Youth Ensembles

Caitlynn Acy ‘15, Symphonic Band teacher-conductor, is a native of Sheboygan Falls, WI and a graduate of Lawrence University with degrees in flute performance and instrumental music education. After graduating, Mrs. Acy taught high school band in Oklahoma City, OK for two years before moving back to her home state. In 2017, she started her current position in the Appleton Area School District, where she is the band teacher at Madison Middle School, Foster Elementary School, and Richmond Elementary School.

Mrs. Acy is a board member of the Wisconsin Youth Band Directors Association, an organization that provides professional development for band teachers as well as various learning and performance opportunities for young musicians around the state. She also serves as the flute coach at the Lakeland University Summer Music Camp. Mrs. Acy continues to perform on her flute with VENTO Winds, a professional-level, audition-only wind band based in Northeast Wisconsin. She lives in Appleton with her husband and miniature schnauzer, Kona.

Corrina Albright, teacher-conductor of the Lawrence Youth String Orchestra (LYSO), began learning instrumental music in her fourth-grade public school strings program, and then played for seven formative years in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO). Her own youth orchestra experience made her a passionate advocate for the empowerment that youth ensemble training provides young musicians. Albright holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance and Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with George Taylor. She completed long-term Suzuki teacher training at the School for Strings in New York City and received teaching certification from Lawrence University. Albright teaches elementary music, including K-6 general music and orchestra, for the Appleton Area School District at Appleton Public Montessori, Badger Elementary, and Ronald C. Dunlap Elementary schools. She is a member of the Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA), the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA).

Before returning to her home state of Wisconsin in 2016, Albright maintained teaching studios in Croton-on-Hudson, NY and Brooklyn, NY for ten years, where she worked to create musical learning culture built within and nurtured by community via multiple strands of cultural and generational partnerships within her students’ home neighborhoods. In New York City, Albright performed with such diverse groups and performing artists as the Lyrica Chamber Orchestra, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Alan Ferber Nonet, Ike Sturm, Sufjian Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, Shakira, and Alexi Murdoch. In Appleton, Albright is a member of the viola section of the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra and serves on the Music Education Team for Mile of Music. She formerly coached viola and violin sections for Youth Orchestra and Concert Orchestra of the Fox Valley Youth Symphony and currently coaches the viola section of New Horizons Orchestra.  Albright plays with Gamelan Sekar Kemuda, the intergenerational community gamelan ensemble directed by I Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana at Lawrence University, and plays alongside her two sons in Children's Gamelan. She is a frequent volunteer in the music ministry at St. Joseph’s Parish in Appleton.

I Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana is an internationally esteemed performer, teacher, and composer of Balinese instrumental music. 

Dewa graduated from the Conservatory of Indonesian Musical Arts (SMKI) in 1999 though is primarily trained in the local performing arts of his village of Pengosekan, Bali. He is a founding member of Gamelan Çudamani, one of the premiere gamelan troupes from Bali, and has toured multiple times with Çudamani to the U.S., Canada, Japan, Italy and Greece. Their recent tour of the production “Odalan Bali” won acclaim from critics across the U.S. and Canada.

Dedicated to the continuation of traditional Balinese music education, Dewa has been one of the core teachers of Çudamani’s educational programs for children in Pengosekan. He has played a critical part in supporting the development of the Çudamani Girls’ Gamelan, one of the only ensembles of its kind to offer young girls in Bali the opportunity to learn gamelan music. Dewa has taught at the Çudamani Summer Institute for Music and Dance in Bali and has had private students from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the U.K. since 2000. Dewa is sought after for his clear and systematic teaching methods. Since 1998, he has been invited to teach Balinese gamelan repertoire to men’s, women’s, and children’s gamelans across southern Bali in preparation for their performances at temple ceremonies and festival competitions.

Mari Card, who teaches Allegretto singers, graduated from Carthage College in 2012 with a major in music and emphases in piano pedagogy, choral music education, and general music education. She taught elementary music for the DC Everest School District for seven years. While teaching, Mrs. Card completed Level 1 of the World Music Drumming teacher training (which includes the basics of African and Caribbean drumming, singing, and moving) and completed Orff-Schulwerk teacher training.  Mrs. Card is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association, and she serves as the vice-president for the North Central Wisconsin Orff chapter. Mrs. Card grew up in the Appleton area and participated in Girl Choir from 2003-2008.

Carrie Gruselle Gray, Chamber Music Ensembles coordinator and music theory instructor, is recently retired from teaching strings for the Appleton Area School District in Appleton, Wisconsin. Actively involved with the Wisconsin MEA Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance Project, she is also past president of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American String Teachers Association  and former lead teacher for the Lawrence University String Project. She is string editor for FJH Music Company and co-author of the FJH method book Measures of Success for Strings. Her arrangements and compositions for young string players are studied and performed regularly worldwide.

