The mission of the National Music Festival is to present world-class celebrations of music and to provide affordable arts education and entertainment year round; as well as to foster economic development by contributing to the greater Kent County community as an arts and entertainment destination on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
More information about the OuterArts Maryland, Inc. Board of Directors:
Charles Taylor graduated from St. Paul’s College with a degree in Organizational Management and later studied Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An early job as a radio announcer followed by a brief stint as a newspaper reporter launched Charles on a 37-year communications and media relations career encompassing the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Charles has served as a senior corporate communications representative for Pepco and Dominion Virginia Power, a government media relations manager for Arlington County, VA, and a writer at the National Association of Counties in Washington, D.C. Since retiring in Chestertown last year, Charles has immersed himself in the community and fostered his love for music by serving on the county’s Social Action Committee, the Marketing Committee of the National Music Festival, and by singing with the Chester River Chorale. He also plays the bassoon.
Turner Smith comes to Chestertown and Kent County from Baltimore, where he has been campaign chair of the Peabody Institute of Music, president of the South Charles Investment Corporation and vice-chair Anthony Deering, president and CEO of The Rouse Company. He has also been closely affiliated with the Friends School of Baltimore, Centerstage and WC-All. Mr. Smith is also an accomplished guitarist.
Thomas Parchman, Treasurer, studied clarinet with Robert Marcellus, Clark Brody and Larry Combs. After playing bass clarinet for the Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa, he joined the Long Beach Symphony and the Long Beach Grand Opera. During this time he was accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Southern California, where he studied clarinet with Mitchell Lurie and saxophone with Douglas Masek. Dr. Parchman holds the rank of Professor at the University of Southern Maine, and has been the principal clarinetist with the Portland Symphony since his arrival. Dr. Parchman also holds the bass/3rd clarinet position with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and is a member of the Opera North, Green Mountain Opera and Opera Maine. His students are active performers and teachers in their communities, ranging from teaching in the schools of northern Maine to playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra. He brings to the NMF Board substantial financial experience from his work with the Portland Symphony as a 30+ year member of the Finance Committee.
Mark Schulman, Ph.D. is an award-winning pollster and was co-founder/CEO of one of the nation’s largest survey research/polling firms, SRBI, now part of Abt Associates. He has worked extensively with the news media, major corporations, foundations, and government. For news organizations he has tracked presidential job ratings, political campaigns, analyzed election results, and probed policy issues. He served as Time magazine’s pollster for almost ten years. He was also on the ABC News Election Decision Desk for many years. He has been interviewed in the news media, including Time magazine, CNN, Fox News, the BBC, Vice Media/HBO, and many public radio stations.
Schulman was 2002-2003 president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). He is a past president of the New York Chapter of AAPOR and received the chapter’s Achievement Award. He was on the editorial board of Public Opinion Quarterly, the leading academic journal in its field. He is currently Senior Research Consultant for SSRS Research.
Schulman received his B.A. from Washington College, Chestertown, Md., where he is member emeritus of the Board of Visitors and Governors. He holds a M.A. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the New School University College of Performing Arts in New York City.
Susan Baisley retired from Johns Hopkins as Associate Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations in July, 2022. She had been the Associate Vice President for Constituent Engagement where her portfolio included Annual Giving, Alumni Relations, Donor and Volunteer Engagement, Development Communications, University Events, Parents Programs and Giving, Athletics, and Fundraising for the School of Education and the Center for Talented Youth. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Susan was a founding partner of Alpha Capital Financial Group, a private equity fund. Previously, she was a Managing Director and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Citigroup Private Bank, where she was responsible for providing strategic marketing planning as well as marketing execution for business operations in thirty-four countries. Prior to that position, she headed marketing for Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Management Group. She also headed the marketing department for J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Private Bank, where she held a number of senior management positions, including heading marketing for the European and Middle East Private Bank (based in Geneva) and developing the brand and marketing plan for a mutual fund company, which J.P. Morgan created in partnership with Japan-based Daichi- Kangyo Bank. Most recently, she has been a fundraiser for the Peabody Institute. Susan holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Natural Sciences (biochemistry concentration) from Johns Hopkins University.
