Courtroom Concert: Lumina

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

About the Artists:

Linda Kachelmeier, artistic director and alto

Angela Grundstad, soprano

Clara Osowski, alto

Kim Sueoka, soprano

Linda Kachelmeier is a singer, composer, pianist and conductor. Linda has performed with such diverse professional groups as The Dale Warland Singers, VocalEssence, Glorious Revolution Baroque, Dare to Breathe, and the internationally acclaimed early music group, The Rose Ensemble, of which she is a founding member.

Besides LUMINA, Linda can be seen as a freelance singer in various groups around the Twin Cities. As a composer, she was awarded a 2017 McKnight Fellowship, and is a two-time recipient of both the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program for Emerging Composers, and the Faith Partners residency through the American Composers Forum.  Since 1991 she has been Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in South St. Paul.

Angela Grundstad hails from Iowa, where she started her musical journey performing with groups such as the Des Moines Vocal Arts Ensemble, StageWest Theatre Company, Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum, Des Moines Metro Opera, and as adjunct voice faculty at Drake University.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Simpson College where she was a member of the internationally known Madrigal Singers, and her Master of Music Degree from Louisiana State University.

Angela started singing with Lumina Women’s ensemble when the group was founded in 2014.  She is also a member of the Mirandola Ensemble and Consortium Carrissimi. Angela is very fortunate to have performed with Vocal Essence Ensemble Singers, Glorious Revolution Baroque, Magpies and Ravens, and various other freelance groups in the Twin Cities.  She is currently a section leader and voice instructor at Holy Family Catholic Church in St. Louis Park.

Hailed for her artistry and “rich and radiant” voice (Urban Dial Milwaukee), Clara Osowski is an active soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. She was a 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist, the winner of the 2014 Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition in Milwaukee and in most recent competition, Clara was the winner of the Houston Saengerbund Competition and became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Clara received her Bachelor of Musical Arts degree with emphasis in Voice from North Dakota State University in 2008, and Master of Arts Degree in Voice from the University of Iowa in 2010.

Clara’s passion for contemporary music is exhibited in the song-cycles she has premiered by numerous composers with the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa, and her most recent collaborations with Linda Kachelmeier (Stars), Jeremy Walker (Alma Gentil), Linda Tutas Haugen (Gjendine’s Lullaby), Paul Rudoi (Midnight Songs) and James Kallembach (St. John Passion and Songs on Letters of John and Abigail Adams). As a recitalist, she recently completed the Vancouver International Song Institute, the International Workshop on the songs of Edvard Grieg in Bergen, Norway, and traveled to Tours, France to attend the Académie Francis Poulenc. She was also featured in the 2014 Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival, in Berea, Ohio.

In addition to her solo work, she participates in a number of ensembles, including Lumina Women’s Ensemble, the Rose Ensemble and Seraphic Fire. For more information, please visit www.claraosowski.com.

Kim is an active performer and teaching artist with Lumina, Lau Hawaiian Collective, and COMPAS. She also delights in her work as a music enrichment facilitator at EXPO Elementary School in St. Paul and a staff singer and vocal coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. She is an artist-in-residence at Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education and an associate teaching artist with Kairos Alive.

Kim received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in vocal performance at The University of Evansville and the University of Minnesota. She has performed nationally and internationally with The Rose Ensemble and appeared as a guest artist with the Neuss Chamber Orchestra, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Ames Chamber Artists, Des Moines Choral Society, and the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival.

Her solo recordings include Clear or Cloudy: The Lute Songs of Dowland with lutenist Phillip Rukavina, Wai: Hawaiian Fresh Water Songs with Lau Hawaiian Collective, and The River Inside of Trees with composers Todd Harper and Paul Cantrell.