Staff

Board

Susan Flygare

Blue Cross Blue Shield (Retired)

Susan was thrilled to be introduced to Lyra several years ago by Ellen Rider. The opportunity to be of use to this wonderful and talented group is both humbling and exciting. A lover of music from folk to baroque, Susan recalls her junior high days, living in Massachusetts and taking the train to the Harvard Coop and buying Nonesuch Records featuring Teleman, Vivaldi, Bach, Rameau, and Corrette as well as Dylan, Baez, Ochs, Seeger and others. She still plays them!

A retired health care executive, Susan is taking advantage of her free time advocating for the environment through the Sierra Club NorthStar Chapter, indulging her love for ceramics, traveling, and delighting in her adult children and grandchildren.

Phebe Haugen

Secretary

William Mitchell College of Law (Retired)

Phebe is in her first year as a Lyra Board Member and looks forward to working behind the scenes on behalf of her favorite orchestra. She recently retired after 38 years of teaching at the former William Mitchell College of Law, and she continues to serve on the Ethics Committees of Children’s Hospitals and Hennepin County Medical Center, as she has for many years. Phebe is thrilled and grateful to have been invited to be part of such a wonderful arts organization and hopes to be helpful in this very different kind of community engagement, bringing Lyra to an ever-increasing audience.

Not incidentally, Phebe is looking forward to having more music back in her life. She adores early music, especially, and continues to regret not having been a more serious student during all those childhood piano lessons.

In her next life, Phebe intends to play the gamba.

Stuart Holland

State of Minnesota (Retired)

Newly retired from working for the State of Minnesota, Stuart has been waiting for the right volunteer position to appear. His volunteer responsibilities so far have been: Director of the Minnesota AIDS Massage Project, on the Board/President of the Twin Cities Recorder Guild, on the Board/President of the Minnesota Therapeutic Massage Network, musician with Terra Musicale, and more. With Terra Musicale he is both a recorderist and a counter-tenor.

As a new Board member, he is excited about working with Lyra, having attended concerts for many years.

Margaret Sullivan

President

Parent Engagement, Hennepin County Children’s Mental Health Collaborative

On a fateful night in the spring of 2010, Margaret’s in-laws invited her son, who loves all things harpsichord and all things baroque, to a Lyra concert for the first time: thus was born “Lyra’s #1 Fan.” It was inevitable that she, too, would be sucked into the warm, welcoming Lyra vortex of fabulous music.

Margaret often spent more time on her music in college and graduate school than on her academic studies, but managed to eke out training and employment in her various fields, including: nonprofit administration, dead languages, public policy, and community engagement. She currently works for the Hennepin County Children’s Mental Health Collaborative and coordinates parent stakeholders.

Her volunteering background includes stints on the board of the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company (where she was a performing member for 15 years), Minneapolis Public Schools Early Intervention and Special Education Advisory Committees, various school site councils, her neighborhood’s revitalization program committee, and the BSA Troop 1 Committee.

“I have found working with Lyra folks to be singularly rewarding,” said Margaret. “I feel honored to be part of such a high quality, vibrant, and fun organization. Onward and upward!”

Bonnie Turpin

Treasurer

COO, Berman Consulting Corp.

Bonnie Turpin has been a supporter of Lyra for many years since she was first introduced to the group by violinist Mary Sorlie. Bonnie is celebrating her third year on the Board and is the current Treasurer. Her musical career began at The Hartt School in West Hartford, CT and continued at Indiana University as a bassoon performance major. Ultimately, she went on to complete her accounting degree at IU and has held finance positions with several companies that include Cummins, Medtronic, and General Mills. Bonnie has been with Berman Consulting Corp. as Controller and now COO for the past 16 years.

Bonnie spent nine years as a board member for the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS). Her husband, Mark, is an avid fan of anything harpsichord. In her spare time, Bonnie and Mark entertain (and are entertained by) their grandson, help keep their daughter’s Kumon Math and Reading Center running smoothly, and spend time with their two sons and their wives.

