Big Sky Ensemble

Philip has been playing violin since the age of 5, and grew up playing in youth orchestras as well as at fiddle camps. After receiving his Bachelor of Music in violin performance, he played for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra for 3 years until deciding to play full time in national touring bands.     

Having performed in the USA, Canada, Europe, and the Carribean with artists that include Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Leftover Salmon, Elephant Revival, Joe Purdy, Cornmeal, and others, Philip now keeps busy being an in demand performer throughout Chicago on violin, mandolin, and guitar. 

Trained as a classical cellist at the age of 8, Tom found out early in life that the capabilities of the instrument expanded far beyond the realm of classical music.  As a young school orchestra member, Tom was often called out during rehearsals for playing random rock riffs on his cello while the sheet music called for Mozart and Beethoven.  While this obsessive noodling didn’t sit well with his teachers, it became the impetus for a lifelong quest to perform and create music of non-classical genres on the cello.  Today, Tom is equally comfortable performing Tchaikovsky on the concert stage as he is performing Led Zeppelin in a smoky dive bar!  His motto:  “There’s always room for cello”.   

Holding both a bachelor and master degree in Music Education, Tom recently retired after teaching orchestra for 33 years in the LaGrange Public Schools.  Exposing students to a diverse palette of musical styles served as the cornerstone of his teaching.  Tom, his wife Kendra and their 3 children are all involved with performing music in some shape or form, two of them on cello.  When not performing with the Big Sky Ensemble, Tom can be found sharing the stage with many local musical ensembles, including his Strung Out Band which performs eclectic and dynamic pop hits from the 1970’s. 

Chicago native and life long music lover, Pat was inspired to become a musician after his older brother showed him a couple of chords on the guitar and convinced him to buy a mandolin. Within a few months he started attending jam sessions which eventually led to a series of picking vacations to the great state of Kentucky and street performances in Mountain View Arkansas.   

Pat is one of the original members of the Chicago based jamband Leadfoot and has shared the stage with many great players and bands over the years, including Giles Corey, Marty Sammon, Pert Near Sandstone, Terrapin Flyer, Mr. Blotto and many more.   

Mike was born and raised in the foothills of North Carolina. His earliest memory of the joy of music was listening to his mother sing the Hank Williams classic "Hey Good Looking" when in the car because the car radio didn't work. He was surrounded by music in his early life with such TV shows as "Hee Haw, The Porter Wagoner Show, The Glen Campbell Show" and so forth. His parent's record collection covered everything from Elvis Presley to Merle Haggard. His mother bought him his first guitar after he was caught playing his brother's guitar before his brother arrived home from school.   

In his early teens, he was exposed to the likes of Kiss and all the classic rock bands of which prompted him to play guitar seriously. Rock became his biggest influence in his early years and would remain so until his early 20's.

A Chicago native, Rob grew up on a steady diet of Classic Rock, Southern Rock and the Blues. Once he discovered bluegrass music and the dobro (and later the Weissenborn guitar and lap steel) he abandoned the electric guitar and vowed to become a Slide Guitar Man.  Rob has studied with dobro greats Jerry Douglas, Sally Van Meter, Randy Kohrs and Andy Hall. He was a teaching artist at the Old Town School of Folk Music from 2004-2014 and was was invited to Rob Ickes ResoSummit as a guest instructor/jam coach in 2018-2019.