Performing Arts Alliance
Board of Directors
Roche Schulfer, Chair
The Goodman Theatre
Chicago, IL
ROCHE EDWARD SCHULFER (Goodman Theatre Executive Director) is celebrating his 25th season in his current position at the Goodman Theatre. During that time he has supervised over 300 productions and over 100 world or American premieres. Mr. Schulfer inaugurated the Goodman's annual production of A Christmas Carol, which has become a Chicago holiday tradition for the past 27 seasons. During his tenure with the Goodman, the theater has received numerous local and national awards for excellence, including Tony Awards for Death of a Salesman, Long Day's Journey Into Night and the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater. In 2003, Time Magazine named the Goodman Theatre the Best Regional Theater in the U.S. Mr. Schulfer has arranged for the presentation of numerous Goodman productions in New York and many other cities including Los Angeles, London, Dublin and Paris. He was responsible for supervising the development and construction of the new Goodman Theatre facility. Mr. Schulfer has served as the chair of the American Arts Alliance, the national advocacy organization for theater, dance, opera and presenting companies and the Illinois Arts Alliance, the statewide arts advocacy coalition. He continues to be a board member of both organizations. He has also served in leadership positions with Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for not-for-profit theaters and the League of Resident Theatres, the management association for major regional theaters. Mr. Schulfer is a founder and current chairman of the League of Chicago Theatres. He is a member of the Lifeline Theatre board of trustees, the Chicago Central Area Committee and served for eight years as a member of the Illinois Arts Council. He has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs. Mr. Schulfer has been recognized for his work by the City of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago magazine, Crain’s Chicago Business, the Illinois Arts Alliance, the Arts and Business Council, the League of Chicago Theatres, the American Arts Alliance, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Columbia College and the Chicago Jaycees. He consults with many arts organizations and has lectured at numerous colleges and universities. He currently teaches at the De Paul Theatre School. Mr. Schulfer is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and was the chairman of its cultural arts commission.
Jesse Rosen, Vice-Chair
League of American Orchestras
New York, NY
JESSE ROSEN assumed the position of President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras in July, 2008. In his previous position as the League's executive vice president and managing director, he oversaw the creation of the League's current Strategic Plan, all major programs and services and was instrumental in creating new programs such as Much Alive, the American Conducting Fellows, and Ford Made in America. Prior to joining the League's administrative staff in 1998 he was 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., where he developed and launched the Seaver Conducting Award and managed the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program. A trombonist, Rosen received his bachelor's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and pursued graduate studies at The Juilliard School.
Marc Scorca, Treasurer
OPERA America
New York, NY
MARC A. SCORCA joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Under his leadership, OPERA America administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences. Based on their success, OPERA America launched a $20 million endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. At the same time, Scorca has supervised the introduction and expansion of numerous core programs. Since 1990, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 3,000 organizations and individuals. Affiliated offices have been established in Toronto (Opera.ca) and Strasbourg, France (Opera Europa). Through OPERA America Online, educational programs and a bi-weekly news bulletin reach 12,000 subscribers. Scorca has led strategic planning retreats for opera companies and other cultural institutions across the country, and he has participated on panels for federal, state, and local funding agencies, as well as for numerous private organizations. He appears frequently in the media on a variety of cultural issues. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has coordinated the Performing Arts Research Coalition and The First National Performing Arts Convention. Scorca is a member of the Performing Arts Alliance Board of Directors, serves on the Performing Arts Advisory Committee of the Salzburg Seminar, is a Fellow of the Center for Business Innovation in Cambridge, and was recently appointed an adjunct professor at Showa University in Japan. He is a graduate of Amherst College where he earned degrees, magna cum laude, in both history and music.
