Mary C. Falvey (President), management consultant and investor in early-stage companies. Member, Board of Governors, San Francisco Symphony; Trustee Emeritus and Presidential Councillor, Cornell University; former board chair: San Francisco Performances and Saint Francis Hospital Foundation; former trustee: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the World Affairs Council of Northern California.
John Gambs (Treasurer), retired Executive Vice President & CFO of Charles Schwab, is a member of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony and is also on the board of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco.
Ronald F. E. Weissman, Ph.D. (Secretary), investment manager, software advisor and board director in Silicon Valley, member of Band of Angels investor group and San Francisco Opera corporate council.
Marie Bertillion Collins, judge (retired). Board member: Cal Performances, Merola Opera Program, and San Francisco Early Music Society; founding board member and past president: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the UC Berkeley Committee for the Berkeley Early Music Festival.
Bradley G. Fisher, CEO of Springcreek Advisors, LLC, a family office investment advisory firm based in Marin County. Fomerly vice president of Bernstein Global Wealth Management in New York, and chief operating officer for Pemigewasset Capital, LLC, in Connecticut. Early in his career, he founded several companies. He holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Minnesota.
Gordon Getty, composer and philanthropist, co-founded San Francisco Classical Voice with Bob Commanday.
Linda Jenkinson, Chairman of LesConcierges, Inc., leading global concierge services company to financial institutions and Fortune 100 corporations; built three multi-million dollar companies; global strategy consultant, turnaround strategist, social innovator, public company and nonprofit board chair and director. Holds MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Business degree from Massey University in New Zealand.
James Kim (Chair, Family Committee), Managing Director of Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc., a consulting firm specializing in executive compensation and corporate governance matters. He is also a frequent speaker at national conferences. James received his bachelor’s degree and M.B.A. from The University of Chicago.
Don Roth is the executive director of the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis, where he has worked since 2006. A native of New York City, he served previously as president of the Aspen Music Festival and School from 2001-2006, and as executive director of the Saint Louis Symphony from 1998-2001. During the 1980s and 1990s, Roth held leadership positions on the West Coast at the San Francisco Symphony as general manager and the Oregon Symphony as president. He serves as the Co-Chair of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s regional arts initiative, “For Arts’ Sake”, and as Overseer of the Curtis Institute of Music.
Paisley Schade, creative director, verbal branding at Landor Associates. She has expertise in digital marketing, as well as child development as it relates to music. A former pro harpist, Paisley also has an M.A. in Ethnomusicolinguistics from New York University.
Thomas Varghese, Melomaniac, Entrepreneur, Investor, Startup Accelerator, Board Member & Advisor to several Silicon Valley Companies. Formerly, Vice President, Oracle Corp., Founded/Co-founded several companies, Scientist. Graduate in Engineering & Telecommunications from Bombay University, Post Graduate from Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
Thomas Watrous, retired attorney, Gordon, Watrous, Ryan, Langley, Bruno, and Paltenghi in Martinez, California; arts patron; singer with UC Berkeley Alumni Chorus.
Alisa Won, Partner, Sideman & Bancroft LLP. Formerly partner in corporate department of Winston & Strawn LLP. Advisory Trustee of May Treat Morrison Chamber Music Foundation. Alisa received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and her BA in History from UC Berkeley and studies classical piano.
Staff
John Robinson, Executive Director (john@sfcv.org). John Robinson has worked in the heart of the Classical Music Industry since 1993. He was Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony from 2002-2010, while also serving as a member of the Board of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras and on the Advisory Group of the League of American Orchestras. Before moving to the West Coast, Robinson spent six years in New York City where he was Executive Director of Frank Salomon Associates, a leading artist management firm that provided management to musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Oundjian, Jaime Laredo, Richard Stoltzman, Richard Goode, Alon Goldstein, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Tallis Scholars, and Los Angeles Guitar. He also organized the North American Debut Tour for the Bach Collegium Japan. Robinson earned a Master in Music from the New England Conservatory in Choral Conducting.
Michael Zwiebach, Senior Editor/ Content Manager (editor@sfcv.org). Michael decides on all of SFCV's content, assigns all articles, oversees video production, and does editing. He manages the writing staff, engages new writers, and writes articles himself as needed. A member of SFCV from the beginning, Michael holds a Ph.D. degree in music history from the University of California, Berkeley.
