Fredara Mareva Hadley, Ph.D. is an ethnomusicology professor in the Music History Department at The Juilliard School where she teaches courses on ethnomusicology and African American Music. Her work has been featured in academic journals and in the press including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Billboard Magazine. Her commentary is included in documentaries including The 1619 Project, PBS' The Black Church, and others. Fredara's current book projects include her forthcoming book, I'll Make Me a World, which centers on the musical ecosystems of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and their impact on Black music and beyond.

Fredara is a proud alumna of two Historically Black Colleges: Florida A&M University and Clark-Atlanta University. She completed her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Indiana University and taught at Oberlin College & Conservatory before joining the Juilliard faculty in 2018.

David A. Norville is an American oboist and media producer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, David has been recognized by organizations like YoungArts, Sphinx, and The Jack Kent Cooke foundation for his merits as an oboist and young artist. He is known for producing works like The Of Freedom Podcast, Black Music Seen, as well as Castle of Our Skins’ Black Student Union Intercollegiate Fellowship Program. David currently serves as an Associate Producer for New York Public Radio’s WQXR and is a founding member of The Black Orchestral Network.

Unity, self-determination, collective work & responsibility, and cooperative economics undergird David’s work deconstructing race and social-class through multifaceted artistic lenses. He aspires to use his platforms to creatively empower artists of the African diaspora through the production of online educational platforms, multimedia concert curation, and mentorship.

Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle is an internationally recognized musician and scholar whose research focuses on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. She is the author of the biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, which chronicles the six-decade career of jazz pianist/arranger and educator Mary Lou Williams. She served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and on the Editorial Board for the revision of the New Grove Encyclopedia of American Music. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has appeared in numerous award-winning documentaries including Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, Girls in the Band, and Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool.

Dr. Kernodle has written for and consulted with The American Jazz Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Walker Art Center, NPR, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BBC, and Carnegie Hall. She currently serves as Curator of the I Dream a World Festival, multi-year initiative with New World Symphony that celebrates the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. Kernodle is Past President of the Society for American Music and currently holds the rank of University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University in Oxford, OH.

Blue Shelton is currently a Third Year Undergraduate at the Manhattan School of Music. As a product of the rich musical culture in Philadelphia, Blue has been involved with a multitude of organizations, including the but not limited to the Philadelphia Orchestra Fellowship and Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. Through these programs, Blue was able to study privately with members and teaching artists of the Philadelphia Orchestra free of charge. In 2020, he was also chosen to star on NPR’s From the Top show in 2020. Blue was chosen as the first recipient of the Project 440 Scholarship in collaboration with the Manhattan School of music which grants full coverage of tuition for four years. He currently studies with Marya Martin. While in New York, he was also appointed as principal flute of the Grammy Award winning New York Youth Symphony for the 2021/2022 season and 2022/2023 seasons. As a performer, he has played in various venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, the New York City Center, and Merkin Hall. In addition, he currently holds the position of Second flute in Symphony in C as well as being a member of Westside Chamber Players. Blue also recently attended the Aspen Music Festival this past summer.

Loki Karuna (formerly Garrett McQueen) is a bassoonist who has performed with orchestras across the country, including the Detroit Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He’s been heard as both a performer and guest host on APM's "Performance Today" and “Music Through the Night” and has continued his work as a producer and broadcaster with nationally-syndicated public radio programs including The Sound of 13, Gateways Radio, and Noteworthy Classical.

Away from the airwaves and performance stages, Loki specializes in music and racial equity presentations, with collaborators including the Gateways Music Festival, the Sphinx Organization, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, the San Francisco Symphony, and countless schools, colleges, and universities. In the press, Loki 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 noted his weekly podcast, TRILLOQUY, as a standout and one that is "required listening for industry leaders and listeners alike."

Loki holds music degrees from the University of Memphis and the University of Southern California. In addition to working as a musician and media producer, Loki is the Director of Artist Equity for the American Composers Orchestra and maintains leadership and advisory positions with the American Composers Forum, the Beethoven Festival Orchestra, the Black Opera Alliance, the Gateways Music Festival, the Cedar Cultural Center of Minneapolis, the Lakes Area Music Festival, and Soka Gakkai International.

Chicago Native, Percussionist, BM ‘24 The Juilliard School. Full biography to post soon.

