Margaret Dilmore
Director/Violin, Viola

Margaret began her earliest studies on viola with her father. At 14 she was awarded a full scholarship to study  year round  at Interlochen Arts Academy.  As a student of the "Interlochen Honors Project", Margaret performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.  Upon graduating from Crane School of Music, Margaret studied with violists John Graham (Eastman) and Milton Preeves (principal violist Chicago Symphony). While teaching in Winnetka Ill (one of the first 5 Suzuki Centers in the Western Hemisphere), and Chicago's elite Francis Parker School,  she performed with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and Chicago Civic Chamber Orchestra.  As violist with The Arcturus String Quartet of Chicago,  the quartet won a government grant to perform throughout Chicago and the Midwest. Several competitions sponsored by the Chicago Symphony led to recitals on Chicago’s Orchestra Hall Stage and a summer at Aspen Music Festival. The quartet studied with the Chicago Symphony Quartet, the Julliard Quartet, and the Vermeer Quartet.  Margaret soloed with the Georgian Bay Symphony, was associate principal violist with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Civic Chamber Orchestra, Civic String Quartet and later,  the Rochester Oratorio Society Orchestra. She founded Fine Arts Medium of Chicago in 1989 (still in existence as Lincoln Park Suzuki School) and Lyric Academy in 2003.  Margaret also maintains a studio in Skaneateles, NY.

Mary Cropley, violin