Our Team
About
the Executive Director
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Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Fiona Chatwin completed a
Doctorate of Musical Arts from UCSD with a view to a joint career as both teacher
and performer. With eighteen years experience as a teacher of voice both here
in San Diego and in Melbourne Australia (where she is from), Dr. Chatwin has
worked with students of all ages, backgrounds and vocal disciplines. As well as teaching, Dr. Chatwin has also dedicated a large portion
of the past six years to the founding and developing of Villa Musica –
San Diego’s Community Music Center. Balancing the roles of educator and administrator, she has
embraced the entrepreneurial challenges that have been placed before her and
has guided the organization through significant growth in spite of the
difficult economy. It is with a steady and unyielding focus that she maintains
Villa Musica’s mission in her sights as she navigates the difficult terrain
of the non-profit Arts organization of the 21st century. |
Receptionist/Student
Liaison
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Claudette Santiago
is excited to join the Villa Musica
Team as a receptionist and student liaison for this wonderful music
community. She received her B.A.
in Theater Arts from the University of California in Santa Cruz, where she
served as an actor, director, and tech crew member in Rainbow Theatre, a
theatre troupe that promotes cultural diversity and awareness through the
performing arts. She was also a
member of Isang Himig, the a cappella choir of UCSC’s Filipino Student
Association. Back in her
hometown of San Diego, she has performed in productions at the Community
Actors’ Theatre in Oak Park and in the 2010 North Park Playwrights
Festival. If you see her, please
say hi =) |
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Board of
Directors
Carolyn
McClain has
over 30 years of experience in marketing, strategic planning, executive
communications and software engineering. In 2005, she retired from Sun
Microsystems to pursue her passions for travel, learning, and music. As a Sun
Microsystems executive, she held roles in systems marketing, strategic business
planning, and software engineering. She was integral to the success of the
multibillion dollar high end server business at Sun. Prior to Sun, she held
product marketing positions at Cray Research Business Systems, Floating Point
Systems, and TeleSoft. She was a also member of San Diego’s pioneering graphics
software company, ISSCO and did a stint as a marketing consultant. She thrives
on new challenges; many of her positions were “intrapreneur” projects, starting
new business lines, such as taking Sun into the difficult mainframe
marketplace, or guiding Cray Research into the smaller systems markets.
Carolyn
earned her B.A. in Economics from UCSD, and attended the Graduate School of
Business at CSU San Diego.
Peter
Gourevitch, Founding Dean and Professor, Graduate School of International
Relations and Pacific Studies and Professor Political Science, University of
California, San Diego, has been a professor at UCSD since 1979. He is an
extraordinary educator and his academic writings have been published all over
the world. Recently Mr. Gourevitch was awarded the Russell Sage Foundation
Scholar award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to spend 2005-06
academic year living and researching in New York City. Mr. Gourevitch is also a
passionate amateur singer and sings with the La Jolla Symphony Chorus, San
Diego Master Chorale and (when in New York) the Carnegie Hall Chorus.
Kay-Marie
Johns Moreno has spent her whole life in music - from church choirs, playing
and recording in her own local band to performing in professional choirs. For
the past 10 years, she has been an active member of the San Diego Master
Chorale and is often on stage with the San Diego Symphony performing with their
chamber group. She is also an Assistant Music Director for a church in
Mission Hills. Kay-Marie has had the pleasure in performing on several
occasions with Peter Gourevitch.
Professionally, Kay-Marie has worked as and administrative professional for UC
San Diego for almost 14 years. She has worked for both the School of
International Relations and Pacific Studies as well as Scripps Institution of
Oceanography. She has extensive experience in Executive Administrative
Assistance, International Relations, External Relations, and Executive Board
management. In addition, she has advanced project management, with an emphasis
on organization, attention to detail, and strong analytical and problem solving
skills, complimented by strong leadership skills.
Kay-Marie is married and has two great girls who share her passion and love for
music and the arts.
John
Santuccio has served in various administrative positions in the classical
music field. He started as Director of Development at the Eastman School of
Music in Rochester NY, and then became the school’s Assistant Director for
Administration, in charge of all non-academic departments. He established an
extensive commercial recording program producing over 50 discs of Eastman
faculty and student ensembles for major record companies, and won a Grammy
Award for production of Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” with William Warfield.
Santuccio
left Eastman to become President of G. Schirmer & Co., classical music
publishers. Following that he became a symphony orchestra manager, first as the
Orchestra Manager of the New York Philharmonic, and subsequently as Executive
Director of symphony orchestras in Syracuse, Charlotte, and most recently the
San Diego Chamber Orchestra.