Updated March 2005
Sandra L. Gibson , Secretary
Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Washington, DC
SANDRA L. GIBSON has served as the President & CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters) since July 2000 and has been instrumental in positioning the association as a leader in advancing the profession of performing arts presenting. Gibson spearheaded the first nationwide field survey for the performing arts presenting in 2001 with the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Gibson’s 27 years of experience in arts programming, presenting and arts management began with her role as program representative for the Department of the Arts at UCLA Extension and continued with her tenure at the American Film Institute (AFI), where she held a number of senior level positions, including director, Independent Filmmaker Program and Distribution. Prior to joining Arts Presenters, Gibson was Executive Director of Public Corporation for the Arts, the Long Beach Regional Arts Council and Executive Vice President and COO for Americans for the Arts. Gibson holds a B.M.E. in Music Education/Instrumental Music from Wittenberg University, an M.M. in Music History from Northwestern University and has completed coursework for the PhD in ethnomusicology at UCLA.
Updated March 2005
Ann Meier Baker
Chorus America
Washington, DC
ANN MEIER BAKER is President and Chief Executive Officer of Chorus America. Her career has included more than 20 years experience in the arts and in education, with emphasis on nonprofit management, governance, fundraising, and organization development. Prior to joining the Chorus America staff in June 2000, she was the Founding Director of the National School Boards Foundation. In starting the organization from the ground up, she raised more than $2 million in financial support; cultivated a distinguished Board of Trustees; forged new partnerships; and developed and disseminated new approaches for school boards across the country. Prior to her work with the Foundation, Ms. Meier Baker spent seven years as the Director of Trustee Services at the American Symphony Orchestra League where she published books and led dozens of board retreats that focused on board roles, board organization and committee structure, fundraising, and strategic planning. Her other professional positions include Director of Marketing of the Music Educators National Conference and Member of the United States Air Force Singing Sergeants. She earned her undergraduate degree from The Catholic University of America, has done graduate studies in business management at The American University, and completed course work at The Fund Raising School at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.
Joanne Hubbard Cossa
American Music Center
New York, NY
JOANNE HUBBARD COSSA, Chief Executive Officer of the American Music Center, studied English, theater and music at Syracuse University and Hunter College. She worked briefly as an actress and singer before entering arts administration in the early 1970s. Joanne spent 15 years at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, rising through the ranks to become Development Director and later Executive Director for seven years. She first became interested in the work of living composers at the Society, and more than 40 new works were commissioned during her years there. Following her departure from the Chamber Music Society, she spent 15 years as Executive Vice President of Symphony Space, a multi-disciplinary performing arts center in New York. Among programs in music, dance, literature, theater and film, Symphony Space commissioned joint works from composers and choreographers for its Face the Music and Dance series. Joanne spent two seasons as General Director of Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY, before returning to New York City to join the staff of American Music Center. Under her leadership, the Center has launched several major new initiatives including Counterstream Radio. Joanne sings alto with the New Amsterdam Singers.
Kathy Evans
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
New York, NY
KATHY EVANS joined the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in 2002 and oversees NAMT programs including membership, new works, two conferences a year, and the annual Festival of New Musicals. Under her leadership, NAMT’s membership has grown to include 148 of the leading organizations in the country producing professional musical theatre. Kathy introduced NAMT’s first re-granting program, the Producer Writer Initiative, which subsidizes a musical theatre writing team’s residency at a NAMT member theatre. The Festival of New Musicals, founded in 1989, has introduced two hundred new musicals and three hundred writers to producers from throughout the world. Of the thirty-two shows selected for the Festival since 2003, twenty-one have had world premieres or further development as a direct result of their participation in the Festival. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE appeared in the 2004 Festival of New Musicals, opened on Broadway May 2006, won five Tony Awards, and was named “Best Musical” by the Drama Desk Awards, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and the L.A. Ovation awards. Prior to entering the not-for-profit world, Kathy was an Executive Director at Scholastic Entertainment, where she was responsible for worldwide video distribution as well as production of the Webby award-winning web site for Scholastic’s TV programs. Kathy launched several best-selling videos, including Clifford The Big Red Dog – a #1 rated TV show on PBS. Kathy also has extensive media marketing and management experience in both large corporations and entrepreneurial companies. She worked at Sony Pictures for five years and became Director of Programming and Promotion in the International Video Division during a period when revenues increased four-fold to $350 million. Kathy began her career at Kraft Foods in the Maxwell House Coffee Division. Kathy received an MBA at Columbia University and a BA at Harvard College.