Karen Fisher received her BMus degree in clarinet performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. During her musical career, she held the 2 nd and Eb clarinet chair in the Filarmónica del Bajío in Guanajuato, Mexico, maintained an active teaching studio, and was a busy freelancer in the tri-state area. Highlights include performing for many years with Keith Brion and The New Sousa Band, The New York City Opera National Company, and playing for the touring production of Porgy and Bess throughout Japan. In New York City, she subbed on Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, Ragtime, and other Broadway and Off Broadway shows. She is a proud veteran of the United States Coast Guard Band, having served from 1990-1994.

Karen began working at Local 802 in 1997 as a business representative in the Concert Department where she learned union organizing, contract language, labor law, grievance handling, and negotiation protocol. She had always had a proclivity towards advocacy and workers’ rights, and Local 802 has been the perfect place to put that passion into action. She was chosen to attend the Cornell ILR Advanced Labor Union Leadership seminar and earned a certificate in 2010. In 2019, she was elected to the position of Financial Vice President and Assistant Executive Director, a position that includes supervision of the concert, ballet, and opera departments. Among her many responsibilities at the Union, she is the lead negotiator for 26 discrete collective bargaining agreements. She has represented Local 802 at the

New York Central Labor Council, the ICSOM and ROPA conferences, and recently has been lending support on the WGA and SAG/AFTRA picket lines throughout the city.

Violist Jennifer Arnold is currently Artistic Advisor to the Richmond Symphony, Career Advisor/Lecturer at the Cleveland Institute of Music, freelance musician and arts consultant living abroad in Taiwan with her husband through summer 2024. She recently departed her position as Director of Artistic Planning and Orchestral Operations with the Richmond Symphony (VA) after helping to successfully lead the orchestra safely through the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for the orchestra to keep performing (safely) for the community. Jennifer is passionate about expanding the symphonic canon and focuses her artistic planning skills on creating opportunities for diverse voices to be heard on concert stages.

Prior to her appointment in RVA, she enjoyed 15 seasons as a violist with the Oregon Symphony in addition to serving as Director of Artistic Operations for 45th Parallel Universe in Portland, OR. Jennifer performs as a member of the Gateways Festival Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival and with string quartet, mousai REMIX.

Jennifer finds immense joy in teaching viola and chamber music each summer at the Sphinx Performance Academy for young Black and brown musicians ages 12 – 17. She is a founding member of Black Orchestral Network and holds memberships with ISBM, ASTA, SAA, AFM Local 99 and the Urban League. In her free time Jennifer enjoys volunteering, mentoring, languages, traveling, kdrama, and karaoke. Follow her on most platforms @24caratviola

Rochelle was appointed Director of Symphonic Services, Special Counsel and Assistant to the President in October of 2016. Prior to her appointment, Rochelle practiced union-side labor law for 10 years at the law firm of Schuchat, Cook & Werner in St. Louis, representing unions and workers in a wide range of industries and professions. In that capacity, she also served as SSD Counsel from 2009-2016. Rochelle graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School of Music and worked as a symphonic and recording violinist, performing with the Syracuse Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic and Palm Beach Opera and recording with artists including Jon Secada, Alejandro Sanz and Michael Jackson. She served as Orchestra Committee Chair and ROPA delegate for the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra. In 2003 she left full-time work as a musician to attend law school at Washington University in St. Louis, earning her J.D. in 2006. She served as Executive Notes & Projects Editor of the Journal of Law & Policy and received the Mary Collier Hitchcock Prize for her law review note, Control, Collaboration or Coverage: The NLRA and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Dilemma (20 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol’y 403). Rochelle is a member of the New York State and Missouri bars and has inactive status in the Illinois bar. In 2022, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler appointed Rochelle to serve on the Board of Directors of the Union Lawyers’ Alliance of the AFL-CIO.

Jonathan Martin is in his sixth year as President and CEO of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Cincinnati May Festival, and Music and Event Management, Inc.

Prior to Cincinnati, Mr. Martin served as President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2017. There he led initiatives that included the inauguration of a groundbreaking annual arts and music festival. Prior to leading the Dallas Symphony, Mr. Martin served for nine years as the General Manager of the Cleveland Orchestra. There he managed 22 domestic and international tours and residencies and helped develop and launch its ten-year residency program in Miami, Florida. A native of Atlanta, Mr. Martin holds a music degree from Georgia State University and began his career at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where he served in five sequential positions over 14 years, most of it under the legendary music director Robert Shaw.

