Valley Chamber Chorale
The St. Croix Valley Chamber Chorale is a unique artistic organization dedicated to providing classical, contemporary, jazz, and sacred vocal performances of the highest caliber. Our programs consistently reflect the rich cultural heritage of the St. Croix Valley while exploring and examining, through music, ethnic diversity represented throughout the Twin Cities area. The Chorale is widely regarded as one of the leading arts organizations in Washington County and the St. Croix Valley.

Carol Carver, founder and Artistic Director of the Valley Chamber Chorale is at home in the many facets of choral music. Carol spends her days as choral development editor for Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, works part-time as traditional worship coordinator and choral director at Trinity Lutheran Church, Stillwater, MN, and part-time with the Valley Chamber Chorale. Carol has studied choral and church music at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, the Hochshule fur Musik in Frankfurt, Germany, and graduate school at the University of Minnesota. Many summers have been spent studying with many of the world's finest conductors, including David Willcocks, Jon Washburn, John Rutter and Eric Ericsson.

Teresa Lunsford,  Cellist 
Teresa Lunsford grew up in Clifton, Virginia, and began her study of the cello at age nine through Fairfax County Public Schools. Her high school years were spent studying with Loran Stephenson of the National Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Lunsford attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she studied the cello under the instruction of Helga Winold, Emilio Colon, and Janos Starker. She earned MM and BM degrees in cello performance and graduated with high distinction. Ms. Lunsford has performed with many orchestras, including the Evansville Philharmonic, Owensboro Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, and Duluth Superior Symphony. She served as principal cellist of the National Orchestral Institute and the College Light Opera Company.

Now residing in Saint Paul, Ms. Lunsford is a freelance musician and cello instructor. She is on faculty at St. Joseph's School of Music, Saint Paul Conservatory of Music, and MacPhail Center for the Arts. Aside from performing with the Metropolitan Symphony, Ms. Lunsford is a substitute cellist with the Duluth Superior Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami, FL. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and playing the piano.

Lynn Trapp, Organist  
Dr. Lynn Trapp has had a distinguished career as concert organist, conductor, composer and liturgist. Through his many performances and clinician work for regional and national music conventions, conducting engagements in the U.S. and abroad, and publications of organ and choral music with six major publishers, he has become well-known as a leader in church music.

A national competition winner at the organ, he is a recording artist and clinician for World Library Publications, Chicago and a member of the Liturgical Organists Consortium. He serves as Director of Worship & Music, Organist, at St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis. Presently he is recording the first CD on the 67-rank Lively-Fulcher organ at St. Olaf Church, Recital in the City.

Dr. Trapp is the winner of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Presser Foundation Award and the international Spirit and Truth Award from the University of Notre Dame for his contribution to the field of liturgical music. He was recently commissioned by St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, to compose a major organ work, which he premiered there last month. He is co-director of the annual liturgical music conference at St. John's University, Collegeville, and is artistic director of Cracovia Cantat, an international choral festival in Krakow, Poland. He holds degrees from Southern Illinois University (BM), University of Notre Dame (MM), and University of Kansas (DMA).

Dr. Trapp has served as adjunct faculty member for North Central University in Minneapolis and presently as organ instructor for St. Olaf College/Luther Seminary, St. Paul.

Jim Bovino,  Narrator 
After attending the International School for Theater Anthropology in Copenhagen, Denmark Jim Bovino relocated to the Twin Cities. A performance artist, actor, director, and playwright, Jim has presented original works at Walker Art Center, the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, The University of Leeds in Leeds, England, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, as well as venues in Minneapolis and St Paul. Jim is Co-Artistic Director of Flaneur Productions, an acclaimed Twin Cities based performance collective.

Rebecca Gruskin,  Hornist 
Rebecca Gruskin, a senior at Duluth East High School, studies horn with Sarah Schmalenberger and piano with Marcia Lothner. She plays in the Duluth-Superior Youth Orchestra and is principal horn in the Duluth East High School Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra as a finalist in the Minnesota Idol Competition and with the St. Scholastica Center for Early Music Orchestra in Duluth.

In 2006 Rebecca took second place in the Duluth-Superior Symphony Young Artists Competition and played principal horn in the College of St. Scholastica Wind Ensemble. She received a national fourth place award in the 2004 Concours National de Français, and in 2003 she received second place in the Music Teachers National Association Junior Brass Competition.

For the past five years, she has played in the University of Minnesota-Duluth Honor Band. Rebecca is also active in debate and math team and loves to travel; she has lived and attended school in both Ireland and France. She hopes to pursue a career in either music or international politics.

Adam Kuenzel, Flautist  
Principal Flute Adam Kuenzel joined the Minnesota Orchestra in November, 1990. A native of Cincinnati, Kuenzel attended the Oberlin Conservatory, studying with Robert Willoughby.

After graduation, he studied with Tom Nyfenger in New Haven and played in jazz groups for two years in Cincinnati. In 1983, he joined the Charleston Symphony as principal flute before assuming the principal chair of the San Antonio Symphony. Kuenzel has been a guest artist with the Aspen Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Spoleto Festival, the St. Bart’s Music Festival in the French West Indies and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Kuenzel made his Minnesota Orchestra subscription debut in 1991 performing the Ibert Flute Concerto and has since regularly appeared as soloist on the Orchestra’s various concert offerings. In February 2005, he performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra under Music Director Osmo Vänska.