Century College

Music Department

Faculty Bios

Kathryn Christie grew up in Milwaukee. As a teenager she attended the Interlochen National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. Kathryn attended Lawrence University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied violin with Vartan Manoogian and obtained a bachelor’s degree in violin performance. Kathryn has been a freelance performer in the Twin Cities area for over thirty years, and is a member of the Twin Cities Musicians Union. She has played in a wide variety of ensembles, including the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Symphony, Minneapolis Chamber Symphony, and many church orchestras. She has also played in backup bands for Ray Charles, Amy Grant, Anne Murray, and Deep Purple. Currently, Kathryn is a member of the Northern Lights String Quartet, formed in 1997, and they are longtime members of Thursday Musical. Kathryn began playing viola at the Madeline Island Music Camp in 1998. She has been teaching privately since 1985, and she maintains a private violin and viola studio in her home. Kathryn also teaches violin for the Early Bird String Academy and at Century College. Additionally, Kathryn has been a sectional coach for the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS) since 2009.

Dr. Erik Christiansen - Dr. Christiansen’s choral music education began in childhood by going to many rehearsals and concerts of his father‘s Concordia Choir. He began his college training at Pacific Lutheran University (Maurice Skonas), and continued at Concordia College (Paul Christiansen), Southeastern Louisiana University (Ralph Roberts), and Arizona State University (Douglas McEwen). In addition he attended a dozen Paul Christiansen Choral Schools. He has held teaching posts at three high schools and four colleges (Southeastern Louisiana University, Capital University, Concordia College, and Century College).

Russell Dedrick studied Flute at the Manhattan School of Music (1974-78) where he received BM and MM degrees. He directed the New Music Ensemble at the Mannes School of Music (1979-80) in New York. He played Piccolo and Assistant Principal Flute in the Orquesta del Estado de Mexico, in Toluca, Mexico, for two seasons (1981-82) where he did extensive recordings. Locally, he has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, VocalEssence, The Keltic Woman, and in the Nutcracker Fantasie Orchestra and many other orchestras and chamber music groups, including the Dedrick Flute Duo and Monarch Trio with his wife Polly Meyerding. Russell has recently been performing the Claude Bolling Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio (Flute, Piano, Bass & Drumset) at venues around the Twin Cities to high acclaim. He is a Vice President of the Student Competition of Thursday Musical that gives $20,000 a year in prize money to young classically trained musicians.

Julia Elkina has more than 20 years of teaching experience, including 10 years of teaching at St. Olaf College in Northfield. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia with a Diploma of Distinction, Julia Elkina came to US in 1993 and continued her studies at the University of Minnesota where she earned her DMA in Piano Performance. Ms. Elkina is particularly known for her duo-piano work with her twin sister Irina. Elkinas shared the top prize in the Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (1993).Highlights of Julia's performing career include multiple engagements in Lincoln Center in New York and performances at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts as a part of Schubert Club's International Artists Series. A frequent guest on National Public Radio, she has performed on Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor as well as on the nationally syndicated Saint Paul Sunday. Ms. Elkina has continued to perform as a duo-pianist and soloist in venues including New York, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Oregon Bach Festival and Gilmore Keyboard Festival.

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Eric Graham is an active jazz bassist and composer. He has performed in venues from New York to California and currently resides in the Twin Cities. An active studio musician, he played on the album Beyond Blues which won Minnesota Monthly's “Excellence in Music” award, and was for a time a top 10 album on various national jazz charts. Graham has been featured on the Today Show, C- SPAN, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, and CBS Radio. His compositions have been programmed at various contemporary music festivals, including the Society of Composers National Convention and Ernest Bloch Composers' Symposium. Recently the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra presented his work c’TRANE b’TOK as part of their Chamber Music Series.

