In September, 12th Circuit Judge Richard J. Siegel returned to his roots at the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus in Joliet as featured organ recitalist for its 50th anniversary celebration.

Siegel's performance not only paid homage to his lifelong parish, but to his life's passion as well. It was at St. Ray's that he discovered the love of music that has complemented his legal career.

Born in Joliet, Siegel was one of nine children raised on his parents' farm in Lockport Township. While his father tended the crops and animals, his mother worked as a college professor.

As a youth, he was exposed to music primarily through his mother, who was the organist at the cathedral. He marveled at choir performances during the weekly Mass.

Siegel began his formal music instruction on the violin at age six. He also learned the accordion and taught himself how to play piano by the fourth grade.

That year, he joined the cathedral's youth choir, and his love for music blossomed. “I realized then, after being exposed to classical music, I wanted to be able to be a performer, not just a listener,” he said.

In sixth grade, Siegel added organ lessons to his repertoire, and by age 13 he began serving as assistant church organist and choir accompanist at the cathedral. His involvement in school and church musical productions continued throughout high school.

Although running the farm was not his calling after high school, Siegel learned many of life's lessons while feeding and cleaning up after 10,000 chickens.

“Living on a farm, you learn quite simply that if you don't do something, it doesn't get done,” he recalled. “That helped shape my belief that good intentions do not cut the mustard. When you decide to do something, get it done accurately.”

Siegel decided to pursue his passion by enrolling in the music department at DePaul University. He attended for two years before transferring to the University of St. Francis in Joliet and receiving his bachelor of music degree in 1975.

Along the way, he founded and directed “The New People,” a not-for-profit performing group of 24 singers and 30 orchestral players who were selected at auditions. Among them was a pianist who became his wife, Christine, in 1982.

In his senior year, Siegel was hired as a teacher's aid in the music department at Joliet Central High School, where he worked four additional years as choir director and piano teacher.

He received a master's degree in music from Northern Illinois University and a doctorate in sacred music from Greenwich University during his tenure in Joliet.

“Although music was my first love,” Siegel said, “I had always had a residual interest in the law, and was intrigued by the intellectual and forensic challenges offered by the legal profession.”

Summers between his years at the Northern Illinois University College of Law were spent clerking for the Will County state's attorney. He entered practice there when he received his law degree in 1982.

Two years later, Siegel joined Hinshaw & Culbertson in Joliet as a property and casualty defense litigator. He was hired by CNA Insurance in January 1988 as regional claims counsel, but came back to the state's attorney's office as chief of the Civil Division in 1992.

In 1996, Siegel became an assistant Illinois attorney general in civil rights litigation, and in 2001, he returned to the state's attorney's office as chief of the Consumer and Family Unit.

Elected to the 12th Circuit bench in 2002, he is presiding judge of the Arbitration Division and is also assigned to a jury call in the Civil Division.

In the unending quest to feed his passion for music, Siegel became interested in the carillon while researching and writing an article on bells in the early 1990s. He studied with Wylie Crawford, the carillonneur of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.

Siegel advanced to the point where he served on the carillon staff, playing weekly programs and summer recitals at Rockefeller Chapel, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Naperville Millennium Carillon.

He is also a member of the Illinois Council of Orchestras, a published author and composer, and an elected member of the Pontifical International Society of Sacred Music in Rome.

A busy professional life has required Siegel to scale back his musical endeavors, but he still finds time to perform three church services each weekend at Holy Cross in Joliet and St. Joseph's Church in Manhattan.

He also takes in the musical performances of his son, who plays cello, piano and drums, and his daughter, a violinist at Lockport High School. He says neither had any chance of escaping the musical gene pool.

“I consider myself fortunate to enjoy two passions,” Siegel mused. “The law affords me a vocation and the music is my avocation. I suppose that makes me a musical lawyer.”