Catherine Getches, Managing Editor (editor@sfcv.org). Catherine edits Music News, concert reviews, previews, and other content, and manages online production and production of the weekly newsletters. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Salon, and The Wall Street Journal. She received her Masters in Journalism from Columbia University and Bachelors from Kenyon College
Eric Freeman, Operations Manager (eric@sfcv.org). Eric sings with and arranges music for the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. He has performed with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Meredith Monk, Bobby McFerrin, Sufjan Stevens among others. He also plays with various bands around the Bay including The Spuddle Brothers, New Granada and Kippis. Eric holds a Master's in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco.
Andrew Bradford, Marketing and Development Manager (andrew@sfcv.org). Andrew comes to SFCV from The Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra, where he was a management fellow and protege of arts management guru, Michael Kaiser. He has also held marketing and management positions with the Houston Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival. As a former cellist, he toured Japan with the Michael Tilson-Thomas and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra. Andrew holds a Bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory and completed graduate studies in music and management at the University of Michigan, where he was a graduate fellow.
Mark Woodworth, Associate Editor. Mark edits reviews. A freelance book editor, he has written cover stories for Dance Magazine and was dance and theater critic for San Francisco Sentinel. He has sung in many choruses, as well as conducted and arranged music.
Tanya Chiu (tanya@sfcv.org), Production Assistant. Tanya does stuff and says things. She got a degree in stuff and things from Dartmouth. Now she puts her stuffingthingy talents to use at SFCV. How nice.
Robert P. Commanday, Founding Editor. Bob regularly advises and writes for SFCV. He was the chief music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle from 1965 to 1993, and before that a conductor and lecturer at UC Berkeley.
Writers
Rebekah Ahrendt holds the artist's diploma in viola da gamba and historical performance practice from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Currently, she is a graduate student in historical musicology at UC Berkeley.
Jessica Balik is a flutist and candidate for a doctorate in historical musicology at Stanford University.John Bender is professor of English and comparative literature at Stanford University. He has reviewed the San Francisco Opera for Opera Canada for several years.
Janice Berman was an editor and senior writer at New York Newsday. She is a former editor in chief of Dance Magazine.
Trista Bernstein studied voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and earned her Master of Nonprofit Administration degree from the University of San Francisco. Trista is currently the Managing Director of Post:Ballet.
David Bratman is a librarian who lives with his lawfully wedded soprano and a wall full of symphony recordings.
Ken Bullock grew up in and around the diverse music scene of the Bay Area. He has been affiliated with Theatre of Yugen (Noh and Kyogen) since 1980, and writes about the performing arts for www.berkeleyplanet.com and The Commuter Times and Mark Alburger's magazine 21st Century Music.
Thomas Busse is the music director of San Francisco's City Concert Opera and a freelance professional singer.
Brett Campbell writes for The Wall Street Journal, NewMusicBox, and many other publications. He and Bill Alves are working on a biography of Lou Harrison.
Leon Chisholm holds degrees in organ from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Arizona State University. He is the organist at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley and a Ph.D. candidate in historical musicology at UC Berkeley.
Matthew Cmiel has a diploma in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music, and is currently working on a degree from from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has had commissions from the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet, Marin Youth Orchestra, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, and from Maestra Marin Alsop for the Cabrillo New Music Festival. He is also the founder of the Bay Area new music ensemble Formerly Known As Classical, and is currently one of the co-executive/artistic directors for the Hot Air Music Festival taking place at SFCM.
Scott Cmiel is a guitarist on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and UC Berkeley.
Kwami Coleman is a Ph.D. student in musicology at Stanford, with a concentration in jazz history. He was formerly an artist's liaison with Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Anna Carol Dudley is a singer, teacher, member of the faculty of UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University lecturer emerita, and director emerita of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Baroque Music Workshop.
Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of the National Association of Composers, USA, a former president of Composers Inc., and has served on the board of New Music Bay Area. A photomontage enthusiast, he illustrates his own reviews.
Richard M. Dyer was the chief music critic of The Boston Globe from 1973-2006. During that time, he twice won the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for Distinguished Music Criticism.
Jasmine Elist earned a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She published a Fisher-Price baby book titled Rainforest Choo-Choo, and is currently working on completing her first novel, a work of fiction intended for a new audience: adults.
