Faculty members from SIU Carbondale, Bucknell University and Loyola University Chicago will perform Friday, Sept. 11, at the SIU Old Baptist Foundation. Performing are (from left) violinist Frank Lakatos, violist Rossana Cauti, violinist Michael Barta and cellist William Cernota. (Photo provided)
September 08, 2026
Southern Illinois String Quartet to perform at SIU on Sept. 11
CARBONDALE, Ill. — A string quartet, comprising faculty and guest artists from Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Music, Bucknell University and Loyola University Chicago will perform Friday, Sept. 11.
SIU faculty Michael Barta and Rossana Cauti will be joined by William Cernota from Loyola University Chicago — who has taught at SIU — and Frank Lakatos, an SIU alumnus and visiting assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. Cernota and Lakatos are guest artists for the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society and the SIU Symphony Orchestra.
The concert is at 7 p.m. at the SIU Old Baptist Foundation. The concert is free for SIU School of Music faculty, staff and students; general admission tickets for the public are $15 for adults and $5 for students. The performance by the Southern Illinois String Quartet, is presented by the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society and SIU School of Music. Contact Cernota at bactocello@gmail.com to receive an advanced PDF of the program and program notes.
The performance includes string quartets by Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Samuel Barber, and Joseph Haydn.
Violinist Barta, professor of violin and chamber music at SIU, has performed in 32 countries and regularly teaches master classes at conservatories throughout Europe. Co-founder of the Southern Illinois Chamber Music Society, Barta is assistant concertmaster with the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra and concertmaster with the Sinfonia da Camera Chamber Orchestra at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois.
Violist Cauti, an assistant professor of practice and director of the SIU’s Symphony Orchestra and Civic Orchestra, regularly performs as a section viola for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Paducah Symphony and Evansville Philharmonic. She is active as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, Latin America and the United States. Cauti was born in Italy and studied with Barta, primarily on viola, while earning a Master of Music from SIU. She is the founder and artistic director of Suoni d’ Abruzzo, the International Chamber Music Festival in Italy.
Cellist Cernota,has been a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra since 1982. From 1982 to 1996, he was a substitute cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has held principal cello positions and appeared as soloist with several orchestras in Chicago and the Southern Illinois Music Festival and performed in annual Chicago-based WFMT broadcast recitals with pianist Eric Weimer since 2011.
At Bucknell University, Lakatos teaches violin, viola string pedagogy and music courses, and conducts the university’s orchestra. He is author of “A Tactile Map for Violin Chords: A Spatial and Kinesthetic Approach to Violin Fingerboard Navigation,” a teaching resource developed from his doctoral research and teaching experience. Lakatos studied with Barta from 2018 to 2020 and earned a Master of Music degree in violin performance from SIU. Both Lakatos and Barta are Hungarian by birth, and each immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. Lakatos also has extensive orchestral experience as a violinist and violist.