Director and Staff

Norah is the executive director of the school. She is both a professional performer and a dedicated music educator. She has a bachelor of music degree with a major in music education and an MA in Traditional Irish Music Performance from the University of Limerick. As a performer, Norah tours internationally as the flute player and lead vocalist of UK/Ireland-based band, The Outside Track and regionally with Brian Miller and the Two Tap Trio.

 

Emily Flagstad is our managing director and a welcoming voice for all new students at CIM.  She has training in both linguistics and music. As a singer herself and the mother of three CIM students, she fully understands the frustrations and joys involved in music learning! Emily loves to travel, learn new languages, dive with sharks, read voraciously, and sing. She can usually be found at CIM talking profusely.

Erika Nelson is our administrative assistant. Originally from Wisconsin, Erika recently relocated to the Twin Cities from New York where she worked as a program assistant for ArtsConnection and as a freelance modern dancer. Before moving to New York, she graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a BFA in Dance. Erika grew up singing in choirs and playing the piano and is excited to learn more about Irish music. You can see her perform at various dance venues throughout the Twin Cities under her alter ego, Erika Hansen.

In addition to being a singing instructor and parent of three CIM students, Shawn McBurnie is CIM's web developer.  Shawn created and maintains several of our community's most active websites through his company, Nettercap Productions. When not parenting, singing, teaching, writing, rehearsing with his band Rumgumption, or coding at The Nerdery, Shawn can usually be found attempting to catch some much needed sleep. For web related queries, Shawn can be reached at shawn@nettercap.net.