Jim Farber wrote his first classical music review in 1982 for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. Since then, he has been a feature writer and critic of classical music, opera, theater, and fine art for The Daily Variety, the Copley Newspapers and News Service, and the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (Media News).
Benjamin Frandzel has written on music and the arts for a wide range of publications. He has a background as a guitarist and composer, and has collaborated with dance, theater, and visual artists.
Stephanie Friedman, mezzo-soprano, is retired from more than three decades of singing in opera and concerts in the U.S. and abroad.
Janos Gereben writes about music, theater, and film for the San Francisco Examiner and other publications. Previously, he served as arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group, and music editor of The Seattle Times and San José Mercury News.
Brian Gleeson is a communications consultant living in the Bay Area. Previously, he was a writer and producer of Rabbit Ears Radio, which was distributed nationwide by Public Radio International.
Maria Goodavage is a journalist and book author who has written on a wide variety of topics for USA Today and other publications. She is currently on leave from SFCV to write a book on military working dogs. The book, Soldier Dogs, will be published in the spring of 2012, by Penguin Dutton.
Jessica Hilo is a freelance arts reporter in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in the Santa Barbara Independent and Canadian webzine Uncharted Sounds. She served as a social media commentator for the National Summit for Arts Journalism in 2009. Her short documentary on film music composers, "Composing the Score," debuted in Los Angeles December 2009.
Lisa Hirsch is a technical writer. She studied music at Brandeis and SUNY/Stony Brook.
Jesse Hamlin has written for The San Francisco Chronicle and other publications over the past 30 years on a wide range of music and art, covering jazz musicians and symphonic conductors, sculptors, poets, and architects. He has also written for The New York Times, Art & Auction and Columbia magazines, as well as liner notes for CDs by Stan Getz and Cal Tjader.
John Karl Hirten regularly performs organ recitals in the Bay Area, including monthly programs at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. He is Director of Music at St. Stephen's Church in Belvedere, an accompanist for the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and a composer.
Lisa Houston recently sang the role of Augusta Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe with the Berkeley Opera and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with Marin Oratorio. She writes a regular column for Classical Singer Magazine on the topic of inspiration for singers and can be reached through her Web site: www.lisahoustonvoice.com.
Rachel Howard is the former dance correspondent of The San Francisco Chronicle. She has written on dance in the Bay Area for the last ten years, and her writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Dance Magazine. Her Web site is www.rachelhoward.com.
Ken Iisaka is a North Bay Pianist.
Stephanie Jones received her Bachelor of Science in Music Industry from the USC Thornton School of Music in 2008. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Specialized Journalism (arts journalism) in 2010 at USC and is currently a freelance journalist as well as a playwright, creative writer, and amateur poet.
Jeff Kaliss has written about opera and other classical forms for the Marin Independent-Journal and The Oakland Tribune. He is based in San Francisco, and also covers jazz, world music, country, rock, film, theater, and other entertainment. The second edition of his authorized biography of Sly and the Family Stone will be published in Fall 2009 by Backbeat Books.
Don Kaplan is the author of several books including See With Your Ears: The Creative Music Book. He has contributed to Early Music America, Strings Magazine, Music Educators Journal, The Monthly, The New York Times, and other publications. He taught at several colleges including the Bank Street College of Education and New School for Social Research, and has been a visiting artist at several Bay Area and New York City schools.
Jerry Kuderna is a pianist who teaches at Diablo Valley College.
Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who lives in the East Bay.
Jonathan Rhodes Lee studied harpsichord in New York, San Francisco, and the Netherlands. He is currently enrolled in the graduate program in historical musicology at UC Berkeley.
Dan Leeson is a retired businessman, a former member of the now defunct San Jose Symphony, and a historical musicologist with some 50 publications in major journals and four books on Mozart, including the novel The Mozart Forgeries.
Anatole Leikin is professor of music at UC Santa Cruz. His articles have appeared in various musicological journals and essay collections. He has recorded piano music of Chopin and Scriabin. Professor Leikin also serves as an editor for The Complete Chopin — A New Critical Edition (Peters Edition, London) and is writing a book about Scriabin's performing style for Ashgate Publishing.
Rebecca Liao has produced several classical music performances in the Bay Area. A lawyer by day, she is currently working on an essay collection about contemporary classical music theory.
Marianne Lipanovich is a writer and editor based in Redwood City. A gardening expert, she is a lifelong music lover, having learned to read music before she learned to read.