Updated April 2007
Teresa Eyring
Theatre Communications Group (TCG)
New York, NY
TERESA EYRING joined Theatre Communications Group (TCG) as executive director in March 2007. Prior to joining TCG, Ms. Eyring served as managing director of the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis, recipient of the 2003 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. At CTC, Eyring oversaw a $30 million capital campaign leading to the construction of a 45,000 square foot building expansion, as well as the introduction of new programming. She headed contract negotiations with Actors Equity Association, IATSE local 13 and the Twin Cities Musicians Union; she handled numerous new play agreements, and facilitated the transfer of A Year with Frog and Toad to New York in 2003.
Eyring began her theatre career as director of development for the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C. (1983-86). Eyring completed an MFA at the Yale School of Drama in1989. She was assistant executive director of the Guthrie Theater (1989-1994) and managing director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia (1994-99), where she spearheaded completion of an $8 million capital campaign and oversaw the construction and transition to a new 24,000 square foot theater facility on Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts.
Eyring was named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the area’s 40 under 40 rising business leaders in 1998 and a ‘Woman to Watch” by the Twin Cities Business Journal in July 2005. Eyring’s past affiliations include service as chairwoman of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, board member of WYBE-TV, executive committee member of the League of Resident Theaters; board member and Treasurer of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts; board member of Intermedia Arts, and board member of Ten Thousand Things Theater Company. Eyring holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
Updated November 2007
Adam Forest Huttler
Fractured Atlas
New York, NY
ADAM FOREST HUTTLER is Fractured Atlas's founder and Executive Director. He has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.B.A. from New York City. Since forming Fractured Atlas in 1998, he has grown the organization from a one-man-band housed in an East Harlem studio apartment to a broad-based national service organization with an annual budget of $4.5 million. These days Adam is mainly responsible for Fractured Atlas's organizational leadership and strategy. He also manages the company's growing advocacy work, along with the design and implementation of its information technology systems. Outside of Fractured Atlas, Adam serves on the Board of Directors for Misnomer Dance and is an enthusiastic organic gardener.
Abel Lopez
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Washington, DC
ABEL LOPEZ, associate producing director of GALA Hispanic Theatre, is the president of the boards of directors of the Non-Traditional Casting Project and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and chair-emeritus of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Lopez is also a member of the boards of directors of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (secretary), Washington Theatre Society (vice president), Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (vice president), Association of Theatre for Children and Young People/USA, The Association of American cultures (vice president), Maru Montero Dance Company and Washington AIDS Partnership. He is a member of the Kennedy Center Community Advisory Board & Friends, Latino Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Institution Museum of American History, Board of Advisors of the Dance Exchange and Playwrights Forum, a member of the ArtAmerica Committee of the Washington Performing Arts Society, and the Advisory Committee for Open Studio of the Benton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Productions he has directed have appeared at GALA, Horizons Theatre, DC Arts Center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Source Theatre and the In Series in Washington, DC, the Public Theatre in New York, Jomandi Productions in Atlanta, the James Knight Center in Miami, Theatre on the Water in San Francisco, the Teatro Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Teatro Nacional in San Salvador, El Salvador, Teatro San Martin in Carcacas, Venezuela and the National Theatre of Cuba. His production of The Pearl for the Kennedy Center toured throughout the United States. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Lopez is also a producer and frequent lecturer. He has appeared before the American Critics Association, American Bar Association, National Theatre Conference, National Association of Artists Organization, North Carolina Theatre Conference, National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies, Yale University, Harvard Law School, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Arts and Business Council, and others. Lopez has been an evaluator for the Professional Companies Theatre Program of the NEA, has served as panelist for the Theatre, Opera/Musical Theatre, Expansion Arts, Challenge, and Partnership programs of the NEA, and was a panelist for the Pennsylvania Arts on Tour Program, Colorado Arts Council, Prince George Arts Council, Association of Arts Presenters, and the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies.