Titus Underwood is Principal Oboe of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the 2021 recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence award and a 2021 Midsouth Regional Emmy® winner for his work on « We Are Nashville ». Prior to the NSO, he was Acting Associate Principal of Utah Symphony, and has performed as guest principal of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, and Florida Orchestra. A sought-after freelance performer, Titus has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Puerto Rico Symphony, and San Diego Symphony. Titus regularly plays principal oboe in Chineke!, the Gateways Music Festival, and Bellingham Festival of Music.

Titus received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Elaine Douvas, and pursued additional studies with Nathan Hughes and Pedro Diaz. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was a student of John Mack, legendary principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra, with additional studies from Frank Rosenwein and Jeffrey Rathbun. In 2013, he received his artist diploma from The Colburn School as a student of Allan Vogel.

Alan D. Valentine joined the Nashville Symphony as its President and CEO in June 1998. Since then, he has presided over an unprecedented period of growth at the Symphony, highlighted by a total of 14 GRAMMY® Awards and 27 GRAMMY® nominations; 40 highly regarded and best-selling CD releases on the Naxos, Decca and New West labels; nine national television broadcasts, one of which won an Emmy Award; multiple national radio appearances, including the internationally syndicated series American Encores; an acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut and sold-out East Coast tour in September 2000; two successful capital and endowment campaigns in which a total of $145 million was raised; and the construction of the acoustically superb Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened in September 2006. Valentine shepherded the Nashville Symphony through the Great Recession of 2008-09, a catastrophic flood in 2010 which caused $40 million in damage to the Schermerhorn, and a troubled debt restructuring in 2013. Under his leadership, the institution emerged from these challenges with an unwavering commitment to its mission and artistic vision, subsequently achieving record-breaking ticket sales and fundraising.

Valentine currently serves on the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras and the Steering Committee for Nashville's Agenda. He is a former member of the boards of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Nashville Chapter), the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the Nashville Arts Coalition, the Association of Non-Profit Executives, Center for Nonprofit Management, Nashville Downtown Partnership and the Nashville City Club. In addition, he is a member of the Rotary Club of Nashville, a 2002 graduate of Leadership Nashville and a 2008 graduate of Leadership Music.

Prior to his Nashville appointment, Valentine served for 10 years as executive director of the Oklahoma Philharmonic Society in Oklahoma City, Okla. He also served on the adjunct faculty of Oklahoma City University, where he taught graduate-level arts administration courses. A graduate of the University of Houston, Valentine has served as the chief executive of the Mid-Columbia Symphony in Richland, Wash., the Greensboro (N.C.) Symphony and the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Association, and he served for two years as orchestra manager of the San Antonio Symphony.

During his career, Valentine has helped produce multiple national television and radio broadcasts, many commercial recordings, and numerous local media projects. Other accomplishments include managing several successful endowment campaigns and playing a significant role in leading three orchestras into successful major concert hall renovations, prior to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center project in Nashville.

A longtime member of the League of American Orchestras, Valentine has served at various times as chairman of his Managers Meeting Group and as a member of Policy Committee A, in addition to his current Board service. He is a former member of the Managers Media Committee, has served on a number of other League committees, and has led two negotiations on behalf of the field relating to music copyright issues.

Leah C. Johnson is an experienced communications strategist and entrepreneur who has worked successfully across industries to influence outcomes and lead change. Currently the EVP, Chief Communications, Marketing & Advocacy Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA), she has led teams and advised Fortune 250 CEOs, nonprofits, and high-level political campaigns on how to define and promote brand value while navigating complex, challenging environments.

Leah is at the nexus of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ ongoing transformation into a place all New Yorkers can feel welcome. She led the communications campaign for the opening of the reimagined David Geffen Hall, where among her many duties she drove inclusion benchmarks resulting in 42% Minority & Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) participation, 51% of the workforce from underrepresented communities, and a job training program which resulted in long-term employment for individuals from the local community.

Her work is vital in expanding audiences at LCPA, and she is centering new, accessible ticketing models - including "Choose What You Pay" - and deep community engagement practices. Leah is also spearheading an ambitious participatory planning process with local stakeholders to reimagine the Amsterdam Avenue side of Lincoln Center's campus to make it a more welcoming space that better serves close neighbors, including residents of NYC Housing Authority campuses at Amsterdam Houses and Addition. She also leads the "Legacies of San Juan Hill" project as part of an ongoing commitment to confront injustices in Lincoln Center's founding history. A digital hub with scholarly essays, interviews, photography, video, and more, it explores the Manhattan neighborhood that existed prior to Lincoln Center's construction and uplifts the stories of the people who lived in the neighborhood and the arts and culture that flourished there.

