Staff

The MUSE staff members are hard working individuals with rich experience that guides the choir through it's future. While they all share similar visions, each staff member influences the choir in a unique way. Always changing. Always growing.

Catherine Roma

Catherine Roma became one of the founding mothers of the women's choral movement, an international network of over 70 women's choruses, when she started Anna Crusis Women's Choir in her native Philadelphia in 1975. She began MUSE in 1984 after coming to Ohio to do graduate work at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music where she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1989. Catherine is currently Professor of Music at Wilmington College. Through her association at Wilmington, Catherine founded and directs UMOJA Men’s Chorus at Warren Correctional Institution, in Lebanon, Ohio. She is Minister of Music at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church in Cincinnati, and is co-founder and director of the Martin Luther King Coalition Chorale. Recent honors include the Jane Schlissman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women's Music (1993), Race Relations Recognition Award (1999), the GALA Legacy Award (2000), the Maurice McCracken Award (2000), the Cincinnati Leading Woman Award, Arts/Entertainment category (2001), the Image Maker Award (2002), the Enduring Spirit Award (2003), the Community Service Award from the Council of Christian Communions (2004), and the Governor's Award for the Arts, in the category Community Development & Participation (2008). In January 2006, Roma's first book The Choral Music of Twentieth-Century Women Composers: Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Thea Musgrave, was published by Scarecrow Press.

artisticdirector@musechoir.org

Lois Shegog

Lois Shegog, Assistant Director of MUSE since 1995, taught music in the Cincinnati Public Schools until her recent retirement. She received her Bachelor of Music Education at Miami University (Ohio) and continued her studies in vocal performance and counseling at The Ohio State University. Lois sings and helps direct the Martin Luther King Coalition Chorale, and works as a choir clinician teaching singing in the African-American tradition.

Rachel Kramer

Rachel Kramer, Associate Director and Accompanist, has been with MUSE since 1995. Rachel holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in piano performance from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Music in piano performance and pedagogy from The University of Michigan. From 1990-1996, she served as the Manager of Educational Programs for the Baldwin Piano & Organ Co. and from 1998-2001 was the Assistant Executive Director at the Music Teachers National Association. Currently, Rachel is President of Music Learning Center, Inc.; Member Liaison for Music Teachers National Association and Associate Director of Music at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM),is co-founder and director of Piano Planet - a piano camp in Cincinnati and president-elect for the MTNA/OMTA Southwest District Association.

associatedirector@musechoir.org

Ruth Rowan

Ruth Rowan, Interpreter, has been delivering the music of MUSE to the hearing impaired at MUSE concerts since 1985. She has a Bachelor's degree in Speech Language Pathology and a Master's degree in Deaf Education from the University of Cincinnati. In June of 2006, Ruth retired from teaching deaf students in Cincinnati Public Schools. She is now busy freelance interpreting, substitute teaching, interpreting for the Cincinnati Men's Chorus, the Voices of Freedom, as well as her first love, MUSE. Ruth is also an active board member for Women in the Arts, the producers of the National Women's Music Festival. She will always be an Alto I at heart and continues to be honored to be able to be a part of this inspiring organization. For the seventeeth year, Ruth is thrilled to be sharing the stage with her beautiful daughter, Tammy.

Laura Talarek

Production Coordinator, Laura Talarek, joined MUSE as a member of the volunteer MUSE Staff ("fifth" section support volunteer) in the Fall of 1998. In 2000, she volunteered as our Staff Coordinator. In 2003, she took on the new title of Production Coordinator and she now oversees the MUSE Staff, concert production, and various aspects of merchandising. Laura traveled with MUSE to Montreal and, on behalf of MUSE, to Portland, OR and was also on the planning committee for the Eastern Regional Festival for GALA Choruses, held in Cincinnati in the summer of 2002. Laura's day job is laboratory technician in the microbiology division of the water quality laboratory at Northern Kentucky Water District. She's also a member of the NKWD Women's Pipe Tapping Team; regional champions in 2004 and competed in the national competition in 2005. If you want to know what pipe tapping is, well you'll have to just ask her. She lives in Ft. Thomas with her cat, er, roommate Lucy. For fun, Laura hangs out with friends, plays volleyball, and watches movies. Although she does cook, her strongest suit is hors d'oeuvres. And, she's mastered the perfect Margarita.

June Huelskamp

June Huelskamp, Treasurer, a member of MUSE since 1991, happily returns from leave last season to sing again among the first Sopranos after completing her Master's degree in Social Work. June draws on the therapeutic side of her social work background and her thrifty nature as the youngest of 13 children to balance both the Board and the books throughout the season.