Door County’s Birch Creek Faculty Member, Bob Chmel, on tour with Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Bob Chmel enjoys practice at Birch Creek with student James Krivchenia of Oak Park, Ill.

During the winter months, many faculty members who perform and teach at Birch Creek Music Performance Center return to faculty positions of various music schools and universities across the country, and/or perform and tour locally, nationally, and internationally, including Birch Creek jazz faculty member and Academy Big Band drummer, Bob Chmel.

After returning from a recent Jerry Lewis performance tour in Australia, Chmel is now touring once more with Frank Sinatra, Jr. in “Sinatra Sings Sinatra.” One stop on this tour was the Oneida Casino in Green Bay on December 9.

Chmel has performed with many of the great bands: Glenn Miller Band, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Les and Larry Elgart, and the Woody Herman Orchestra. Although Bob has performed with Sinatra, Jr. for over thirty years, he continues to perform independently, releasing CDs, working on national commercials, televised events, and live performances.

Chmel resides in Las Vegas, where he performs with Vegas’s best musicians. For 18 years, Chmel has spent two weeks at Birch Creek teaching promising young jazz musicians and performing in the Birch Creek faculty Academy Big Band during evening concerts. Because of Chmel and other music faculty like him, Birch Creek has earned a national reputation among students and audiences alike.

Concerts at Birch Creek are held throughout the summer and open to the public. Visit http://www.birchcreek.org for more information, or call Birch Creek year round at 920.868.3763.