BIOGRAPHIES FOR PRESENTERS

Dan Berkowitz Manager, Youth Orchestra LA, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for Education in 2014, Dan Berkowitz is using music as a vehicle for social change. A musician and educator with degrees in Economics and Trombone Performance from Northwestern University, Dan’s career began with Morningstar Inc., moving to London to start-up their European fund research endeavor. In 2009, he was chosen as an inaugural “Sistema Fellow” at New England Conservatory. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to build one of the nation’s most robust El Sistema programs, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA). With the support of the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel, and community partners, Dan has grown YOLA to over 600 students – each receiving 12-15 hours of free programming each week. Internationally, Dan designs symposiums that explore the intersection of music and social innovation for the LA Phil and its institutional partners. He also advises organizations worldwide through various stages of development including residencies at El Sistema Japan and Sistema Taiwan.

Leni Boorstin Director, Community and Government Affairs, Los Angeles Philharmonic

As Director of Community and Government Affairs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Leni Boorstin is responsible for Neighborhood Concerts and other community programs, including those that opened Walt Disney Concert Hall, celebrated its 5th and 10th anniversaries, and welcomed Gustavo Dudamel to Los Angeles as the LA Phil's music Director. She worked with a coalition of stakeholders to introduce El Sistema-influenced programs to Los Angeles, and helped develop the partnerships that have resulted in the robust Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) programs in three sites, currently serving over 600 students. Ms. Boorstin's previous experience in arts management was at KPFK-FM and San Francisco's Exploratorium Museum. As a graduate student she was a Public Affairs and the Arts Fellow with the CORO Foundation. Ms. Boorstin has served three Mayors as a City of LA's Human Relations Commissioner. She is a founding board member and Chair emeritus of Arts for LA.

Eric Booth Arts Learning Consultant

In addition to careers as a Broadway actor, successful entrepreneur, author and teacher, Eric Booth been described by the press as "the father of teaching artistry" and "one of the 25 most important arts educators in the U.S." On the faculty of Juilliard (12 years), Lincoln Center Education (26 years) and The Kennedy Center 14 years), he now consults with many arts organizations, including six of the ten largest orchestras in the U.S. and five national service organizations. Author of five books (including The Music Teaching Artist's Bible), he founded the Teaching Artist Journal and two International Teaching Artist Conferences and wrote many essays on El Sistema. He was asked to do the closing keynote speech at UNESCO's first world arts education conference (Lisbon 2006), and will give the opening keynote at the 2014 world conference (Seoul). He is one of the world's leading consultants on El Sistema programs.

Deborah Borda President and CEO, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Throughout her career, Deborah Borda has extended the boundaries of the American symphonic world. Prior to becoming President and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2000, she was Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic, General Manager of the San Francisco Symphony and President of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. During a decade in LA she implemented an acclaimed artistic and business plan, oversaw the construction of Walt Disney Concert Hall, restored the orchestra to fiscal health and spearheaded the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel as Music Director. Under Borda's leadership, the orchestra has gained international acclaim for its peerless commitment to new music and imaginative interpretations of classic works, such as the Mozart/DaPonte Trilogy designed by leading architects and couturiers. Recognizing the social, as well as artistic, imperative of the orchestra, Borda has ushered in an era of increased community engagement through such influential programs as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). While serving local audiences through its artistic and educational efforts, the LA Phil continues to broaden its reach by touring, offering an extensive catalog of recorded music, and with radio, television and theater broadcasts.

Judith Hill Bose Director of Teacher Education and Educational Initiatives, Longy School of Music of Bard College

Judith Hill Bose, is the Director of Teacher Education and Educational Initiatives for the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the City University of New York Graduate Center and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. At Longy she directs the Teaching Artist Program in Cambridge and is the central architect of the curriculum for the MAT at the Los Angeles campus. She is an active collaborator in the Taka A Stand partnership, is the lead consultant with WNET and the Annenberg Foundation for an online professional development workshop series on Sistema-inspired music education, and she serves as the Longy principal in the Sistema Evaluation Project with WolfBrown.

Leon Botstein President, Bard College; Music Director, American Symphony Orchestra

Leon Botstein has been President of Bard College since 1975, and is a leading advocate of progressive education. He is Music Director and Principal Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, and leads an active schedule as a guest conductor all over the world. Mr. Botstein is also co-Artistic Director of the Summerscape and Bard Music Festivals in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and Conductor Laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous books and articles. For his contributions to music, Mr. Botstein has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University’s Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class from the government of Austria. In 2009 he received Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award, and he is also the 2012 recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society

Abiram Brizuela Program Director, Miami Music Project

Abiram Brizuela is an award‐winning composer, orchestra conductor and El Sistema alumni. He has composed soundtracks of more than 28 theater and film productions, a feat which has brought him to win the most important award of the performing arts granted in Venezuela, the Municipal Theater Award. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Mr. Brizuela was 5 when he had his first experience with music. It was through El Sistema that he started studying double bass and conducting. At the age of 18, Mr. Brizuela was chosen to study at the School of Orchestra Conducting of the Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music led by Maestro Miguel Ángel Monroy. In 2010 he moved to Miami and became actively involved in Miami Music Project’s El Sistema-inspired programming spearheading its current program structure and curriculum development. As catalysts of social transformation through music in Miami’s communities and Miami Music Project’s Program Director, Mr. Brizuela currently leads a group of 25 teaching artists serving over 350 students in three chapter locations.

