Board of Directors

2024–2025 Season

Lyse Strnad chairs the Board of Directors of Red Cedar Chamber Music. She began practicing as a general ophthalmologist in Iowa City in 1987 and fully retired in 2021. She was an Adjunct Clinical Professor of the University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology and served as an Associate Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology. She also served as President of the Iowa Academy of Ophthalmology.

In a former life, she played intercollegiate field hockey at Stanford University and played in the first National tournament. She has served Stanford as an Alumni Volunteer Interviewer for many years. Hobbies include horseback riding, mushroom hunting, bee keeping, sourdough bread baking, downhill skiing, sailing, and participating in a book club. She serves on several boards of non-profit organizations.

Lyse spent many evenings in her youth listening to the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. She, her husband, Tom Leavenworth, and two boys enjoy classical music, ballet, opera and musicals.

Lyse has enjoyed hearing Red Cedar Chamber Music at the rural outreach venues as well as the MainStage performances.  She and her family believe that live performance is a treasured form of human communication, and nothing personifies the intimacy and connection between music and the public like chamber music.

John Hegarty and his wife Kay have been enthusiastic supporters of Red Cedar Chamber Music since its founding. John was born and raised in Cedar Rapids.

As a student he was involved in vocal music and theater, in addition to competing in many sports. He received his B.A. in Education from the University of Iowa. John was a high school science teacher and coach in the Cedar Rapids Community School District for 33 years.

Today, he remains busy working for Hughes Nursery and Landscaping. He enjoys broadcasting high-school football games on behalf of CRM-Livesports.com. He is also a published author.

Over the last decade Johnproudly logged tours-of-duty assisting Red Cedar with the three Brinton concerts, serving as narrator and spokesperson.

 

Thomas Wolle joined Red Cedar’s board of directors in 2024.  Thomas is an attorney with Simmons Perrine Moyer & Bergman in Cedar Rapids where he focuses his practice on employment law litigation and counseling, and workers’ compensation.  Thomas and his wife, Susan, live in Cedar Rapids and have been actively involved in the music community for many years. 

They raised three daughters who were classically trained at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City and participated in various chamber ensembles as well as trips to China and the Baltic states to perform concerts. 

Thomas is a life-long violinist and still enjoys playing his instrument in church as well as with various small ensembles including the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale and Chorale Midwest. 

Thomas has known Carey and Miera for many years and is an avid fan and supporter of Red Cedar Chamber Music.  Other than music and the practice of law, Thomas loves playing competitive tennis, hiking with his wife, and otherwise spending time outdoors with family and friends.

Jonathan Ice of Cedar Rapids has loved classical music since he was a kid, dabbling in piano and trombone as a child, but in college finding his niche in vocal music.  Outside of five years of voice lessons, he has little formal musical training, but got hooked on symphonic choral music in 1973, when he sang a year in Cleveland Orchestra chorus.  He has sought out choirs ever since, and currently sings in Chamber Singers of Iowa City.  The peak of his musical career was in Minneapolis, where he sang ten years with Minnesota Chorale under Joel Revzen and Kathy Romey.

Legally blind his whole life, Jonathan has not let that define what he does.  He earned a B.A. in sociology from Carleton College and worked in a series of entry-level jobs for the next 20 years, finally finding a career as a rehabilitation teacher, serving the Iowa Department for the Blind for 17 years, and another 3 in New Mexico before retiring in 2017.  His work bred familiarity with 5 of the 7 counties Red Cedar serves (Linn, Cedar, Jones, Benton, Johnson).

Jonathan married his wife Karla in 1989 and they enjoy the outdoors (hiking, camping, wildflowers), traveling back roads all over the place, cultural diversity, reading, and music.  They first attended a Red Cedar event in the early 2000’s and slowly became addicted.  After returning to Iowa from New Mexico in 2018, their obvious interest in Red Cedar elicited his invitation to join the board in 2020.

Todd Hendricks joined Red Cedar Chamber Music’s Board of Directors in 2019.  He is a director in McGladrey’s state and local tax practice. He provides services on various state and local tax issues, including sales and use taxes, income taxes and payroll taxes. His primary focus is on sales and use tax refund projects and state tax controversy assistance. In the past ten years,

Todd has performed more than 50 Iowa sales and use tax reviews for clients. Several of the reviews have resulted in significant current and future tax savings.

Todd has given numerous presentations on state and local tax issues to internal and external groups, including numerous client tax update seminars.

As a fine arts educational advocate in our community, Melissa Summers is pleased to have served on the Red Cedar Chamber Music board since 2015.  Although enjoying retirement now, she worked for the Cedar Rapids Community School District as a music teacher and fine arts curriculum facilitator for over 35 years. She also serves as an active board member for the Paul Engle Association for Community Arts and volunteers for a variety of local nonprofits.

Melissa has served as adjunct education professor for Mt. Mercy University and has been an instructor and conference presenter for the University of Iowa, Drake University, and Area Education Agencies.  She also served on past boards of the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and Eastern Iowa Arts Academy.  She has written arts-integrated curriculum teacher guides and lesson plans for area arts education organizations as well as the Kennedy Arts Center and NPR’s From the Top.

Melissa currently teaches music lessons and arts enrichment classes part-time at Johnson STEAM Academy Magnet School in Cedar Rapids. In her spare time, she has fun adventures with her friends, children, and grandchildren, and also enjoys puttering around in her flower beds when the weather permits.

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Tom Carroll joined Red Cedar Chamber Music’s Board of Directors in 2016. Tom is a CPA with a PhD from the Univ. of Michigan and a BBA from the Univ. of Notre Dame.  He worked as an auditor for Ernst & Whinney in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. 

Tom joined the University of Iowa in 1989 and taught accounting at the graduate and undergraduate levels until his retirement in 2022.  He also directed the Master of Accountancy Program, supervising numerous graduate students during his tenure. 

Tom serves on the on the Board of Directors of the STO of Southeast Iowa and tutors elementary school reading. He and his wife, Patrice, reside in Iowa City. They have two children who are following their dreams in Washington, D.C.  Much to Patrice’s chagrin, Tom suffers from a severe case of adult onset musicianship confirming his belief in the power of music to change lives.

Miera Kim, Executive Director

Carey Bostian, Artistic Director

[email protected]

Phone to (319) 338-0307

Red Cedar Chamber Music
PO Box 154
Marion IA 52302