Graham has received two Jerome Foundation Travel & Study Grants, the Minnesota State Arts Board "Arts Leader" Award, an LRAC/McKnight Foundation Career Development Grant, a Mid-America Arts Alliance Grant, the Virginia Carty deLillo Prize for Composition, a National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Scholarship, a Peabody Institute Merit Scholarship, the ASCAP Raymond Hubble Music Award, and a National Honor Society Scholarship. Additionally, he has received both an Award for Excellence and Presidential Innovation Grant from Century College. Graham is a full-time music professor at Century College where he teaches courses in jazz, world music, and popular music. He holds a Master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. He was raised in Barrow, Alaska an Inupiat Eskimo village 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Jocelyn Kalajian holds degrees in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.A. Magna cum Laude) and the New England Conservatory (M.M. with Distinction in Performance). She is the alto soloist at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul performing a vast repertoire of masses by Mozart, Haydn, Schubert Beethoven and others every Sunday with full orchestra and the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale. She also sings in the alto section of “The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists.” Other performances in the Twin Cities include solo performances with the Bach Society of Minnesota, Anoka Opera and many other choral organizations and orchestras. Before moving to the Twin Cities, she sang professionally in Boston with the Cantata Singers, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society and the Emmanuel Music Bach Cantata Series. She has received fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival, the Bach Aria Festival in Stony Brook, NY and to the Vermont Bach Festival. For two summers she was the mezzo soprano soloist in residence at the Bach, Beethoven and Breckenridge Music Festival in Colorado. She taught voice at Tufts University and presently is the Voice Instructor at Century College in White Bear Lake, MN. She is a performing artist member of Thursday Musical and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Greg Keel is on the faculty at MacPhail Center for Music, teaching saxophone, directing community partnership ensembles, and instructing in the jazz combo and summer workshop programs. He is also on the faculty at Carleton College in Northfield, Hamline University in St. Paul, and Century College in St. Paul. Greg has performed with a wide range of entertainment luminaries, including Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, The O’Jays, Natalie Cole, Ben Folds, Johnny Mathis, The Fifth Dimension, Frankie Valli, Lou Rawls, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Vinton, Bob Hope and The Temptations. He also plays regularly on pops and jazz concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra. Greg's high school and college students have received recognition from Down Beat Magazine’s annual Student Jazz Awards, and are frequently selected as members of the Minnesota All-State Jazz Ensembles, the Dakota Combo, Minnesota Youth Jazz Bands, and the Minnesota All-State Concert Band. Greg is a member of the JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet, Synergy, and the 10-piece soul/pop group The Good the Bad and the Funky. He is an artist/clinician for Selmer Saxophones, conducting classical and jazz clinics around the country. Greg was a two-term vice-president of the Minnesota chapter of the International Association for Jazz Educators. Since 2009, he is also the Jazz Program Director at the Shell Lake Arts Center summer camps in Wisconsin, where he has served on the faculty since 1983. Greg studied at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire and Madison, with additional graduate studies at Concordia University of St. Paul.

Ben Kunkel Guitarist Benjamin Kunkel is an active performer and has given many concert appearances across the country both as a soloist and as part of many ensembles. In 2014, Benjamin joined the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, one of America’s foremost guitar ensembles. The group tours throughout the United States and internationally, performing music of a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach to Prince. He also frequently collaborates with acclaimed Minneapolis-based vocal group, The Mirandola Ensemble. Benjamin received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and his Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, both in classical guitar performance. In addition classical guitar, Benjamin has experience playing and teaching many styles of guitar, including rock, folk, blues, and jazz. He has performed with rock bands, jazz bands, and provided music for theater productions, religious services, and many other events. As an educator, Benjamin has experience teaching guitar students of all ages and ability levels, and designs lessons to fit each student’s interests and needs. Lessons are designed to develop sound technique, music-reading skills, rhythm and musicality, helping students become both skilled guitarists and excellent musicians. In addition to private guitar lessons, Benjamin offers guitar ensemble class and a group class for beginners. Benjamin joined the faculty of Century College in 2015, and also teaches at St. Joseph’s School of Music and St. Paul Guitar Studio in St. Paul.

Randy Martens holds a Bachelor of Arts in Percussion Performance from University of Northwestern, Saint Paul, MN. His percussion instructors have been Robert Adney, Earl Yowell, Gordy Knudtson, and Phil Hey. He has taught at Schmitt Music Company and MacPhail Center for Music and currently teaches at Century College and K&S Conservatory of Music. Randy is a member of Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and is an active freelance percussionist. His freelance work includes performances with Minnesota Sinfonia, Rochester Symphony Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, and Saint Paul Civic Symphony.

Shirley Mier has taught at Century College since 2007 and has lived in the Twin Cities for over 30 years. During that time she has music-directed more shows than she can remember and composed over a dozen musical theatre works, including children’s musicals commissioned from Stages Theatre, scores for Shakespeare plays, and music for Greek tragedies. Her concert band works have won multiple honors, and her musicals and concert band works have been published and performed across the U.S. and Canada (including Carnegie Hall in New York City). Dr. Mier holds a B.A. in Music from Grinnell College and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Minnesota. Courses taught at Century include Music Theory, Ear Training, Songwriting, Popular Music in American Society, and Theatre Orchestra. Her bluegrass band the Hell-Burnin’ Sinners originated from Century’s production of The Grapes of Wrath. Other theatre productions at Century include Spring Awakening, Hairspray, The Rocky Horror Show, The Pirates of Penzance, and Cabaret. For more info: www.shirleymier.com

Charles Preis has directed the Century Concert Band since 1995. He is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and the University of Michigan. He has been teaching in the greater Twin Cities area since 1984, and has been teaching band, choir and orchestra in Minneapolis since 1995. Charlie is a member of the Lake Wobegon™ Brass Band. He has been a member of the Lakewood/Century Band since 1985, first playing euphonium until our founder, John Zdechlik, retired and handed him the baton.

Elliot Wilcox has been on the Century College music faculty since 1999. He teaches Music Theory, Ear Training, Fundamentals of Music, Popular Music in American Society, and directs the Century Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Wilcox received his Masters in Arts in Piano Performance from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he also studied conducting, and his Masters of Arts in Music Theory from the University of Minnesota. He is a Performing Artist for Thursday Musical and his solo piano performances have been broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio. Prior to teaching at Century, Mr. Wilcox taught studio piano at Anoka Ramsey Community College and also worked as a professional piano technician. He has served as Century College Faculty President (Minnesota State College Faculty Association) and currently is serving as Century College Fine Arts Chair.

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