Brad Broomfield Percussion & World Music Teaching Artist

Brad Broomfield is a musician and educator living in Philadelphia. Currently a teaching artist for two El Sistema-inspired programs - Play On, Philly! and Sister Cities Girlchoir - Brad is also a fellow with Youth Orchestra of the Americas’ “Global Leaders Program” which, in part, sends its members on missions to work with community music programs throughout the Americas. Additionally, Brad is a guest lecturer in the World Music Department at Temple University. As a performer, Brad is competent in music born of western classical, Ghanaian, Brazilian, Cuban, and Arabic decent. He performs with ensembles as varied as Symphony in C, Alokli West African Dance, and Philadelphia Arab Music Ensemble. Brad previously toured internationally as a Featured Percussion Soloist for the Tony and Emmy Award-winning Broadway show, Blast! Brad received his formal education from Temple University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has conducted percussion research on five continents.

Tony Brown Executive Director, Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA)

Tony Brown has been the Executive Director of Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) since 2007. He is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and received a Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee in Sports Management/Marketing. After working at HOLA in the 1990‘s, Tony worked for several years as a teacher and served as the athletic director and a coach for private schools, while owning and managing several successful camp programs. Tony is a Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Center for Social Innovation Fellow and serves on the University of Tennessee’s College of Education, Health and Human Sciences Dean’s Board of Advisors. Tony has been acknowledged by LMU with the Distinguished Alumni Award, by Bank of America with the “Local Hero” award and by KTLA as a “Hometown Hero.” Most recently, he received the Leadership Excellence Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Diane Cline Program Director, El Sistema Somerville

Diane Cline is the Director of El Sistema Somerville, a project funded primarily by a municipal government and public school district. Ms. Cline is also a team member of the Rep + Resource Project, an online database that aims to support the international collaboration of music programs for social change. During her Master’s of Music Degree at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2010, Ms. Cline earned a grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation. The result: Community Music Partnership for Social Change: Six Unique Adaptations of El Sistema in the United States of America. Ms. Cline served as advisor and supervisor for the Organization of American States’ pilot project The Marchand Youth Orchestra in 2008 and a consultant for the Dayton Symphony Orchestra’s Q the Music in 2010. She also has been a recent guest teacher in the Projeto Música nas Escolas and Orquestrando a Vida in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Antonio Damasio Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC

Antonio Damasio is University Professor, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California; he is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying, emotions, feelings, decision-making and consciousness. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and his research has received continuous Federal funding for 30 years. He is the recipient of many awards (including the Grawemeyer Award, 2014; the Honda Prize, 2010; the Asturias Prize in Science and Technology, 2005; and the Signoret Prize, 2004, which he shared with his wife Hanna Damasio). Damasio is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He has been named “Highly Cited Researcher” by the Institute for Scientific Information, and also holds Honorary Doctorates from several Universities. He has described his discoveries in several books (Descartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, Looking for Spinoza. and Self Comes to Mind) translated and taught in universities worldwide.

Marianne Diaz Director of Outreach Services, Southern California Counseling Center; Founder, Clean Slate Inc.

Marianne Diaz is a therapist in Los Angeles, where she works with numerous organizations to support young people and train counselors from all backgrounds. After becoming a gang member at the age of 13, Diaz learned that the violence she experienced at home was just a symptom of the way people with social and financial power treat those without. Gangs, she realized, were a means of equalizing the power balance in her community, where the currency was intimidation, violence and control. Since her release from prison in 1982, Diaz has focused her work on the reasons that communities continue to turn their rage against themselves. Through her programs, which focus on those on the receiving end of racism, sexism, poverty, social injustice and inequality, Diaz opens up conversations with those who are in the best positions to place a lens towards the reality of the natural consequences of oppression.

Robert Duke Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professor and Head of Music and Human Learning at the University of Texas - Austin

Robert Duke is the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professor and Head of Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Elizabeth Shatto Massey Distinguished Fellow in Teacher Education, and Director of the Center for Music Learning. He is also directs the psychology of learning program at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. The most recent recipient of MTNA's Frances Clarke Keyboard Pedagogy Award, Dr. Duke has directed national research efforts under the sponsorship of such organizations as the National Piano Foundation and the International Suzuki Institute. His research on human learning and behavior spans multiple disciplines, including motor skill learning, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. His most recent work explores procedural memory consolidation and the cognitive processes engaged during musical improvisation. A former studio musician and public school music teacher, he has worked closely with children at-risk, both in the public schools and through the juvenile justice system. He is the author of Scribe 4 behavior analysis software, and his most recent books are Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction and The Habits of Musicianship, which he co-authored with Jim Byo of Louisiana State University.

Gabriel Globus-Hoenich Drumming for Social Change

Montreal native Gabriel Globus-Hoenich's career reflects a deep diversity of talent, with extensive forays in the worlds of jazz, classical music, and world music as a drummer, percussionist, composer, and teaching artist. As a drum-set player, Gabriel has performed with a multitude of jazz greats, and has been featured with the Philly Pops, Detroit Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Curtis Institute Symphony among other orchestras. Gabriel also leads the 12 piece timba band GGH and The People of Earth for whom he composes, arranges, and plays percussion. Gabriel is also one of the founders of Drumming for Social Change, an organization dedicated to researching and developing percussion based educational programming using rhythms from around the world. Gabriel works in Philadelphia schools as a teaching artist for the Philadelphia Orchestra's School Partnership Program. Gabriel is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music.

