Board of Directors
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Past President Jo Capoccioni |
Jo
Ruth
Hunter was born in Reinbeck, Iowa, the only child to Blair and
Willa Hunter, a lawyer and a secondary music teacher. I
graduated from high school in May, 1969, attended Northwestern
University for one year and then finished by B.A. degree at
U.N.I. in August, 1973. During the 1985-86 school year I took
an educational leave of absence from Peet JHS to pursue and
finish my Master’s Degree in Music Education at U.N.I. receiving
my M.A. diploma in August, 1986.
Her teaching career began in August, 1973 when she assumed the duties of Secondary Vocal Music at North Central Comm. Schools, Manly, Iowa. During the summer of 1976 a position at Peet JHS in Cedar Falls, Iowa opened up, as a one year contract, and she was fortunate enough to be offered it. By June 1, 1977, the position was formally hers and she has been here ever since. Since the age of 14, she has been a church organist, either in Reinbeck at the U.C.C. church or at Trinity Episcopal Parish in Waterloo where she now incorporates being choir director with the organist job.
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Treasurer Robert Allen Hill |
After graduating from
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Artistic Director Hunter Capoccioni |
A native of Waterloo, Hunter Capoccioni has performed concerts in throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. At age sixteen, Mr. Capoccioni won the Lucy P. Weed String Competition in Yankton, South Dakota and the same year was chosen as a finalist for the American String Teachers Association Competition in Kansas City. Mr. Capoccioni graduated with a bachelor and masters in music performance from Rice University where he studied with Paul Ellison. Other teachers include Diana Gannett, Gary Karr, and Fred Rees. Mr. Capoccioni has held positions as the principal bassist of the Norrlands Opera Orchestra in Umeå, Sweden and the Norwegian Opera Orchestra in Oslo, Norway. Mr. Capoccioni is currently an adjunct instructor of double bass at the University of Northern Iowa and the Artistic Director of the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival which is in its third season.
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Vacant |
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President Wes Heitzman |
Wes Heitzman
is originally from Dubuque, Iowa. He attended Stanford
University and did graduate work at Stanford (Civil
Engineering), U.C. Berkeley (Architecture), and UNI (Business).
He has worked for John Deere since 1977, and is responsible for
market research for the John Deere Power Systems division.
Wes is a past president of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony and
of Goodwill Industries, and has been involved in a number of
other local non-profit groups. He is currently Marketing V.P.
for the Waterloo Community Playhouse, a Session member at
Westminster Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Marketing
Committee of the Waterloo Center for the Arts. He founded
the Land of Corn Book Club, which has now been active for 20
years. Wes' interests include internet chess,
reading, music listening, opera, and cooking. He has been
married to Barbara for 33 years, and has two married daughters,
one grandson, and a second grandchild due in June.
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Board Member Dave Buck |
S Technical Journalism ’64
When Dave Buck returned to his home community of Waterloo, Iowa, 33 years ago to run the family business, he brought a spirit of humanitarianism that has had far-reaching influence and brought honor to his community and alma mater. As president and CEO of Matt Parrott & Sons Company, Buck created the Matt Parrott Integrity Awards to recognize outstanding Iowans. The prestigious award honors people in private business, education, and the public sector who exhibit high moral and ethical standards. Buck helped establish the Rotary shoebox program in 2001 to help the children of the dump in Chinandega in the north of Nicaragua. Since then, 190 tons of material has been delivered to thousands of children. The campaign has spread to Rotary clubs in eight states and Canada. Hundreds of Rotarians have joined to break the cycle of poverty in the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. A recent retiree, Buck has long been active with a variety of organizations such as Rotary, Junior Achievement, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, the Russell House and Grout Museums, Cancer Crusade, Boy Scouts, KUNI radio, the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, Northstar, and countless others. A past recipient of the ISU Alumni Association’s Service Key Award, Buck is an annual member of the Association. He and his wife, Ruth, have two sons.
