Meet the Staff
ADMINISTRATION
Jim Harris
Administrator
Jill Bruss
Financial Secretary
Marianne King
Office Coordinator
Tonia Wallner
Christian Education
Cindy Payette-Walsh
Staff Support
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Director of Christian Education
Tonia Wallner
Tonia is originally a “small town girl” having grown up in Randolph, Wisconsin. She has a lifelong passion for sports and physical education. Tonia earned Bachelor Degrees in both Physical & Health Education, has a Masters Degree in Sports Administration, and is currently the physical education teacher and Athletic Director at St. Monica School in Whitefish Bay. She has also coached volleyball and basketball at various levels, including 5 years with the UWM Women’s Basketball Team. It was during her tenure there that she discovered a desire to direct her skills towards working with young people, rather than coaching adults. Tonia continues to expand her Lay Ministry talents with additional outside classes and education, and always looks for extra ways to ‘minister’ at First Church, especially for our young people and their families.
Tonia joined FCC in 2004 and was appointed our Director of Christian Education in 2010. She resides in Wauwatosa with her 3 cats.
MUSIC
Director of Music & Keyboard Artist
Rhonda Kwiecien
Rhonda Kweicien, Director of Music and Keyboard Artist, serves as organist at First Congregational Church and is a very successful and highly respected accompanist in Southeastern Wisconsin, having worked collaboratively with every imaginable performing force from solo musicians to all-state choirs. She also holds the position of collaborative keyboard artist at Carroll University, where she accompanies faculty and students in recital performances and also the choral ensembles.
Choir Director
Jeremiah Cawley
Jeremiah Cawley has led instrumental and vocal ensembles across the US and UK. He sings with the GRAMMY-nominated and EMMY-honored True Concord, founded the new music ensemble The Box Is Empty, and is an inaugural member of the new professional vocal ensemble withonevoice. His recorded work includes projects with The Riot Ensemble (London, UK), Solaris Vocal Ensemble (Seattle, WA), and Chamber Cartel (Atlanta, GA). Jeremiah’s work as tenor soloist is equally varied. He has recently been featured in the Des Moines Choral Festival’s performance of Bach’s Cantata 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme; at the Omaha Under the Radar new music festival singing Desert Time for tenor and electronics by composer Nat Evans; and in the Madison Early Music Festival’s 400th anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespro della beata virgine. Jeremiah’s credits as operatic music director include Puccini’s Suor angelica, Poulenc’s La voix humaine, and Britten’s Rape of Lucretia.
Jeremiah’s recent published scholarship includes “Understanding Editions: Using CPDL and IMSLP to Develop Early Music Intuition” in The Choral Conductor’s Companion. He has served on the organizing committee for the Oxford Conducting Institute, where he presented his most recent research, “Neurotic, Weak, and Ultramodern: Coded Language in Gestural Criticism,” exploring veiled discrimination in critical judgements of conductors Gustav Mahler and Antonia Brico. Jeremiah’s previous presentations include the paper “Unconducting Andriessen,” which examines the ways that the Dutch avantgarde altered the role of the conductor in music written after 1970. His dissertation, The Economic, Aesthetic, and Nonprofit Organization of Professional Vocal Ensembles, was nominated by the University of Washington for ACDA’s prestigious Herford Prize.
Jeremiah is a sought-after choral clinician, adjudicator, and conducting teacher. He received his MM and DMA from the University of Washington, where he was a student of Geoffrey Boers. Jeremiah is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. He has previously held posts at Valparaiso University, Loras College, and Western Kentucky and Georgia State Universities. He lives in Milwaukee, WI with his wife Crystal.
Director of the Junior Choir
Roxanne Trump-Miles
Roxanne Trump-Miles, Junior Choir Director, holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree (Choral Emphasis) from UW-Eau Claire and a Master’s Degree in Education from Concordia University-Wisconsin. Roxanne teaches music in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Prior to that she taught for twenty years at Lloyd Street School, where she coordinated the school’s “Save the Music” program, put on holiday musicals and numerous other concerts with her students, and perform in Madison at the State Capitol.
FCC CHOIR – SECTION LEADERS
Kendra Kabara
Soprano
JillIian Bruss
Alto
Brett Hanisko
Baritone
Anthony Andronczyk
Tenor
CUSTODIAL & MAINTENANCE
Mark Lund
Building Superintendent