The Thomas Warwick Steed, Jr. Family Chair

John Ilika has served as Principal Trombone with the North Carolina Symphony since 2001. He previously held Principal Trombone positions with the Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Symphony, Opera Delaware, Florida Music Festival, and the Philadelphia Brass (quintet). He played and recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra as a substitute beginning in 1989 and free-lanced in the Philadelphia area for over 15 years. Previously, with the Delaware Symphony, Ilika commissioned and premiered the Trombone Concerto by Kile Smith, Curator of the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia. He played for three years with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo in Venezuela.

Ilika has taught at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, Lehigh University, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Community College of Philadelphia, West Chester University, University of Delaware, and the Orquesta Juvenil in Caracas and Coro, Venezuela.

Ilika graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1981. He later studied with Charles Vernon at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts (now the University of the Arts).