Judy Blomgren
Orchestra & Applied Strings
Judy Blomgren received her Bachelors in Music Education degree in 1976 from Mankato State University and her Masters of Arts in Education from St. Catherines University in 2003. Judy’s teaching career was in the Anoka Hennepin School district at Northdale Middle School, Jackson Middle School and Champlin Park High School. Judy was selected as one of the 20 “TOP” teachers in the Anoka Hennepin District in 2001. She was a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the year in 2003. In 2009 the Champlin Park Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall. Judy is on the board of Thursday Musical and Orchestra Director at North Hennepin Community College. Judy also serves as Organist at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in East Bethel.
Dr. Grace Choi
Piano and Academic Music Faculty
Grace Choi, a native of South Korea, is an active solo pianist and collaborative chamber musician appearing in concert venues throughout the world, including a performance at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City and as a selected pianist for the Reenactments of Frederic Chopin’s 1848 Paris concerts at Jordan Hall in Boston in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. Grace also performed for a special concert for the 200th anniversary of Haydn at Williams Hall in Boston and was featured on a live broadcast of Minnesota Public Radio, where her performance was heard throughout the state of Minnesota. She has performed the Schumann Piano Concerto at Ted Mann Concert Hall with the University of Minnesota Orchestra and has given numerous solo and chamber recitals and gala concerts at Ultan Recital Hall in Minneapolis. Doctor Choi has also appeared in solo recitals at Tongyeong Art Hall at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and was featured soloist with the Hanyang University Orchestra in Seoul, Korea.
She also performs frequently with her husband, pianist Kevin Hobbs, and as a duo the two have been featured on the Artist Series at the University of Minnesota International Piano Camp as well as faculty-artist recitals at North Hennepin Community College. The duo were also semifinalists in the McKnight Artist Fellowship auditions.
Besides being active as an educator in the Twin Cities, Grace is also a strong advocate of musical outreach and has performed in numerous community-based music programs throughout the country. Some highlighted activities have included community fundraising concerts held through Project Outreach at Music Mansion in Rhode Island, where proceeds were used to help provide emergency assistance to refugee families in need. Ms. Choi was also a member of Capri Glee, a series of after-school and summer programs held at Capri Theater in North Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she led group piano classes and accompanied choirs for disadvantaged youths.
Austin Wahl, DMA
Applied Guitar and Peformance Faculty
Dr. Austin Wahl is an internationally acclaimed performer and teacher. With nearly thirty competition prizes, he is among the most successful of today's American guitarists. He embraces repertoire ranging from works of Bach, Sor, and Tarrega, to masterpieces by composers including Gary Ryan, Roland Dyens, and Hans Werner Henze. Recent concerts and masterclasses include engagements for Appalachian Guitarfest (NC), Rochester Classical Guitar (NY), Minnesota Guitar Society, Great Lakes Guitar Society (NY), Southern Guitar Festival (SC), Guitar Society of Toronto, Guitar Hamilton (Ontario, Canada), and Festival Internacional de Guitarra en Lagos (Jalisco, Mexico).
Wahl does not limit himself to classical guitar. Since childhood he has been a proficient bluegrass guitarist, performing arrangements and compositions by Doc Watson, Tony Rice, David Grier, and Adam Granger, among others. He also is an avid fingerstyle player, often programming pieces by Preston Reed, Don Ross, Andy McKee, and Pierre Bensusan. Finally, Wahl is an experienced electric guitarist, performing and teaching rock, blues, and jazz - and even built his own electric guitar, dubbed the "Wahl-o-caster."
Beyond the guitar, Wahl is an accomplished mandolinist. He performs and teaches works of J. S. Bach, American bluegrass, Irish fiddle, and Scandinavian traditions. Additionally, from 2017 to 2022, he served as the bass section leader for Rochester, New York-based community choir, the Mount Hope World Singers, who perform outreach concerts in languages and styles from around the world.
Wahl teaches solo and group guitar lessons at North Hennepin, plus guitar and mandolin at his childhood alma mater, MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. Wahl began his guitar studies at age five at MacPhail with Alan Johnston, a founding member of the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet. He holds bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees as well as a performer's certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Nicholas Goluses. Wahl has also taken the Book 1, Book 2, and book 3 Suzuki method courses with Mary Lou Roberts, Andrea Cannon, and David Madsen, respectively.
