Meet the Rose Ensemble

Linda Kachelmeier (alto) is a founding member of The Rose Ensemble and a composer. She has performed and recorded with The Dale Warland Singers, VocalEssence, and the a cappella quintet Dare to Breathe. She is the recipient of the 2006 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program for Emerging Composers grant and the 2008 Faith Partners Residency through the American Composers Forum. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by the Cincinnati women’s chorus MUSE, the Twin Cities-based trio Virgin Ground, as well as The Rose Ensemble.

Linda is originally from Slinger, Wisconsin, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in choral education with an emphasis in piano. She has worked as a junior high and high school choir educator, and is currently director of music at First Presbyterian Church in South St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has worked since 1991. She likes to cook with her husband, has a musical laugh and a penchant for poodles.

Kathy Lee (Soprano) is a performer of many styles, but is most sought-after as an early music soprano. In addition to the Rose Ensemble, of which she is a founding member, she has appeared with Virgin Ground, the Gregorian Singers, the Lyra Concert, the Early Music Ensemble of St. Paul, and the St. Paul Early Music Series. She has also toured extensively throughout North America and Europe singing music from Buxtehude to Britten. A frequent recitalist and soloist, Kathy has been featured in Johannes Brahms' "Requiem” with the Oratorio Society of St. Paul. Kathy is a founding member of the a cappella ensemble Dare to Breathe, with whom she performed several U.S. tours.

Weekends find her working as cantor, soloist and section leader at the Church of St. Louis, King of France... and working on her scrapbooks! (Any other scrapbookers out there?) Kathy's most recent solo recital, entitled "Mostly Minnesotan, Mostly Alive," featured music of Minnesota composers...and also Monteverdi and Gustav Holst.

Kathy recently joined the camp staff of the St. Paul Conservatory of Music, and has been having an absolute blast sharing music with children of all ages. She enjoys hanging out with her son Allan and many neighborhood kids who spend time in their St. Paul home, where she spends her days dispensing bandaids, snacks and hugs. Life is just better with a bunch of kids around.

Lisa Drew (contralto) is originally from sunny San Diego where she spent 10 years singing with the San Diego Opera. Since moving to Minneapolis, she continues to enjoy her soloist career, performing to critical acclaim with such groups as VocalEssence, The Minnesota Opera, and The Minnesota Chorale. In addition, she can also be heard as the alto soloist at Plymouth Congregational Church with Philip Brunelle in Minneapolis. Entertaining The Rose Ensemble audiences since 2002, Lisa is looking forward to more fun and great music with “the Rosies,” as well as the release of our new St. Francis CD later this year. She maintains a website at www.killeralto.com and invites you to visit for a more detailed look at this “killeralto.”

In addition to her musical career, Lisa is an abstract digital artist (checkout Lisa Drew Photos www.lisadrewphotos.com) and also runs a small business called Lyrical Biz creating easy-to-manage websites and blogs for individuals and small business owners (www.lyricalbiz.com.)

Lisa Drew resides in the Shingle Creek Neighborhood in North Minneapolis with her husband, love of her life and best friend, Bob McClain.

Kim Sueoka (Soprano) is originally from Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i. She currently sings with lutenists Phil Rukavina and Paul Berget, guitarists Wade Oden and Todd Tipton, and with the ensemble Full Moon Rabbit. She has appeared as a soloist in the Owatonna Arts Center Chamber Music Series, The American Composers Forum SoundCheck Concert Series, The Schubert Club's Summer Songfest and Courtroom Concert Series, Minnesota Guitar Society’s Local Artist Concert Series, and the Royal Hawaiian Band’s ‘Iolani Palace Outdoor Concert Series. She is featured on the Space Station Alpha Sextet’s compact disc fLora, and has also recorded for the online music publications In the Hands and Baby Blue Arts. Her website (www.kimsueoka.com) contains a list of upcoming solo projects. She is a voice instructor at the St. Paul Conservatory of Music and an adjunct professor of voice at Inver Hills Community College.

Kim earned a bachelors degree in vocal performance at the University of Evansville, Indiana and a masters degree in vocal performance at the University of Minnesota. In 2005 she was awarded a Cultural Community Partnership Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to research vocal traditions of ancient to early 20th century Hawai'i and present a series of educational workshops and concerts with The Rose Ensemble. She received a finalist award in the McKnight Foundation Fellowships for Performing Musicians competition in 2007. Kim enjoys running and nature photography, and dreams of someday being an amateur woodcarver and carpenter.