Assal Habibi Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC

Assal Habibi is a post-doctoral fellow at the Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California. Dr. Habibi completed her doctoral work at the UC Irvine Department of Cognitive Science, focusing on a study investigating the effects of long term musical training on pitch and rhythm processing by assessing brain activity during music listening in adult musicians, non-musicians and patients with auditory impairments. She is an expert in the use of electrophysiologic and neuroimaging methods to investigate human brain function. Along with Drs. Antonio and Hanna Damasio, she is currently working on a 5 year longitudinal study investigating the effects of early childhood music training on the development of brain function and structure as well as cognitive, emotional, and social development. Dr. Habibi is a classically trained pianist, and has many years of musical teaching experience with children.

Joe Hamm Program & Media Manager, Soundscapes

Joe Hamm is the Program and Media Manager and has worked to develop the program since its beginning in the Fall of 2009. As former Take A Stand YOLA Ambassador and contributing Presenter and Facilitator at the 2012 Social Action Through Music Symposium in Philadelphia, Joe has continued contributing to further the United States El Sistema movement. Most recently, Joe has Produced and Directed “Beyond The Music: Soundscapes, El Sistema and the Proven Power of Music,” a short film advocating for Soundscapes and the United States El Sistema movement. He is also chairing the National Programs Assessment Committee currently conducting the first census of El Sistema programs in the United States under the National Alliance of El Sistema Inspired Programs.

Dr. Steven John Holochwost Senior Researcher WolfBrown

Dr. Steven John Holochwost is an accomplished researcher and composer. In addition to serving as Senior Researcher with WolfBrown, Steven is a fellow of the National Science Foundation in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before coming to UNC, Steven was Associate Director of Research at the Early Learning Center and, prior to that, Senior Assistant Child Advocate with the Office of the Child Advocate for the State of New Jersey. His work with WolfBrown has centered on projects with children, including Community Music Works and the Dallas Arts Learning Initiative. Steven graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University and earned his doctorate in music while on fellowship at Rutgers University, where he studied under the tutelage of composer Charles Wuorinen, and later completed a master’s degree at the Fels Institute of Government of the University of Pennsylvania. He has received grants, awards, and fellowships from the Sudler, Manzella, Richter, and Mellon Foundations; Rutgers University; Princeton University; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of North Carolina; the Eagleton Institute; the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies; the Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture; the National Association of Composers; the Fisher Foundation; and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)

Dr. Michelle Hospital Associate Director of the Community-Based Intervention Research Group (C-BIRG); Assistant Professor of Research at FIU

Dr. Michelle Hospital has a Ph.D. in Applied Lifespan Developmental Psychology and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. She is the Associate Director of the Community-Based Intervention Research Group (C-BIRG) and an Assistant Professor of Research at Florida International University. Dr. Hospital serves as a Co-investigator for several NIH-funded randomized controlled trials investigating innovative interventions for reducing adolescent substance use problems. In collaboration with the Miami Music Project, Dr. Hospital is also currently the Principal Investigator of the Ware Foundation-funded Project TREBLE, a longitudinal study examining the impact of participation in ESMIA, an el sistema based music education program, on positive youth development. Dr. Hospital has extensive training in advanced statistical analyses. She has worked with ethnically diverse, inner city populations using research methodologies that have spanned traditional experimental studies to national surveys. Dr. Hospital is multicultural, trilingual, and has a particular interest in working with at-risk minority youth.

Belinda Jackson Executive Director, EXPO Center

Belinda Jackson has over 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector specializing in administration, organizational development, fund development, program design and building community capacity. Over the years, she has garnered respect as a preeminent visionary leader in leveraging strategic relationships to maximize organizational capacity. Ms. Jackson currently serves as Executive Director of EXPO Center, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks’ largest family recreational complex. Ms. Jackson manages an operations budget of $12-million and supervises a staff of 225 employees with oversight management of 300 community volunteers. With over 1 million participant visits annually, EXPO Center offers year-round recreational, educational and cultural programs for the entire family (all ages). The EXPO Center complex (total program space of 150,000 sq. ft.) is comprised of a state-of-the-art three-story recreation center; an Aquatic center (two pools -family & competition); computer labs; a licensed preschool center; an outdoor amphitheater, and a senior citizen center. Ms. Jackson also manages the famous Exposition Park Rose Garden (historical landmark). EXPO Center is home to YOLA @ EXPO, the first Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and one of the pioneering “El Sistema” programs established in the United States, which now has 300 neighborhood youth participating in 3 orchestras. Ms. Jackson received a B.S. degree from California State University, Los Angeles. She also received a certificate in grant writing and non-profit management from the UCLA, and a Certificate of Completion from Deloitte & Touche’s Executive Management for Non-profit CEOs program.

