Dixie Hettinga

Board President

​

Liz Corbett

Vice President

​

Jeannie Hagenbucher

Secretary

​

Wendy Galbraith

Treasurer

​

Karen Zuidema

Artistic Director

​

Shelly Kafka

Publicist

​

Barb Oelke

PR Committee Chair

​

Kathy Koch-Engstrum

Member-at-large

​

Mary has always loved to sing and usually accompanies herself on piano.  She has sung and played at numerous weddings and funerals and has been in various choirs starting in high school, during college and now, sings in her church choir.  Mary is accompanist at Masses for St. Mary's Catholic Church in Marathon and St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Wausau.  She graduated from Viterbo University with a BME, has taught music K-8, currently teaching 3rd grade at St. Mary's School in Marathon and giving piano lessons.  She became a member of WPM in September of 2019.  Mary says she's drawn to quality voices and admires the beauty of many singers, both professional and amateur.  "Music is a beauty in its own category."

Mary's husband is Tony and he owns a building company.  Her son, Ryan, is a high school teacher in Sun Prairie.   

First Soprano

Vickie is a new member as of 2018 but says she's been enjoying our concerts for a number of years.  She's been singing in choirs since the fourth grade and took a first at a state Solo and Ensemble contest  in 1967.  She is one of the founding members of the Mad Regals; still sings with her church choir, and her favorite hymn is "How Can I Keep From Singing?"  Vickie grew up in Eagle River, Wisconsin and is the mother of two adult sons.  She worked as a professional executive Girl Scout for almost 20 years and as Director of Continuing Education at UWMC for 19.5 years, retired in 2016.   She is an active volunteer.  A past president of Wausau Conservatory of  Music and Monk Botanical Garden; Vickie is currently a Senior Warden at St. John's Episcopal Church and the president of Chapter CO P.E.O.  Vickie has been influenced by many great choral directors over the years.  She favors classical, opera, easy listening, country, Blue Grass, and jazz music.  Her favorite singers are Renee Fleming, Ann Murray, Joan Baez, and Edith Piaf.

Second Alto

Kathy is a longtime choir member who has been active on the board of directors and is currently WPM's Historian.  She started trombone and singing in choir at age 9.  Kathy grew up on a dairy farm and practiced pediatric physical therapy for over 30 years.  She has been married over forty years and has two children and four grandchildren. Growing up, she listened to the state radio station and Leonard Bernstein's TV show with her mom and grew to love classical music.   She enjoys Broadway shows around the country and loves "music from her era" like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter Paul & Mary and others.

First Soprano

Lori is a brand new member of Wausau Pro Musica in fall of 2018.  She started in music as a third grader with piano lessons and has played ever since.  She continued her education at UWSP, graduating with a degree in music and taught piano for 25 years.  Currently, Lori works as an education assistant in the DCE school district.  When asked what her favorite music is, she says her playlist would be songs from Mama Mia and Wicked to Adele, Kelly Clarkson, and Linda Ronstadt.  Lori is married and has two children.  Adam is in San Francisco and Hannah is in Madison.  She also has an energetic springer spaniel named Benny.

First Alto

Joining Wausau Pro Musica in spring of 2017, Barb began singing when she was in 4-H.  She has also been singing with Wausau Lyric Choir for fifteen years.  Barb is single and the mom of two married children; a son and a daughter, both living in the Wausau area.  She has a fifteen year old grandson and is looking forward to the birth of a granddaughter in December, 2018.  When Barb was four or five years old, she received her first album:  The Nutcracker Suite.  She loved to dance around to it.  She also heard a lot of Big Band as a child and played the trombone because of Glenn Miller.  Along the way she began to participate in musicals as well.   Barb says she enjoys most types of music.

First Alto

Wendy joined in 1997and was one of the youngest members at that time.  Wendy has a degree in Dairy science and has been a dairy farmer with her husband, Greg, for 32 years.  She and Greg have been married 32 years and have three children.  Kerry is married to Jon and lives in Minneapolis; Sara and Chad live in Corvallis, Oregon, and David has been farming with them for five years.  Wendy also works for the DC Everest.   Her past choral experiences include UW Waukesha Madrigal, UW Lutheran Choir (Madison), and Bethany Lutheran Church.  Here favorite singer is Emmy Lou Harris and she loves the new singers: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan.