Mary Grace (“MG”) Brosius attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she earned her B.A. in English. For twenty years prior to her moving to Chestertown in 2007, MG was the Parish Administrator at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore. Upon her arrival to the Eastern Shore, she joined the Chester River Chorale and has served on the CRC board (2008-11), as well as the Tenor section leader since 2013. MG is a member of the Chester Chamber Singers and River Voices, as well as the Emmanuel Church choir. Music has always been an integral, and joyful, part of MG’s life. She looks at NMF as a post-grad Music Appreciation course and every year she looks forward to discovering a new composer, or a lesser-known piece, or hearing an old favorite—and reconnecting with both musicians and other audience friends. MG and her husband, Jack, have been hosts since the Festival moved here in 2012 and have become more involved every year. Now retired, she works part-time for Christ United Methodist Church, and volunteers at the Garfield Center as well as the NMF Board of Directors. She has one son who lives in Colorado with his family.
Alan Rothschild is pleased to return for his eighth season with the National Music Festival Piano Maintenance Mentor! He is a certified piano technician who specializes in tuning, repair, regulation, and action rebuilding. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Earlham College and was certified in piano technology by the New England Conservatory, where he studied with long time Boston Symphony technician Frank Hanson. Following his graduation from NEC, he held an apprenticeship at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He attends classes often in order to hone his skills, and has participated in the Steinway at Oberlin piano technology program. In addition to his full-time position at Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, he has private clients in D.C., New York, and Boston, and he works for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory, and Wellesley College. Mr. Rothschild lives in Jamaica Plain, MA, where in his free time he enjoys cooking, reading, exploring new cuisines, and singing as a tenor in Boston Cecilia.
Sandra L. Sears (“Sandy”) moved to Chestertown in 2011. She became dedicated to the National Music Festival from the time of its inception in 2012. She was the Board Chair from 2014 till 2018 and she is delighted to be resuming that role on the Board. She grew up on Long Island and is a graduate of Briarcliff College. Although she does not play a musical instrument, she has sung in choirs and glee clubs for as long as she can remember and has always loved and appreciated music. She owned a needlepoint shop for 11 years in Asheville, NC. While living in Bucks County, PA, she was chairman of Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, chair of Historic Preservation for the Bucks County Conservancy, as well as serving as a Warden of her church. She has four children and ten grandchildren. She was recently married to Harry Sears, proving that it’s never too late.
Michael Singer currently serves as Director of Marketing for Fair Issacs Corporation (FICO). Best known for its credit scoring models, FICO is one of the world’s leading providers of analytics software, solutions and services. His marketing career has included past marketing leadership positions with Fannie Mae, the Urban Land Institute, and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. He has also served as a marketing management consultant for the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. General Services Administration, American Bankers Association, and other clients. He has been an active board member of the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center since 2008, chairing its Literary Festival for eight years. He is also an executive committee member of the board of directors of DC’s Mosaic Theatre, where he chairs its Nominating Committee. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Michael grew up in Harford County, Maryland. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago. A historic preservation advocate, he and his husband James split their time between an 18th-century home in Chestertown, MD and a 19th-century home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Rev. Ellsworth L. Tolliver, a Chestertown native, is a retired school music educator, including a stint Kent County High School’s band director. He served on Chestertown’s Town Council from 2017 to 2021, representing Ward 3. During his tenure, Tolliver helped shepherd adoption of the Town’s first Anti-Racism Ordinance. He has experience as a semi-professional musician, songwriter, producer and music publisher, and also plays piano, and percussion. Tolliver is a fourth generation pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Since 1991, he serves as pastor at Boardly Chapel AME Church. Tolliver holds a B.S. degree in Music Education from Delaware State University and a Master’s of Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary, as well as a background in Public Administration from Wilmington University and graduate level studies from Villanova University and Westminster Choir College. His local civic involvements include having served on the Board of the Kent County Public Library, the Local Management Board of Kent County and the National Music Festival’s Diversity Committee. He has been affiliated with the MENC, International Association for Jazz Education, International Association of African-American Music and has been a member of ASCAP).
Caitlin Patton received her Master of Public Administration degree at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, where she focused her studies in Arts and Nonprofit Administration. She was the graduate assistant in the Arts Management program, where she worked on graduate student recruitment and with the Charleston Jazz Initiative. Upon her graduation, she was inducted into Pi Alpha Alpha, the national public administration honor society, and received the MPA program’s Outstanding Student Award in recognition of her 4.0 cumulative GPA and involvement in the MPA community. She was admitted to Washington College at the age of 15 and graduated magna cum laude four years later with majors in Humanities and Music and minors in Creative Writing and English. Both during and after college, she taught violin and horseback riding lessons and trained horses professionally. Her arts administration experience includes positions with Spoleto Festival USA, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (at the Tanglewood Music Center) and as the first Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Her training includes a Professional Certificate in Arts Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Arts Extension Service, and the Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar at the League of American Orchestras. Caitlin serves as President of the Chester River Chorale and on the board of the Animal Care Shelter for Kent County. She previously served on the music grant review panel of the Maryland State Arts Council.