Elsje Kibler-Vermaas Site Director, Master of Arts in Teaching Los Angeles, Longy School of Music of Bard College

Elsje Kibler-Vermaas, a pianist and a graduate of the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands, joined Longy School of Music of Bard College in 2011 after serving as the Director of Community Engagement and Education with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra where she founded CityMusic, an El Sistema inspired orchestra program in partnership with Hartford Public Schools. Prior to that experience she spent several months abroad as a consultant with the Concertgebouw Education Department in Amsterdam, Netherlands and served as the LA Phil’s manager of school programs. Other positions she has held include education department coordinator at the J. Paul Getty Museum and assistant director at Young Artists International in Los Angeles. At Longy Elsje oversees the Master of Arts in Teaching program that was launched in 2013 in Los Angeles by Bard College, Longy School of Music and the LA Phil who together form Take a Stand, an innovative national initiative that supports social change through music.

Yutaka Kikugawa Executive Director/CEO, Friends of El Sistema Japan

Born in Kobe in 1971. BA (Honours) in Georgraphy from University College London and MA in Policy Studies from Institute of Education, University of London. Joined UNESCO as Programme Officer in Education in 1998 after working with institute for Social Engeineering, Inc. In 2000, joined UNICEF as Adolescent and Youth Development Officer in Lesotho (-2003) and HIV/AIDS Coordinator in Eritrea (-2007). Moved to Japan Committee for UNICEF to take on the responsibility of Junior 8 Summit Programme Coordinator (-2008), Manager, Group and Organizational Relation Division (-2011) and Chief Coordinator, East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency and Recovery Operation (-2012).

Ndindi Kitonga Professor, Longy School of Music of Bard College

Ndindi Kitonga (BA and MA Biola University, PhD Chapman University) was born in Nairobi, Kenya. She moved to the United States to pursue higher education. For the past thirteen years Ndindi has been teaching and designing high school science curriculum and has conducted research in areas relevant to the issues of education and social justice for homeless and immigrant youth and adults. She is specifically interested in how these underserved persons become integrated into communities in the United States, how they perceive themselves and how they develop socio-political agency. Along with her work with secondary science students, Ndindi teaches identity, culture and classroom and classroom research courses for the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Master of Arts in Teaching Program.

Emily Kubitskey Woodwind Specialist and Wind Ensemble Conductor, YOLA at HOLA

Emily is the Woodwind Specialist and Wind Ensemble Director for the LA Phil’s YOLA program. She works at the HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles) site in the Rampart District, where, as a member of the inaugural staff, she helped build the wind program and curriculum to a now 80 students from ages 8-15. At HOLA, she is also the Chamber Ensemble Director, where she has created and organized YOLA at HOLA’s top-performing ensembles, repertoire, and performance schedule. Simultaneously, Emily is a Curriculum Writer and Teaching Artist for the LA Phil’s In-School Residency Program. In this position, she has created, presented, and taught curricula that are implemented in over 15 LAUSD schools, to hundreds of teachers, and over 3,000 students. Through this work, she has been featured in a PBS Educational Documentary. Emily is also a Mentor Teacher for Longy and Bard’s Master of Arts in Teaching program where she assesses, guides, and works with Master students who have a focus on teaching in an ‘El Sistema’ Setting.

Andrea Landin Education Program Manager, New West Symphony

Andrea Shigeko Landin, Education Program Manager for the New West Symphony, is a musician, educator, and arts facilitator from Los Angeles, CA. She was a recent recipient of the Sistema Fellowship at New England Conservatory, where she explored effective music teaching practices and socially oriented curriculum, spending time at programs in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Alaska, and Venezuela. She added these experience to her prior work in community building in the Guatemala highlands with non profits Artcorps and Ecologic, where she designed and implemented projects with youth that promoted environmental conservation and the continuation of ancestral practices, using music and art as tools for social change. She has also worked with organizations such as Upward Bound and the Guatemala Human Rights Commission. Andrea holds a B.M. in Cello Performance and a B.A. in Anthropology from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music. She currently manages New West Symphony Harmony Project, which has 90 students and 6 teaching artists.

Ken MacLeod President and CEO, New Brunswick Youth Orchestra (NBYO) Ken MacLeod has been a leader in the not-for-profit sector for 25 years - as a senior

manager, volunteer, board member, and consultant. Ken is President & CEO of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra (NBYO) and has lead the development of what is today known as one of the most accomplishment youth orchestra programs in Canada. Ken is founder of NBYO’s Sistema New Brunswick program. Launched in 2009, Sistema NB offers social change and hope to vulnerable children, through music. Sistema NB now operates four Sistema NB centers in New Brunswick, serving more than 600 children daily. In a recent book, Nuts, Bolts and a Few Loose Screws, by Gair Maxwell, Ken was profiled as the ‘Virtuoso of Vision’ for his work with the NBYO and Sistema NB. Ken is founder and President of KMA Consultants, a firm specializing in fundraising and communications for non-profit organizations, serving charitable organizations throughout Canada. From 1995 - 1999 Ken served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick and he has served on numerous local, regional and national Boards and is a frequent presenter at symposia and conferences.

