| Director of Music and Choirs, Lorraine Langer, has over 30 years experience teaching as well as directing Adult, Youth & Children's Choirs at many different churches and denominations. Lorraine joined the staff at St. Paul's in 2005.
Lorraine has a gift and passion for teaching and performing. Her teaching career includes research and development in vocal pedagogy with all ages. Lorraine maintains a private voice studio in DeKalb. Her students have performed in both community and professional venues. Her performing career as a soprano shows a versatility in opera, concert, recital and musical theater, which has taken her to Austria, Germany and Italy. Among her music awards are the National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists Grant, Bel Canto Opera in Italy, American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria, Tanglewood Music Festival and others.
Lorraine grew up on a farm in Northfield, Minnesota, in a family of thirteen children. She received a B. A. from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and the M. A. degree from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She loves chocolate, history, sci-fi, baroque music, Manhattan the city and her cat, & kids of all ages.
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| Kathleen Johnson, Organist, played for 27 plus years at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Rochelle and joined the music program at St. Paul’s in the summer of 2008. Kathleen loves playing the organ on Sunday mornings. She has a full-time job with Resource Bank as a Customer Service Representative, Administrative Assistant and Bookkeeper. We are fortunate to have Kathleen with us in both talent & spirit.
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Yao Lin (Lina), Pianist/Accompanist, joined the music program at St. Paul's in August of 2011. Yao is working on a Performance Certificate in Piano Performance and Accompanying at Northern Illinois University, where she studies with Professor Bill Goldenberg. She has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in piano from the Conservatory of Odessa in the Ukraine. She also attended the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in China and taught for three years at a community school in Odessa. She is an accomplished accompanist and soloist.
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| Michael Duffy, Trumpet, is a member of the vestry (Jr. Warden) and is the Music Librarian and Head of Branch Libraries at NIU. He has a Master's of Music in musicology from Northwestern University, Master of Library and Information Science from Dominican University, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Western Michigan University.
Michael enjoys listening to all kinds of music, and likes to play classical and occasionally jazz trumpet music. Michael began playing for St. Paul’s in 2007. We are fortunate to have Michael’s artistry on the trumpet throughout the liturgical year on hymns, anthems and occasionally a wonderful prelude or baroque postlude. Michael also plays trumpet with the DeKalb Municipal Band in the summers and enjoys spending time with his wonderful wife, Kristin and daughter, Nora.
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| Kristin Duffy, Oboe, is a Research Administrator in the Office of Sponsored Projects at Northern Illinois University. Kristin holds a B. A. in History from Hope College and M. A. in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY Oneonta). Kristin is also a part-time registrar at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum. She studied oboe and played in music ensembles throughout her college years.
Kristin began playing for St. Paul’s in 2008. We are fortunate to have Kristin’s artistry on the oboe throughout the liturgical year. Kristin served on St. Paul's rector search committee and is very much appreciated for her long hours of talent and work on our parish profile. Kristin is married to Michael and they have a wonderful daughter, Nora.
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Michael Ouellette, Clarinet, is a gifted young artist to be heard! Michael attends DeKalb High School and studies clarinet & saxophone. Michael also has a wonderful voice and joins the adult/youth choir for special services. We are fortunate at St. Paul's to have such a gifted musician and a wonderful spirit.
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| David Aarons, Steel Pan Drum. David is a graduate student at NIU in the only Masters Degree Program for steel pan in the country. We are blessed at St. Paul's to have steel pan drum played for the first time-ever in our church history and to have such a wonderful artist as David play for our services.
David is also our new Youth Sunday School Teacher. More information forthcoming.
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| Andreea Zaharia, was our pianist at St. Paul's from August of 2006 to May of 2009. Andreea is a 2009 Performers Certificate Graduate at NIU, where she was a piano student of Dr. William Koehler and has coached with Richard Young, from the internationally acclaimed Vermeer String Quartet, Mircea Dan Răducanu, at the Iași Music Conservatory and with Andreas Henkel at Heinrich-Schütz-Conservatory Dresden.
She was born in Bârlad, România and comes from a family of 6. Andreea received her Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance at the George Enescu Music Conservatory in Iași, her M. A. from NIU in 2008, where she received the NIU Outstanding Women Student Award, the Ruth and William Koehler Piano Scholarship Award, an NIU Graduate Fellowship and assistantship to play for the NIU Opera Workshop. Andreea joined the music program at St. Paul’s in 2006. Andreea is in growing demand as an accomplished artist and teacher, She now lives in New York where she teaches private piano.
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| SangHee Han, was our pianist at St. Paul's from September of 2009 to May of 2010. SangHee is a graduate of the University of Suwon (USW) in Korea. In 2003, Ms. Han won second prize at Sung Jung National Young Artist Competition. In 2003 and 2004, she performed in the Korean National Piano Society recital at the Ewon National Cultural Center Music Hall. Ms. Han was selected to represent USW for a mutual collegial music performance, the Duo Performance Concert, in both 2004 and 2005. Ms. Han was also nominated as a collaborative pianist during the 2003 USW Music Festival. In 2005, Ms. Han performed the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 with the Suwon Symphony Orchestra.
After graduating from USW, Ms. Han taught private piano lessons until moving to the United States in 2009. Ms. Han's main teachers include Kyungsun Pi, Youngmok Ju, Wonyoung Kong, MinKyung Zong, Alexander Seliser, Dmitry Kosmachov. SangHee was one of four winners at the Annual Concerto Competition at NIU and performed with NIU Philharmonic Orchestra in February of 2010. SangHee is now a graduate student at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
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| Yixuan Zhao, was our pianist at St. Paul's from August of 2010 to May of 2011. Yixuan is from Weihai City, Shandong Province, China. She is a graduate student at NIU where she is studying with Dr. William Goldenberg and working on both a Performance Certificate and a Masters Degree in piano performance. She has a Bachelors of Music from the Art School in Shandong, University at Weihai. Yixuan has performed in recital as a solo artist and accompanist.
Yixuan was the 2009 winner of both The First Shandong Province Music and Dance Competition, and The New Year Festival, in Weihai City, Shandong Province. Music Awards include first place, Accompanist for the International Choir Competition for youth - Yantai City, Basic Skills Competition in Shandong Province and she was also a Finalist in the Zhongya Cup Piano TV Competition for youth in Xinjiang Province. Master Classes with Robert Weirich, Karen Kushner, Nathan Buckner, Zhongguo Shen, Hiroko Seta, Naifan Sheng and Pei Sun. Hobbies, Yixuan enjoys playing tennis and ping-pong, swimming, watching movies and eating good Chinese food.
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