Come and aspire with us! 
Meet Our Creative Team
Lori Sager – Founder, Director – “Miss Lori”
Lori Sager is the founder and director of Aspire Music Academy. Known to her performers as “Miss Lori,” Ms. Sager has been involved in music and vocal performance since the age of three.
Lori is an accomplished singer, pianist, choral and orchestral director, and vocal performance coach. Since 2003, Lori has been offering private vocal and piano instruction through Miss Lori’s Studio, serving hundreds of students of every age and talent level. The motto of Miss Lori’s Studio — “Inspiring people through music” — has been the story of Ms. Sager’s professional life.
As a musical theater director, Lori invented and directs the Stars on Broadway ® musical revue series. In Woodbury, Minnesota alone, Stars on Broadway productions have featured a total of over 500 cast members and attracted total audiences of over 15,000 patrons. Lori also served as a vocal director and coach accompanist — most notably for the record-breaking 2015 production of Les Misérables at Woodbury Community Theatre (WCT), as well as the 2016 production of Mary Poppins, the 2017 production of Legally Blonde, the 2018 production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and as the creator and director of the Summer Stock middle and high school camp programs. Lori also co-directed Junie B. Jones for WCT in 2017.
In the academic world, Lori established the musical theater program at Woodbury Middle School (a part of the South Washington County School District — Independent School District 833), directed Grease in 2014, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. in 2015, and Disney’s Lion King Jr. in 2016, Shrek, Jr. in 2017, Hairspray, Jr. in 2018, and The Little Mermaid, Jr. in 2019. Each production featured over 80 students and a live orchestra. Lori is also a classroom music instructor in South Washington County schools, currently serving as both choir director and musical theatre director at Woodbury Middle School. Lori has also taught music in Orlando, Florida, and New York.
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Jeremiah Lewis-Walker - Choreographer
Jeremiah Lewis-Walker has been coaching, performing and choreographing for nearly 20 years. He is also the owner and creative director of JLW Productions, a new local company focusing on choreography and performance. Jeremiah has performed in and choreographed many top award winning show choirs, dance troupes, cheer teams, theater productions, international and national music acts. He has also choreographed talent productions for national pageant contestants as well as providing entertainment for numerous national hair and fashion events.
Since he has had experience in this field for many years, Jeremiah strongly believes the importance of passing the torch to young performers and getting them to understand and appreciate how they can positively impact people’s lives on and off stage.
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Colleen Wenzel – Choreographer / Staging Coach
Colleen Wenzel has been a performer from a very early age, including time as a recording artist and performer with The Young Americans and being a part of touring theater and performance companies that barnstormed across America. While living in California, she also began a lifetime vocation of service to church choirs and liturgical programs.
Closer to her home in the Twin Cities, Colleen has been involved for decades in music and theater endeavors. Colleen headed the children’s choir ministries at New Life Church of Woodbury, growing the program to well over 100 participants. Colleen was also at the forefront of bringing summer stock theater programs for children into both Roseville and Woodbury, Minnesota.
In community theater, Colleen has collaborated with Lori Sager to create the Stars on Broadway series, as well as the Woodbury Middle School productions of Grease in 2014, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. in 2015, Disney’s Lion King Jr. in 2016, and Shrek, Jr. in 2017, Hairspray, Jr. in 2018, and The Little Mermaid, Jr. in 2019. These shows each involved over 80 cast members, a full orchestra, choreography, lighting, and staging. Colleen also co-directed Junie B. Jones for Woodbury Community Theatre in 2017.
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Alora Sager – Choreographer / Dance Coach
Alora Sager is a graduate of Florida State University with her Masters in Education of Students with Exceptionalities, and also from the University of Virginia baccalaureate pre-med program. She is currently pursuing her dream of being a dancing doctor! Alora is a choreographer and dance instructor for Aspire Music Academy student performance groups and brings her 20+ years of competitive dance experience and a lifelong of performing to help enhance the vocal performances of the students she works with. With dance experiences ranging from tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary and musical theater, Alora has come to love teaching technique and performance through modern and fun choreography.
Alora has had past experiences as a Summer Stock choreographer and counselor and as guest choreographer for Stars on Broadway 3, Stars Rock Broadway, and the Woodbury Middle School production of Lion King Jr.