Marshall Marcus CEO, European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO); Founder and Chairman, Sistema Europe

European Union Youth Orchestra CEO, Sistema Europe Chair, Sistema Africa founder, Sistema England Trustee, and member of Sistema Global’s advisory board and the British Council’s Arts and Creative Economy Advisory Group. Since beginning violin in 1963 Marshall has spent much of his life in music, including in the BBC Symphony Orchestra, co-founder, CEO and Chair of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Head of Music at London’s Southbank Centre overseeing one of the world’s largest music programmes, and Venezuela as professor within El Sistema in 1979, and teaching extensively in the country, including forming a baroque orchestra at the request of Maestro Abreu. A graduate of Oxford and Cambridge universities, Associate of the Royal College of Music, in an eclectic career he performed in over 60 countries with musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle, Baaba Maal and the Moscow Soloists. Recent speaking/teaching engagements include Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela, UK and USA. His blog at marshallmarcus.wordpress.com has been accessed by more than 100 countries.

Juan Felipe Molano Artistic Director of El Sistema Salinas

Graduated with honors from the Vienna Conservatory, currently Artistic Director of El Sistema Salinas in California and for the last 6 years National Symphonic Director of Batuta Colombian National System of Youth Orchestras, he divides his musical activities between pedagogy and conducting. He became Music Director and Principal Conductor of Yucatan Symphony Orchestra in Mexico from 2003-2008, which has since become one of the Mexico’s most prestigious orchestra. European appearances include orchestras in Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway, Slovakia and Austria. Molano has led prominent orchestras in Colombia, Mexico, Brasil and the USA: YOA Orchestra of Americas, Bogota Philharmonic, Colombian National Symphony, Cali Philharmonic, Medellin Philharmonic, Jove Orquestra de la Generalitat Valenciana, Euskadi Ikasleen Orkestra, OSUANL, Morelia Symphony, Mexico Politecnico Nacional Symphony, working with artists such us: Placido Domingo, Ryu Goto, Cuarteto latinoamericano, Ilya Gringolts, among others. He is frequent presenter for El Sistema movement around the world.

Gretchen Nielsen Director of Educational Initiatives, Los Angeles Philharmonic Gretchen Nielsen (Director of Educational Initiatives) leads the LA Phil’s Education

Programming. Since 2007 Ms. Nielsen has designed, implemented, and supervised an integrated set of LA Phil education programs that reach more than 150,000 schoolchildren, teachers, families, young musicians, and concert-goers annually. In 2007, Ms. Nielsen launched YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA), Gustavo Dudamel’s signature program based on El Sistema. Since that time she has worked to expand YOLA locally, and broaden its reach nationally by helping to form the Take a Stand partnership with LA Phil, Longy School of Music and Bard College. Internationally, Ms. Nielsen is connecting the social and artistic imperatives of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by leading LA Phil education projects with the Barbican Centre in London and El Sistema in Venezuela. Ms. Nielsen is a former management fellow of the Opera America Fellowship Program, a current member of 24th Street Theatre’s Board of Directors, and a proud mentor of YOLA students.

Albert Oppenheimer Director, The People’s Music School Youth Orchestras – El Sistema Chicago

Albert Oppenheimer is the Director of The People's Music School Youth Orchestras - El Sistema Chicago, a social change initiative providing transformative orchestral experience to children throughout Chicago. A graduate of the New England Conservatory's Sistema Fellows program, Albert combines a depth of community and youth development work with his compositional background in order to collaborate with others to create programs which, through music, enhance the lives of children, families, and communities. A sought after speaker, consultant, and educator, Albert has presented at TEDxMidwest, the Midwest ECO Conference for Community Psychologists, and the Erikson Institute for Childhood Development. Albert is on the board of the National Alliance of El Sistema Inspired Programs, is a co-founder and faculty member of North Park University’s Certificate in Music for Social Change, and is proud to be a composer from Starkville, Mississippi.

Anna Pietraszko Executive Director, Miami Music Project

Anna Pietraszko is an arts executive, music educator, choral conductor and a double-bassist. She has been Executive Director of the Miami Music Project since January 2010 demonstrating exceptional energy, dedication and organizational ability. She is responsible for the organization’s consistent achievement of its mission, long-range strategy, financial objectives and operations. Additionally, she is the co‐founder of an annual Zywiec Trombone Festival, a free of charge summer music program for low brass musicians of all ages and levels in her native Poland. Anna earned her Master’s Degree in Artistic Education specializing in General Music Education and Choral Conducting from the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice (Poland), and a Graduate Certificate Degree in Double Bass Performance from the University of Southern California, receiving full scholarships from both. Most recently, Anna was awarded a grant offered by the Miami Foundation’s Miami Leaders program and attended the Developing Leaders Program at the Columbia School of Business.

Rey Ramirez Co-Founder and Program Director, Soundscapes

Reynaldo Ramirez is program director and co-founder of Soundscapes and has served within the field of music education for over 15 years. Reynaldo has held positions with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as Senior Director of Education and Community Engagement, and with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, as Director of Education and Community Engagement. Reynaldo received his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas and his Master of Music from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Paloma Ramos YOLA at EXPO Program Manager, Harmony Project

A violinist since age 3, Paloma Udovic Ramos has spent her life making music and pursuing a strong passion for social justice. Paloma received her Bachelor Arts Degree from Northwestern University in Anthropology, with a focus on Ethnomusicology and Latin American Studies. She moved to Los Angeles in 2004, where she began performing and teaching. Paloma joined Harmony Project in 2008 to oversee and manage their YOLA EXPO site. Under her direction the program has tripled in size and depth, and now includes 3 full orchestras and 300 students.