Updated April 2005
Colleen Porter
PlayhouseSquare
Cleveland, OH
COLLEEN PORTER has been the Director of Community Engagement and Education at PlayhouseSquare since 2002. Porter is responsible for programming PlayhouseSquare's school and family performance series, artist residencies and community arts events. Through her work with local, national and international arts organizations, PlayhouseSquare annually provides programming for more than 150,000 participants. She brought the International Showcase of Performing Arts for Youth to Cleveland in 2005 and has orchestrated the event's return to the city in 2007 and 2009.
Colleen was instrumental in the development of the Idea Center at PlayhouseSquare, the $42 million renovation of an historic building in downtown Cleveland's theater district into the headquarters for Cleveland's public broadcasting stations and the home for PlayhouseSquare's arts education programs. Through the one-of-a-kind partnership between PlayhouseSquare and WVIZ/PBS & 90.3 WCPN idea stream, Colleen develops innovative new programming including BackStage With and the Careers in the Performing Arts distance learning series.
Prior to her arrival at PlayhouseSquare, Colleen spent seventeen years in Buffalo, New York as an artist, faculty member at Canisius College and Chair of the Performing Arts Department at The Nichols School. Colleen is Vice President of Programming and Selection Committee chair for International Performing Arts for Youth. She serves on the boards of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, National Education Directors of Performing Arts Centers, The Lit and The Bureau of Cultural Arts Advocacy Board.
Cookie Ruiz
Ballet Austin
Austin, TX
COOKIE RUIZ has more than 20 years experience in the areas of strategic planning, program development and non-profit fund-raising/management, which includes work with the United Way and the American Red Cross. In 2002 she was awarded the professional designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (C.F.R.E.) by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Her community honors include the American Red Cross “Clara Barton Medal of Honor,” Volunteer of the Year for the Austin Independent School District, the Lone Star Girl Scout Council “Women of Distinction” award, Austin Business Journal’s “2005 Profiles in Power” award and is a former President of the Junior League of Austin. As a 1995 graduate of Leadership Austin, Ms. Ruiz co-founded the diversity/principle-based curriculum for the Teen Leadership Austin program and was a member of the Board of Directors of Leadership Austin for four years. Additionally, Ms. Ruiz provided the research and development for the nationally recognized Junior League of Austin Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program, as well as three other nationally replicated social service programs.
She has served as a speaker, facilitator and presenter for a variety of leadership conferences, including the National Conference on Community Leadership, the 2004 National Performing Arts Conference and has been a keynote speaker for the Texas Commission on the Arts. Ms. Ruiz is currently on the Executive Committee of the national Board of Trustees of Dance/USA, the national Board of Directors of American Arts Alliance, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Board of the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Board of Directors of KMFA, the Board of Governors of KVUE’s “5 Kids Who Care” awards program, Chair of Austin’s Performing Arts Research Coalition, and is a community advisor to the Young Women’s Alliance (YWA). In 1996 Ms. Ruiz joined the staff of Ballet Austin as development director, became general manager in 1997 and executive director in 1999.
