Meet the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra Leaders

William McClain

Conductor

Conductor and violist William James McClain is Music Director and Conductor of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra and the Millikin Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared in major venues across the United States and abroad including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Sheremetev Palace in Saint Petersburg Russia. In the spring of 2006, he conducted Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite with the Macon Symphony Orchestra in Georgia as the 2005 winner of the International Conductors Workshop and Festival Competition. Since then, he has been awarded that distinction again and invited back to lead the Macon Symphony as a guest conductor. Maestro McClain was also honored by the International Academy of Advanced Conducting in Saint Petersburg Russia where he conducted the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic’s Congress Orchestra. Most recently Maestro McClain guest conducted the Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra on their January 2022 Concert Series and has also appeared as guest conductor with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (IN), Fort Wayne Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted professional, community, and talented youth orchestras for over twenty years and continues to be passionate about the education of the next generation of musicians.

As a violist Maestro McClain has recorded with the Adriane String Quartet (faculty string quartet at Ithaca College) and maintains an active chamber music and solo recital schedule most recently appearing on the Keiser Concert Series at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, the “Sunday at Six” Illinois Symphony Orchestra recital series, and during the 2023 Five Cities Baroque Festival. He currently performs with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra in Georgia. A former member of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the Tri-Cities Opera Orchestra, Maestro McClain was also principal violist for the Allentown Symphony, the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, Orchestra Noir in Atlanta, Georgia, and principal violist at the 2016 Colour of Music Festival held in Charleston, South Carolina.

Maestro McClain was Strings Coordinator and Director of Orchestras at Georgia College and State University. He taught viola and violin at Huston Tillotson College as an adjunct faculty member and at Mercer University as a guest artist. Maestro McClain is a former faculty member at Phillips Exeter Academy where he was named the John and Elizabeth Phillips Fellow. While at the academy he was director of the chamber music program, conducted the Exeter Symphony Orchestra, founded the Exeter Symphonia, and taught in the music theory program.

A native of Washington D.C., he is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Maestro McClain received degrees in orchestral conducting and viola performance from The University of Maryland at College Park, Ithaca College, and The University of Texas at Austin. WILLIAMMCCLAINCONDUCTOR.COM

Ga-Eun Kim

Concertmaster

Violinist Ga-Eun Kim, a native of South Korea, is the winner of the Nafzger Young Artists Audition, the University of Kansas Concerto Competition, the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, a scholarship recipient from the Kansas Music Club and Sigma Alpha Iota, and was selected as runner-up for the Krannert Center Debut Artist Series among others. She made her professional debut performing Sibelius violin concerto with Sinfonia da Camera for their 38th Season Premier Concert and performed Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto with the KU Symphony Orchestra at the Lied Center. She was invited to perform at the 70th Anniversary for Liberation Korea concert, supported by the Korean Cultural Foundation in Tampa, Florida. She also participated in masterclasses with renowned violinists such as Rachel Burton Pine, Jacques Israelievitch, Benny Kim, Gil Shaham, and Ilya Kaler. She has appeared at several music festivals in the United States and Asia, including the Great Mountain Music Festival, the Summit Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival as twice a full-scholarship recipient as well as serving as concertmaster in the Chautauqua Music Festival Orchestra. She has been a regular member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, playing under conductors including Riccardo Muti, Semyon Bychkov, and Sir Andrew Davis at the Chicago Symphony Center. In addition, she has been performing in the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonia da Camera, and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. As an active chamber musician, she was a member of the Crimson String Quartet; the quartet’s community outreach included performing for underrepresented audiences, teaching in local schools, and being broadcast on NPR. Her repertoire extends to new music and historical instrument performance, which has led her to regularly perform and lead in the Illinois Modern Ensemble and the University of Illinois’ period instrumental ensemble, Concerto Urbano, at the Krannert Arts Center and the Smith Memorial Hall.

GaEun studied as a full scholarship recipient at the University of Kansas and Northwestern University, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She graduated from Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School in South Korea. She is a candidate for a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she worked as a Violin Teaching Assistant. She currently serves as the Adjunct Violin Professor at Millikin University and the concertmaster at the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra.