Faculty Recital: A Vibrant Mix

As a former student at MacPhail, William Arnold is excited to return now as a teaching artist. Originally from Shoreview, MN, music has always been an important part of his life. William went on to pursue a music degree at St. Olaf College in Northfield. As a member of the St. Olaf Band and Orchestra, William was a featured soloist on domestic tours and as a senior in the class of 2018. William is now in his fourth year as Assistant Director to percussion ensemble Rimshots! and second as a member of the percussion faculty in MacPhail’s new Austin location. He has loved immersing himself in the avid music community in Austin, playing for the Historic Hormel Home’s summer music series as a soloist, with this percussion trio, and with the Austin Big Band and Community Jazz Band. Currently living in Rochester, William stays active with both MacPhail communities and plays timpani with the Wayzata Symphony Orchestra as well as the Austin Symphony Orchestra. When not driving on 52 or 35, William loves to play with his cat Amelia, read philosophy, and obsess over brewing the perfect cup of coffee.

Paul Babcock has over 30 years experience teaching percussion/drum set. He enjoys working with students of all backgrounds to discover their passions for music and percussion to see how far they can go on this exciting journey. Paul developed the MacPhail percussion ensemble Rimshots!, who have performed across the United States and abroad. He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music Performance at Monmouth College (Illinois), and a Master’s in Music Performance from University of Minnesota.

Cheryl Berglund is a percussion instructor and Site Director at MacPhail Center for Music Austin. She has been a percussion teacher for over 20 years and a band director in Houston Texas. Cheryl enjoys performing in local organizations like Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Big Band, and Austin Community band. She graduated in 1998 from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s in music and went on to study percussion at Michigan State University. Cheryl will complete her Master of Music degree summer 2022 at Kansas State University.
Joey Clark is a musical theater and cabaret performer, director and teaching artist. His work has been seen on the stages of Nautilus Music Theatre, Bloomington Civic Theatre (Artistry), Park Square Theatre, Theatre Mu, Skylark Opera, Frank Theater, Theatre Latte Da, and the Ordway. Joey’s cabaret work began at NYC’s Duplex Cabaret Bar, and has since gone on to direct, musical direct, accompany, and perform in 60+ cabarets. He is a member of the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists Network (TCCAN). For 8 years Joey served as Department Chair for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists’ (SPCPA) musical theatre program. He teaches a variety of classes and leads choruses at senior residences with MacPhail’s Music For Life Program and creates inter-generational theater experiences. Most recently, he created and directed “Holding On: Unexpected Stories from WWII” with a cast ranging in age from 9-92 years old, produced by Hero Now Theatre in Antonello Hall.

James Garlick teaches violin at Macalester College and performs regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. With violist Richard O’Neill, James is Artistic Director of Music on the Strait, a new chamber music festival in rural Washington State. He has performed concerti from Tchaikovsky to Piazzolla with orchestras including the Northwest Sinfonietta, Everett Philharmonic, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Cascade Symphony, and Philharmonia Northwest. This season he returns to the symphony orchestras of Medellin, Colombia and Port Angeles, WA, performing works by Ravel and Dvorak. James earned degrees in violin performance from Oberlin Conservatory and neuroscience from Oberlin College as well as a graduate degree from The Juilliard School. He recently completed three seasons as a full-time member of the violin section of the Minnesota Orchestra and has served as concertmaster for Orchestra Prometheus Chicago, the Amarillo Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Northwest Sinfonietta, Cascade Symphony, Bellevue Philharmonic, and others. James previously taught violin at St. Olaf College and performs on a 1991 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Emily and two-year-old Arthur.

A prize winner of many national and international competitions, Dr. Soojung Hong actively performs internationally and at regional concert venues in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her solo recital at Dame Myra Hess Concert Series at Chicago Public Library has been broadcast live to on WFMT, Chicago’s classical music station and on the internet. She is a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board’s Artist Initiative Grant, and she is currently working on the professional video production of Fanny Mendelssohn’s cycle “Das Jahr” (“The Year”), to be accompanied by visual elements as vignettes and epigrams. A number of live performances of the work are planned as well. Her project also received sponsorship from Orpheus, a well-known independent recording and producing company. Dr. Hong is passionate about education and has been teaching for over 15 years. She teaches students of all ages and levels, who, under her expert guidance, successfully prepare recitals, contests and auditions. She is a frequent master class presenter and competition adjudicator and serves as a piano instructor at MacPhail Center for Music, The International School of Minnesota, and Bravo! Summer Music Academy- Shattuck-St.Mary’s School. She is a Founder and Artistic Director of PianoFun Minnesota Festival for young pianists. Soojung Hong holds a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Ewha Womans University, South Korea, as well as a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota on full scholarship.

Andrea Leap has taught voice at MacPhail since 2005. Instructing musically advanced high school students and adults, she brings 20 years experience to Group, Individual Instruction, and MacPhail Music for Life™. Tailoring instruction to meet the individual’s goals, Andrea teaches anatomically based, sustainable vocal technique that works in any repertoire. Andrea has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Schubert Club, Minnesota Bach Society, Lyra Baroque, Jungle Theater, Troupe America, Nautilus Music-Theater, Paul Bunyan Playhouse, Michigan Opera, Toledo Opera, Skylark Opera, Duluth Festival Opera, Red Eye Theater, Light Opera Oklahoma, LOOK Musical Theater, SummerStage Tulsa, and Minnesota Historical Society. She is the recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Award, the Harriet Hale Wooley Scholarship for study in Paris, France, where she created and performed cabaret concerts performed in the US and abroad. She is the recipient of Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board for 2017, 2019 and 2021. Currently she is working on a project creating new piano-vocal editions of music composed by Marianna Martinez. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University (Voice), a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University (French), a Master’s of Music from University of Michigan (Voice), and matriculated post-graduate studies in France and Austria.

A graduate of the National School of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, pianist Miryana Moteva holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance from University of Minnesota, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Collaborative Piano. An active soloist and chamber musician, Miryana has performed internationally in the United States and Europe. Based in the Twin Cities, MN, she frequently appears on Schubert Club’s Courtroom Series, Thursday Musical Artist Series, MacPhail’s Spotlight Series, Hamline University’s Concert Series, and the Balkanikus New Music Series at University of Minnesota. She regularly collaborates with musicians from Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has given concerts at Sundin Music Hall, Antonello Hall, the Fitzgerald Theater, and the Weismann Art Center, among others. Her festival performances include the 1st and 2nd International Piano Meetings in San Daniele, Italy, March Music Days and Music and Earth International Music Festivals in Bulgaria, and Bach’s Birthday Bash in Minneapolis, MN. Her recordings have been aired on MPR and Bulgarian National Radio. A strong proponent of new music, Miryana recently commissioned solo and chamber works by New York-based composer Derek Cooper and Minnesota-native Ethan Elseth. She is also giving the Minnesota premiere of Catalan composer Marc Migó’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano. Miryana has taught at the Lawrence University Academy of Music, has served as a teaching assistant at University of Minnesota and Lawrence University, and is currently on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music as a piano teaching artist and a staff pianist.

Vicky Mountain, Jazz and Popular Styles Voice Instructor, has been active in the Twin Cities music scene since the 1970s. After performing in Top-40 dance bands, avant-garde and cabaret shows, jazz and blues combos and big bands, she remains excited by music of all styles. Vicky studied at MacPhail with Lorna Michaelson, Susan Jones and Oksana Bryn and has been teaching there since 1986. She has offered residencies and workshops at high schools and colleges including the College of St. Benedict’s/St. John’s University, Augsburg College, St. Cloud State, Winona State, North Branch High School and Lincoln High School in Thief River Falls. She has performed locally at such venues as the Dakota, the Times, the Artists Quarter, the Walker Art Center and internationally from Canada to Uruguay. She can be heard on the Lakewood Jazz Ensemble recordings Lullaby of the Leaves and We’ll Be Together Again as well as her own Birds of a Feather (1994), Don’t Go to Strangers (2005), Sincerely Yours (2009) and Play On (2019) which feature her original songs and lyrics and some of the best musicians in the Twin Cities. Vicky is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Minnesota Jazz Educators Association (MNJEA) and the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists Network (TCCAN). She currently performs with Vicky Mountain and Friends, vocal trio SongSister and as a freelance musician.

Jerry Rubino was appointed music director of Voices of Experience in 2011 and serves on the MacPhail faculty in the voice and piano departments.  He holds degrees in piano, voice, music education and conducting from Temple University and the University of Minnesota, and has taught at Northwestern, Augsburg and Carleton Colleges.  A native of Philadelphia, he attended Curtis Institute as a cellist.  He currently serves as Minister of Music at Spirit of Hope United Methodist Church in Golden Valley, Minnesota and is a staff conductor and professional singer with the Minnesota Chorale.  Rubino worked for twenty-three seasons with the Dale Warland Singers as associate conductor, director of special projects and music education, pianist, singer, and arranger.  His credits include honors choirs in Australia, Taiwan, Hawaii, and Europe, and he is series editor and workshop presenter for Oxford University Press and the Hal Leonard Corporation.