LEADERSHIP
Staff and Board of Directors
Meagan Bachmayer, Co-founder & Executive Director
Meagan brings nearly two decades of management and fundraising experience to the Minnesota Winds. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Advancement & Chief Administrative Officer at Milkweed Editions and Deputy State Director for U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Meagan played clarinet in band from fifth grade through college. Her favorite band memories include writing Pops Concert skits in high school, traveling to Salzburg and Prague with the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, and hearing “Symphony No. 4” by David Maslanka for the first time.
Katherine Bergman, Co-founder & Artistic Director
Katherine is a composer of music for band, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. Her work centers on nature and environmentalism, and often explores the intersection between art and science. She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, and her music is frequently performed at concert halls, festivals, conferences, school band rooms, and national parks.
Katherine has been playing saxophone since fifth grade, and her experiences in band have deeply shaped her work as a composer. Her favorite band memories include touring eastern Europe with the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, hearing the U.S. Coast Guard Band perform her music, and countless musical collaborations with student musicians.
Dr. Karrin Meffert-Nelson, Board Chair
Karrin is the Principal Clarinetist with the Minnesota Opera Orchestra and Associate Professor of Clarinet at Gustavus Adolphus College. She also maintains an active freelance performing career including work with Minnesota Orchestra, and productions at the Orpheum, State and Guthrie Theaters. She has also performed with the St. Louis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and as guest Principal Clarinet with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.
Karrin started playing clarinet in 5th grade band and was active throughout middle school and high school in her band program in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Her favorite band memories include traveling around the United States and Europe on band tours and getting to play Concerto II by Oscar Navarro with the Gustavus Wind Orchestra with Navarro conducting.
Elizabeth Winslow, Board Vice Chair
Liz is the Director of School Partnerships at MacPhail Center for Music and the conductor of the South High Community Band. Previously, she was the Director of Bands at Richfield High School and the founder of the band program at Hiawatha Academies in south Minneapolis. She was awarded Community Music Educator of the Year in 2024 by the Minnesota Music Educators Association.
Liz started playing percussion in sixth grade but switched to flute when the sales associate at the music store convinced her to try another instrument instead of quitting. She continued flute through undergrad and still does some flute and band instruction through MacPhail. Her favorite band memories include honoring her grandfather through a Richfield Marching Spartans show about the Tuskegee airmen and making lifelong friends through the Gustavus Wind Orchestra.
Paul Kile, Secretary
Paul is the Director of Bands at Edina High School and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Symphonic Winds. He serves as Minnesota State Chair for both the National Band Association and the American School Band Directors Association, and he is the band representative on the board of the Servant Leadership Association for Music.
Paul began his music training singing in the LaCrosse (WI) Boychoir, before joining the Cavalets Drum and Baton Corps (cymbals) and later the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (baritone). He continued playing euphonium throughout school and plays today as principal euphonium in the Minnesota Symphonic Winds. Favorite band memories include playing under greats like Frederick Fennell and Frank Battisti, working with amazing composers like Gunther Schuller and Michael Colgrass, and meeting his wife through music in college.
Amber Gerardy-Robinson, Treasurer
Amber is the Managing Director of Digital Strategy and Data Analytics at Lemonada Media, a leading independent, women-owned podcast network known for creating award-winning, chart-topping shows such as Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Fail Better with David Duchovny, The Pink House with Sam Smith, Last Day, and Believe Her. With a career rooted in digital innovation, Amber previously held a key role in digital marketing at American Public Media Group, further solidifying her media and audience growth expertise.
Amber’s lifelong connection to music began at age four when she started playing the piano—a passion she carried through high school. Her love for music expanded as she learned to play the drums, eventually becoming the drummer for the indie band Little Winter in her mid-20s. Whether crafting funky jazz beats on the drums or composing songs on the piano, Amber cherishes her memories of creative expression and collaboration through music.
Dr. Claudia Aizaga, Board Member
Claudia, an Ecuadorian flutist and advocate for new music, is the co-founder of the nonprofit organization SonAlt Arts and the Ohio-based new music ensemble, Newphonia. Her mission is to educate and empower audiences from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds through the performance of contemporary music. Among her many endeavors, she organizes the Festival Internacional de Flautistas en el Centro del Mundo held annually in Quito, Ecuador, maintains an active performing career, commissions composers, and leads an international flute studio. Claudia is also a proud Sphinx Fellow.
She started playing the flute at the age of seven through El Sistema. One of her favorite band experiences was performing Michael Daugherty's “Songs From a Silent Land” with the LSU Wind Ensemble and soprano Hila Plitmann at the 2019 CBDNA National Conference in Tempe, Arizona.
Roma Duncan, Board Member
Roma has been the Principal Piccolo in the Minnesota Orchestra since 2003, and has been featured as a concerto soloist with the orchestra on multiple occasions. She has also performed as a flute soloist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, and the Lakes Area Music Festival. She has been teaching flute and piccolo students almost as long as she has been playing, and enjoys teaching private lessons as well as masterclasses and coaching.
Born in Nova Scotia, Canada, Roma grew up in Newfoundland, where she began playing flute at age 11. Before she shifted her focus to orchestral and solo repertoire, she first learned what it’s like to make music together in band in middle and high school. She had the good fortune to find a wonderful mentor in her high school band teacher, Jeff Smith, who encouraged her musical development as a flutist, as a pianist, as a jazz player (although that bit didn’t stick!), and as a band kid. She is delighted to join the board of Minnesota Winds!