Updated January 2006
Andrea Snyder
Dance/USA
Washington, DC
ANDREA SNYDER joined Dance/USA as president and executive director in February 2000, and brought with her The Pew Charitable Trusts’ grant program, the National Initiative to Preserve America's Dance (NIPAD), for which she was director since 1993. Snyder served as assistant director of the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Program from 1987 to 1993. Previously, she was a booking agent for Sheldon Soffer Management, where she was instrumental in adding Ballet Rambert, Pilar Rioja and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to the Artists Roster; executive director of Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians; administrator of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department under the leadership of Stuart Hodes and then Larry Rhodes; associate administrator for the Cunningham Dance Foundation and responsible for its annual solicitation as well as domestic booking; and assistant to director Muriel Topaz of the Dance Notation Bureau. Snyder is a member of the 2005 inaugural Dance Magazine Board of Advisors and serves on the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Alliance. She has served on grant panels for state arts councils in Maryland, North Carolina and Rhode Island, as well as for Arts International, the Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; she served as a judge for the national American College Dance Festival awards. Snyder has been moderator of The John F. Kennedy Center’s America Dancing Series’ post-performance artist/audience discussions since 1995. In 2001, she received the Congress on Research in Dance Award for outstanding service to dance research. She has been a dancer and technique teacher, and adjunct professor in arts administration at The American University. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The American University and a master’s degree in arts management from NYU.
Updated March 2005
Albert K. Webster
New York, NY
NICK WEBSTER'S involvement with the Harvard Glee Club as singer, manager and postgraduate manager of a nine week tour to the Far East in 1961 led to study with the famed French pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger, and to a career in orchestra administration which concluded with 15 years as CEO of the New York Philharmonic from 1975 to 1990. He worked closely with Music Directors Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta and Kurt Masur. He also served for five years as General Manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra during the Music Directorship of Thomas Schippers. An independent arts consultant since 1991, his clients have included numerous orchestras, associations and nonprofit institutions. He is a director of the American Composers Orchestra, American Music Center, American Symphony Orchestra League, Center for Creative Resources, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Harvard Glee Club Foundation, New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and the New Hampshire Music Festival. He and his wife, Sally, a Professor of Art History at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, live in New York City on Manhattan's upper West Side.
Updated April 2005
MK Wegmann
National Performance Network
New Orleans, LA
MK WEGMANN, President & CEO, National Performance Network, has 25 years experience in organizational development, artists' services, presenting and producing for non-profit visual and performing arts organizations. NPN supports the creation and touring of contemporary performing and visual arts, providing an important organizing link among communities, artists and presenters in the US. As an independent consultant, she works with organizations and individual artists in long-range planning, organizational development and systems management. Clients have included Alabama Dance Council, JumpStart Performance Co., Southern Danceworks, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Young Aspirations/Young Artists (Ya/Ya). From 1978-1991 she was Associate Director for the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, a $1.2 million, multi-disciplinary artists' organization, and from 1993-1999 served as Managing Director of the theatre company Junebug Productions. She has served on and chaired panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Louisiana Division for the Arts, The Kentucky Arts Commission and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston. Wegmann serves on Boards of Directors for National Performance Network and Junebug Productions. Current committee work includes the Dance Working Group and the National Performing Arts Convention. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spring Hill College and a Master of Arts degree from Louisiana State University of New Orleans (LSUNO). As a life long resident of New Orleans, Wegmann is active in its recovery efforts.
John Wehrle
Opera Omaha
Omaha, NE
JOHN WEHRLE is General Director of Opera Omaha. Opera Omaha began in 1958 as the Omaha Civic Society, an all-volunteer community opera association. In 2007-2008, Opera Omaha will commemorate its 50 anniversary and has expanded its community programs to reach approximately 11,000 individuals via school and community performances throughout Nebraska, and surrounding states.
Mr. Wehrle comes to Omaha from Chattanooga where he was Executive Director for the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. Prior to his time in Chattanooga, Mr. Wehrle was recruited by Utah Opera where he held the position of Music Administrator and Director of the Ensemble Young Artists’ Program. During his tenure, Mr. Wehrle created the young artists’ program, auditioned and recruited singers, created curriculum, and hired appropriate faculty. Before moving to Utah, he worked as Artistic Assistant at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and as Company Manager for Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. At the Pittsburgh Symphony, in addition to his principal responsibilities, Mr. Wehrle taught singing and worked as a voice
clinician, presented classes about opera, and sang in operas and concerts. He received his
Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University and his Bachelor of Music from the
University of Missouri-Columbia.
Updated March 2008 |
