About the Director

Lisa Rael was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  She began studying violin at age 10 with Esther Wenzel.  At age 13 she won the Minnesota Music Teacher’s Solo Contest and performed at the MMTA Convention.  She moved to Oregon at 15 and attended Clackamas High School. In Oregon, Lisa studied violin with Hugh Ewart.  Lisa attended Portland State University, became an accountant at the US Army Corps of Engineers, and played violin in gigs and pit orchestras.  While raising three children, Crystal, violinist, Patrick, violist, and Molly, cellist (yes, they form a string quartet!), she assisted in the North Clackamas string program as an instructional assistant.  Lisa went back to PSU and studied violin with Carol Sindell and played in the PSU Symphony under the direction of Ken Selden. She graduated from Portland State with a Masters in Music Education. She immediately began teaching in March 2008, in the North Clackamas school district at Sunrise Middle School in Orchestra.  In 2009, she was hired to teach and direct the Clackamas High School Orchestra and some of the Milwaukie High School feeder elementaries in the BOC Program. Lisa directed the orchestras of Clackamas High School for 9 years, where the program grew from 100 students to over 200 string players. Under her direction, the CHS Chamber Orchestra placed first at Three Rivers League and Mount Hood League every year.   CHS placed at state, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th during her direction. Then in 2017, CHS placed first, winning the State Championship at OSAA State Orchestra Competition. She was awarded the Oregon Symphony Patty Vemer Coaching award in 2014, Nominated for both a Crystal Apple Award and Oregon Symphony Music Educator of the Year in 2024. She taught String Pedagogy for Music Majors at Portland State University from 2010 to 2013 and also String Tech at Clackamas Community College from 2014 to 2015. She directed Vivaldi Strings at Metropolitan Youth Symphony from 2015 to 2016.  She currently plays violin with the Salem Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, adjudicates solo and ensemble contests, and  is the proud orchestra director at Sprague High School in the Salem-Keizer School District.   Since at Sprague, Camerata has placed Third at OSAA State Championships in 2025 and 2022, Fourth in 2019 and Fifth in 2023, Symphony Orchestra has placed Third at OSAA state Championships In 2023, 2022 and 2019.  And Sprague String Quintet placed First at State Small Ensemble Competition in 2025!