Our Musicians

A 10-year member of the Federal Way Symphony, Elena Vukosavljev, hails from a musical family in Belgrade, Serbia and graduated from the National Conservatory. Her pursuit of excellence led her to École Normale de Musique in Paris before moving to the United States. For over a decade, she has performed in Seattle area, playing with Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra, The Sound Ensemble, Lyric Opera Northwest, Evergreen City Ballet, Seattle Men’s Chorus, Taproot Theatre, and Village Theatre. Elena is principal second violin in the Federal Way Symphony and Bellevue Symphony Orchestra, and concertmaster in the Seattle Rock Orchestra. Her collaborations span Europe, the United States, and a numerous recordings and appearances for TV, film, and stage. Elena’s passion extends to teaching, nurturing the next generation of violinists in her Redmond studio and elementary and high schools on the Eastside.

Helen Lee is a highly accomplished Seattle-based flutist and piccoloist. She performs with many orchestras, ensembles and choirs in the Puget Sound areas, including Federal Way Symphony (since 2004), Bellevue Opera, Bellevue Symphony, Northwest Symphony, Cascade Symphony and the Sound Ensemble. Inspired by a flutist featured in a Japanese anime, Helen began the flute in Seattle at age 11 which led to many music awards, scholarships, and music performance degrees. Helen enjoys spending her free time with family and friends, relaxing on her lever harps, taking photos and sipping bubble tea.

Joseph Bichsel has been happily with the Federal Way Symphony since 2008. He is a graduate of the U. W. School of Music, and has studied cello with Toby Saks, Eva Heinitz, and viola da gamba with Margariet Tindemans. He was the principle cellist of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995-2015. Since 2018 he has been the cello coach for the Olympia Youth Symphonies. His wife is a cellist, he has a teenage son, a plant nursery, two dogs, six cats and a large garden.

Karen Sunmark moved to the Northwest in 1998 to study with Mike Crusoe, former timpanist of the Seattle Symphony.  She is principal timpanist for the Federal Way Symphony, Ballard Civic Orchestra, and performs regularly with Symphony Tacoma. She has performed with the national touring company of Les Miserables, Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Northwest Chamber Orchestra and Auburn Symphony. She is a National Board certified music educator currently in her 27^th year as director of bands at Maywood Middle School in the Issaquah school district. 

Kate Mondragon has been a member of the Federal Way Symphony since 2004. Kate is also principal flute of the Bellevue Symphony and has performed with Symphony Tacoma and the Olympia Symphony. In addition to performing, she maintains a private flute studio in Puyallup and enjoys adjudicating and giving flute clinics throughout the Puget Sound Region. Outside of flute and music, Kate stays busy with her family: husband, Steven, children, Freyja & Magnus, and dog Raven.

Luke Fitzpatrick is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and artistic director of Inverted Space, a Seattle-based new music collective. He recently performed the US Premiere of Isidora Žebeljan’s Three Curious Loves with Seattle Philharmonic and the world premiere of Joël-François Durand’s La descente de l’ange for violin and clarinet . Additionally Luke has performed with Deltron 3030, Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective and as a touring member of the Harry Partch Ensemble and has appeared on recordings released by Ablaze and Centaur records. Luke is currently concertmaster of Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra and Federal Way Symphony. He is a founding member of the String Quartet Pure Flavor and performs with Temple Mozaic, an improvisational music and dance collective alongside Smerk, Orb and Free. Besides music related things, Luke is an avid dancer and enjoys biking, eating sushi and collecting shoes.