Staff
Trevor Stephenson – Artistic Director
Kangwon Kim – Assistant Artistic Director
Karen Rebholz – Manager
Board of Directors
Susan Carson
Susan Carson is a retired family doctor, and life long music lover. She studied pipe organ and music theory in college before switching into science and medicine. She is fascinated by the effect music has on us, and wants to know how it works. Why does a change in key change our mood? The Madison Bach Musicians are not only fabulous artists, they help us understand the music, the baroque instruments and baroque techniques.
Linda Clifford
Linda’s involvement with MBM reflects her love of early music, which began in the Sixties studying organ at Beloit College. Later, she turned to the harpsichord and helped found the Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society (now the Historical Keyboard Society of North America). Linda is enthusiastic about MBM’s mission to educate audiences about early music and its commitment to period instruments and historical performance techniques – enhancing appreciation of the complex counterpoint, heavenly harmonies, and sublime melodies that characterize this genre. Linda practices law as well as the harpsichord.
Janet & Ronald Johnson
Ron’s and Janet’s appreciation of classical and early music grew out of piano lessons in young years, participation in high-school band and choral groups, and playing recorders in an amateur group years ago. Ron and Janet have been attending Madison Bach Musicians performances since 2006, greatly enjoy Trevor Stephenson’s house concerts, subscribe to the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and as Liebhaber of the city of Vienna, they have occasionally traveled for performances at the Staatsoper, Volksoper, and Musikverein. Love of music in the time of COVID has expanded the world of opera for them through many evenings of live-streaming from New York and Vienna. Ron and Janet are both retired from staff positions at UW-Madison.
Robert Lopez
Bob is a just-retired air quality scientist/planner for the State DNR. He looks forward to extending is stay on the MBM Board, with some additional time and energies to engage with the organization. This past fall, Bob agreed to serve as Board Treasurer, working with the Director and primary staff as part of a working finances committee. In terms of art and nonprofit organization background, in a previous life he managed the Center for Community Technology, a local renewable/conservation energy organization focused on softening society’s dependence on hard energy resources, including education and small business incubator support. On the art side, Bob studied music and performed on brass throughout his academic life and pursued a career as an art potter and black and white photographer. Currently, Bob maintains an active music appreciation role, enjoying many types of live music and somewhat fancies himself as a hi-fi system integrator (aka – audiophile).
Marjorie Marion
Marjie retired in 2015 from Madison Metropolitan School District, where she was a special education assistant. Previously she was employed by the World Bank in Washington DC. Her passion has always been music. She studied piano with her father and violin with Alice Schoenfeld in California. In high school she began flute, continued at UC Berkeley, and received her Music BA in 1970. Marjie currently plays flute and recorder. She is excited to join the MBM board, supporting MBM as it educates and inspires audiences young and old with the beauty of Baroque and Classical repertoire played on period instruments.
Tucker Meyers
Tucker Meyers earns a living writing software at Epic but spends much of his time engaged in reading, church life, exercise, podcast-listening, and music. He began with the piano at age seven and studied for eleven years, adding the French horn for five of those years in middle and high school. In college he discovered J. S. Bach and has been enthralled ever since, teaching himself to sing, taking classes in German, listening to thousands of hours of recordings, studying harpsichord with MBM, and purchasing a harpsichord of his own. Tucker currently sings with the Festival Choir of Madison and has participated as a chorister or soloist with other groups including the Wisconsin Chamber Choir, the Just Bach concert series, and the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.
Gene Rankin
Gene is a practicing lawyer who retired 2006 as Director of Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Board of Bar Examiners. He has served as on the Madison Music Makers Board, as President of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Board and has worked with: Dane County Housing Authority as Vice Chair, Dane county Housing Development Corp, City of Madison Zoning Board of Appeals, Madison Trust for Historic Preservation Board, and WORT, and he founded Wisconsin Bar’s Environmental Law Section. Gene plays guitar, mandolin, and blues bass. Gene also races and cruises sailboats in all Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific. He was an 1976 Olympic sailing finalist and presently volunteers as a sailing instructor at UW Hoofers Sailing Club. He has been an early music enthusiast since 1962.
Norman H. Sheppard
Norman is a founding member of the MBM Board. Norman has a BA in Art History from The George Washington University and has worked as a piano technician for over 40 years. In addition to tuning and repairing pianos, he builds and restores historical keyboard instruments and is a photographic artist. Since 1990, Norman has collaborated with Trevor Stephenson and has built the historically accurate keyboard instruments used in MBM performances. Norman is happy to be a part of MBM so that Early Music played on historically accurate instruments is available to Wisconsin audiences.
Rose Stephenson*
Rose manages the UW System’s supplemental retirement savings plan and teaches German for UW-Madison Continuing Education. Her love of the arts, especially music and theatre, is second only to her love for her family – including the large and wonderful cat, Charlie. Rose is a founding MBM board member and is overjoyed to have attended every MBM concert presented in Madison, WI – and many rehearsals. Although she has served on many boards, serving on the MBM board has been the most fulfilling – helping to create and promote beautiful musical events that enrich the cultural life of the community.
Trevor Stephenson*
Trevor–harpsichordist, fortepianist, and pianist–is the artistic director and founder of the Madison Bach Musicians. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance of 18th-Century Music from Cornell University, where he studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson. With his colleague, Norman Sheppard, he has made and refurbished a series of historical keyboard instruments ranging from Italian Renaissance harpsichords to Victorian pianos. He has released sixteen recordings on the Light & Shadow label and tours throughout the United States as performer and lecturer. Information and tour schedule at trevorstephenson.com.
* recused from voting on staff issues and compensation