Guy Raz Host, TED Radio Hour

Guy Raz is the host of TED Radio Hour, a co-production of NPR and TED that tackles astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems and new ways to think and create. Each radio show is based on talks given by riveting speakers on the renowned TED stage, bound together by a common theme such as the thrill of space exploration, going to extremes, the source of happiness or 'when rights goes wrong' in our justice system. Currently, he is also a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University where he teaches radio reporting. Previously, Raz was weekend host of NPR News' signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Considered. Raz was named host of that program in July 2009. During his tenure, Raz transformed the sound and format of the program, introducing the now-signature "cover story" and creating the popular "Three-Minute Fiction" writing contest. Raz joined NPR in 1997 as an intern for All Things Considered and he worked his way through the ranks of the organization. His first job was the assistant to NPR's legendary news analyst Daniel Schorr. Raz then served as a general assignment reporter covering stories ranging from the early 2000 presidential primaries to a profile on the Doors' song "Light My Fire."

Antonio Rizzo Violinmaker

Antonio Rizzo, violinmaker, engineer and inventor, established his violin-making career in 1988. His approach to making instruments is both scientific and traditional in nature, using the principles of physics and the Italian influence on style, character and tone quality. Mr. Rizzo has been tutored by master violinmakers both in the United States and Italy, and presents his experience by creating instruments with tonal and artistic appeal. Musicians have characterized Antonio’s instruments as having that “Italian sound”, being clear, open, well balanced with responsive tone, and easy to play. Many of his violins, violas and cellos received premier awards from the Violin Makers Association of Arizona and Violin Society of America International Competitions. His instruments are sold in Europe and Japan, as well as in the United States.

Alvaro Rodas Founder/Executive Director, Corona Youth Music Project

Corona Youth Music Project’s founder Alvaro F. Rodas was in the leadership team that hosted the first replication of El Sistema in his native country, Guatemala in 1997. He worked as a teacher and mentor of young musicians in Guatemala until 2004. There, he also taught percussion at the National Conservatory, and was the principal percussionist at the National Symphony. His interest in leadership and administration related to El Sistema earned him a Fulbright scholarship, to complete a MA in Arts Administration at Columbia University in 2006. In 2009 he was selected as part of the inaugural class of the El Sistema Fellows at the New England Conservatory. A direct result of this fellowship was the creation of the CYMP in 2010. That year, Mr. Rodas was a consultant for the government of El Salvador to develop the plan for El Sistema in that country.

Jesse Rosen President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras

Jesse Rosen has been recognized as one of the outstanding thinkers in contemporary performing arts leadership. As president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras since July 2008, he has raised the level of debate about orchestras among the nation’s cultural, policy, and opinion leaders and among the League’s 800 member orchestras. A lifelong musician and experienced orchestra CEO, Mr. Rosen has stimulated innovation throughout his more than 10-year tenure at the League. He was instrumental in creating new programs such as Music Alive, the American Conducting Fellows, and Ford Made in America. Prior to joining the League, he served as general manager of the Seattle Symphony, executive vice president and managing director of the American Composers Orchestra in New York City, orchestra manager of the New York Philharmonic, and vice president of programs for Affiliate Artists, Inc. A trombonist, Mr. Rosen received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and pursued graduate studies at The Juilliard School.

Elaine Sandoval Alumni, Sistema Fellows Program

Born and raised in San Jose, California, Elaine Chang Sandoval graduated from Soka University of America with a B.A. in Liberal Arts/Humanities and completed her Master of Studies in Ethnomusicology at the University of Oxford. She first learned of El Sistema while an undergraduate, and has explored it in both her undergraduate and master’s theses. She is also a member of the 2012-2013 cohort of Sistema Fellows at New England Conservatory. Elaine is committed to developing ensemble-based music education programs which pursue cosmopolitanism and global citizenship. Her work is inspired by ethnomusicology and the philosophies of El Sistema, educational cosmopolitanism, and Soka education, and explores the ways in which music might contribute to a more peaceful globalizing society. She is also interested in assessment, program evaluation, applied ethnomusicology, and ethnographic methods. Elaine looks forward to beginning doctoral studies in ethnomusicology in fall of 2014.

Matt Sawaya (a.k.a. MC Matre) Teaching Artist, Street Poets

Matt is an accomplished hip-hop artist, songwriter and spoken word performer known for his socially critical and poignantly introspective lyrics. He has recorded and released four full-length albums, as well as a recent collaboration album with the Finnish Hip-Hop Artist Paleface. Matt performed live at a range of venues across the United States and beyond – he recently toured with Paleface through Northern Europe and East Africa. Matt also has extensive experience as a teacher, tutor, and mentor. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and teaches ESL to young adults at Manual Arts-Crenshaw Community School. In addition to his work with Street Poets, he has facilitated healing poetry circles for Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles and at UNICOM Auxiliary School House in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He currently co-facilitates a hip-hop & African drumming workshop with Street Poets at Camp Fred Miller, as well as the weekly Beats & Rhymes community workshop at the Street Poets recording studio.