Ginna Watson (vielle, rebec, and harp) is a busy free-lance string player in addition to performing with The Rose Ensemble. She plays locally with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra and Bach Society, and throughout the country with the Texas-based medieval ensemble Istanpitta. She has appeared on many early music series throughout the United States, including Early Music Columbus and the Milwaukee Early Music Now series, as well as the Boston, Indianapolis, and San Antonio early music festivals. Internationally, Ginna has performed in the Tage Alte Musik early music festival in Regensburg, Germany, and the Los Siglos de Oro early music series in Madrid, Spain. Ginna is the violin instructor at Hamline University in St. Paul. She also frequently gives masterclasses on medieval and baroque performance practice in the Twin Cities and throughout the country, including Houston Baptist University, Colorado State University, Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity in Los Angeles.

David Burk (multi-instrumentalist) specializes in ethnic music traditions and counts ‘ud, cuatro, ukelele, cavaquinho, guitar, tres, saz, bass, mandolin, tar and chumbus among the instruments he plays. His performing credits include the Georges Lammam Arabic Orchestra, Voices of Sepharad, famed Persian singer Sattar, traditional Persian group Robayat, Ethnic Dance Theatre, Fuego Flamenco, and Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble. As a recipient of grant awards such as the Jerome Travel and Study Grant (2001) and the Minnesota State Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant (2002), he has studied directly with Arabic music masters Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba, Dr. Ali Jihad Racy, and Sakhar Hattar.

Running a small project recording studio in the basement has enabled David to produce his own music as well as more than 30 compact disc releases for various record labels and independent recording artists. His music has been heard everywhere from Minnesota's Mixed Blood Theatre to Hollywood 'B' movies to New York auto dealer commercials to Australian travel shows. As a music educator, David presents various music and cultural programs in schools, maintains a full, private lesson schedule, and has written instructional columns for Guitar Player magazine and www.truefire.com.

When pursuing non-music activities, you might catch him watching Marlon Brando movies, hiking with his dog Irie, reading about theology or world history, or calculating whether or not it would be worth it to start a grape farm somewhere in the wilds of southeastern Minnesota.

Growing up in the shadow of Cleveland's Severance Hall, Kristine Kautzman (alto) intended from a young age to be a concert flautist. Minnesota had other plans for her. In college she sang with the St. Olaf Choir, and the experience altogether changed the direction of her performing career. This year Kris celebrates her 10-year anniversary in The Rose Ensemble, pleased and proud that the work grows more rewarding each year.

Kris is also a certified massage therapist, and has worked as cantor and choir section leader for several Twin Cities churches. She still keeps her instrumental chops by playing as often as possible – early music and modern. Recently she locally premiered the Sonata for Flute & Piano by jazz composer Joseph Makholm, and learned to play an eight-keyed ebony flute for the Rose recording “And Glory Shone Around.” The latter now has her daydreaming about broken consorts.

When she's not working, you'll probably find Kris out in one of seemingly endless trails and parks in Minnesota - running, hiking, biking - and best of all, skiing. Any day with six inches of fresh snow is a perfect day!

New to The Rose Ensemble this season, Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), has made her mark as a singer who brings a sense of adventure and style to the concert stage. Acclaimed as a “major musical force” (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Carrie collaborates with ensembles across the country, such as dal Niente and Sonic Inertia (both of Chicago), the Newberry Consort, the Zuchowiczi Consort of Viols (Houston), and Twin Cities-based Bach Society of Minnesota and Glorious Revolution Baroque. Last season, Carrie explored wide range of cantatas and vocal chamber works by Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Giacinto Scelsi, Augusta Read Thomas, Steven Stucky, Montéclair, Handel, Bach, Couperin and more. Carrie is a student of early-music diva Ellen Hargis and is a doctoral candidate in the studio of tenor John De Haan at the University of Minnesota.

