Cherchez la Femme is a Chicago based musical ensemble dedicated to presenting the arts expressed by women across the millennium.

 

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

May 20, 2018 @ 2 PM

Milwaukee House Concerts 2018!

516 W. National Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53204

works by:  Yannay, Curtis, Emtage, Martinez, Debussy

Lisa Goethe-McGinn

     Chicago flutist, Lisa Goethe-McGinn has an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborative artist and improviser.  She has performed in numerous festivals and concert series’ throughout the U.S. and abroad.

      Known as a versatile performer, Lisa is a much sought after chamber musician and performer of contemporary music.  She is co-founding member of Cherchez la Femme and has worked as a soloist and ensemble member with new music/improvisation groups, Ensemble Noamnesia and MAVerick Ensemble.  She has given premiere performances of numerous compositions and has worked directly with composers such as George Crumb, Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Martirano, Yehuda Yannay and improvisors Jim O’Rourke, Gene Coleman, TV POW, Chao-Ming Tung, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Otomo Yoshihide.

      Her first feature CD, Uncommon Voices on Vienna Modern Masters, was released in 2008 and includes works by American composers.

      Lisa received a M.M. degree from the University of Illinois and a B.M. from Millikin University and studied with Alexander Murray, Mary Karen Clardy and Mary Ellen Poole.  Additional studies and masterclasses with Robert Dick, Camilla Hoitenga, Anne LaBerge, Walfrid Kujala and Patricia Spencer.

      Lisa is on the faculty of Columbia College Chicago, Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College and Chicago Center for Music Education, as well as maintaining a home studio.  She lives in the western suburbs with her husband, two children and pug named, Harley.

 

Erica Lessie

     Erica  Lessie is a freelance cellist in the Chicago area.  She has performed on the Oprah Winfrey show with both Whitney Houston and Seal.  In addition, she has appeared with Diana Krall,  Andrea Bocelli, Peter Cetera, the Four Tops and Johnny Mathis.  She is an auxiliary member of the rock band Tributosaurus and co-founder of Cherchez la Femme, an ensemble dedicated to performing works by women.  Ms. Lessie is developing Strange Resonance, a solo presentation that explores the diversity of variant cellos. 

     Currently, she teaches cello at DePaul University Community Music Division, Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College, Chicago High School for the Arts, Whitney Young Magnet School and Hyde Park Suzuki Institute.

     Ms. Lessie received a B.M. from Indiana University where she studied cello with Fritz Magg and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky and James Buswell.  At Florida State University she earned an M.M. and completed classwork for a D.M.A.

      She currently resides south of Chicago with her husband and two children.