Fox River Congregational Musicians

 Kostia is a Russian-born pianist, award-winning composer, and Narada recording artist that travels and performs worldwide. He arranges, composes, and records music for worship at Fox River.

During his long recording career, Kostia released several solo albums, including Suite St. Petersburg, 10 Pebbles, Piano Ocean, and others. At the same time, he composed the soundtracks for a motion picture, The Play in the Modern Style, and a short film of Alex Boguslavsky entitled Blue Lamp. He collaborated between LEGO and George Lucas Films, composing the music for a short animated film “Star Wars: “Revenge of the Brick.” One of Kostia’s compositions made it to the world-renown TV series “Sex and the City.” He recorded several new albums with old bandmate Daryl Stuermer – “GO!”, “Rewired”, “Retrofit,” and a debut album of Carmen Nickerson, “Tomorrow Is Another Day.” His most recent project is a sacred, inspirational CD recording, Still, Still, Still.

Kostia has had his music performed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, and the internationally famed Veronica String Quartet. He performs original compositions each Sunday at Fox River Congregational Church.

 Carmen has endeared herself to audiences across age and musical genres, from collaborating with nationally acclaimed singer/songwriter Willy Porter to being the voice for Sonya Lee – one of Fisher Price's Little People Characters in their live stage performances. And her appeal goes beyond the performance. She's a professional vocalist and studio voice-over talent, recording for Hollywood Records (a subsidiary of Disney) in Los Angeles and on the "Pro Vocal Series" for Hal Leonard Publishing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Carmen is a member of Fox River and has been part of our professional music talent pool for years. 

Karl has been involved with the music at Fox River from the very beginning and The Hitzemanns aren proud to be charter members of Fox River Congregational Church. His love of music goes back as far as he can remember. His aunt taught him how to play the piano and he went on to study music history, theory, and composition, as well as business administration at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

In 1996, Karl started working for a music company called Plank Road Publishing, located in Wauwatosa. He is currently the Vice President and Marketing Director. Among many other things at Plank Road, Karl composes, arranges, orchestrates, and produces music for many projects, including the music teachers’ magazine, Music K-8. He has had over 200 pieces published, and his songs have been performed in all fifty states and all over the world.

 A critically acclaimed and award-winning vocalist, Ellen Winters has been singing professionally for over 25 years. Ellen has been a featured artist at colleges, symphonies and festivals throughout the United States and teaches vocal workshops and clinics, while performing throughout the country. She works steadily as a solo vocalist with several bands in the Jazz, Rock and Pop genres, and has several Cabaret shows which tour regularly. She has been honored with awards and nominations from the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) for Best Female Vocalist, and received the 2017 Best Jazz Artist award from the Milwaukee Shepherd Express People’s Choice Poll. Ellen was also awarded the 2019 Footlights People’s Choice Awards winner for Outstanding Special Performance for her performance in “Comicality 2019.” She holds an A.A. in Professional Music from the School for Music Vocations in Creston, IA and earned a BA in English from the University of Minnesota. Ellen has released two solo CD’s and can also be heard on a variety of different collaborations. Ellen also teaches core Music Theory and Voice curriculum for Columbia College in Chicago.