Board

Lee Bynum (they/them) is an internationally recognized arts leader, composer, librettist, dramaturg, and advocate whose twenty-year career bridges visionary creative practice, strategic nonprofit leadership, and transformative work in equity and education.  As a nonbinary artist and senior executive, Lee brings a rare combination of experience across classical music, musical theatre, philanthropy, higher education, and global cultural exchange.  Their work is united by a steadfast commitment to ensuring that women and nonbinary creators are not only visible in the field—but empowered, supported, and celebrated at every level.

New York City-based musician, producer, activist, and administrator, Loki Karuna has been noted as not only a “classical agitator,” but also “a Black talent in public media that you may not know, but should.” In 2021, The New York Times named his podcast, TRILLOQUY, as a standout and one that is “required listening,” maintaining a top-10 spot among classical music podcasts globally. Loki is a recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s MPower Artist Grants for his work in broadcast and digital media, was named among Musical America’s “Top 30 Arts Professionals of the Year” for 2024, and has appeared on network television programs including Snapped: Killer Couples, Glee, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Peter Colin, Jr. has been a corporate counsel at Essence Communications Inc. since April 2022, specializing in talent and sponsorship agreements for notable live events such as the Essence Festival of Culture. Additionally, Peter has been an attorney at Marc Jacobson, P.C. since August 2019, representing clients in various entertainment and tech sectors on copyright and contract issues. Peter’s experience includes roles as a manager at Axiom, an account executive at Thomson Reuters, and an attorney in several other firms, where responsibilities ranged from managing class action cases to advising on software licensing and litigation.

Rosalie Contreras is a strategic communications and marketing leader specializing in performing arts and higher education with deep expertise in public affairs, media relations, and institutional branding. She has held senior leadership roles including Vice President of Public Affairs at The Juilliard School and Vice President of Communications at the Seattle Symphony, and now leads her own PR and marketing consultancy in New York. Rosalie holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in business and music, and has been a trusted advisor on communications strategy for major arts organizations.

Nancy Huart is a retired logistics professional who previously served as Senior Director of Logistics at Travelers in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has served on nonprofit boards, including the American Composers Forum.

Blair O’Meara is a former professional composer with over ten years of experience in digital marketing. She developed and taught analytics and technology curriculum at the university level and holds an M.A. from Stanford University in Modern Thought and Literature. Her work includes large-scale SEM and paid media campaigns, technical analysis, partnership facilitation, employee training, and work supporting the arts and humanities.

Dr. J. Anthony Allen is a musical renaissance man who’s written music for orchestras, produced chart-topping tracks, and taught electronic music to over a million students globally. This Michigan-born, Minneapolis-based creator founded Slam Academy, and several other education-disrupting companies. With a Ph.D. in Music Composition and multiple awards, Allen’s work spans continents and genres. He’s equally at home writing orchestral scores or crafting Netflix jingles. When not pushing musical boundaries, you might find Allen sailing the Arctic, composing under the midnight sun – because regular adventures aren’t enough for this musical polymath.

Ellen Armour Stein earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from UCLA, and went on to work in project management for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Google, Chevron, international consulting firm Turner & Townsend, and TETER Architects & Engineers before landing at the Fresno Philharmonic, where she currently serves as Director of Marketing & Development, developing relationships and marketing best practices for an outstanding non-profit arts organization. Ellen is also a classical and electronic pianist, vocalist, and composer of 30+ years and loves sharing the beauty and joy of music with others. Ellen lives in sunny Fresno, California with her husband and their two children.

Before joining BMI in 2010, Deirdre Chadwick was a classical oboist, performing extensively in the U.S. and Canada with such ensembles as the Montreal Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond and Harrisburg Symphonies, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, where she served as principal oboe for seven years. She is also a founding member of Trio Encantar and has performed widely as a chamber musician. A dedicated teacher, Deirdre served on the faculties of Dickinson College and Susquehanna University, as well as maintaining private teaching studios in oboe and recorder.

Dr. antonio c. cuyler’s (kyler) (he/him/his) facilitates ADEI climate, culture, and people surveys, education, research & evaluation, and strategic planning for cultural organizations though Cuyler Consulting, LLC. Among his clients includes the Arts Administrators of Color Network, Cathedral Choral Society, Chorus America, the Hewlett Foundation, League of American Orchestras, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA), Spencer Museum, and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra, among others. He currently serves as Professor of Music in Entrepreneurship & Leadership at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Roque Diaz is a dynamic leader with more than 20 years of expertise in administration and education. As a first-generation Puerto Rican, he is celebrated for his strategic vision and dedication to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Dr. Diaz excels at building inclusive, high-performing teams across corporate, nonprofit, and educational environments. An accomplished educator and professional artist, Dr. Diaz is skilled in culturally responsive practices and innovative program delivery and has extensive experience managing educational programs for historically underrepresented populations.

