Amir Kats
Artistic Director Amir Kats has extensive experience in conducting, teaching, and performing music. He currently teaches orchestra and band at Blake Middle School. From 2012 to 2022 he was conductor of the St. Paul Jewish Community Center Symphony, and he has served as a coach for MacPhail Center for Music and various school ensembles throughout Minnesota and New Mexico. From 2007 to 2012, Mr. Kats served as the Artistic Director of Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.
Mr. Kats holds degrees in clarinet, music theory, and conducting from the University of Michigan, Florida State University, and Curtis Institute of Music. A native of Haifa, Israel, he comes from a musical family, being both the son and the grandson of pianists.
Chris Chelgren
Assistant Conductor Chris Chelgren has taught violin, viola, and piano and has freelanced in the Twin Cities since the late 1990s. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from St. Olaf College, where he studied conducting with Steve Amundson and viola with Charles Gray. Chris performs in several orchestras and is principal violist of the Bloomington Symphony and the Roseville Strings. He is also a member of the Twin Cities-based original rock, folk, and Celtic-inspired band The Minstrel’s Bazaar.
Logan Combs
Christmas Song Leader Logan Combs is a Twin Cities-based tenor, choral conductor, voice instructor, and Master of Music student at the University of Minnesota, where he studies choral conducting. Logan earned his undergraduate degree at St. Olaf College in church music, with a concentration in choral conducting. A former VOCES8 US Scholar, he has sung in the National Lutheran Choir and served as director of music at New Life Presbyterian Church in Roseville. He now works as marketing manager for the National Lutheran Choir, sings as tenor section leader at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, and works as music and worship consultant for the Presbytery of the Twin Cities. He also sings with the Summer Singers’ SOL Ensemble and Caritas Vocal Ensemble.
St. Croix Acoustic
St. Croix Acoustic–which will perform at our 2025 Community Carol Sing-along–is a musical duo consisting of Pat Quinn and Larry May. Their music lives in the timeless St. Croix River Valley (the two live across the river from each other), but roams the Celtic back roads and includes genres of Americana, pop, Irish and Scottish tunes, rock and old standards. Instruments played at their shows include acoustic guitars, harmonica, fiddles, mandolin, Irish whistles and Scottish smallpipes.
Pat and Larry have been playing music for others since their high school days of the ’60s. As their music interests grew, so did their fascination with various traditional instruments and styles of music. Pat, a school speech therapist, performed locally for many years with the acoustic folk group Spruce Top Review, as well as doing solo and duo performances. Larry, a photojournalist and graphic designer, played local coffeehouses and for 15 years performed in a ’60s dance band, Yesterday’s News, with like-minded newsroom musicians at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In 2023, the two discovered that their diverse talents and interests clicked immediately, and their new acoustic journey began.
Previous Guest Artists
Sara Pajunen, violinist and composer
Manny Laureano, Minnesota Orchestra
Lauluaika
Lynn Erickson, trumpet, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
Christopher Aspaas, tenor, St. Olaf College
Kenneth Freed, violin, Minnesota Orchestra
Sachiya Isomura, cello, Minnesota Orchestra
Aaron Janse, violin, Minnesota Orchestra
Peter McGuire, violin, Minnesota Orchestra
Anthony Ross, cello, Minnesota Orchestra
John Snow, oboe, Minnesota Orchestra
St. Mary’s Balalaika Orchestra