Meet the Performers

Meet the Performers

Stefan Willich

Stefan Willich is founder and music director of the World Doctors Orchestra. He studied violin, chamber music, and conducting in Stuttgart and Berlin, and participated in prestigious conducting workshops with Sergiu Celibidache (Munich), Leon Fleisher (Boston, Tanglewood) and Leon Barzin (Paris). Besides his performances with WDO, he regularly appears as guest conductor mainly in Germany and the USA where he was principal guest conductor of CityMusic Cleveland Orchestra from 2012 to 2024.

His professional path led him first into medicine, where he became a highly regarded internist and epidemiologist, focusing on cardiovascular disease, prevention, health economics, integrative medicine, and arts and medicine. For several years he worked at Harvard University in Boston and was from 1995 to 2025 Professor and Director of the Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Charite – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. From 2012 to 2014, Stefan Willich was President of the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. In 2021, he received the Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the highest award for former graduates of the institution.

 

 

Antonio Pompa-Baldi

 

 

Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a career that continues to extend across five continents. He also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition, as well as a bronze medal at the 1998 Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. The New York Times described his playing as “meltingly beautiful.”

Pompa-Baldi founded the Todi International Music Masters Festival, of which he is artistic director and faculty member, and sits on the juries of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world.

Mr. Pompa-Baldi performs internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. He currently serves as distinguished professor of piano and head of the piano department at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

 

 

 

Jack Sutte

Jack Sutte joined The Cleveland Orchestra as second trumpet in 1999. Prior to his Cleveland appointment, he was the principal trumpet in Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his international solo debut in Argentina in 1995 and has performed as a soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Symphony in C, New World Symphony, Contemporary Youth Orchestra, and CityMusic Cleveland, among other ensembles. Highlights include the world premieres of Clint Needham’s Fractured Elements for solo trumpet and wind ensemble, and Matthias Pintscher’s Chute d’étoiles for orchestra and two solo trumpets, performed with Michael Sachs.

A native of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, he attended the Curtis Institute of Music, where he earned a bachelor of music degree, and the Juilliard School, where he earned a master of music degree. His teachers include Dr. Patricia Backhaus, Michael Davison, Frank Kaderabek, Raymond Mase, and Chris Gekker. Mr. Sutte, who is a proponent of contemporary music and a Schilke artist, has released three recordings: Beyond the Moon, featuring music for trumpet and piano, and Fanfare Alone and BENT, which are collections of pieces for unaccompanied trumpet. In addition to his work as a soloist, composer, and arranger, Mr. Sutte is a founding member of Factory Seconds Brass Trio — an artist group-in-residence at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. He teaches at Baldwin Wallace and Cleveland State University.

 

WDO Cleveland Planning Committee