Lisa Barksdale

Program Coordinator, Daily Orchestra Program/Resident Musician
Lisa Barksdale, violinist and Daily Orchestra Program Coordinator, has been a member of the CMW team since 2012. Lisa teaches eager young students in both orchestra and individual lessons and coordinates and supports the mentors who volunteer with the DOP. Lisa earned both a Master of Music and Performance Diploma at Boston University under the guidance of violinist Lucia Lin. Prior to that she earned a Bachelor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with violinist Vartan Manoogian. Since joining CMW Lisa has enjoyed the many opportunities she’s had to explore a variety of her musical interests, including playing the Baroque violin with the Providence Baroque Chamber Orchestra. Lisa lives in Providence with her husband, daughter, and one canine adoptee.

Minna Choi

Fellowship Program Director / Resident Musician
Minna Choi, violinist, is part of the “lifer club” at CMW and serves as the Fellowship Program Director. A graduate of Brown University, Minna has been a resident musician since CMW’s opening season and was a founding member of the Providence String Quartet. She earned her Master of Music in Violin Performance from the Hartt School of Music, where she was a winner of the Miami String Quartet competition. Minna has performed with the Boston Philharmonic and Rhode Island Philharmonic, and with the Borromeo, Turtle Island, and St. Lawrence String Quartets and violist Kim Kashkashian. Influential teachers include Eric Rosenblith, Katie Lansdale, and Lois Finkel. Minna’s interest in education began in her undergraduate years, and she is passionate about music education as a vehicle for youth development. She lives in Providence with her husband, two children and a beloved orange tabby cat. When not playing or teaching music, Minna enjoys trying out new recipes, practicing yoga, and exploring hikes in the New England area.

Elizabeth Cox

Director of Communications & Administration
Liz grew up in Boston and attended Boston University as a communications major until she quit to play drums and sing in a band. Her ensemble Combustible Edison recorded on the Subpop label, toured worldwide, and scored the film Four Rooms, collaborating with director Quentin Tarantino. Liz later quit showbiz, bought a fixer-upper in Pawtuxet Village and completed a Psychology and Women’s Studies degree at the University of Rhode Island. Liz volunteers for Vintage Pet Rescue, an organization that provides shelter and care for homeless senior, hospice, and special needs dogs. She often claims she will get back to writing short fiction “any day now.”

Kimberly Fang

Resident Musician
Kimberly Fang, violinist, is a
native of Florida and was always curious about what else the world had to offer. Once she got a taste of the transformative power of music as a teen, she was determined to bring that same awe-inspiring experience to the next generation. She graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance and music education and earned a Masters in Violin Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Before coming to CMW, Kimberly lived in Taipei, teaching English and freelancing as an opportunity to learn more about her heritage and to expand her teaching experiences. She is also active in the New England area, playing with several orchestras and teaching at various other schools. In her spare time, she loves to sing and was a part of a collegiate a cappella group, the Northwestern University Treblemakers.

Jesse Holstein

Associate Director / Senior Resident Musician
Jesse Holstein, violinist and violist, has been a Resident Musician at CMW since 2001. He was a founding member of the Providence String Quartet, the original ensemble in residence at CMW. Prior to studying with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin and James Buswell at New England Conservatory, he worked with Philipp Naegele and Diana Peele in his native Western Mass. Jesse is currently concertmaster of the New Bedford Symphony. He has performed at the Bravo! Festival in Vail, Colorado, the Montana Chamber Music Festival, the Bay Chamber Concerts, the Worcester Chamber Music Society, The South Coast Chamber Music Series, the Rhode Island Chamber Music Concerts, and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, among others. Jesse has been a  Violin Professeur at L’Ecole de Musique, Dessaix Baptiste in Haiti and is currently on the faculty at Brown University. Some of his life forces are mindfulness, running, animals, CMW, and visiting Donegal, Ireland with his amazing partner, violinist Ealaín McMullin.

Becca Kasdan

Resident Musician
Becca, violinist, is equally passionate about teaching, performance, and community engagement. Becca received a DMA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she studied with Meg Freivogel of the Jupiter String Quartet and taught applied violin lessons and chamber music. Previously, Becca studied with Violaine Melancon at McGill University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. During the summer, Becca is a violin faculty member at Luzerne Music Center and the Easton Chamber Music Festival. She has presented masterclasses at the Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Workshop, ASTA National Conference, Tonebase Violin, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and DePauw University. Prior to CMW, Becca was a Core Teaching Artist with Apollo’s Fire- the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. Becca is the recipient of the Johns Hopkins President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts and currently serves on the Board for the Volunteer Musicians for the Arts.