George Loomis writes about music for the International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, MusicalAmerica.com, Opera Magazine and other publications.
John Lutterman is a cellist and musicologist. He holds a D.M.A. from SUNY Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in historical musicology from UC Davis.
Mark MacNamara is a writer and journalist living in San Francisco. He previously served as the public information officer for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, and more recently has been an Internet media consultant. His website is: macnamband.com.
Lindy Li Mark, Ph.D. is professor emerita and former chair of the department of anthropology at California State University, Hayward. She also studied ethnomusicology for her M.A. degree.
John McCarthy is a pianist and teacher. He is director of preparatory and extension divisions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Santa Rosa resident Terry McNeill produces classical piano recitals in the three-county Concerts Grand series, and he is currently researching the lives and artistry of keyboard titans Anton Rubinstein and Josef Hoffmann.
Kathryn Miller is a mezzo-soprano and holds degrees in singing from London's Royal Academy of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Be'eri Moalem is a violist, teacher, writer, and composer.
Robert Moon is a classical music journalist who has written for Strings magazine and Audiophile Audition. He has more than 10 years of management experience as an administrator of performing arts organizations and is the author of an internationally recognized book on London/Decca classical records.
Kaneez Munjee is a singer, writer, and editor. She holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University, and specializes in late 17th- and early 18th-century French music.
Edward Ortiz writes for The Sacramento Bee and has written for The Boston Globe, the Berkshire Eagle, and The Providence Journal.
Steve Osborn, a medical writer and editor by day, moonlights as a violist, singer, and music critic.
Lisa Petrie is a writer and specialist in marketing and public relations for arts and education organizations. She earned a DMA in flute performance from SUNY, Stony Brook, and is the mother of two musical kids. Lisa is the Content Manager for the Kids and Families section of San Francisco Classical Voice.
Jaime Robles is a writer and reviewer. Over the past 10 years she has worked as a librettist for composer Peter Joseff. Their work has been performed by Earplay, Harvest of Song, and as part of Goat Hall productions, StageMedia productions, and the American Composers Forum Salon. Rebecca J. Ritzel is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Va. She has a Master’s degree in Arts Journalism from Syracuse University, and regularly contributes cultural coverage to The Washington Post and the News & Observer. She teaches writing at the University of Maryland.
Georgia Rowe is a Bay Area arts writer. Her work has appeared in Opera News, Gramophone, The San Jose Mercury News, The Oakland Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Contra Costa Times.
Jonathan Russell is a professor of musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and music director at First Congregational Church in San Francisco. He is active in the Bay Area as a clarinetist, bass clarinetist, and composer.
Joseph Sargent holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University and teaches at the University of San Francisco.
Jason Victor Serinus writes about music for Opera News, Opera Now, American Record Guide, Stereophile, San Francisco Magazine, Muso, Carnegie Hall Playbill, East Bay Express, East Bay Monthly, San Francisco Examiner, Bay Area Reporter, hometheaterhifi.com, and other publications.
Chelsea Nicole Spangler is a graduate student in ethnomusicology at UC Berkeley. She earned her B.A. in vocal performance at Wartburg College, and spent the 2007-2008 academic year studying the Hardanger fiddle in Norway.
Olivia Stapp is an opera director, formerly artistic director of Festival Opera 1995-2001, and has had a major international career as a soprano.
Michelle Dulak Thomson is a violinist and violist who has written about music for Strings, Stagebill, Early Music America, and The New York Times.
Chloe Veltman is the chief theater critic for S.F. Weekly, and has contributed articles about theater, music, and other art forms to such publications as The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Believer. She also plays oboe and sings contralto with a number of Bay Area-based music ensembles, including Redwood Winds and San Francisco Renaissance Voices.
Mark Wardlaw is a clarinetist in the Santa Rosa Symphony and a jazz saxophonist. He conducts the Symphonic Band and two orchestras at Santa Rosa High School and is the jazz band director at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Paul Wilner is a longstanding arts and entertainment writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Monterey County Weekly, and other publications.
Steven Winn is a San Francisco freelance writer and critic and frequent City Arts & Lectures interviewer. His work has appeared in Art News, California, Humanities, and The San Francisco Chronicle, where he was the arts and culture critic from 2002 to 2008. His memoir, Come Back, Como: Winning the Heart of a Reluctant Dog, is published by Harper
