NEW VENUE: Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
511 Groveland Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Tickets are $15 for non-members & $10 per ticket for groups of 8+. Students are now free.
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/vaJXJ5vqfgg
Or become a member.
Featuring Thursday Musical Members Ann DuHamel, piano; Robin Griffeath, tenor & Bryon Wilson, piano; and Kristina Rodel Sorum, mezzo soprano, Aja Majkrzak, violin, & Kristine West Denton, piano.
*guest artist
Please note that Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church closely monitors its main entrance. The door is locked and visitors are buzzed in. ICE or US Border Patrol officers will not be allowed in the church unless they present a warrant signed by a judge. However, please be aware that immigration officers can access the church parking lot.
Audience Health and Safety Requirements:
Masks will not be required but are welcomed and encouraged at Thursday Musical concerts.
Robin Griffeath, tenor, has recently performed in recital with pianist, Stephen Sulich and performing works by Bellini and Ben Moore. Previous solo recital projects have included a newly commissioned song cycle by Dr. Jonathan Stinson, Uncivil Relief; Ben Moore’s cycle based on letters between Van Gogh and his brother; Benjamin Britten’s Michelangelo Sonnets; and Beethoven’s groundbreaking An die ferne Geliebte. On the opera stage, Griffeath most recently performed the role of the Prince of Persia with FM Opera. Past roles include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L'elisir d'amore, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff. Dr. Griffeath performed the role of the Beast in a 2021 production of Alan Menken’s Beauty and the Beast, and in 2022, he performed excerpts of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera in concert with the SWOSU Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Griffeath serves on the Concordia College faculty as an associate professor of music, where he teaches applied voice lessons, diction, vocal repertoire, and directs the Concordia College opera program
Bryon Wilson is a freelance pianist, teacher, and vocal coach based in Minneapolis, MN. He has appeared with numerous artistic organizations including Schubert Club, Source Song Festival, Thursday Musical, NATS, Mill City Opera, Out of the Box Opera, Orpheus Music Project, and River Sounds in Ft. Lauderdale. In 2015 Bryon performed in the world premiere of Minnesota Concert Opera’s La Divina, a one-woman play about Maria Callas. Bryon also studies and performs music composed by holocaust prisoners in Theresienstadt and recently presented a lecture recital on the topic as part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas series on Holocaust survivors in Minnesota.
Bryon maintains an active piano studio, and his students have entered music programs at Indiana University, New York University, Boston University, and Interlochen Arts Camp. During his Master's and Doctoral studies in Collaborative Piano at the University of Minnesota Bryon studied with Timothy Lovelace, Noriko Kawai, Debra Bakland, and Margo Garrett. Bryon is pianist for The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists, on the faculty of Macphail Center for Music, organist at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina, MN, and Artistic Director of Concerts by the Creek. Bryon also spends two months every summer commercial salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, AK.
Hailed as a “forward thinking classical pianist” and praised as “... a delight for the ears and the soul,” pianist Ann DuHamel enjoys an eclectic musical career. Her performances have spanned 22 countries and 37 United States, including Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, and a performance of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto with Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra in Alexandria, MN, that garnered 3rd place in The American Prize in Piano Performance (concerto)-The Lorin Hollander Award, 2025. Her debut album, Rückblick: New Piano Music Inspired by Brahms, is lauded as “an extraordinary, fascinating CD, musically very strong ... so passionate, technically excellent and inspiring” (Piano Bulletin). Ann’s series “Prayers for a Feverish Planet” responds to the climate crisis with 60+ new works from composers around the world, including works she commissioned from Gabriela Lena Frank and Libby Larsen; Volume 1 will be released by New Focus Recordings in April 2026. A 2023-24 McKnight Artist Fellow, she currently serves as Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota Morris, where she is the recipient of the 2025 Faculty Distinguished Research Award; as UMM’s 2026 Founders Scholar, she will present a series considering Chopin and Rzewski through the lens of Artivism.
Kristina Rodel Sorum is a sought-after Mezzo Soprano with a breadth of experience as a soloist and chorister. Praised as “lovely” in the Minnesota Star Tribune for her performance as the alto soloist in J.S. Bach Cantata 147 with Bach Society of Minnesota, she lends a clear, approachable sound and a warm and inviting artistry to every performance. Kristina is a frequent recitalist, making her Schubert Club recital premiere in 2025, and performing regularly on the Thursday Musical Artist Series. Kristina is a two-time award winner at SongSlam Minneapolis, collaborating with leading composers of new vocal music (Timothy C. Takach, 2025 and Isaac Lovdahl, 2020) in this competition for new art songs through Source Song Festival and Sparks & Wiry Cries.
In high demand as a chorister, Kristina has appeared with ensembles including the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, Bach Society of Minnesota, Bach Roots Festival, the Minnesota Renaissance Choir, Consortium Carissimi, The Singers, The Minnesota Chorale, and imPulse. She has also appeared with Opera Reading Project, Journey North Opera, The Twin Cities Early Music Festival, the Lakes Area Music Festival, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, and the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Festival. Learn more and see her schedule at kristinarodelsorum.com.
Aja Majkrzak 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.
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.