Second Soprano

Liz has been in WPM since 2002, is a board member and helped incorporate the choir in 2005. She enjoys singing in women’s choirs and loves the musical variety and sisterhood of Wausau Pro Musica. Liz says she especially enjoyed singing the music from Les Miserables, Abba, and other musicals with WPM.  Liz sang in high school choir, college choir and church choir with Bob Dufford at St. Louis Jesuits of Creighton University (NE) and also with Marshfield's Chamber Chorale.  In high school, she sang in a mixed folk group that traveled throughout North Dakota.  Married to Scott for 30 years, she has two adult children and a son-in-law.  She and Scott have practiced law for 33 years. Liz comes from a strongly musical family; talented in multiple instruments, music educators, and professional musicians.  Liz plays piano and guitar, and is influenced by modern sacred music composers and singer-songwriters.  She enjoys listening to all sorts of music.

Second Soprano

Maureen joined WPM in January 2018.  She's been a musician all her life, and plays multiple instruments.  She studied and played piano throughout high school and college, also taking lessons as an adult.  She's currently studying the harp and played guitar in her teens and twenties as well. Maureen has been singing in choirs all through her life and is really enjoying singing with Wausau Pro Musica.  She has two grown sons and two wonderful daughters-in-law.  Maureen is retired from a career in Employee Benefits sales, such as health and dental insurance.  Her musical preferences run to classical music the most, but she also enjoys folk, rock, alt-rock, and almost any kind of live music performance.

Second Alto

Joining Wausau Pro Musica in 2017, Jeannie brings lots of experience singing including singing with the Song Spinners at DC Everest, various church choirs, has been a wedding and funeral soloist, and has been part of community theater musicals in Wausau and Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  When she was 7, Jeannie began singing in church, elementary and junior high choirs.  During the summers of 1965 and 1966, for six weeks per session, she participated under the direction of Maestro Robert Shaw for the first two years of Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Festival.  In the 1960s-early '70s, Jeannie and friends formed a folk group, performing at clubs in southeast Michigan/Southwest Canada. In California, 1973-2009: San Francisco and Oakland Symphony choirs, Berkeley Chamber choir, Mills College Early Music Ensemble, Point Richmond Madrigal Singers, numerous community choruses.  Jeannie says she's " hurtling toward my 71st birthday (yes, there will be treats)!  She's  a mother (Nick, 37, lives in Sacramento, CA), an advocate for families with at least one child with Type 1, insulin-dependent diabetes, Child Life Specialist (pediatric medical play therapy), 15 years case manager/advocate for children 0-12 who have disabling conditions, baker and caterer by trade, reader and a person who loves to sing with my friends. She grew up in the Detroit area, lived 40 years in Berkeley, CA. area, now Wisconsin. She enjoys crocheting, cross stitching and singing.   Jeannie says she’s been influenced by singers/groups: Ronnie Gilbert, Odetta, Etta James, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Johnny Clegg, Klezmatics, Bob Wills, Baguette Quartet, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, Anonymous 4, Hildegarde of Bingen, Mozart and Haydn. Musical types: blues, Motown, 1960s rock, folk, bluegrass, Baroque, Early Music (Medieval and Renaissance), 18th and 19th century classical especially sacred masses.

​

​

Second Alto

Cyndi has been with Wausau Pro Musica since 2015. She has been singing in choir since fifth grade, and has experience in concert choir, Song Spinners, college concert choir and church choirs. Cyndi has been singing with the Wausau Lyric Choir for 20 years, sang with the "Mad Regals" (a dinner theatre group) for 8 years, and performed onstage with local theatre groups for many years. She has been married for 39 years, has three grown children and six wonderful grandchildren.  She just retired as secretary for Grant Elementary (26 years) and enjoys music, reading, walking, and spending time at the lake with family. Cyndi enjoys many genres of music, but choral music really speaks to her heart and soul.

First Alto