Strings Faculty

Billy Barnard – Guitar & Jazz
Office: 171B Humanities
Office Phone:726-6570
E-mail: bbarnard@d.umn.edu

Billy Barnard teaches guitar in private lesson, ensemble, and class formats. He is well-known at UMD for his immensely popular course in Jazz Studies, in which over one thousand students enroll each academic year. In addition, he directs one of the UMD Jazz Combos. Mr. Barnard graduated first in his class from the Guitar Institute of Technology, Los Angeles and has performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Rufus Reid. He has been for many years and remains in constant demand at local and regional levels as a clinician and guitarist in all styles.

Adam Booker – Jazz and Bass
Office: Humanities 235
Office Phone: 726-8335
E-mail: abooker@d.umn.edu

Dr. Adam Booker has had a remarkable career. Having began playing bass professionally at the age of 16 in San Antonio with local jazz luminaries Small World and Ron Wilkins, he has since gone on to become a sought after bassist in the world famous Austin, Texas music scene. In 2001 Adam enlisted in the US Navy, where he was assigned to US Navy Band New Orleans until the end of his enlistment in 2005. During his enlistment, Adam had the opportunity to delve into New Orleans' rich musical culture. He became a member of The Hot Club of New Orleans, The Rob Block Quintet, and The Devin Phillips Quintet. He has performed with a wide variety of today's modern jazz up-and-comers, including Patrick Cornelius, Davy Mooney, and Maurice Brown. Adam Booker has also shared the stage with several of jazz's great masters, including Al Grey, Frank Foster, John Fedchock, Russel Malone, Butch Miles, Ignacio Berroa, Arthur Latin, and Diana Krall, as well as pop music icon, Elvis Costello. Dr. Booker has also had the privilege of studying with many great bassists, including Eric Revis of the Branford Marsalis Quartet and the legendary Milt Hinton, as well as members of the San Antonio Symphony, Austin Symphony and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Dr.
Booker completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Double Bass Performance at the University of Texas, Austin in May of 2012. He also holds a MM in Composition and a BM in Jazz Studies from Texas State University, San Marcos.

James Cooper – Guitar
Office: 81 Bohannon
Office Phone:726-8208
E-mail: jcooper@d.umn.edu

A graduate of UMD's Jazz Studies program with a Masters degree in Music Peformance from the University of Minnesota, Mr. Cooper is a performing musician/instructor. He has performed with a wide variety of groups and area bands including The Duluth Bigtime Jazz Orchestra, The Dukes of Hubbard, Clockwork Jazz, No Wait Wait, Hattie and the Black Frames, The Hoot Owls, and currently performs weekly with his band The Fractals. Mr Cooper performs a variety of styles including rock, fingerstyle, rockabilly, blues, jazz, folk, and country.

Betsy Husby – Cello
Office: 27 Bohannon
Office Phone: 726-7784
E-mail: bhusby@d.umn.edu

Dr. Husby earned her DMA, MM, and BA degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, L.I., N.Y. where she studied with Bernard Greenhouse, former student of Pablo Casals, and cellist of the internationally renowned Beaux Arts Trio, and Timothy Eddy, cellist of the Orion String Quartet and faculty at Julliard School of Music. Highlights of her career have included performing in the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, a live Minnesota Public Radio Broadcast of the technically demanding Prokofieff Sinfonie Concertante with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota State Arts Board grants to tour the United States and Russia. Dr. Husby began her extensive solo, chamber music, and orchestral experience in New York where she was winner of the DMA concerto competition, a member of the Poulenc Chamber Players on Long Island, and principal cello of the Stony Brook graduate orchestra.

Dr. Husby has been principal cello with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, has performed on Minnesota Public radio with the Highland String Quartet, and has been featured artist with the DSSO, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Itasca Symphony Orchestra, Petrozavodsk, Russia Symphony Orchestra, and the Ashland Chequamegon Symphonette. In 2005, she and UMD faculty pianist Dr. Alexander Chernyshev were featured artists on the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series in St. Paul, and at the Bernard Greenhouse 90th Birthday Celebration in Greensboro, N.C. She also has a solid pedagogical background, having completed the Suzuki Association of America's teacher training coursework from Book 1 through 10. She has taught and co-directed the Lake Superior Suzuki Talent Education Program at UMD for 25 years.

Jacob Jonker – Classical Guitar Ensemble
Office: Humanities 212
Office Phone: 726-7011
E-mail: jjonker@umn.edu

Jacob Jonker holds a Master's Degree in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and a Bachelor's from the University of Wisconsin - River Falls. His principal teachers were Jeffrey Van and Joe Hagedorn. Jacob is also a former Schubert Club and Thursday Musical Prize winner.

As an active member of the Minnesota Guitar Society Jacob has worked to bring world-class guitarists to give recitals in Weber Hall. He is also a registered Suzuki guitar instructor, receiving teacher training from David Madsen and William Kossler. He is the first guitar instructor to teach for the Lake Superior Suzuki Talent Education Program (LS-STEP). When not teaching, Jacob performs in and around the Twin Ports both as a classical musician and with the local rock band "A Team / B Team".

Janell Lemire – Harp
Office: 169 Humanities
Office Phone:726-8208
E-mail: jlemire@d.umn.edu

Mrs. Lemire graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1981 with a B.A.S. degree. She is the solo harpist with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra. Being one of the area's most active performing harpists, Lemire often plays solo and ensemble performances in Duluth and in surrounding areas in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has continued her studies with nationally known harpist Kathy Kienzle, and with Mary Kay Waddington for Suzuki training and pedagogy.

Tom O'Hara – Guitar & Jazz
Office: 113 Humanities
Office Phone:726-8208
E-mail: tohara@d.umn.edu

Tom O'Hara is a graduate of Jazz Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth. He has more than 20-years of experience teaching guitar to students of all ages and abilities. Tom has played at numerous and varied venues throughout the Twin Ports including outdoor concerts, festivals, fundraising events, the Duluth Home and Builders Show, and many others. Tom has performed different styles of music such as rock, blues, jazz, funk, country, and classical--with jazz being his preference. He is currently a worship leader at Freshwater Vineyard Church in Superior, WI, where his wife, Denise, and son, Nolan, also attend.

Jean R. Perrault – Director of Orchestras
Office: 232 Humanities
Office Phone: 726-8215
E-mail: rperraul@d.umn.edu

Performer, conductor and composer, Jean R Perrault is Director of Orchestras and professor of violin/viola at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he earned his Master's degree in performance from Temple University. Rudy has conducted numerous ensembles including Sinfonietta de Paris, the Karelia State Conservatory Orchestra (Russia), the Conservatoire de Paris region Boulogne-Billancourt (Paris, France), members of the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory of Palermo (Sicily, Italy) and the Hacettepe Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (Ankara, Turkey). His most recent trip took him to Venezuela where he worked closely with members of "El Sistema" organization conducting master classes and workshops. He is a frequent panelist on national and international, instrumental and conducting competitions, and has participated in many prestigious music festivals.

Rudy maintains an active schedule and has performed with many different organizations. He is a founding member and president of the Kako Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing classical music to underprivileged youth in the US and Haiti.

The past several years he has been editing and orchestrating the piano works of Haitian Classical Composers. His most recent compositions include: "Brother Malcolm" – for cello and piano, "Exodus" for String Quartet. Future projects include setting to music three poems of world-renown author Edwidge Danticat, composing a duo for violin and cello (Dialogues for Violin and Cello), a second String Quartet and a ballet (Ceremonie Vodou). Rudy makes his home in Duluth, Minnesota, with his wife Elizabeth and his two children Ella and Alexandre. Jean R Perrault's website