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Board Member Lucinda Lear |
Lucinda Lear has been an independent teacher of voice and piano for over 25 years as owner/instructor of Lear Music Studio and Cedar Valley Music Academy. She received a B.A. in Music with a vocal emphasis studying with Dr. Jean McDonald and an M.A. in Music with an emphasis in piano pedagogy studying with Dr. Robin Guy from the University of Northern Iowa. She holds Professional Certification in piano and voice from the Music Teachers National Association and the Iowa Master Teacher Adjudicator certificate. Lear is an adjunct instructor in music at Hawkeye Community College. Her professional associations include state and divisional offices in Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) where she served for 6 years on the National Certification Commission and the Iowa Federation of Music Clubs as state president and currently serves as Iowa’s representative on the National Federation of Music Clubs Board of Directors. Locally, she is the current treasurer of the Northeast Area Music Teachers Association (NAMTA) and Waterloo B Natural Music Club. Lucinda served 3 years in the capacity of Youth Concert Chair for the Friends of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra. In her capacity of Chair of the Annual Summer Piano Pedagogy Workshop, Lear administrated workshop details and procured a program grant from MTNA. Lucinda has been the recipient of a number of scholarships and teacher enrichment grants which helped to further her education. She is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory’s piano and voice exams conducted in Canada and the U.S. Lucinda’s activities have included musical director/composer and accompanist backstage for theatre productions such as Godspell and The Hobbit and onstage as Jenny Lind in Barnum, Marian in Music Man and most recently as Cinderella’s mother in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods with the Waterloo Community Playhouse. In 2005, Lear was soprano soloist for the premiere of a multi-media musical, Fabric of a Family at the University of Kentucky. Lucinda and her husband Roger have three children and love sharing music as a family.
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Board Member Laura Walter |
As the only child of avid public radio fans, Laura Walter recalls that classical music was the soundtrack of her childhood. She retains, to this day, an active interest in music, both as a listener and as an amateur vocal performer. She recognizes that the richness of cultural programming in the Cedar Valley makes an important contribution to the quality of life of our communities. A native of Kansas, Laura holds degrees in biology from Kansas State University. She has spent much of her adult life teaching science, from the elementary through the university level. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for the natural world and its diverse inhabitants with people of all ages. From 2005 through 2008, Laura brought her love for nature, storytelling, and song to the storytime stage at the Cedar Falls Public Library. As a library assistant, she was a member of the team that planned and implemented activities for children in the Youth Department, including the popular “Puppet Stories.” Laura has received several years of private vocal instruction from Jeffrey Brich. She has been a member of the Metropolitan Chorale since 2004, and performed with the Chorale as treble soloist in Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb. Laura lives in Cedar Falls with her husband, Michael, a microbiologist and amateur bassist, and their three children, who require frequent reminders to practice their instruments.
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Board Member Stephen Gaies |
Stephen J. Gaies was born in Troy, New York, and lived in
upstate New York for the first two decades of his life. After
several years as a middle school and high school teacher, he did
his graduate work at Indiana University, where his love of
chamber music was nurtured further by the presence of the IU
School of Music and by frequent performances by, among others,
Janos Starker and the Beaux Arts Trio. He moved to Cedar
Falls in 1978 to join the Department of English at the
University of Northern Iowa. As a teacher educator, he did
consultancies in dozens of countries around the world. He
is now the director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Education at UNI, and he teaches courses in Holocaust literature
and genocide studies. He is a member of the Board of
Directors of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra and a
former member of the Wartburg Symphony Board. He is also a
member of the Exhibit Committee of the Grout Museum District.
Stephen's wife Nancy teaches kindergarten in Denver, Iowa.
Their son Michael is a pediatric cardiologist in Ann Arbor, and
their daughter Erika is an interior designer in Chicago.
They have two granddaughters, Abigail (9) and Taylor (6).
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