Mel Gray, Jr., president
Mike Gorcowski, vice-president
Judy Culcasi, treasurer
Josie Sheppard, secretary
James Balaja
Mary Jane Balaja
Mary Jane Johnson
Tom Liley
Mike McFerron
Lawrence Sisk, music director
Pam Nogal, executive director



All members are expected to comply with the guidelines in the MYSO Handbook. Download the MYSO Handbook by clicking here (pdf).







Lawrence Sisk has served as Chairman of the Music Department at Lewis University since 1988. Under his leadership the department has tripled its number of majors and minors, increased its offerings to non-majors, and established new ensembles open to all students. Following the renovation of its facilities in 1991, the Music Department established a Community Music School, which now offers non-credit instruction in piano, voice, guitar, and all orchestral instruments to children and adults.

Through the efforts of Dr. Sisk the department has acquired new instruments and equipment and attracted outstanding new full-time and part-time faculty. Sisk also introduced online instruction and laid the groundwork for construction of the electronic music studio.

As Music Director of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra since1991, Maestro Sisk has conducted more than fifty public concerts of orchestral music. Under his leadership the orchestra has increased its membership and expanded its repertoire along with its audience. The orchestra gives nine public performances each season. Membership is open by audition to students from Lewis University and two other area colleges as well as to outstanding high school players. He also conducts the Lewis University Choir and the choir of St. Athanasios Greek Orthodox Church in Aurora, Illinois.

Lawrence Sisk received his M.M. and Ph.D. in musicology from Northwestern University in 1986. Dissertation research in Italy was supported by a Fulbright Grant. Postdoctoral studies have included seminars at the College Music Society Institute for Music Theory Pedagogy Studies, composition study with John Downey, and vocal studies with James King at Indiana University. Sisk also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Roosevelt University and studied at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati.

Professor Sisk has received invitations to present at International Colloquia in Italy and Germany and has presented papers at meetings of the American Musicological Society and the College Music Society. His dissertation “Giovanni Simone Mayr (1763-1845): His Writings on Music,” has become a standard reference on the composer. An amateur linguist, Sisk is proficient in Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English and has sung and conducted works in Catalan, Russian, Slavonic, and Hebrew.

Sisk has composed a great deal of sacred and liturgical music, much of it published by Red Earth Publishing. His Passion According to Saint John for a cappella choir and three speakers premiered in 1994. Kenilworth Psalms, for choir and chamber orchestra was commissioned and performed by the choir of Kenilworth Union Church in Kenilworth, Illinois on May 13, 2001. His motet Ave Maria for a cappella choir won first prize in the Windows Magazine competition 2003 and was published there as well as online by the Choral Public Domain Library: www.cpdl.org. His arrangement of Praetoriuss motet Erstanden ist der heilige Christ for choir, brass and organ is published by Concordia.

His secular compositions include Cuatro Canciones de Jorge Manrique for voice and piano, first performed in October of 1999, and The Twelve Tones of Christmas, commissioned by the ensemble Express and premiered on December 11, 1994 on a nationally syndicated broadcast over WFMT radio, Chicago.

A native of Georgia, Sisk has resided in the Chicago area since 1971. He now lives in Plainfield, Illinois with his wife and four children.

Homepage