Richard Rosenberg is the artistic director of the National Music Festival and the Union Symphony Orchestra. Previous music directorships include the Corpus Christi Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of California, the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony, Hot Springs Music Festival and the Pennsylvania Ballet. He also served on the conducting staffs of the Baltimore Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, the London Classical Players and the Aspen Music Festival, and as Acting Director of Orchestras at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As a guest conductor, Mr. Rosenberg has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, Miami City Ballet, and symphony orchestras and ballet companies throughout the United States, Europe and South America. Recent engagements include concerts with the Kaerntner Symphony Orchestra, The Festival Música nas Montanhas, the Bahia Blanca Symphony and the Vancouver Island Symphony, The OneWorld Festival; Acadiana Symphony, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Prince George’s Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bahía Blanca, Orkestra Academic Başkent, Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras and the Orquestra de Camara Eleazar de Carvalho, Torun, Dubrovnik, &c.
Richard’s experience includes study with composers Mario Davidovsky, Krzysztof Penderecki and Carlos Surinach; clarinet with Gervase De Peyer and Georg Hirner; theory with Charles Burkhardt, George Perle, and Carl Schacter; opera staging with Roger Brunyate and Boris Goldovsky; choral conducting with Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, Robert Shaw and Elmer Thomas, and conducting apprenticeships with Eugen Jochum, Friedrich Cerha, Gerhard Samuel, Otto Werner Mueller, Gunther Herbig, Julius Herford, Carlos Kleiber, Giuseppe Patané, Wolfgang Sawallisch (Bavarian State Opera), Jerzy Semkow and Leonard Bernstein (New York Philharmonic). He was an active participant in master classes with Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Jussi Jalas, Lorin Maazel, Julius Rudel, Sir Georg Solti and Walter Weller.
In 1988, he was awarded a Rackham Fellowship to work in Europe with Sir Roger Norrington and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. His training also includes studies at Yale University with Otto-Werner Muller, the Peabody Institute-Johns Hopkins University with Frederik Prausnitz, the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan, the Aspen Music Festival with Paul Vermel, at the City University of New York with Fritz Jahoda, Cincinnati College-Conservatory with Gerhard Samuel and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Franco Ferrara.
He has taught at the Washington College Academy of Lifelong Learning. Maestro Rosenberg has recorded ten compact discs of American music for the Naxos Records label, including one with the National Music Festival to be released in 2020, and produced several CDs for the Yale School of Music and with jazz legend Dave Brubeck.
Carey Hedlund’s interest in all things musical was nurtured through high school summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Michigan, and deepened through studies at Oberlin Conservatory while completing a BA in Art and Art History at the college. Carey holds a graduate degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and an advanced certificate in archives and information science from Drexel University. Her work has included twenty years as a practicing landscape architect and gardener, concurrently working as a primary school educator and author/illustrator. Over the past fifteen years she has worked as an archivist specializing in architecture, design, and craft collections in the greater Philadelphia region and Western North Carolina. Carey moved to Chestertown in 2020 and has been acting as designer and contractor on the renovation of her one hundred year old home. Here she has
John Christie is a retired Washington, D.C., lawyer specializing in anti-trust litigation as a partner at the Washington, D. C. office of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering Hale and Dorr. In some of his newfound spare time, he regularly teaches courses on the Supreme Court at the Academy of Lifelong Learning, a continuing education adjunct of Washington College in Chestertown, Md.. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Harvard University School of Law. John and his wife, Peggy, bought their home in Chestertown in 1985
He has been a member of the Boards of Directors with the Academy of Lifelong Learning (WC-ALL) for two terms and chairperson for three years; with Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s counties for many terms and chairperson for six years; as well as two terms with HomePorts.
John writes: “My first paying job was at Ravinia Park where the Chicago Symphony played during the summer. Three nights and one afternoon a week I wore a white shirt, white pants and white shoes and went to the Park. My job was to hand out programs before the performance and at half time to go behind the stage and keep the public away from the musicians. Two nights a week I had to stay late and assist cars leaving the concert. Each time I showed up I was paid $ 2.00.”