Sara Thompson

Player’s Representative

Sara Thompson plays modern double bass, Baroque bass, and G violone. She studied at CSU with Dave Potter of the Denver Symphony before transferring to The Juilliard School where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music as a student of Homer Mensch. For two years she was an Ear Training teaching fellow at Juilliard under Rebecca Scott. Further studies as a D.M.A student at Stony Brook University afforded her the remarkable opportunity to study with legendary chamber musician and bassist Julius Levine. Early music studies include classes and ensembles with Arthur Haas of Stony Brook, summer workshops at the International Baroque Institute at Longy and the Bach Ensemble Academy for Early Music in Italy, and lessons with bassist Michael Willens. Sara enjoys playing a wide variety of music, and currently performs with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Bach Society of Minnesota, and Consortium Carissimi. For five years she served on the Lyra Board of Directors. She has been on the faculty of The School for Strings, Hebrew Arts School, Juilliard Pre-College, and the MacPhail Center for Music.

Geoffrey Wilson

Jacques Ogg

Artistic Director

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One of the most prominent and influential modern masters of harpsichord and fortepiano, Jacques Ogg performs worldwide as a soloist and continuo player. He was a member of one of the world’s leading period-instrument ensembles, the Orchestra of the 18th Century, directed by the late Frans Brüggen, and also worked with Baroque orchestras in Salamanca and Sevilla, Spain. Highly sought after as a pedagogue, he is a harpsichord professor at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, one of the world’s foremost institutes for early music. Mr. Ogg co-directs the International Baroque Instrumental Program, an intensive summer music course in the Twin Cities, and has been the artistic director of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra since 2000. His discography includes more than 60 recordings with labels such as Philips, Sony, EMI, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and Glossa.

Curtis Foster

Executive Director

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Curtis Foster, Baroque oboe and recorder, whose playing has been praised for its “brilliantly introverted charm” (Seattle Times), has appeared with many of North America’s most respected early music ensembles, including the Handel & Haydn Society, the Seattle and Pacific Baroque Orchestras, Arion Baroque, and Victoria Baroque Players. He has also performed with Portland Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Les Boréades, and Mercury Baroque. In the summer, he can typically be found performing and teaching at various festivals, including the Oregon Bach Festival, Vancouver Bach Festival, Victoria Baroque Instrumental Academy, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, and the Whidbey Island Music Festival.

An enthusiastic advocate for music of our own time, Curtis regularly commissions and presents new works by contemporary composers for old instruments. An equally dedicated pedagogue, Mr. Foster teaches Baroque oboe as part of the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme at the University of British Columbia, and is regularly invited to present workshops and masterclasses around the US and Canada. He can be heard on recordings from ATMA Classique, Naxos, Coro, Cedille Records, and IU Press.

Originally hailing from Wichita, Kansas, Curtis holds degrees from Wichita State University and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. He also has a passion for restoring and repairing antique and vintage oboes and other woodwinds, having studied instrument repair at Renton Technical College.

Curtis is thrilled to be relocating to the Twin Cities to join the Lyra Baroque family as their next Executive Director!

Melissa Knight Lenzmeier

House Manager

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This is Melissa’s second season as house manager for Lyra. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French from the University of St. Thomas, where she’s finishing a master’s in special education. Melissa is a special education teacher in the Saint Paul Public Schools and the production manager for The Baroque Room.

Through the musical endeavors of her three sons (two violinists and a cellist), she has the pleasure of being involved with organizations like Lyra, The Baroque Room and Minnesota Youth Symphonies. Her family¹s love of and dedication to music has created a way of life, where music is interlaced throughout every aspect.

Someday, when there are no more children to drive to lessons, she’ll learn to play the cello.

Cassidy Asch

Communications Manager

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Cassidy Asch studied music performance at Roosevelt University, Chicago College of Performing Arts. She plays both modern and baroque cello, as well as viola da gamba. With the discovery of her passion for Early Music starting with Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, she decided to move to one of the epicenters of Early Music – the Twin Cities. Cassidy looks forward to being able to help a great organization that encompasses what she is passionate about, and at the same time learn about the processes of non-profit organizations, as she hopes to one day run her own animal shelter.