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Bridget Cushman – Choreographer, Private Lesson Instructor
A Milwaukee native, Bridget has worked with numerous arts organizations as both a performer and administrator. From 2014-2016 she performed as a principal singer-dancer with the KIDS from Wisconsin organization and went on to be a part of staff for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Cushman studied Vocal Performance at Columbia College Chicago from 2014-2015, finishing her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a minor in Business and a Certificate in Fine Arts Administration. During her time at Eau Claire she performed in various settings including multiple musicals and operas such as the Last Five Years (Cathy) and Don Giovanni (Dance Captain/Ensemble). Cushman also became the lead vocalist for a number of events within the Eau Claire area and has performed with University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire Jazz I ensemble -- voted America’s #1 college band.
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Monica Hamer – Orchestral Arranger
Monica Hamer has been playing her flute publicly since she joined her high school church choir in 7th grade. She has always loved playing in ensembles with voices, including pit orchestras and an opera orchestra (The Magic Flute) in college. In the years since college, her performing has included playing with the Woodbury Chorus and Orchestra, Spirit Song Choir and various community theaters. She also teamed with a pianist, playing dinner music at restaurants, fundraisers, and special occasions. Throughout the years she continues to play at church services, funerals and weddings and is currently Co-Artistic Director of Spirit Song Choir. Monica has worked with Miss Lori, arranging and performing in all of the Stars on Broadway shows and many of the Woodbury Middle School shows.
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Mariah Hoffman – Vocal and Dance Instructor
Mariah Hoffman has been singing all her life, whether it be in school, church or in other performing groups. Mariah graduated from Concordia University in the spring of 2016 with a degree in music education. She is currently a music teacher in the St. Paul public schools. Mariah has been teaching for the past five years. She loves her job and has a passion for teaching inner city youth.
At Aspire Music Academy, Mariah instructs in every level of programming, from grade-school performers all the way through adults. She teaches both vocals and dance.
Mariah has also been a part of planning and delivering Aspire summer camp and intensive programming for several years. She also has been a technology leader for Aspire, operating our systems to deliver remote instruction and digital rehearsal content.
In her own words, Mariah says: “I think that Aspire is a great arts outlet for students and adults. Not only are we getting to do what we love (sing and dance) but we are also a welcoming, tight-knit community. I love working with our Aspire Family! I can't wait to have you join us!"
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Justin Madsen - Choreographer
Justin Madsen has been singing, dancing, acting, directing, and performing for over 25 years. Having performed professionally on stage, screen, and radio, as well as in dozens of community theatrical productions, he brings incredible experience to classes at Aspire Music Academy. Justin graduated from Luther College with a BA in Accounting and Theatre/Dance. Equally left- and right-brained, he is able to provide insights and education into the performing arts while equally balancing and stressing the importance of the administrative components that goes into all productions.
Favorite performing credits include Dr. Frederick Frankentstein (Young Frankenstein), Sir Robin (Spamalot), Seymour (Little Shop), Dan (Next to Normal), and countless others. Favorite directing credits include The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World, and most recently, Stars on Broadway 5 - Heroes and Villains. Justin also serves as a Board member for Open Door Community Theatre and is regularly involved in the staging of high-calibur performances with this theatre partner as well.
As much as he loves to perform, Justin has a passion for directing and coaching performers of all ages, to hone their craft and continue to grow and polish performance skills, and loves working with such talented students at Aspire Music Academy!
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Theresa ("Tree") Pelton-Jutz – Costume Designer
Theresa Pelton-Jutz developed a love for clothing design and sewing when she was in middle school. Her first exposure to costuming came when she began sewing simple Halloween costumes for her young children. These simple costumes seemed to get more and more complicated every year. After a 20+ year career at the St. Paul Companies/Travelers with her Management Information Systems Degree from UW-Eau Claire, Theresa decided to make a career change. She was now able to devote more time to volunteering at her children’s schools.
