This concert is free & open to the public
Parking Information: Click here
Silver service reception begins at 9:30 am.
Going to miss a concert? Purchase a Youtube replay for $8 or get access to the full Thursday Musical library of concerts by becoming a member. Get a preview of our replays by watching last year’s opening concert: https://youtu.be/Hw57S8OACuU.
Or become a member.
Featuring Thursday Musical Members Aja Majkrzak, violin with Carson Rose Schneider, piano; Kristine West Denton, piano & Susan Hellerud, piano with guest artist Joseph Longo, piano.
Click the photo on the left for artist and program information.
For everyone’s safety, Thursday Musical strongly recommends all audience members to wear a non-cloth mask such as a N95, KN95, KF94, or surgical mask inside of the recital hall.
Kristine West Denton has performed across the country, in Canada, and Germany as a soloist and collaborative pianist. She recently retired from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Previously, she taught at Grinnell College, Coe College and Fort Hays State University.
She was a frequent soloist with the Erie Philharmonic and played keyboards for the Erie Philharmonic, Erie Chamber Orchestra and the Bemus Bay Pops. She performed on live broadcasts from WKSU (Kent, OH), WCLV (Cleveland) and WQLN (Erie) in collaborative performances. She administered and performed in a free concert series at the Erie County Public Library and served on the Arts Council of Erie.
A concert review from the Badische Zeitung (Freiburg, Germany) called her “an excellent soloist and an intelligent and sensitive accompanist” while a recipient of a Collaborative Fulbright Grant.
She attended the vocal accompanying program at the Music Academy of the West and the vocal and instrumental programs of the Blossom Festival School, studying with Martin Katz, Warren Jones and Cleveland Orchestra members.
A native of Minnesota, Kristine received degrees from the University of Iowa (DMA), Kent State University, and Augsburg College (Mpls). Her principal teachers were Kenneth Amada, Margaret Baxtresser and Jim Johnson.
Pianist Susan Hellerud retired in 2017 after serving for fifty-one years on the piano faculty of MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. Throughout her long teaching career she has been a performing artist member of Thursday Musical, and has also served as organist in several Twin Cities area churches. Beginning in 1996, Susan has curated and performed a 6
series of benefit concerts which provide two piano scholarships each year for gifted young piano students at MacPhail. She continues to perf01m frequently as a soloist and chamber musician.
Prior to his forty year tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra, retired principal clarinet Joseph Longo came to Minneapolis from the Milwaukee Symphony. A Chicago native, he began his career in the Chicago Lyric Opera and Chicago NBC Orchestras. He then toured Europe with the renowned Seventh Army Symphony. Joseph also played for twenty five seasons in the orchestra of the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale as well as several years with the Civic Orche§tra of Minneapolis. He is an active performer of solo and chamber music.
Aja has been playing the violin since she was 4 years old. She received her Bachelor’s of Music from the University of Minnesota in 2011 under the tutelage of Mark Bjork, and her Master’s of Music from Louisiana State University in 2013 studying with Espen Lilleslatten. Since then she has performed with many regional orchestras and has served as section leader for various community orchestras. Her orchestral experiences have given her the opportunity to share the stage with performers like Leila Josefowicz, Audra McDonald, and Gil Shaham.
Orchestral playing is the focus of her career but Aja has also performed with 2 Cellos, Foreigner, Harry Connick, Jr., Kygo, the Transiberian Orchestra and the Latin jazz group Charanga Tropical. In June 2015 she traveled to Havana, Cuba with the group to become the first band from the United States to participate in the International Danzon Festival.
If she is not making music you can find Aja with her two cats, Dexter and Cindy Lou Who, cooking vegetarian and vegan meals, and attempting to keep her plants alive.
At home playing with instrumentalists and singers, Dr. Carson Rose Schneider is a versatile pianist in demand by companies and recitalists around the Midwest.
Based in Minneapolis, MN, the roster of companies and Universities she has worked with includes Lakes Area Music Festival, Source Song Festival, Lyric Opera of the North, Skylark Opera Theatre, Nautilus Music Theatre, An Opera Theatre, St. Olaf College, University of Minnesota, and more. Recent productions included music directing a children’s tour of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Michael Ching’s Speed Dating, Tonight! with Lyric Opera of the North. She is also the Coordinator and Music Director for Skylark Opera Theatre’s Skylark for Seniors, a concert series in senior living residencies. She was also on the faculty of St Croix Valley Opera’s Summer Vocal Intensive and the Wesley Balk Institute in June.
While she enjoys and is comfortable playing a variety of styles and genres, she is especially passionate about new works, chamber music and art song, and connecting with audiences in
intimate and immersive venues. She is a founding member of new chamber music organization in Red Wing, MN called Lake Pepin Chamber Music. New music credits include her first album with mezzo-soprano Georgia Jacobson on composer Linda Kachelmeier’s album Harsh Things to Beauty, and she was also Music Director and pianist for Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers with Skylark Opera Theatre in May 2023. Current art song projects include the first season of a residency called B-Sides Art Song Residency with baritone Justin Spenner with whom she performs regularly in town.
She owns a private video recording and coaching studio and is the Music Director at the Union Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Elk River, MN. She has a DMA in collaborative piano and coaching from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Timothy Lovelace.