Leah sits on numerous boards, including New York Public Radio and the Museum of the City of New York, and is also a Vice Chair of the New York City Cultural Institutions Group. She is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a B.A. in Psychology. A Brooklyn native, Leah makes her home in East Harlem with her husband and daughter.

Alexis Ligon Holloway is a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University whose multi-sited research spans the United States. Her research involves racial and aesthetic hierarchies, identity formation, performance, and critical race theory.

Marcia Sells became the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Metropolitan Opera in 2021. Charged with moving the Met Opera’s diversity equity and inclusion programming in collaboration with all divisions of the Met to realize the goals the Met announced on June10, 2020. Her move to the Met followed her tenure as Associate Dean & Dean of Students at Harvard Law School and over 13 years at Columbia University, first as Associate Vice President, Program Development and Initiatives, for the office of Government and Community Affairs and then adding Associate Dean in the School of the Arts for Outreach & Education at Columbia University.

Prior to working at Columbia University in 2002, Marcia held a variety of progressively responsible positions in academia, the private sector and public service including: Educational Consultant for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Vice President of Employee and Organizational Development for Reuters America, Vice President of Organizational Development & Human Resources, and Vice President Player Education and Development for the National Basketball Association, Dean of Students at Columbia University School of Law, and Assistant District Attorney trying rape and child abuse cases for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.

Predating her career as a lawyer and in academia, she began her life in New York City over 40 years ago, working for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Columbia University School of Law and received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College. Marcia remains a member of the New York Bar and retired from Connecticut Bar.

An accomplished instrumental artist, Alex Laing’s work represents a modern take on so-called ‘classical’ practice. Active as a performing and teaching artist, he is committed to exploring the push and pull between a legacy art form and its unfixed future. In short, he believes that ‘music isn’t just sound; it’s sounds, words, and people.’

Alex is fortunate to have garnered honors and awards in his career, most recently being recognized with a 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and named one of Musical America's Professionals of the Year for 2017.

In addition to his work with The Phoenix Symphony, he is frequently sought as a collaborator. Recent seasons have finding him contributing his sound in a range of other projects including: as a soloist with the Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall; with Lawrence Brownlee (in the world premiere of Tyshawn Sorey’s Cycle of My Being); with the Re-Collective Orchestra (in the 2019 soundtrack recording of Disney’s The Lion King), and as a member of Gateways Festival Orchestra.

Alex has been an invited speaker to the annual conferences of both the Association of British Orchestras and the League of American Orchestras where, in 2019 he was a keynote speaker. As a teacher he has been a partner with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program, and a faculty member for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), the League of American Orchestras 'Essentials of Orchestra Management Seminar’, and the Juilliard School’s Evening Division. His most recent collaboration brings him into a new medium: joining the creative team for From The Top (FTT) the nationally broadcast radio show and platform for young musicians.

Alex is honored to lead a faculty of ‘adult accomplices’ for the YOLA National Institute, a year round program for young musicians of color who think critically about the arts and actively seek opportunities to question the role of music in society and their lives. He serves on the board of directors for Gateways Music Festival and Arizona School for the Arts.

A graduate of Northwestern University, he received his master's degree in Orchestral Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, an artist's diploma from the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam and a certificate in nonprofit management from Arizona State University's Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.

Renowned for their dynamic and captivating performances, the Gateways Brass Collective seamlessly blends traditional brass quintet repertoire with explorations into jazz and beyond. The Collective is frequently sought after for engaging performances, enlightening master classes, enriching clinics, and meaningful community engagement activities. In the upcoming 2023-24 season, the Collective is set to grace stages in notable cities such as Rochester, NY, New York City, Chicago, IL, Salt Lake City, UT, among others, further expanding their reach and impact.

An ensemble of the Gateways Music Festival, whose mission is to support and connect professional classical musicians of African descent and enlighten and inspire communities through the power of performance, the Brass Collective was founded in 2018 and maintains an active touring schedule of performances, master classes, demonstrations, clinics, and community engagement activities across the United States.

In addition to regularly participating in the Gateways Music Festival and maintaining active performance careers, members of the Brass Collective are dedicated educators whose love of music is matched by their dedication, passion, and commitment to community and learning. Each member’s journey to the stage demonstrates perseverance, a love for the art form, and a genuine interest in paving the way for others to succeed in music.