Elisabet Curbelo is a composer and performer from the Canary Islands. Throughout her career, Elisabet’s work and dedication have been valued by diverse institutions, as she has been awarded numerous grants, prizes, and commissions. Her research focuses on creating interdisciplinary collaborative performance, the use of sensors to control electronics with movement, extended vocal techniques based on her study of West Asian music and culture. Mainly Elisabet is interested in working on artistic projects that promote diversity, inclusivity, and inspire social change.

Owens Huang began his musical journey during the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. In his youth, adventurous backpacking trips through countries such as India and Tibet infused his compositions with introspective themes and a distinctive blend of Eastern artistic elements, seamlessly interwoven with classical, jazz, and metal influences. Drawing inspiration from his role as a hedge fund manager, Huang engages with the dynamic realms of finance and global events, transforming them into creative works that weave together themes of Asian history, culture, philosophy, geopolitics, and market dynamics. Guided by a vision of connection, Huang seeks to build collaborations across science, technology, and global finance, using music as a catalyst for dialogue and unity.

Douglas Kearney has published nine books ranging from poetry to essays. He has had four operas staged, most recently “Sweet Land,” which received rave reviews from The LA Times, The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Weekly, and was named Opera of the Year (2021) by the Music Critics Association of North America. A Howard University and CalArts alum, Kearney teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities where he is a McKnight Presidential Fellow.

After earning music composition degrees from Berklee College of Music (B.M., 2004) and Tufts University (M.A., 2007), Beau dedicated a decade of research and practice to the fields of cognitive neuroscience (pub. Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Executive Functioning in Musicians and Non-Musicians. PLoS ONE. 2014), curiosity-based teaching practices, and community engagement strategies (pub. Listening to the City: Community Research and Action through Sound and Story. MIT CoLab. 2018). He has earned national and international residencies, fulfilled numerous commissions, and presented his work locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. He is currently on faculty at the College of Arts, Media + Design at Northeastern University, where he teaches graduate coursework in arts administration and cultural entrepreneurship.

Jimmie A. Parker Sr. is a multifaceted musician and entrepreneur whose passion for music and commitment to excellence has propelled him to success as a musician, conductor, composer, and educator. As the CEO of Dominion Global Music Group, The Colour of Music Institute, and Its Just Music LLC, Jimmie has established himself as a leader in the industry, with a passion for classical, jazz, and contemporary music. Jimmie currently serves as the Musical Director and Conductor for the Euclid Symphony Orchestra and principal keyboardist for the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cheryl Schiele is a program manager and musician who believes artists bear witness to, interrogate, expand, and nurture our humanity. From 2006-2024, she managed folk & traditional arts programs at the National Endowment for the Arts—an independent federal agency—overseeing staff and managing project grant funding opportunities, the National Heritage Fellowships honorific awards, the National Folklife Network, and the Folk Arts Partnership program. Respectively, these programs honored culture bearers and fostered living cultural traditions in communities across the U.S. (also referred to as folklife, folk arts, or intangible cultural heritage). Currently, she is the Program Director, Arts & Cultures for the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Koven Smith is an arts strategist, technologist, and program director with over 30 years dedicated to building a thriving future for the arts through technology strategy. He was most recently at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where he designed Knight’s tech-forward arts funding strategy and directed more than $80M in arts+tech grants across eight U.S. cities. Before Knight, he helped shape the digital foundations of the museum technology field as a digital team leader at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. As a consultant for the arts and philanthropy, he has worked with organizations like the Doris Duke Foundation, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, CultureSource, the Smithsonian, and many more.

Praised for “combining omnivory and brilliance” (The New York Times), seven-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of American self-determination to the concert stage. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures, and musics. He was awarded a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence in recognition of extraordinary leaders in the classical music field who are transforming lives while addressing systemic obstacles within Black and Latino communities.

Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor is an AfroPnuematic composer, multi-instrumentalist, and improviser who has “…wrestled with the societal boundaries of Black artistry only to blast them apart…” (Dr. Kori Hill, I Care if You Listen) through creating music that is “insistent and defiant…envelopingly hypnotic” (Alan Young, Lucid Culture). A “risk taker” (Neil De La Flor, Huffington Post), Matthew’s latest work focuses on expression and liberation through breath. This music, AfroPneumaism, subverts Western aesthetics and philosophy by replacing chronometric and metronomic time with the human breath. Through this work, musicians are asked to listen inward as well as across the ensemble, as the audience joins in the collective act of deliberate breathing.

A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, Ken Ueno (b. 1970), is a composer/vocalist/sound artist who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, Other Minds, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival. Ken holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.