2022-2023 Singers

Laurie Botes Zaepfel has been a singer since childhood, participating in a variety of church, school, and community groups through the years. At St. Olaf College, she sang with the Chapel Choir and the Repertory Singers. Although large oratorio choirs have their own thrills, her real musical love is the intimate chamber choir, and so she is delighted to be singing with Caritas. Laurie manages the office for the wonderful folks at Salem English Lutheran in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. She lives in St. Paul with her husband Joseph and has two young adult children. When not singing or tending to work, family needs, or social justice, Laurie likes to cook and to read, especially children’s literature.

Samantha Walters is a graduate from Gustavus Adolphus College with her BA in vocal music education. She is currently a choir teacher at Zimmerman Middle-High School and a private music lesson teacher around the Twin Cities. She has sung in the Gustavus Choir and currently sings with the Mt. Olivet West Campus Sr. Choir and directs the Mt. Olivet West Campus Chancel Choir. She has performed in various locations in the Midwest, as well as Orlando, Chicago, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. She has a dog named Puckett and is very excited to be making music here!

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Bethany Dahl, Soprano, is a musician and vocalist who graduated from Bethel University in 2020. From a young age, Bethany enjoyed singing duets with her twin sister. In her career, Bethany works to deepen her understanding of developmental psychology. Bethany enjoys spending time with family and the outdoors and is committed to being a lifelong learner.

Kristen Tibben graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with degrees in Music and Organizational Management. While at Gustavus, she sang with the Gustavus Choir and Chamber Singers. After graduation, Kristen sang with the Dale Warland Symphonic Chorus and the Minnesota Chorale. She has been a member of Caritas Vocal Ensemble since 2006. Kristen is married and has two children. When she isn't singing or doing work for the Caritas Board, she enjoys tromping around in MN State Parks, reading, and gardening.

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Matthias Hunt joined Caritas in 2019 after taking a break from choir for a few years while he traveled frequently as a broadcaster. He sang with the St. Olaf Choir and Waltham Abbey Singers and also has a passion for pre-Classical arrangements.

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Sam Ahern graduated from Carleton College with a degree in Russian. His real passion, however (besides the Minnesota Twins… and his family), has always been music. He has played piano and sung in vocal groups off and on since early school days. He has sung with Caritas since 2015 and is still humbled to be able to sing with such talented people for such great causes. He is also one of the directors and tenors for Target’s corporate choir, The Spots. He lives in South Minneapolis with his wife, Kara, and his cat, Penny.

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John F. Walsh, Jr., baritone, is a professional photographer in the Twin Cities. John has been singing in one group or another since grade school. With over 30 years in the Minnesota Chorale, John is enjoying honing his listening skills in a smaller ensemble. John lives with his love of 42 years in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis and is proud of his son, his daughter-in-law, and his two beautiful granddaughters.

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Erik Lien began singing with Caritas in 2010. He performed for three years with the Yale Glee Club and has sung with several church choirs since returning home to Minnesota. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in Anthropology and from the University of Minnesota with a master’s in Rhetoric. Erik works at Cargill as a learning & development consultant, and he lives in St. Paul with his wife, Cristina, and children Anders and Maren. In his spare time, Erik enjoys participating in the “silent sports” – bicycling, hiking, cross-country skiing, canoeing, sailing, etc. – as well as one very unsilent one, which is attending Minnesota United home matches and cheering them on from the Wonderwall.

June Bethke Petrie is a charter member of Caritas and is gratified to have spent these many years singing with wonderful people to help other non-profits fulfill their missions. As a kid, she was in as many school groups and musical productions as she could be. As an adult, June sang in ensembles at the UW-Madison and with the Clara-Schumann-Kammerchor of Düsseldorf, but Caritas has been her choral home since the group formed in late 2001. She recently gave up her German-English translation business and retrained to teach English to adult speakers of other languages. 

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Sarah Good grew up singing with her sisters around the piano as their dad played every night. Her earliest memories also include singing in church and school. Sarah has a BA in Spanish from Gustavus Adolphus College where she also sang in the Gustavus Choir and Chamber Singers. She completed her MA degree at the University of Iowa in speech language pathology with a specialty in vocology. Sarah lives in Saint Paul with her son Luis, and two cats. She loves working with children with the Saint Paul public schools doing speech language therapy. Sarah enjoys spending time with family and friends, Latin dancing, painting, reading, yoga, and hiking.

Katie Hines has enjoyed both singing and making music as a cellist throughout her life. At Gustavus Adolphus College, Katie sang with the Gustavus Choir and Chamber Singers while pursuing her Music Education degree. She taught music for a few years, and then transitioned to the business world as learning and development consultant and producer.  She is presently employed at Land O’ Lakes, serves on the Caritas board as chair, and lives in Brooklyn Park with her husband Rob and cocker spaniel, Duncan (Hines – get it?) along with the occasional visit from her two grown daughters.

Madelyn Smerillo is a 2020 graduate from Gustavus Adolphus College. Professionally, she works to advance renewable energy policy in the Midwest. At home, she takes care of her Puppy, Finley, and her two guinea pigs, Leonard and Oliver.

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Peter Smith spent much of his school life in music in both band and choir, and made himself a tenor in order to face off with his rival. He went to the university of Minnesota for music for a brief time before leaving to continue singing in musicals and church choirs across Minnesota. Caritas is his first group in many years and he looks forward to many more.

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Erik Gulsvig teaches seventh grade Life Science and has worked in the Wayzata Public Schools for over 20 years. He was previously in Caritas but took a hiatus to complete his Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Teaching. He also sang in the Gustavus Choir with Kristen and Katie. His other choral experience includes Wright County Chamber Chorus in Buffalo, MN, Two Rivers Chorale, OneVoice Mixed Chorus, and The Summer Singers. Erik loves birds, having raised three different species of doves, two species of quail, canaries and a conure.

Tanner Tweet is originally from Moorhead, MN and moved to Elk River, MN in the summer of 2021 to teach middle school choir. He graduated from Moorhead High School in 2014, Minnesota State Community and Technical College (AA Degree) in fall of 2017, and Minnesota State University Moorhead (Music Education-Vocal) in the fall of 2020. He also coaches girls basketball for Elk River. 

He is a diehard Minnesota Vikings and Timberwolves fan. He spends most of his weekends watching sports, hanging out with friends, or trying new places to eat!