois, Massachusetts, and Ohio Music Educator’s Conferences and The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

Langenberg’s “ferociously powerful” (ITG Journal, 2014) playing has been heard in orchestral and chamber music settings throughout the Midwest, including the Alliance Brass Quintet, the Alloy Horn Quartet, Chicago Philharmonic, Wisconsin Philharmonic, and the Ars Viva!, Battle Creek, Dubuque, Elgin, Kalamazoo, Kenosha, Lake Forest, Peoria, Quad City, and Yucatan (Mexico) symphonies.   
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Kelly is currently pursuing a Certificate in Non-Profit Management.  She and husband, Jim, live in their restored Painted Lady Victorian in Elgin, Illinois, with their young twin daughters.  Kelly is a Hans Hoyer USA Concert Artist and a Denis Wick Artist and Clinician.

Kari Christensen
Outreach Coordinator
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Kari Christensen joined the CMOTF team in the summer of 2017. She also currently serves as the Director of Development and Community Engagement at the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras. Other qualifications include graphic design for the purpose of promoting a variety of art related organizations; supporting youth related art activities for local art festivals; web design; and painting instructor. Promotional media includes promotion of YWCA’s Cinderella’s Closet, DNA of Elgin’s “Window Wonderland” (2013), various events related to Side Street Studio Arts, Shared Harvest Elgin Food Cooperative, Elgin 360 Photography Club, Boys & Girls Club of Elgin, and most recently Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra.