Trustees

Chin-Ping Chen

Victoria Griswold

Sandra Lippman

Nan Childress Orchard

Sophie Pak

Dimitry Rachmanov

Eva Young

Artistic Advisors

(click on each name for biography)

Dmitry Rachmanov

John Sichel

Diane Wittry

Judy Lin Wu





BIOGRAPHY

Victoria Griswold is a classical pianist who has concertized in Europe and Brazil. At her debut recital in New York City, one reviewer characterized her as "an elegant pianist."  She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music, and her principal teachers include the late William Nelson of Carleton College, Zenon Fishbein at the Manhattan School of Music, and Jeaneane Dowis in New York City and the Aspen Music Festival. She has recorded on the MMC label several new works by the American composer William Thomas McKinley with European orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.  Her musical background includes appearances as solo recitalist; soloist with orchestra; chamber pianist; pianist and Music Director for professional musical theatre productions; Music Director and harpsichordist for Ars Musica Antiqua, an early music ensemble; and as church organist. She also served as staff accompanist at Jersey City State College for six years. Ms. Griswold taught piano for 30 years in her private studio, and has adjudicated for many young people's competitions and auditions sponsored by such organizations as the New Jersey Symphony, the Summit Symphony, the Livingston Symphony, the Music Educators Association of New Jersey, the Andrew DeGrado Foundation; and the New Jersey Music Teachers Association.Victoria Griswold is also the owner of the Plainfield (NJ) Music store, a retail establishment specializing in printed music.

Sandra Lippman is an education consultant with experience in both for profit and nonprofit organizations. She has built a successful record as a change agent in K12 urban school reform and professional development, following a successful business career with General Electric. She has lived and traveled extensively in South America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.
Ms. Lippman has participated in numerous pilot and grant-funded projects including museum educational programs, The New York Times Learning Network Affiliates, National Center for Teaching Thinking international consortium, the Association of the Bar of the City of NY’s law-in-education program for middle schools, the NYC Chancellor’s Leadership Team initiative, and the NYC Center for Charter School Excellence design and development grant teams. She specializes in customized community-to-school programs in which all stakeholders bring respective strengths to collaborative projects, promising outcomes that are more significant and longer-term than would otherwise be possible.She recently served as the Director of Education at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Staten Island, NY and is presently working for The New York City Police Museum on a free-lance basis as their Development Officer. Her volunteer work includes mentoring with The Kennedy Center Arts in Crisis initiative and has additional board experience with community and arts organizations in Central Jersey.

Nan Childress Orchard received a D.M.A. in Piano from Rutgers University, an M.M. in Vocal Accompanying and Chamber Music from the University of Cincinnati, and a B.A. from Portland State University.   She is an Associate Professor of Music at Caldwell College, and chair of the music department, where she has taught since 2001. During her graduate work at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Childress was introduced to the developing field of scholarship in the history of women composers by one of the pioneers in the field, Karin Pendle. Since that time she has performed many works by women on the harpsichord, fortepiano and modern piano, including a performance of the Keyboard Concerto in E-flat Major, by Maria Hester Park on a replica of an 18th-century piano. Solo and chamber performances across the country have included music by Libby Larsen, Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke, Catherine LeDuc Hostetler, Koren Cowgill and Nkeiru Okoye. In an effort to support the work of women composers she has commissioned and performed works by New Jersey women composers. One of the pieces is featured on the Beauport Classics CD In Concert: Composers in Collaboration.  She is an active chamber musician performing regularly with her trio, Terzetta.  Recent programs have highlighted the works of women composers and future performances will explore the music of New York composers.  She has recently performed solo works in New York City including a performance of Gregg Wramage’s La tristesse durera. She has played with the Rutgers SummerFest Orchestra and the Garden State Philharmonic, and has performed for, and with, international artists including Jean Pierre Rampal and Lukas Foss.
Dr. Childress has served as musical director for professional musical theatre productions in Oregon,Ohio, West Virginia and New York.  In New York City she worked for Amato Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Guild school program. She was pianist for the off-Broadway production of the Schmidt and Jones musical Collette Collage, directed by the authors. Regional productions include Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Pacific Overtures and Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and West Side Story.  Dr. Childress has taught musical theatre courses for Musical Theatre Works in New York City and at Northern Kentucky University.  She has coached for summer opera camps at Caldwell College, Idaho State University and Rutgers University.  She directs the Music Theatre Workshop course at Caldwell College.Dr. Childress is an active member of NJMTA, MEA of NJ and IAWM and adjudicates regularly at piano events in New Jersey.  She is published in Women and Music in America since 1900: An Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of New Jersey.   She has written music criticism for the Classical New Jersey Society music journal and has presented papers and performed at music conferences in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Kentucky.  

Sophie Pak received her early piano training in Taipei, Taiwan.  Coming from a musical family, Pak was already an accomplished pianist winning competitions and performing since 12 years old.  At age 19, she performed weekly for 7 months in a morning program for HKTVB in Hong Kong.
Pak received BM in performance from Northwestern University on a full scholarship and further received MM degree from Indiana University.  She has also pursued doctoral studies at Indiana University in performance and pedagogy.  Her teachers include Gui Mombaerts, Pauline Lindsay, Walter Robert, Evelyn Brancart, Michel Block.  She also had coaching from Lawrence Davis, Donald Issak, and Hans Graf. Pak has been a professor of piano at the County College of Morris in New Jersey.  Having taught in the United States and in Hong Kong, her students have received numerous top awards in international and national competitions over 60 times. In addition to her teaching experience, Pak also participated as an adjudicator in the International Schumann Youth Piano Competition in 2005, where she served as principal consultant and principal judge for both preliminary rounds in Hong Kong.  Having performed extensively as a soloist and duo-pianist, Pak is also active in accompanying instrumentalists, vocalists and choral groups in concerts.

Dmitry Rachmanov (click "here" to go to his website)

Pianist and harpsichordist Eva Young received critical acclaim for her first concerto appearance with the Royal College of Music Orchestra, which resulted from winning the Peter Morrison Concerto Competition. Since emigrating to the United States, Ms. Young has performed frequently at the Bach Aria Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Interlochen Center of the Arts as vocal coach and accompanist. She has also preformed with the Taipei Contemporary Chamber Orchestra at National Concert Hall in Taiwan, New World Symphony in Florida, and at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. In addition, she was also featured in various church concert series and at retirement homes in recent years and has toured with several choirs.  She has recently performed with the Young Musician’s Community Orchestra twice performing the Brandenburg No. 5 concerto on the harpsichord.  Ms. Young holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Michigan. She also holds a Professional Study Certificate in Harpsichord from Temple University.  She has served as a professor of music at Lincoln University and currently, she is an organist at the Red Lion Evangelical Free Church in Delaware.  Ms. Young is a founding member of the National League of Performing Arts, Inc.