Three CSO members Gary Stucka, Li-Kuo Chang and Peter Conover to retire

Three longtime members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra  — cello Gary Stucka; Li-Kuo Chang, assistant principal viola, and Peter Conover, principal librarian — will retire after the 2022-23 Season. Each member will receive the CSO’s Theodore Thomas Medallion for distinguished service at a later date.

Stucka, a member of cello section since 1986, will retire after 37 years. Joining the CSO as a librarian in 1998 and becoming principal librarian in 1999, Conover will step down after 25 years. After joining the viola section at the start of 1988-89, Chang just two weeks later won the post of assistant principal viola, which he has held for 35 years.



“It has been an honor to represent Chicago with the finest musicians in the world and to travel to corners of the world,”
 Stucka said. “I never thought I’d be lucky enough to see Europe, Australia, Russia and Asia.”


Stucka was appointed by Sir Georg Solti, the CSO’s eighth music director. Before his CSO tenure, Stucka was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra for five years, served as principal cello of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1981 and performed as assistant principal cello of the Grant Park Orchestra for several seasons.

At age 8, Stucka began playing cello and received his first lessons at the Park View School in suburban Morton Grove. He subsequently studied with Harry Sturm and Leonard Chausow, CSO assistant principal cello. He joined the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's training ensemble, where he received the Louis Sudler Foundation for the Musical Arts Award. He continued his studies as a scholarship student of Karl Fruh at Roosevelt University’s Chicago Musical College (now the Chicago College of Performing Arts), where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

An avid chamber musician, Stucka has been a member of the Pressenda Trio since 1989 and has performed regularly with the Chicago Symphony String Quartet. Along with many guest soloist appearances with orchestras in the United States and Canada, he has served on the faculties of Northwestern University and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

In retirement, he plans to pursue his audiophile interests, such as collecting historic gramophones and classic recordings, as well as traveling and enjoying time attending concerts with family and friends.



Along with his appointment as assistant principal viola, Li-Kuo Chang also served as acting principal viola from 2017 to 2022, after being named to the role by Music Director Riccardo Muti.

“As I bid farewell to my beloved Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I feel like I am the richest person in the world,” he said. “I have so many memories of the glorious music-making to treasure for the rest of my life! How lucky I have been to always work with the best conductors of our time and the most inspiring colleagues one can ask for.”

Recalling specific performances, Chang added, “I still get chills thinking about Solti’s Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky at his farewell Japan tour, and smile from my heart thinking of Barenboim’s divine Mozart piano concertos. I also remember being incredibly moved by Haitink’s noble and memorable Mahler and Bruckner interpretations on the CSO’s first concert tour in China and was deeply touched and shaken by Muti’s monumental Verdi Requiem. It has been such a joy and I am so proud to be part of this enviable tradition. If someone asks me how to define the Chicago Symphony’s tradition, my answer would be: total devotion to the highest standard of the music-making. Thank you, CSO!”



Chang began his musical career on piano, taught by his mother, a pianist and graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After hearing a performance of the legendary violinist David Oistrakh, Chang switched his studies to violin and, at 11, made his solo debut at the Shanghai Spring Music Festival.

Chang became a violist when he formed his own string quartet as a student at the high school of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1978, he became the first violist to win the Chinese Young Artist Competition in Shanghai and came to the United States on full scholarships offered by the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory and Eastman School. He pursued viola studies with Francis Tursi at the Eastman School, with Milton Thomas and Donald McInnes at the Music Academy of the West as a young artist fellow and privately with Paul Doktor and William Magers.

With the CSO, Chang performed as a soloist on several occasions, most recently with Pinchas Zukerman in Bach’s Sixth Brandenburg Concerto. As a chamber musician, Chang has collaborated with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Christoph Eschenbach, Nicolaj Szeps-Znaider, Julia Fischer, Alisa Weilerstein and Kirill Gerstein, and in concerts at the Lucerne, Jerusalem and Ravinia festivals, as well as at Symphony Center in Chicago, the Staatsoper Berlin and concert halls in Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. At Barenboim's request, Chang was the guest principal viola for the Staatsoper Berlin and Staatskapelle Berlin from 2000 to 2007 on several of their European and Asian tours, one of which included performances Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen in Japan.

An experienced and dedicated educator for more than 30 years, Chang was recently appointed professor of viola at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Previously, he has served as a viola coach for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has been on the artist faculty at several music institutes, including the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Peabody Institute and the Affinis Summer Festival in Japan.

He was also invited by Muti to participate in the 2019 Italian Opera Academy and lead master classes for Muti’s Cherubini Youth Orchestra. Many of Chang’s students have won auditions, including principal positions, with some of the world’s most prominent orchestras.

After retiring from the CSO, Chang will continue to teach at Indiana University. He also will give master classes and seminars in music schools and summer festivals in Asia, as well as continue his affiliation with the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, which is expanding in China and elsewhere. In addition, he looks forward to spending time with his wife, Maggie, and their son, Daniel.

Principal Librarian 
Peter Conover began his musical career as a double bassist, studying with Henry G. Scott of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, where he graduated in 1984 with degrees in both music and music education. He became involved in orchestra libraries in 1981, when he became the librarian for the Delaware Valley Philharmonic.



“While not an onstage musician, it has been my great pleasure to bask from backstage in the adoration the CSO receives in Chicago and around the world. In addition, it has been my honor to work closely with some of the greatest musicians in the world.” 



After meeting Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Librarian Clinton Nieweg, Conover began working in that ensemble's library in 1984, first as an apprentice and then as a part-time assistant. Since then, he has served as librarian for the Phoenix Symphony and the Houston Symphony, as well as for the American Institute of Musical Studies Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera and Grand Teton Music Festival.

Throughout his CSO tenure, Conover has played guitar with the orchestra, particularly 33 performances worldwide of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, and on many film concerts.

Along with his CSO work, Conover has been actively involved with the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, where he has served on its publications committee and as the editor of the MOLA quarterly newsletter, Marcato.





In retirement, he and his wife, Kristi, plan to relocate to Italy, where they plan to travel throughout Europe and pursue interests in classic cars and music.