Mrs. Gray holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from UW-Eau Claire and a Masters of Music Education with Suzuki Emphasis from UW-Stevens Point.

Jaclyn Kottman Hittner, who teaches Arioso singers and directs the alums' choir, is an alumna of Lawrence University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in choral and general music education. She also holds a Master of Music degree in music education from Boston University, where her capstone focused on facilitating empowerment through the adolescent female voice change. Before moving to Wisconsin Rapids with her husband and their rescue pup, Louie, Hittner taught choral and general music in Appleton for 10 years. Prior to joining the Lawrence Girl Choir teaching staff, she served as a manager and conducting intern with all three middle and high school Girl Choirs. She has been a clinician and guest conductor for festival and honor choirs throughout Wisconsin and currently serves on the board of the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association (WCDA) as the chair of the Singing in Wisconsin project. She is also Director of Operations for the Mile of Music Festival's Music Education Team and was a liaison for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive (CLR) Teaching & Learning with the Appleton Area School District. Hittner is a member of the Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA) and an advocate for Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) teaching model. She is the recipient of WCDA’s Outstanding Young Choral Director Award and Lawrence University’s Pi Kappa Lambda Award for excellence in music education. She is currently Artistic Director of the Girl Choir program.

Debbie Lind–former teacher-conductor of Cantabile–is thrilled to rejoin the Lawrence Community Music School Girl Choir program for this concert season as the interim teacher-conductor of Bel Canto. Ms. Lind is a graduate of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln with a Bachelor of Music Education degree (vocal and instrumental).  In 2011, she retired from twenty-five years of teaching vocal and choral music in the Appleton Area School District, having served the longest as Choral Music Teacher at Appleton East and North High Schools. She taught in Omaha, NE and Schofield, WI before coming to Appleton. Ms. Lind has been a clinician for WSMA and a guest conductor for WCDA's Singing in Wisconsin. She has been actively involved in church music as a choral director, collaborative pianist, and singer throughout her career. She is a member of the VoiceCare Network, Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA), and the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association (WCDA); she served for four years as WCDA R & R Chair for Treble Choirs. Ms. Lind has worked with future and new music educators, as a cooperating teacher, a practicum adviser, and a mentor in the AASD new-teacher mentoring program. She enjoys retirement and also loves to help teach when a music teacher colleague is in need.

Sarah Phelps, who teaches Primo singers, is an alumna of Lawrence University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in choral and general music education. She teaches elementary school music in the Appleton Area School District, where she also serves as an Arts Integration specialist and a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching point person. She enjoys collaborating regularly with Lawrence students as clinicians and student teachers. Previously, she served as the manager for the Intermezzo Girl Choir (now the Capriccio and Arioso choirs). Phelps is a member of the National Association for Music Education, Wisconsin Music Educators Association, and Wisconsin Choral Directors Association. She is also an advocate for the Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance teaching model. She enjoys remaining active in the community by serving as a section leader in the newVoices choral ensemble as well as on the Mile of Music - Music Education Team.

Marie Putman, who teaches Cantabile singers, is a graduate of the Girl Choir program and a current choral music educator in the Appleton Area School District at Appleton North and West High Schools. She graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Choral and General Music Education and a minor in Arts Administration. Putman started her teaching career in Illinois, where she served as her district’s Junior Choral Representative and was recognized as an Emerging Leader. She also sang with the twenty-voice ensemble, Nova Singers, under the direction of Dr. Laura Lane. Putman is a member of the Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

Michael Ross is the conductor of the Community Music School's Wind Ensemble, a position he has held for more than a decade. Recently retired from the Appleton Area School District, Mr. Ross is currently teaching music classes at the Renaissance School for the Arts at Appleton West High School. In 2005, he was appointed the conductor of the Green Bay Youth Symphony—now the Youth Symphony at St. Norbert College—a position he still holds. Mr. Ross has served as President of the Wisconsin Percussive Arts Society and is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He was inducted into the American School Band Directors Association (ASBDA) in 1999 and has been a member of the National Band Association.

Mr. Ross currently works as a clinician and guest conductor with high school and middle school bands and percussion sections throughout Wisconsin and Michigan. He held the position of timpanist of the Green Bay Symphony for 39 years, played percussion in the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and performed as an extra in percussion with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Northern Michigan University and his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he studied conducting with Dr. Mallory Thompson and Dr. Stephen Petersen.