Meet the Team
Dr. Ingrid Lestrud
Founder and Artistic Director
Dr. Ingrid Lestrud is a conductor and educator whose passion for music and singing began in early childhood. After studying vocal performance as an undergraduate, she pursued graduate work in conducting and earned her Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University. She subsequently sang with the Chicago Symphony Chorus under Riccardo Muti for several seasons, performing in their Grammy-winning recording of Verdi's Requiem.
Dr. Lestrud served as Voice Department Chair at the Merit School of Music in Chicago, a community music school serving over 6,000 students with a focus on underserved communities. In this role, she collaborated with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Renée Fleming to develop curriculum for the Solo Voice Program, and her choir performed with Ms. Fleming at special events.
She has taught on the faculties of several colleges and in 2022 won the Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artists Innovate + Create contest for Performers With Purpose, a youth ensemble she founded that combines choral music with community service projects. As a former Principal Associate Conductor of the Grammy-winning National Children's Chorus, she prepared young singers for performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Kennedy Center.
Dr. Lestrud founded Vivace Children's Chorus to provide exceptional choral music education to young singers in eastern Montgomery County. She has been invited to conduct a world premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2027 and looks forward to offering Vivace students the opportunity to perform at this prestigious venue.
Jared Alan Yoakem
Pianist
American pianist Jared Alan Yoakem has performed as a soloist and chamber musician most notably at Castleton and the Washington International Piano Festival. As a collaborative artist, he has performed with artists such as cellist Sujari Britt, entities such as Classical Singers Music Magazine and the Vocal Arts Society of DC, and numerous choral projects that include two national PBS broadcasts at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN. He is a prizewinner of the 40th International Young Artist Piano Competition and a recipient of the Dean’s Advisory Council award for outstanding achievement in music from Belmont University.
Currently finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland (UMD), Yoakem studies with Dr. Mayron Tsong. He holds degrees from Belmont University and East Carolina University under the tutelage of Elena Bennett and Kwan Yi. Yoakem also serves as the class piano coordinator at UMD and as an instructor at Capital Piano Conservatory, a “boutique” piano conservatory for young Washington D.C. pianists.
He is Artistic Administrator at the Castleton Festival led by Artistic Director Dietlinde Turban Maazel, which has brought world-class performances to rural Virginia from 1997 to the present.