Music Staff

Vickie Hellyer

Director of Music

Vickie Hellyer has conducted church choirs for 31 years and has served as the Music Director at UCE since 2015. Vickie has been a chorister and soloist in a number of professional groups in the Chicago area and, when in the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Grant Park Chorus, she had the privilege of singing under, and learning from, the direction of many world-renowned conductors. She has also acted on stage and has an extensive repertoire of roles in the world of musical theatre. Trained in Applied Voice at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Vickie teaches voice at her home studio in Skokie. She is married to Jon Siegel, who sings bass in the UCE choir and helps with AV for the choir, and whose connection with UCE goes back to 1981.

Vickie lives UCE’s mission by preparing and working to inspire the choir to deliver their very best rendition of each musical selection, and coordinating the performances of other musicians when the choir isn’t involved. Her well-run rehearsals are infused with good humor and joy and her choir selections are varied in styles, genres, and texts to best complement the theme of each service. Vickie is grateful to work with so many committed, talented, and wonderful people at UCE!

Gregory Shifrin

Pianist

Gregory Shifrin has been the UCE pianist since 2006. Gregory is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and the Hebrew University. As a member of a piano duo, Gregory Shifrin has won International competitions in the USA and Poland. The Duo has been featured in recitals and performances with orchestras in the USA, Europe, and Israel. In addition to his work for the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Gregory serves as a principal pianist for the Youth Choral Theater of Chicago, Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, Congregation Temple Chai (Long Grove), and Glenbrook South High School.

Gregory believes that being a universal language of emotions transferred through sound, music plays a crucial role in creating a deep and meaningful worship experience. Gregory is happy to contribute to the UCE his multi-cultural musical experiences. Gregory absorbed musical influences of Russia, where he grew up, of Israel, where he studied during college years and formed a piano duo, and of the United States, where his solo and accompanist’s skills are demanded by choirs, solo singers and instrumentalists. Gregory believes that music can be found in anyone’s heart, as an Estonian poet Juhan Liiv said:

“Somewhere the original harmony must exist,
Hidden in the vast wilds,
In sunshine, in a little flower,
In the song of a forest, in a music of a mother’s voice,
Or in teardrops…
How else could it have formed in human hearts- music?”

Jenn Wisegarver

Soprano Section Leader

Jennifer (Jenn) Wisegarver is delighted to be singing with such a talented and passionate group! A Chicago-land native, Jenn received her BA in Theater with double Music and Psychology Minors from Huntington University in Indiana. After completing multiple acting tours throughout the United States, Greece and Canada, Jenn performed in a round of professional musical theater projects in the city. She has since settled down in the Western suburbs with her partner, Stephen Wisegarver, a Stage Combat weapon artisan and choreographer. The Wisegarver family is made complete by two completely feral children, born in 2015 and 2018. Jenn enjoys writing poetry, obsessing over her garden, taking her children on Nature adventures, and drinking a strong cup of British tea (with cream and sugar, if you please).

Marguerite DiMarco

Soprano Section Leader

Marguerite DiMarco is a student at Northwestern University pursuing degrees in Voice & Opera and Neuroscience. The 2024 Chicago Chapter NATS competition winner, DiMarco made her operatic debut this past summer as a Young Artist in the chorus of Manon Lescaut (Puccini) and Il prigioniero (Dallapiccola) with the Opera Festival of Chicago and later played Ida/Sally in the Northwestern Intensive Vocal Performance Seminar production of Die Fledermaus (Strauss). Most recently, she appeared as an Introductions recitalist on Chicagoland’s premier classical radio station 98.7 WFMT, sang the role of Gretchen in excerpts from The Red Mill (Herbert) in Great Lakes Operetta’s inaugural concert, and looks forward to playing Cis in Northwestern Opera Theater’s upcoming production of Albert Herring (Britten). A graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, DiMarco is also pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience. In 2023, she had the unique opportunity to synthesize these interests for good in a TedX talk entitled “Not Just for Show: The power of youth musical theater to change the world” to testify to musical theater’s developmental benefits amidst budget cuts, particularly in the Chicago Public School system. DiMarco is grateful to join the amazing music-making at UCE, as church choir is where her love for singing all began, and she feels blessed each day to have found such a welcoming community away from home.

Kiley Korey

Alto Section Leader

Mezzo-Soprano Kiley Korey is thrilled to be joining the hardworking, talented, and inclusive choir at UCE and is happy to get back to her musical roots of singing in a group setting! Kiley is currently taking private voice lessons with W. Stephen Smith as she breaks into the opera industry as a solo artist. This past summer, she performed the role of Madame Flora (Baba) in Menotti’s The Medium and had the opportunity to learn from legendary baritone, Sherrill Milnes, as a Milnes Studio Artist with Savannah Voice Festival. Kiley earned a Bachelors of Arts in English and Vocal Performance from Luther College and sang alto 1 in the world-famous Nordic Choir. When she is not working or practicing, she enjoys living an active lifestyle, curling up with a good book, cooking with jazz in the background, and going on evening walks along the tree-lined streets of her West Rogers Park neighborhood.

Charles M. Anderson

Tenor Section Leader

Tenor Charles M. Anderson has sung a variety of roles in opera. He has also appeared in several musical theater roles. In concert, he has been featured as the tenor soloist for Bach’s Magnificat and Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio.

Charles received his Bachelors of Science degree in Music from the University of North Alabama and completed his Masters at Austin Peay State University.

Since moving to Chicago, Charles has maintained an active schedule. He served as a guest artist at North Park University performing the role of The Priest in Myers’ Buried Alive. Charles appeared in The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of The Factotum and Der fliegende Holländer. Last December, Mr. Anderson made his debut in Germany at The Hessisches Staatstheater-Wiesbaden. In May, he made his debut in Chicago Fringe Opera’s production of Fizz and Ginger. This fall, he will appear in local productions of The Harbingers, La Clemenza di Tito, and Le nozze di Figaro.