Dr. Kevin Hobbs
Music Theory & Music History
Kevin Hobbs is currently on the music faculty at North Hennepin Community College. He also teaches at Mount Calvary Academy of Music and has served on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and Gustavus Adolphus College.
Kevin earned his B.M. and M.M. from the University of Cincinnati, where he studied with Elisabeth Pridonoff and was the recipient of the CCM Honors Scholarship, the Reeves, Shockett, and McElroy prizes, and the first William Black Memorial Prize. He earned his D.M.A. from the University of Minnesota as a student of Lydia Artymiw and also holds a B.A. (Writing) from Johns Hopkins University.
His awards include top prizes in the Venetia Hall Piano Competition, the Wyoming Music Club Competition, the Brevard Festival Piano Competition, and the International Young Artists Piano Competition. He has performed at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. as well as internationally in Barcelona, Spain and the Amalfi Coast in Italy.
Kevin’s students have won top prizes in the Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, YPSCA, and LaCrosse Symphony Rising Stars piano competitions and have been featured on NPR’s “From the Top.” His students have been accepted to music programs at the Univ. of Minnesota, the Univ. of Wisconsin, Northwestern Univ., Berklee School of Music, and the Univ. of Cincinnati, CCM.
Gary Ruschman
Director of Choirs and Voice, Performance, Composition, and Music Industry Faculty
Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “funny and fresh-voiced”, vocal artist, conductor, and composer Gary Ruschman works in a broad range of musical traditions.
Gary has appeared with the Boston Pops, Kennedy Center, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Festival Musique en L’Île de Paris, Urbino Early Music, Minnesota Dance Theater, San Francisco World Music Festival, and in hundreds of venues across the U.S. and Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Cameroon. He was a member of the international-circuit vocal ensemble Cantus for a decade, and has performed with members of OK Go, Wailin’ Jennys, and sung alongside legends Bobby McFerrin, Doc Severinsen, and Lebanese oud master Marcel Khalife. He apprenticed at Portland Opera and has performed to critical acclaim in forty operatic and stage roles.
Ruschman’s compositions and arrangements have been featured on BBC Two and C-SPAN, and premiered at Madison Square Garden and Bodh Gaya, India in the presence of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. An American Composers Forum grantee and co-recipient of Chorus America’s Education and Community Outreach Award, Gary recently co-wrote an oratorio with countertenor Ryland Angel, WILCO guitarist Nels Cline, and accordionist Ben Rosenblum entitled The Call. Other commissions include music for the Girl Scouts of America, the MN State Arts Board-funded Progressive Lens songwriting project, Cantus, South Dakota Chorale, and the West Point Glee Club.
In addition to his work at North Hennepin Community College, he regularly leads ensembles and projects across the Twin Cities, including Mixed Precipitation’s Pickup Truck Opera, St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Consortium Carissimi, Twin Cities Early Music Festival, and One Voice Mixed Chorus. Gary earned degrees with honors from Northern Kentucky University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His discography includes classical releases, film soundtracks, and alt-rock records, and a series of solo albums which bridge Folk, Jazz, Chamber Music, and New Age genres.
David Mantini, MME
Jazz, Concert Bands, Performance Faculty
David Mantini splits his time at NHCC between the Music Department and the Honors Program. He directs the Jazz Ensemble and Concert Band, teaches instrumental music lessons, and is the Honors Program Director and Minn-Kota Regional Coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges.
David is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, IA, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Trumpet Performance and Anthropology. He attended the University of North Texas and received a Master of Music Education with concentrations in Jazz Studies and Music History. While in Texas, David was a clinician in various schools and performed as a guest artist with the Dallas Brass. He also toured professionally with the popular Christian band, Truth. After returning to Minnesota, he taught K-8 general music and 5-12 band in various schools and performed with several bands.
Mantini is also a past board member of the Twin Cities Youth Chorale, Champlin Park Band Association, and the Minnesota Music Educators Association, serving most recently as the MMEA All State Jazz Chair. He currently serves as the faculty union president at NHCC. David performs with the Elk River German Band, directs the Brooklyn Big Band and the Brooklyn Community Concert Band. In addition, he is the music director and a founding member of Beasley’s Big Band, freelances across the Twin Cities and teaches private trumpet lessons.
