Board of Directors

Honorary Board

Gordon Getty, composer and philanthropist, co-founded San Francisco Classical Voice with Bob Commanday.

Board of Directors

Elizabeth Casey (Chair) most recently served as VP of Product at Snagajob where she led the company’s Employer Software portfolio of products. Prior to Snagajob Elizabeth served as VP of Restaurant Products at OpenTable. Elizabeth began her career at Intuit, where she worked in the consumer tax division, leading many high-profile product initiatives, including her role as Group Product Manager of TurboTax. Elizabeth received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. Elizabeth's board service includes Orinda Juniors Women's Club and the Orinda 9-Tees, where she is currently the treasurer. Elizabeth enjoys playing the piano and accordion and is a member of the Santa Maria Church choir.

Thomas Varghese, (Treasurer) 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.

Ken DeJarnette (Secretary) is a retired Deloitte Partner, where he was the Global Risk and Reputation leader for Deloitte’s Advisory business and a member of the Executive and Risk Committees. Ken is currently a Board Member and early stage technology company advisor. He has held executive roles in public companies and has leadership experience in technology and professional services, a deep understanding of enterprise risk, technology, cyber security and privacy. Ken is also a skilled attorney and has years of trusted advisor experience to corporate boards and the C-Suite. He has a Juris Doctor Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a BA from Claremont McKenna College. Ken grew up surrounded by a family of professional classical musicians. He currently lives in the Napa Valley and is married to Jeni Kandel, a retired high-tech entrepreneur and glass artist.

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 previously served as the Co-Chair of former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s regional arts initiative, “For Arts’ Sake”, and as an Overseer of the Curtis Institute of Music.

D. Warner North, decision and risk analyst with NorthWorks; retired Consulting Professor, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University; PhD in operations research from Stanford. BS in physics from Yale University: Betts Prize for best sophomore English paper, soloist with Yale Glee Club. National Associate, National Research Council, The National Academies. Past President, Society for Risk Analysis. Five decades as a classical music lover, choral and solo singer.

Ben Speelman is VP of Marketing and Merchandising for Sheet Music Plus. He is a trained musician with a Bachelor of Arts in Music from UC Santa Cruz and a music industry executive with an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. Ben works with arts organizations including orchestras, educators and music publishers around the world.

Francoise Stone

Sasha Talebi is founder and managing director of Sequence Venture Group, an early-stage investment and advisory firm headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

Over the past two decades, Mr. Talebi has successfully launched businesses across a range of industries and geographies. He serves on the boards of several technology startups as well as nonprofit organizations with a focus on education and STEM initiatives. Prior to launching Sequence, he managed hedge funds and alternative investment portfolios on behalf of family offices and private banks.

Mr. Talebi is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and an MBA.