2020 SUMMER NEWSLETTER - On the Horizon

Dear PEBCC Community,

As we close out our 2019-2020 season, we wanted to share some upcoming personnel changes within our office staff and board. We hope this information will let you know whom to speak to when you have questions.

As many of you know, Alice Del Simone was accepted to a vocal performance and pedagogy graduate program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and will be leaving the choir effective July 3rd. As an alum and an employee for many years, we will greatly miss her. Alice has been instrumental in designing many of the office, camp, and tour procedures that are now in place. Please reach out to wish her well in her new adventures.

Heather Saulnier has accepted a redesigned Program Director and Marketing Strategy position with PEBCC and will now oversee all program operations, as well as tours. She will also design the marketing strategy and ensure it is successfully implemented. We are excited to have Heather in this position. We have an opening for a communications and registrar position to support program operations and will hopefully hire that position soon.

Alum Tate Bissinger who recently completed an economics degree at Mills College and has been part of the office team for the past several months has accepted our Events and Productions position and will also oversee camp. We are excited to have her as a permanent employee now.

Beth Hooper is leaving her position as Development Manager and will go on to other opportunities. We have appreciated Beth's kind and supportive presence with our Kinder and Training Department families, as well as her work on grants and with the gala. We wish her the best. We have hired Lillian Archer, a seasoned development professional as a part-time consultant to oversee many of our development activities along with the board through the summer and until a new Executive Director is hired. Please welcome her to our team.

Lastly, the board has begun the search process for our next Executive Director and we will share the progress of this undertaking with you over the summer.

We are also pleased to announce three new members of our Board of Directors to begin a new three-year term as of July 1, 2020. They are: Katherine Baird, a cellist and Director of the Preparatory Music Department at Holy Names University; Janet Walker, a parent of a chorister and a Senior Portfolio Manager with Abbot Downing (Wells Fargo); and Blythe Tai, a PEBCC alum for 11 years, a Volti and Convivium singer, and a marketing specialist. We are very excited to have them join our board. We are also excited to establish a Covid-19 Advisory Committee that includes Nora Canty, MD; Greg Kurio, MD; and Ben Meisel, MD, who are parents from our community and will advise us as we make decisions about opening up our program in the coming months.

We also have to say goodbye to five devoted board members, Yen Trac, David Baraff, Shirley Pao, Ben Barr, and Marisa Rahl. We thank them all for their outstanding years of service. We also congratulate our officers for the upcoming season: President - Poppy Dorsam, Vice President - Kelly Kirkpatrick, Treasurer - Caroline Santander, and Secretary - Carrie McAlister. All of these hardworking volunteers are committed to the achievement, advancement and well being of the organization, and also have children currently in the choir. Our continuing Board members-at-large include Sue Malick and Camden Louie.

If you have an interest in our Board of Directors please contact our President, Poppy Dorsam, at president@piedmontchoirs.org.

While it is hard to say goodbye to outstanding members of our team, we wish them well in their next adventures. We are also excited to welcome our new staff and board members. Our organization has a legacy of 38 years of many wonderful people bringing many gifts of leadership and creativity to the PEBCC community. We are grateful for all those that have come before and all who are willing to lead us into the future.

We look forward to continuing to be in touch and keeping you updated.

Most Sincerely,

Beth L. Schecter, Interim Executive Director

Eric Tuan, Artistic Director