Caitlin Patton

Executive Director

Caitlin Patton, executive director, is a Standards for Excellence® Licensed Consultant. She received her Master of Public Administration degree at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, where she focused her studies in Arts and Nonprofit Administration. 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.

Caitlin grew up on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where she developed a passion for reading, writing and music as well as animal rescue and equestrian pursuits. 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 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, the Essentials of Orchestra Management seminar at the League of American Orchestras, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Board Consulting from BoardSource.

In addition to her work with the National Music Festival, she taught violin, viola, and cello for 20 years, and founded the Fiddlesticks! Youth Strings Program. Her first book, How to Build Capacity in Your Small Nonprofit, was published in 2012.

Caitlin is also a singer and recently gave her first solo voice recital, with former NMF Collaborative Piano Mentor Sammy Marshall at the piano. She sings in the Chester River Chorale as well as its two auditioned ensembles, the Chester Chamber Singers and River Voices. She has also served as president of the Chester River Chorale.

Caitlin lives with her husband, NMF Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg, on a small farm in Galena, MD, with a herd of goats, five dogs, four cats, five horses, and a flock of turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens–all endangered heritage breeds. An active animal rescue advocate, she has fostered horses for the Arabian Rescue Mission, has volunteered for rescue organizations including the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (UT) and Lowcountry Animal Rescue (SC), and served on the board of the Animal Care Shelter for Kent County.