Roy Heilman (tenor), is pleased to be in his second season with The Rose Ensemble. Originally from North Mankato, Minnesota, Roy brings to Rose a colorful background and an ever-ready adaptability. While earning his Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, Roy was steeped in the early music scene of Boston. He emerged enriched with the skills of a seventeenth-century choirboy (and then some) and promptly returned to the Twin Cities. Since that time, Roy has performed in ensembles, in opera and operetta, and in front of many orchestras as Tenor Soloist. As a soloist, Roy is most often engaged to sing the music of Bach, Handel and their contemporaries, but feels equally at home with the likes of Haydn, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. Recent performances include Mozart's Requiem, Bach's St. Matthew Passion (as Evangelist and soloist), and Mendelssohn's Elijah. His musical interests include music of the Renaissance masters, the music of J.S. Bach, German Lieder, Twentieth-century classical music, and classic country music.

Not one to stand still, Roy fills his time with many things, including fishing (often through the ice), backpacking, biking, and ecology. He lives in Shoreview with his beautiful wife, two adorable children, and his dog, Johann Sebastian.

Paul Max Tipton (baritone), is a concert artist engaged regularly around the country. He is on the rosters of Conspirare (Austin) and Seraphic Fire (Miami), in addition to being a full-time member of The Rose Ensemble. He has soloed under such notable figures as Masaaki Suzuki, Helmuth Rilling, Ton Koopman, Nicholas McGegan, Paul Hillier, Craig Hella Johnson, and Simon Carrington. Recent highlights include Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Bach's Christmas Oratorio at the Oregon Bach Festival, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum at Carnegie Hall, and Frank Martin’s song cycle Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann in recital with Ted Taylor in New Haven.

Mr. Tipton trained on a full-fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, being mentored by mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, also having studied with Grace Bumbry and the late Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson. While at the University of Michigan, he performed the title role in Don Giovanni under the baton of Martin Katz, and soloed under Leonard Slatkin on the Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence & of Experience, a project that won four Grammys in 2006. Mr. Tipton is a 2010 graduate of the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied with tenor, James Taylor.

Jonathan Ten Brink is an exciting young baritone “possessing considerable agility” (Grand Rapids Press). Equally comfortable on the operatic and concert stages, he aims to share his passion for classical singing with audiences throughout the Midwest as well with his students.

Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2006 he has been a featured soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra; Minnesota Chorale; Bach Chamber Players of St. Paul; Oratorio Society of Minnesota; Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; and Minnesota Bach Society; as well as in performances of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” at the University of Minnesota where he is a doctoral candidate in the studio of Phillip Zawisza. Recent Opera credits include singing Alfesibeo in the North American premiere of “Gli amore d’Apolle e di Daphne” under the musical direction of Paul O’Dette; Tarquinius in “The Rape of Lucretia;” and Belcore in “L’elisir damore.” A frequent recitalist, Jonathan has enjoyed performing much of the rich literature for the Baritone voice with a particular fondness for Mahler’s kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.

In addition to maintaining a private studio, Jonathan currently teaches voice at North Central University. He previously taught at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and has served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in voice at both the University of Minnesota and Bowling Green State University, where he received his Masters.

Daniel A. Mahraun (baritone) is proud to be one of the newest members of The Rose Ensemble. For ten years he was “on the other side of the podium,” serving as Director of Choral Activities at Bethany College (Kan.) and music director of the Bethany Oratorio Society, conducting their annual performances of Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. His singing credits include frequent song recitals, opera, and oratorio and concert performances with ensembles throughout Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas and Colorado. In addition to his work with The Rose, Daniel works as a freelance baritone in the Twin Cities area.

He holds degrees from Wartburg College (Ia.), the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He maintains an active interest in the editing and arranging of music for choirs and is currently writing a book that will serve as a guide to the performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in English. More information about Daniel’s continuing work, both as lyric baritone and as a conductor, may be found at his website: www.danielmahraun.com.

Nick Chalmers (tenor) is thrilled to begin his first year with The Rose Ensemble. Originally from Hopkins, Minnesota, Nick earned a Bachelor of Arts from St. Olaf College in May, 2007, where he studied voice under Robert Smith and Tony Holt, sang in The Early Music Singers and was tenor section leader in the St. Olaf Choir under the direction of Anton Armstrong. Nick has also been section leader with the Chorus of Opera Memphis and church soloist at Germantown Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Tennessee.

Nick has recently sung with both The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists as well as the Minnesota Opera Chorus in productions of Faust, The Pearl Fishers, Casanova’s Homecoming, and Roberto Devereux and is a tenor section leader and cantor at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Some of Nick’s current activities include cheering on the Twins and Vikings and assisting his lovely wife, Bethany, with her lesson planning.