Team Biographies
Joanna Helms
Joanna Helms is a second-year Master of Arts student in musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A native of Columbia, SC, Joanna holds a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance, summa cum laude and with Honors, from the University of South Carolina, where she developed a strong intellectual interest and performance background in modern and contemporary music as a flutist. Joanna continues to play flute in JSoM and community ensembles and is also interested in nontraditional music performance. She recently co-wrote a successful grant from IU ArtsWeek Everywhere to organize a performance of Pauline Oliveros’s “happening” piece Bonn Feier in Bloomington. Joanna maintains a blog dedicated to her thoughts about modern music, her listening activities, and current trends in the classical world. She feels strongly that music plays an important part in everyone’s lives, and she is interested in discovering new ways to emphasize the relevance of non-commercial music in the twenty-first century. As a Project Jumpstart team member, Joanna continues to explore this interest by helping student musicians bring their musical passions to wider audiences through entrepreneurial thinking.
Rosa Li
Pianist, economics, and arts administration student Rosa Li was raised in Portland, Oregon. She has performing both solo and orchestral recitals at home and abroad with such diverse ensembles as the Oregon Ballet Theatre Company and the Far Eastern Symphony Orchestra in Khabarovsk, Russia. She was a seven- time featured soloist in the annual "Ten Grands" Snowman Foundation Concert that raises money to support music programs in public schools around Oregon. As a junior in high school, Rosa produced, directed, and marketed her own benefit concert which united student musicians and community supporters to raise money for the Red Cross efforts in response to the devastating 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. As a Project Jumpstart team member, she hopes to help her peer musicians explore the myriad ways in which the arts may be used as an uplifting means of communication. Rosa is a Hutton Honors College student and Jacobs Scholar pursuing a Bachelors of Music degree in Piano Performance, an Arts Administration Certificate, and an Economics minor.
Kevin Miescke
Kevin Miescke was raised in Lake Tahoe, California where in addition to his musical studies he learned to love the great outdoors. Kevin joins the Jacobs School of Music in pursuit of a Doctor of Music in Horn, where he will study with Jeffery Nelsen. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Master of Music degree in Horn Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a founding member of the City Limits Brass Quintet, a group whose accolades include soloing with the Austin Symphonic Band and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble. As an orchestral musician, Kevin has performed with several professional ensembles including the San Antonio Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Brazos Valley Symphony, Toccata Chamber Orchestra, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival Orchestra, and the Carson City Symphony. He most recently held the second horn position with the Round Rock Symphony Orchestra, and performed on the natural horn with Ensemble Settecento, an early music ensemble from Austin, TX. In his spare time Kevin likes to go camping, fishing, bike riding, hiking, skiing, golfing, kayaking, or any other outdoor activity.
Lindsay Medina
Soprano and educator Lindsay Medina previously served as an instructor for the IU Student Academic Center and the College and Life-Long Learning Program. Medina created a curriculum that emphasized value awareness, goal setting, major exploration, and career development. Through defining personal success, developing transferable skills, and engaging in creativity, she assisted students in recognizing opportunities that aligned with their unique ambitions. Medina’s concern for student wellbeing led to an appointment in 2006 as the Indiana University Student Association’s Director of Women’s Affairs. The University administration recognized her efforts to engage students, faculty and staff by naming her “Best IUSA Director.” Medina was a founding member of the Jacobs School of Music’s Student Representative Committee, and has served as a student voice on numerous counsels and committees, including the Jacobs School of Music Counsel, and the IU Health and Safety Committee. As Symposium Chair of Student NATS, Medina coordinated and secured funding for the New Voice Educators’ Symposium and the Living Composer’s Forum. She was named as a finalist in the Independent Women’s Forum’s first annual Scholarship Essay Competition. Her writings on the specific challenges facing females in higher education fueled an invitation to tea at the Vice President’s Residence with Second Lady of the United States, Lynne Cheney. A doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music, Medina has sung the roles of the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel and the Page in Rigoletto with the IU Opera Theater. Her research interests include adapting educational philosophy and methods to private voice instruction. Medina has performed at the Indiana State Holiday Dinner, various state political conventions, and the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. She has conducted master classes and recitals at Sweet Briar College in Lynchburg, VA, and the Dominican Campus in Nashville, TN. In 2010, she and her husband, Cody, added lullabies to their varied repertoire with the birth of their identical twin daughters, Anne Marie and Harper Lee.
