Meet The music directors

Brad Lambrecht is an accomplished conductor, educator, and arts leader with a deep commitment to orchestral music education and community engagement. In the fall of 2023, he was appointed Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra—the top auditioned ensemble—of the Fargo-Moorhead Area Youth Symphonies (FMAYS). In this role, Mr. Lambrecht works closely with some of the region’s most talented young musicians, guiding performances throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area as well as across North Dakota and Minnesota. Through his position with FMAYS, he works closely with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Christopher Zimmerman, gaining valuable professional orchestral experience while fostering a strong connection between youth and professional musicians.  The Fargo Forum has described him as "an energetic and expressive conductor who at times appears more like a dancer as he moves and gestures to the musicians" and "as magnetic to watch as any in the string section."

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Mr. Lambrecht is the founder and conductor of the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra, which he established in 2009. Under his leadership, the CLSO has collaborated with organizations such as the Minnesota Opera, Twin Cities Ballet, and the Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience, and has presented major works including Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Bizet’s Carmen, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Copland’s Rodeo. He has also commissioned five original works by Midwest composers inspired by the Alexandria Lakes Area.

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An advocate for music education, Mr. Lambrecht served as Director of Orchestras for Alexandria Area High School from 2007 to 2024. He holds a Master’s Degree in Music Education with an emphasis in orchestral conducting from Colorado State University and was recognized as a Minnesota Public Radio Music Teacher Feature in 2012. He is a frequent guest conductor for regional and state honors orchestras.

Lindsay Schwartz Miiller is the orchestra teacher at Cheney Middle School in West Fargo where she has been since 2011. She is a cellist with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra and teaches many private cello students. Ms.Schwartz has her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI and her Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Florida. She has traveled to Haiti nearly every summer since 2008 to teach music to students of all ages and is the assistant treasurer of the non-profit Blume Haiti (Building Leaders Using Music Education Haiti). Ms. Schwartz has been the Attacca Strings director since its formation in 2017. She lives in Fargo with her husband Glenn and daughter Hazel.

Brian Cole has been an orchestra teacher in the Moorhead, Minnesota public school district since 1995. Mr. Cole became the conductor with the Fargo Moorhead Area Youth Symphony in 1996. Originally from Marshall, Minnesota, Brian graduated from the University of South Dakota, received his Master’s of Music in orchestra conducting from the University of Northern Colorado and has received post-graduate credits from The Ohio State University.

During his tenure, enrollment in Moorhead's orchestra program has grown from 210 to over 800. Mr. Cole and his orchestra colleagues are strong believers in performing outreach concerts for rural schools. Since 1996, orchestras from Moorhead and the Fargo Moorhead Area Youth Symphony have performed more than 100 concerts throughout the upper Midwest for schools without orchestra programs.

The Moorhead hockey-jersey-clad orchestras have been invited to play at both state and national conventions. The Moorhead program is one of only a handful of programs in the country to have been invited to perform at both the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and the American String Teacher's National Convention.

A frequent clinician, speaker, and all state conductor across the country, Mr. Cole has appeared at music conventions in more than 20 states. Since 2011, Cole has been on the faculty of the String Teacher Workshop held at The Ohio State University. Cole was named Minnesota's string teacher of the year in 2003 by MNSOTA and received the Heidi Castleman Award from Chamber Music America. The Moorhead String Program also is a past recipient of MNSOTA's Meritorious String Program award.

A football and track coach at his school, Cole is past chairman for ASTA's National High School Honor's Orchestra. Brian and his wife Deborah have three children and make their home in Moorhead.