Mr.
Santuccio holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Music from Ohio Wesleyan
University, and M.B.A. from Columbia University, and an honorary Doctor of Fine
Arts degree from California State University, San Marcos.
Steven
Schwarz has
been a music lover from an early age. One of his first memories is pestering
his parents for a piano so that he could learn to play. He began playing the
piano at age seven, when his parents bought a modest upright, later replaced by
his beloved Steinway Model B. Serious study began in adolescence, as a pupil of
Randolph Hokanson in Seattle, Leah Effenbach in Los Angeles, and Nathan
Schwartz during his undergraduate years at Stanford. In graduate school at the
University of Chicago he began stealing time for composition from his pursuit
of a doctorate in mathematical logic. Throughout his teaching career at Tufts
University and his subsequent career as a software engineer in the California
high tech industry, he has continued to compose for and play the piano. In
recent years, he has begun serious exploration of the extensive chamber music
repertoire at workshops and festivals and with friends. He had such a great
experience performing at the Alpen Kammer Musik Chamber Music Festival in
Liesing, Austria in Summer, 2009 that he is going back in Summer, 2010. From
Fall, 2010, he will be a graduate student (again!) at SDSU, pursuing his Master
of Music degree in Piano Performance.
Linnea
Searle has
a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and an MBA from the University of
California at Berkeley. She has
worked both in the non-profit and for-profit sectors, most recently as a
product marketer for Nestle USA in Glendale and as an independent marketing
consultant. She has extensive
overseas experience, having lived and worked in Asia and Europe, as well as Africa
where she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon. She has studied flute,
piano and voice and has been a member of several close harmony vocal
ensembles. In addition to music,
she has an abiding passion for languages and has studied Mandarin Chinese,
French, German, Spanish and West African Pidgin English.
Kathleen
Sliter
is
a consultant specializing in non-profit development. She has a background in
finance and has worked with universities and community organizations in the
areas of fundraising, board development, and strategic planning for over 10
years. Kathleen is a native San Diegan and passionate about access to the arts
and arts education. She holds a BA from Stanford University and is currently
studying piano at Villa Musica in an effort to keep up with her violinist son.
Jane Wolgemuth
(Board Chair) started her love of music at age 4, with piano lessons taught by
her mother. She put this wonderful
knowledge to good use, singing with school choruses throughout her secondary
and college years (University of California at Santa Cruz, BA in History; and
University of Sussex, England, MA in International Relations). With twenty-two years at Union Bank,
Jane has an abiding interest in non-profit organizations in general and the
arts in particular. She is a not only a recent addition to the Board, she is
also a new Alto II with the Villa Musica Singers!
Advisory
Board
Charles
Curtis – Bio to come
Kellie
Evans-O'Connor is Director of SDSU Opera Theater at SDSU School of Music &
Dance and on Education staff at San Diego Opera where she is
Director/Coordinator of Opera for kids...by kids. A former director for the San
Diego Opera Touring Ensemble, she has numerous other credits as a singer, stage
director, and producer, and is author of multiple award-winning opera education
programs.
Debra Marsh Lichtenstein comes to our
organization with over 30 years diverse local business experience in the legal,
corporate, accounting, real estate and marketing arenas. She earned her BBA in
Accounting from University of San Diego in 1989. Beginning in the early 1970’s,
she became a Legal Secretary in Probate & Trust practices. In the 80’s, she
was a Corporate Administrator in the Leases & Titles and Controller’s
Departments at Foodmaker Inc., headquarters for “Jack in the Box” restaurants. Post
undergrad, she became a Sales Tax Auditor with the State Board of Equalization
and later a Sales Administrator & Logistics Manager at Nicolet Imaging
Systems, a manufacturer of x-ray imaging systems used for quality control in
the semi-conductor market. Before ending her “paid employment years” she held a
brief position in Marketing for Boatracs, a satellite communications systems
provider. Thereafter, she served in various Homeowners’ Association positions most
notably as Board President of Scripps Woods, a depressed, 400 unit association,
where she orchestrated approval from both the community and bank for a $500k
loan funding a re-piping project. Amidst unending water damage, tree falling
emergencies and a building fire, she guided owners, tenants and contractors while
handling accounting, legal, arbitration, court and insurance matters.
Organizing committees, holding special meetings and educating concerned owners
on HOA functions and governing documents, she reached out to the community
promoting their understanding and cooperation.
Currently Debra is a front desk volunteer with
our school and a fledgling member of the Marketing Committee. In 2009, she became acquainted with
Villa Musica bringing her then five year-old granddaughter to Pre-twinkle violin
classes. Fascinated with the instrument, Debra took beginning adult group
lessons. Although musically challenged, she has a passion for promoting its
study by others and strongly appreciates its value to all people of all ages. Living
in Scripps Ranch, she is taking the lead looking for opportunities to promote Villa
Musica in her neighborhood while continuing to reach out to developed markets.
Celino Romero is a member of the
renowned classical guitar quartet, Los Romeros. Celedonio Romero, with his sons
Celin, Pepe and Angel, founded the internationally renowned ensemble known to
millions as "The Royal Family of the Guitar." Celino, Celin’s son,
joined the group in 1990, replacing Angel, who left to pursue a solo career.
Celino has been touring with Los Romeros for the past eight years. Highlights
of his appearances with the ensemble include concerts in Munich, the Berlin
Philharmonic, a performance with the Vienna Symphony at the Rodrigo Festival
and a concert with the Dallas Symphony, an appearance on New York’s prestigious
Metropolitan Museum series, and the release of his first recording with the
Quartet on the Philips label, which includes newly recorded works composed for
Los Romeros. As a soloist, Celino has performed Rodrigo’s famed Concierto de
Aranjuez with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra,
the East Texas Symphony, the Utah Symphony and the New West Symphony.
Rosetta
Sciacca began
her career in the mid-1980s at the San Diego Museum of Art. She went on to the
University of San Diego, where she was founding director of a nationally
recognized parent relations program and also served as a major gifts officer in
a $50 million capital campaign. In addition, she recruited and staffed an
international advisory board and created high-level special events.
In
1993, Ms. Sciacca joined the development staff of UC San Diego as a major gifts
fundraiser for the general campus. Three years later, she assumed the role of
Development Director for the Division of Social Sciences, launching the
division’s first development effort. She was responsible for raising gifts in
excess of $100,000 for 18 departments and organized research units. She also
introduced a number of innovations to the division, including an outreach
magazine; the first division-wide brochure; and the Social Sciences Supper
Club, a popular monthly dinner that brought members of the community together
with a faculty lecturer. She established the Friends of the Social Sciences, an
annual giving organization and oversaw the division’s capital campaign leading
the effort to raise over $100 million in division-wide goals.
In
2004, Ms. Sciacca assumed her current position with Sharp HealthCare
Foundation, where she is charged with implementing the Foundation’s major gifts
program and also oversees strategic planning for The Campaign for Sharp
HealthCare, a $50 million effort. She works closely with physicians and other
volunteers to raise major gifts and campaign funds for Sharp HealthCare
Foundation and Sharp-affiliated medical groups. She has implemented a
comprehensive development program for Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, the
first in its history, with plans to launch a $5 million capital campaign in
2008.
Ms.
Sciacca, who was born in Italy and educated in Europe and the United States,
has served as a board member for Social Advocates for Youth, San Diego and has been
a development consultant for Business Volunteers for the Arts and the Combined
Organization for the Visual Arts. She currently serves as a board member for
the Friends of Balboa Park and the Design Innovation Institute. A native
Italian speaker and student of French and Spanish and of European culture, she
has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America and China,
and is also experienced in international fundraising. She maintains an avid
interest in contemporary art, opera and classical music.
Stephen
R. Shapiro (Executive Director, San Francisco Community Music Center 1978 -
present), has led the Community Music Center as Executive Director since 1978.
He received his MA and PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin and his
BA from Oberlin College. Chosen as a Gerbode Fellow in 2003 for outstanding
non-profit leadership, he is currently on the Board of Directors of the
Zellerbach Family Foundation and is a member of the Education Committee of the
San Francisco Symphony. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the
Stern Grove Festival Association from 1996-2002, the Advisory Board of the Paul
Robeson and Diego Rivera Academy from 2000-2003, and on the Board of Directors
(1981-1990) and Vice President (1983-1986) of the National Guild of Community
Schools of the Arts.
Volunteers are
the backbone of any non-profit organization...
Special Thanks
to the following volunteers for donating their time and services:
Colleen
Garcia - Volunteer Coordinator
Charlene
Baiz
Aleyda
McClain
Stephanie
Sabin
Ryan
Scott
Calder
Seagren
Powell
Seagren
Irvin
Villa