Nikki Shorts String Specialist and Children’s Orchestra Conductor, YOLA at HOLA

Nikki is a freelance performer and teacher throughout Southern California who believes in making music available to all people, especially within underserved communities. She is a member of the Kroma Quartet and has performed with the Southeast Symphony, Camarata of Los Angeles, Marina del Rey Symphony, Culver City Symphony, Santa Monica Symphony, and Downey Symphony. She also performs with MESTO (Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra) which is known for its performance of orchestral transcriptions of traditional Middle Eastern music. Nikki is also a recording artist, including pop artists Tyrone Wells, Rihanna, and the Trans Siberian Orchestra. As a teacher, she works as a curriculum writer and teaching artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s School Partners Programs and the LA Philhc’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program. At YOLA at HOLA in LA’s Rampart district, Ms. Shorts is the Lead Strings Teacher and conductor of the HOLA Children's Orchestra. She is also a mentor teacher for the Longy/Bard Master of Arts in Teaching program. Nikki Shorts received her Master’s in Viola Performance from Northwestern University in 2007, and her BM in Viola Performance from California State University Long Beach in 2004.

Rebecca Sigel YOLA Coordinator, Los Angeles Philharmonic

With a background in music and outdoor education, Rebecca is committed to comprehensive approaches to community building and student leadership development. While working towards a B.A. in Music (Ethnomusicology) at Brown University, Rebecca worked with linguistic anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath as a researcher and participant/observer with youth-based arts programs, while also coordinating seminar retreats for young people engaged in upstart social entrepreneurship initiatives. Experience with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) led Rebecca to years spent as a campcraft counselor, backpacking tripleader, and ski instructor. In 2012, Rebecca came to Los Angeles to serve as the LA Phil’s YOLA Coordinator. With YOLA, she produces large-scale events, organizes evaluation efforts, and designed this year’s Leadership Forum for Young Musicians.

George Simpson Principal of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts

As the longest serving principal in the history of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), award-winning principal George E. Simpson brings nearly two decades of leadership in education and the arts. Under Mr. Simpson’s leadership LACHSA has continued to heighten its local, state, national, and international profile. In 2013, LACHSA was named “best public high school” in Los Angeles by Newsweek Magazine as LACHSA continues to send more than 95% or its graduates to college. Prior to joining LACHSA in 2008, he served as director of the Roland Hayes School of Music, a public high school with a focus on music. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Simpson was a founding faculty member of the award-winning Boston Arts Academy (BAA), Boston's first and only high school for the visual and performing arts, where he was a faculty member and chair of the Department of Music. Mr. Simpson’s work at BAA led to the inception of the Berklee College of Music Preparatory School in 2000 and served as its founding director for eight years. A native of Toronto, Canada, Mr. Simpson has earned separate degrees in music and education from the University of Western Ontario and a Master’s degree from Boston University with additional studies at Northeastern University and Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

Dalouge Smith President and CEO, San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory

Dalouge Smith is in his 10th season leading San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory. He has overseen development of SDYS’ vision to “make music education accessible and affordable for all students.” In pursuit of this vision, Dalouge has transformed SDYS into a community instigator for restoring and strengthening music education in schools. SDYS has expanded its work beyond music programs to include measurement, partnerships, community awareness, and community action. Along with using its flagship orchestras and ensembles in pursuit of its vision, in 2010 SDYS launched its first community music program inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema. In early 2013, SDYS’ school district partner, Chula Vista Elementary School District, announced its commitment to return music education to all 45 of its campuses and all 29,000 of its students. At the beginning of 2014, the District was one of only two districts nationwide to become a new VH1 Save the Music Foundation grantee.

Dan Trahey Artistic Director, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids

Dan Trahey is a musician, educator, and innovator. He was instrumental in the creation of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s “OrchKids” where he is Artistic Director. Dan also founded the El Sistema inspired program “Tuned In” at the Peabody Conservatory where he teaches creative composition and community engagement. Dan plays Tuba for the Archipelago Project and has performed worldwide for hundreds of thousands of children, specifically targeting impoverished areas with little access to live performance. He has held orchestral positions in Mexico and the U.S. Dan’s work is documented by media outlets such as 60 Minutes, PBS, NPR, The N.Y. Times, and The Washington Post. He recently gave a TED talk at TEDX Baltimore and was named the Most Valuable Player in the Arts by Baltimore Magazine. Dan has taught at Baltimore School for the Arts, Idyllwild Arts, and UMBC where he teaches Music Entrepreneurship. Dan is a consultant for programs desiring to use music as a vehicle for social change. In addition to founding two El Sistema programs in Baltimore, Dan has helped start El Sistema inspired programs in Charlotte, Chicago, Ft.Worth, Innsbruck, Allentown, Waterbury, Alexandria, Kalamazoo, and others. He received a M.M. from Yale and a B.M.E from Peabody.

