Michael Beert is currently Principal Cellist of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra (IL) and recently retired from his position as Professor/Academic Chair of the Music Department of Rock Valley College in Rockford after 35 years. He teaches cello and bass at the Music Academy in Rockford and frequently performs in the Northern Illinois-Chicago region. He has performed with such artists as Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Henry Mancini, Kenny Rogers, Dion Warwick and more recently with Rock Hall of Famers Cheap Trick, The Moody Blues, and Todd Rundgren. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Cello Performance from Roosevelt University where he was a student of Karl Fruh from the Chicago Symphony and bass with Greg Sarchet from the Chicago Lyric Opera.

He has performed recitals in Canterbury, England at Christ Church College where he taught and has done research on the music and letters of Jean Sibelius in Helsinki, Finland. He has played with the Memphis Symphony and Opera as well as Principal Cello of the Northwest Indiana Symphony. He received Suzuki Violin and Cello training at the University of Memphis and taught Suzuki Violin and Cello at the Society For Talent Education in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He and his wife, Rachel Handlin were performers and on the Board of Directors of the Midwest Mozart Festival, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra and are the proud parents of Aria Beert, a student and fellow at LSM.