Jackie Bogner
MAPAA Board Member, Treasurer

A resident of Lawrence, KS since 1968, Jackie has worked for the Department of Defense, both state side and overseas, in Software Engineering and Simulation Software Development. In addition, she also enjoyed working as a community volunteer, serving on Boards which provide young people with unique opportunities in the performing arts. These include The Hidden Valley Girl Scout Camp; the Friends of Hidden Valley; the Lawrence Children’s Choir; the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra; the Friends of the Lied Center, The Lied Center Performance Fund Board of Governors and now, the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA).

Why support MAPAA? Meeting Petr Novak in 1972 in Prague, Czechoslovakia deeply and profoundly affected Jackie’s life and led to a lifelong desire to provide the means for artists to be heard. Petr was a young singer who approached three young female American students on Spring Break in the U.S.S.R. and asked if he could sing for them. Since the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, he had been banned from performing. He invited these young students, including Jackie, to his home where he performed for 3 hours. When Jackie returned from break to school in Bordeaux, France, she checked Petr's claims that he had been "as popular as the Beatles." Jackie’s local record store had a large, deep bin of his many popular records. His albums continue to sell today, 26 years after his death.

Lavenna Boyer
MAPAA Board Member, President

As a lifelong musician and music teacher, Lavenna’s commitment to music and positive development of students in music gives her a strong interest in the mission of the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA). She has recently retired from 25 years of teaching with Ottawa Suzuki Strings in Ottawa, Kansas, where summer programs involved uniting students with world-class classical musicians, giving them opportunities to listen to, learn from, and perform for them and with them, both as soloists and in small ensembles.

Lavenna has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Westmar College located in LeMars, Iowa. She has played in the Sioux City Symphony, as well as orchestras in Interlochen, Michigan, Tri-Cities in the state of Washington, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and orchestras in Wichita, Ottawa, and Lawrence, Kansas.  She has done graduate work at Kansas State University, the University of Washington, the University of Pennsylvania and Friends University in Wichita, KS. For most of her adult life she has taught elementary and junior high vocal, band, and orchestra in public schools; while also giving private lessons in viola, violin, and piano. In addition, she has also worked with both children and adult choirs, as well as bell choirs in the churches she has attended. In 1995, she began her Suzuki training and teaching, which she now uses to help train her two grandchildren in Lawrence, KS with their violin and cello studies. She currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband, who is a retired nuclear engineer that enjoys playing his baritone in a community band.

Annie Gnojek
MAPAA Board Member, Secretary

Annie Gnojek has been a music educator and professional flutist in the Lawrence, KS and Kansas City area for 20 years. In that time, she has maintained a private flute studio of over 30 students ranging from 5-75 years of age. Her students have won numerous competitions at the local, state, and national level. Many of her students have gone on to pursue degrees in Music Education and Flute Performance. In addition to her private teaching, Annie has also been an adjunct professor at both Ottawa University and Benedictine College. Beyond her teaching career, Annie has also been a member of the professional flute, oboe, and piano trio Allegresse for the past 16 years. Allegresse has performed countless concerts across the United States and abroad. She is also the co-founder of the Lawrence community flute choir, and the Rock Chalk Flutes, which had their debut performance in April, 2022. Annie holds both a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Flute Performance from the University of Kansas. Annie is excited to join the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA) board of directors. She has always committed herself to inspiring young musicians and enriching the lives of others, and the community, through classical music. She has known Jesse Henkensiefken since they attended the University of Kansas together and looks forward to building the MAPAA brand with a close colleague and friend.

Gunda Hiebert
MAPAA Board Member

In 1971, Gunda Hiebert relocated to Lawrence, Kansas and married the love of her life, Dave Hiebert, in 1978. They happily lived in their Alvamar home for nearly twenty years, but ultimately thought there was something missing. One day in 1996, Dave and Gunda hosted an in-home classical music concert and decided their Alvamar home would no longer work. In 1996 they purchased their now iconic house on University Dr., otherwise known as Hiebert Hall. Before Dave’s passing in 2021, they had hosted over 1,000 in-home concerts. Even though the exact count in unknown, as of today, Hiebert Hall has hosted over 1,100 recitals from performers all around the world, and has even presented a one act murder play. Gunda received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Literature from Oberlin College, and received two Master’s degrees - one from Yale University (Art of Teaching), and another from the University of Virgina (Master of Art). For a time, Gunda was also proudly the church organist of the Unitarian Church in Charlottesville, VA.  Gunda’s previous board experience is vast, having served for the Hilltop Daycare Center, the “Seems to be Players” of the Lawrence Arts Center, the Spencer Museum of Art, the Hall Center for the Humanities, and the Lied Center. In addition, she has also served on the board of directors for the Women Philanthropists for Kansas University (WP4KU), and is now serving on the board of directors for the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA).

When asked why her and Dave chose to support the performing arts, specifically music, she said, “There are plenty of people who fund scientific things. What is it that can take you to a different dimension, or bring comfort, or help a troubled soul?  Music.  Music is the key!” As philanthropists, Gunda and Dave have sponsored musicians from all around the globe. They have passionately supported the International Van Cliburn Piano Competition Winners, countless artists thought the KU Lied Center, the KU School of Music, and most recently the MAPAA Youth String Competition. When asked what she loves the most about MAPAA, she stated, “The unique opportunities the organization presents to underserved children. There is nothing more heartbreaking than to see a talented student denied the opportunity to purse their musical passion because they cannot afford it. This is the most unique part of MAPAA that no one else in the region is doing.”

Chris Peoples
MAPAA Board Member

Chris originally came to Lawrence as an undergraduate at the University of Kansas. After graduating in 2003 with a Bachelor degree in Political Science, he moved back to Kansas City to attend law school at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). It did not take long for him to realize how much he missed the Lawrence, KS community. After graduating law school in 2006 and working in the Kansas City area for a couple of years, he moved back to Lawrence, KS in 2008 and began working at Riling, Burkhead & Nitcher, Chtd.  He has been there ever since. Chris brings with him over 16 years of legal experience and a background in classical music.  Chris began playing cello when he was in the 4th grade.  During high school, Chris was active in the Kansas City area youth symphonies, and then attended the University of Kansas on a music scholarship where he studied under Professor Ed Laut and performed with the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra. Chris originally met Jesse Henkensiefken in high school at the Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) All-State Orchestra. They reconnected again in the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra, and then again recently in discussing the mission of the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance (MAPAA). Chris knows all too well the positive impact that music can have on the mind, body, relationships, and more. He has seen and experienced it first-hand.   

Chris is excited to join the MAPAA board of directors and to be a part of their mission to inspire youths and enrich the lives of others and the community through classical music. In addition to his love of classical music, and music in general, Chris is an avid Jayhawks fan...Rock Chalk! In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife Christina, family and friends, and their English-Bullmastiff, Hosmer.