Skyline Conference Fine Arts Festival

Professor Timothy Sawyer
Director of Choral Activities, University of Northwestern, St. Paul

Guest conductor Timothy Sawyer has been a member of the University of Northwestern-St. Paul music faculty since 1989, where he is Director of Choral Activities and professor of music. At UNW he conducts the Northwestern Choir, Con Brio Men’s Chorus, Handbell Choir, teaches voice and is artistic director of Christmas at Northwestern. He has enjoyed an extensive and active career as a conductor, educator and professional singer following formal musical training at Bethel University (MN), Exeter University (England), the University of Minnesota and in doctoral-level study at the University of Iowa. In addition to extensive experience as a tenor soloist nationally and regionally, he is a veteran of several professional choirs, including the Dale Warland Singers, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, the Grammy-nominated South Dakota Chorale, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, with which he shared in a collective Grammy™ award for the recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo in 2000. Since 2004, he has been Artistic Director leading the Two Rivers Chorale, a vibrant community choir based in St. Paul. Choirs under his direction have been heard in concerts, festivals, on tours and in radio broadcasts throughout the United States, South America, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Asia.

Dr. Heather A. Hood
Staff Minister, Christ Presbyterian Church, Edina MN

Collaborative pianist Heather A. Hood has been on the ministry staff of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minnesota, since 1985 as the Minister of Worship & Music, overseeing a program of choirs, instrumental groups, worship bands, and music staff, as well as working significantly in worship planning. She holds music degrees from Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, and Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, and a Doctor of Worship Studies from the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida. Prior to relocating to the Twin Cities, she served on the faculty of Lincoln Land Community College and music director in several churches in Springfield, Illinois. Dr. Hood is a contracted singer and an assistant director with the Minnesota Chorale, has soloed with the Minnesota Chorale and Minnesota Orchestra, and is a published writer and composer. She has worked and continues to serve as a conductor, workshop leader, piano accompanist, and coordinator for national and international conferences. Dr. Hood also serves as an adjunct music faculty member and collaborative pianist at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul.

Dr. Phillip Ostrander
Director of Music - Trombone, University of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Phil Ostrander is Professor of Trombone and Bands at the University of Wisconsin -Eau Claire where he conducts the Symphony Band, teaches private trombone, and trombone ensemble.  Dr. Ostrander completed his doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Ostrander received master’s degrees in both trombone and wind conducting from the New England Conservatory, as well as a bachelor’s and Performer’s Certificate from Eastman. Dr. Ostrander champions diversity in repertoire with the UWEC Symphony Band. The band performs music composed by under-represented composers in every concert, and since 2017, the ensemble’s first concert of the year celebrates music written by female composers. The ensemble tours to a middle or high school with a diverse student population every year to perform and collaborate. He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the popular chamber groups Rhythm and Brass and the Burning River Brass Ensemble. Currently, he is a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee under Michael Stern and also Principal Trombone of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra.  He performs in Broadway shows regularly at the Orpheum and State theatres in Minneapolis. An accomplished jazz trombonist, Dr. Ostrander has collaborated with jazz artists Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi and Rich Beirach.  He teaches jazz and created the Trombone Workshop at the Shell Lake Arts Camp in northern Wisconsin.  He has recorded on Sony Classical with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Naxos with the IRIS Orchestra.  Dr. Ostrander is a clinician for the Conn-Selmer Musical Instrument Company.

Mr. Dan Petrov
Renaissance and Flemish Oil Painting; Ritter Farm Park Studio, Minnetonka; Center Of the Arts; Bloomington Art Center; Lakeville Area Art Center

Dan Petrov teaches Renaissance and Flemish Oil Painting Method, courses in Alla Prima Method and workshops in oil painting of different genres for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. Dan lives and paints in Lakeville, Minnesota and teaches in Ritter Farm Park Studio, Minnetonka Center Of the Arts, Bloomington Art Center and Lakeville Area Art Center. Born in Serbia, Dan Petrov spent most of his University summers in Northern Italy studying painting techniques of the Renaissance and contemporary painters. After University his museum studies extended to France, England and Holland where he copied old masters. Combining Indirect and Direct Painting Methods Dan arrived at the techniques he uses today in still life, landscape, portrait and figure. His studies of visual art have been continued in Canada from 1992 to 2006 where he was associated with Studio of Sergio DePaoli. In 2006 Dan relocated his studio to Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 2006 to 2010 Dan was the part of The Atelier comprehensive studio art program of Richard Lack. 

Ms. Ju Young Lee
Candidate for the Doctoral of Musical Arts, University of Minnesota

Ju Young Lee is an organist, pianist and conductor originally from South Korea. She earned her BA in organ performance and church music under Dr. Myung-Ja Cho and a M.Mus. in choral conducting under Dr. JW Park at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. She has been involved with many choirs as a conductor, music director, accompanist, and singer in both South Korea and the USA. As a music educator, she taught at the Gangreung-Wonju National University, Korea Open University, and Kwangshin University. Until recently, Ms. Lee was a visiting scholar in choral activities with the music department of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Ju Young Lee is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she is the student of University Organist Dr. Dean Billmeyer. She is currently the Organist at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minnesota, regular on-call organist for University of Northwestern – St. Paul, and an adjunct organ instructor at Bethel University in St. Paul. 

Mr. Lucas Boehm
Instructor, Fine Arts Chairman, St. Croix Lutheran Academy

Lucas Boehm has been teaching art for twenty-six years, beginning with five years at the middle school level in El Paso, TX and continuing with teaching at St. Croix Lutheran Academy. Lucas’s strengths are Adaptability, Connectedness, Learner, Empathy, and Positivity and these seem to drive much of his creative pursuits. He personally likes to explore a variety of media, but has mastered none. Seeing connections across color, shape, and form as well as evidence of process and history inspire him more as a designer than fine artist. Lucas finds great satisfaction in helping others realize their creative potential, preferring to think of himself less as a teacher and more as one who helps people “make cool things or make things cool.”