Theresa started her journey into theatre by sewing and assisting in the Hill-Murray costume shop. She helped costume several productions including A Christmas Carol, Children of Eden, and Beauty and the Beast. This is where she really learned the difference between “sewing” and “costuming”. This out of the box thinking allowed her to create costumes without the use of patterns, typical sewing techniques or really any rules. As her youngest daughter entered Woodbury Middle School, Theresa began volunteering with costuming there. She took on the lead costumer role in Lori Sager’s productions of Grease, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Jr., Shrek Jr., Hairspray, Jr and The Little Mermaid, Jr. Each of these middle school productions typically had 80+ cast members and an average of 200 costume pieces. Theresa continued to collaborate with Lori Sager on the production of Stars on Broadway 3 and Stars Rock Broadway, each of which involved over 100 performers requiring approximately 600 separate costume pieces. Theresa enjoys creating costumes to enhance the performers ability to get “in character”.
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Tami Stauffacher - Choreographer
Tami Stauffacher has been involved in performance and music for as long as she can remember. Her love of music ignited in Middle school after being encouraged and inspired by her music teacher. She has participated in Concert Choirs, show choirs, speech, musical theater and cheerleading since that time. These performance paths lead her to eventually begin coaching cheerleading, participating in community theater, singing at her church, and joining Aspire Music Academy.
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Erica Cizek-Vogen – Choreographer
Erica Cizek-Vogen grew up in the theatre. She started performing on stage at the age of 8, and continued to sing, dance, and act through college. She began choreographing in high school for her show choir performance group as well as for countless local community theatre productions and classes. She quickly discovered her love of creating and teaching and continued through young adulthood.
A few years after graduating from St. Olaf College (where she sang with the Manitou Singers) with degrees in Psychology and Women's Studies, she took a break from performing to focus on graduate school, her career as a therapist, and raising four boys. Her passion for theatre was reignited when she returned to the stage in Stars 6, and during this production, began choreographing again. Since then, she has been unable to set aside her dance shoes, and she is thrilled to be working with so many incredibly creative and talented people at Aspire - both staff and students!
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Aubrey Henry - Choreographer
Aubrey has been dancing since she could walk! A native of La Crosse, WI, Aubrey discovered her love of dance at Marilyn’s School of Dance at age 3. She has over 35 years of dance training and experience in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop and musical theatre. She has had the opportunity to perform, coach, teach, and choreograph for several dance teams and studios in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Aubrey was an 8-year dance captain for the Grand River Singers which provided her the opportunity to star in a Vh1 reality TV show and perform throughout the Midwest. Aubrey’s recent credits include Philly the Musical (dancer), Legally Blonde the Musical (Brooke Wyndham), and most recently Stars on Broadway 6 both as a performer and choreographer!
Aubrey has a strong belief in the power of music and dancing and its role in children’s lives. She gained valuable life skills through what she learned as a performer (on and off stage) and is so excited to share her passion with the Aspire Family!
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Tony May – Choreographer, Private Lesson Instructor
Tony May is a board-certified music therapist who has been singing and dancing at Aspire since day 1! Tony holds a B.M. in Music Therapy and a minor in health psychology from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and has provided music therapy to children and adults of many ages and abilities. He currently works as a medical music therapist for Children’s Minnesota and Gillette Children’s hospital systems in the Twin Cities. Tony started out at Aspire Music Academy as a student himself, but now enjoys continuing to give those same skills back to all new students through teaching while fostering the same inspiration through music that Aspire gave to him.
He has many years of experience performing, choreographing, and co-directing with Aspire Music Academy for Stars on Broadway 6, Descendants, Matilda Jr., Shrek Jr., Moana Jr., Lion King Jr., The Jungle Book Jr., and many productions of Summer Stock.
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Joshua Collins - Private Lesson Instructor
Joshua Collins, a guitarist with a musical journey that began in 2015, is a stand-out talent in the Minnesota arts community. He is not only dedicated to honing his skills through professional training in Jazz, Rock, Broadway, and Pop but also frequently shares his musical talents with Aspire Music Academy in our productions. Because of all his training, Josh has been able to apply himself to many different community theaters including Open Door Community Theatre, Ashland Productions, Apple Valley High School, Inver Grove Heights Community Theatre, and Lakeshore Players Theatre.
Josh has been teaching private lessons since 2020, instructing in guitar, bass, and drums to equip people to be able to play for anything they might want. Most recently, he taught three young performs to perform as live band members (playing guitar, bass and drums) in the Open Door production of School of Rock. Josh is ready to get behind his students and support them in any way he can!
Josh’s LinkedIn profile can be found here.
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