Tricia Tunstall Independent Writer, Speaker, Music Educator

Tricia Tunstall is the author of Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music (W.W. Norton, 2012), which won ASCAP’s 2013 Deems Taylor Award. A leading speaker, writer and consultant in the field of El Sistema and music education for social change, she is an advocate for the El Sistema vision in forums including London’s Southbank Centre, Tokyo’s El Sistema symposium, Berkeley’s Cal Performances, the Los Angeles ALOUD program, and Carnegie Hall’s Academy Program. Tunstall is currently working on a new book about the international El Sistema movement, to be co-authored with Eric Booth (W.W. Norton, projected publication fall 2015). Tunstall is also the author of a musical memoir, Note By Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson (Simon & Schuster, 2008), and maintains a very active piano studio in the New York metropolitan area.

Kathleen Turner Community Engagement Manager, Irish Chamber Orchestra

Kathleen Turner is a singer, song writer and community musician. She is the Community Engagement Manager for the Irish Chamber Orchestra, where she designs and delivers a range of projects that bring music making into the classroom and community. The largest of these is Sing Out with Strings, which provides singing, song writing and instrumental tuition for over 300 children across Limerick City.Kathleen is also a vocal tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. She holds two Masters Degrees in Community Music and Ritual Chant and Song.

Mayda Del Valle Teaching Artist, Street Poets

Mayda Del Valle is a writer/poet/spoken-word performer and a proud native of the South Side of Chicago. She has appeared on 6 episodes of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO and was a contributing writer and original cast member of the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. She also toured with Norman Lear’s “Declare Yourself” Spoken Word Tour, a non-profit, non-partisan project created to encourage young voter registration for the 2004 presidential elections. She has appeared in Urban Latino, Latina Magazine, Mass Appeal, The Source, and The New York Times. Smithsonian Magazine chose her as one of “America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences” and Oprah’s O Magazine named her as one of 20 women for the first ever “O Power List.” In May of 2009 she was invited to perform at The White House for the President and First Lady. Mayda has been serving as a Street Poets Teaching Artist for the past three years, and is currently pursuing an MFA at Cal/Arts.

Christine Witkowski YOLA at HOLA Program Director and Music Director, Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA)

As the YOLA at HOLA and Music Director at the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Christine Witkowski is dedicated to providing El Sistema inspired music programming to children and families in the Rampart District of LA. The El Sistema journey began for Christine in 2009, when she was chosen as one of ten fellows to participate in the inaugural “Sistema Fellows Program” at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As a Fellow, Christine studied the El Sistema movement in the United States and Venezuela. She is now a member of the ever-expanding network of El Sistema leaders in the US, mentoring other programs and teachers while continuing to adapt and implement best practices from the movement to the particular needs and strengths of the HOLA community. Christine Witkowski is a horn player and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University in Evanston IL and a Master of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal, QC. Christine also holds a Certification in Community Counseling from the Southern California Center.

Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf Principal, WolfBrown

Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf trained as a researcher at Harvard Project Zero, where she led studies on the early development of artistic and symbolic capacities. She directed Project PACE (Projects in Active Cultural Engagement) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an organization that focused on children and youth as vital, but often ignored, forces in cultural planning. More recently, she has pioneered evaluation studies that build the capacities of organizations, funders, and the communities they serve, co-authoring More Than Measuring, a longitudinal study of the effects of arts-based learning, sponsored by Big Thought, a 50-organization consortium in Dallas. Wolf has published widely on issues of assessment, evaluation, artistic, and imaginative development. At the heart of her work is a commitment to increasing children and youth’s access to learning featuring inquiry, innovation, and imagination both in and out of school.

Sara Zanussi Founding Director, ComMUSICation

Sara is currently the Founding Director of ComMUSICation, a youth development choral Sistema-inspired program in St. Paul, MN. She was recently selected to participate in St. Paul Youth Academy’s Ambassadors Program that provides adults the skills, knowledge, and motivation to more effectively engage youth in their community. Recently graduated as a Sistema fellow, Sara assisted in teaching with Boston Children’s Chorus and coached youth choruses during her residency in Venezuela. Previously, she was an Umoja Music School fellow and assistant program coordinator in Tanzania where she taught voice and piano and facilitated elementary music classes at international and Tanzanian schools. She also taught and accompanied for 10+ years with her business, Z’s Keys, winning two entrepreneurial awards for her Skype lessons program. She has extensive youth development leadership experience through camp counseling, leading backpack trips to youth from all backgrounds. Sara Zanussi has a B.A. in Music from Luther College.

Karen Zorn President, Longy School of Music of Bard College

Karen Zorn has been President of Longy School of Music of Bard College since 2007 and a Vice President of Bard College since 2012. In the 7 years since her arrival, Zorn has led Longy through a process of radical change unprecedented in its nearly 100-year history. A fearless educational entrepreneur, she has balanced the budget, boosted enrollment, executed a merger with Bard College and established partnerships with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and FundaMusical of Venezuela (El Sistema) to launch innovative programs of study and community engagement. These include the recently launched Take a Stand program and new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Music program, based in Los Angeles as well as initiatives that embed Longy Conservatory students as teaching assistants in public schools, community centers, prisons, shelters and other external venues where the traditions of music education can contribute to public life. Zorn is herself a classically trained musician, having been educated as a pianist in the United States and Germany. Prior to her tenure at Longy, Zorn served as Associate Provost at Berklee College of Music Acting Director and Director of Instruction at MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. She has taught as a member of the faculties of Berklee, MacPhail, and the University of Missouri, Kansas City.