Hilary Jansen

Director of Philanthropic Engagement
Hilary has spent over fifteen years in arts administration and education. Prior to joining CMW, she spent ten years at Yamaha Artist Services in New York, where she managed projects and publicity for Yamaha artists, pianos, partners, and venues nationwide. Concurrently, Hilary earned a doctoral degree in Musicology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her dissertation asks how the fate of a symphony orchestra’s artistic and social relevance hinges on a series of distinct artistic, managerial, structural, and philosophical choices, and looks to how the orchestral institution can actively engage with the experiences of its community in order to create a musical platform for social justice. Hilary lives in Providence with her husband, Ricky, and their two sons, Sai and Ash.

Chloë Kline

Education Director / Resident Musician
Chloë Kline, violist, is CMW’s Education Director. Chloë’s practice focuses on the intersection of creative youth development, equity and inclusion, and the field of classical music. She believes deeply in the importance of inquiry and creative practice for young people as individuals and as community members. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in viola performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she was a student of Martha Katz. Chloë earned a Master’s degree in Arts in Education from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in 2005, and joined CMW the following year as a member of the Fellowship Program’s pilot class. Chloë is also a faculty member with the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles National Institute.

Willy Kubas

Family Engagement Coordinator
Willy is a vocalist, producer, and music educator. They received a BM in Contemporary Improvisation (Voice) at New England Conservatory in 2020. They have attended programs at The Banff Center, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. A large part of their practice reflects the idea that art has the capacity to voice complex conversations simultaneously, as does life. In their current project, almond, they use their relationship to the voice as a touchstone in their work. While Kubas is from New Jersey, they currently live in Federal Hill, Providence RI.

Walter Muelling

Teaching Artist
Walter, a violist, joined the staff of CMW in the fall of 2021. He holds a BME in both general and instrumental music education from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, a MM in Music Education from Boston University, and is currently a graduate assistant in his third year in the Ph.D. in Education program at the University of Rhode Island. He has a diverse musical background including multi-genre, non-traditional, and improvisatory styles and has previously taught in Wisconsin and Alaska. He studied viola with Dee Martz and Klara Fenyö Bahcall, violin with Steven Bjella, cello with Lawrence Leviton, and orchestral conducting with Dylan Chmura-Moore. 

AlexisMarie Nelson

Program Coordinator / Associate Resident Musician
AlexisMarie was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2012, she graduated from Community MusicWorks after six years of studying violin and eventually viola with Jesse Holstein. It was during this time that she developed a true love and respect for music and the way it connected the worlds around her. In the years since graduating, Alexis has journeyed to explore both her love of music and early childhood development by studying viola performance with John Sumerlin and Leonard Matczynski at Rhode Island College and the Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee, respectively, spending two years in AmeriCorps through Ready2Learn Providence, and as a certified teacher’s assistant in Pre-K classes throughout the city. She has most recently spent two years as a teaching artist with the Newport String Project, and completed a two-year Alumni Fellowship with CMW. Alexis is looking forward to using her unique perspective as an alumni to connect, create, and dream with the current students at CMW. 

Kelly Reed

Managing Director
Kelly has worked in non-profit management for over 22 years. Before coming to CMW, she served as the Administrative Director of A Far Cry, Boston’s self-conducted chamber orchestra. Prior to that, she served as Director of Operations of Emmanuel Church in Boston. In addition to management, Kelly has taught humanities courses, including music history, at Northeastern University and the Art Institute of Boston. She was a member of the Community Advisory Board of WGBH, and currently serves on the Board of Emmanuel Music. In 2015, she was awarded a fellowship through the RI Foundation to participate in an arts leadership program, Arts Leaders as Cultural Innovators, led by EMC Arts. As an amateur pianist and organist, Kelly has dusted off her organ shoes and participates in CMW’s annual Bach Marathon.

Bryony Romer

Institutional Relations
Bryony has over 25 years of experience in fundraising, organizational development, strategic planning, and project management. She works both with arts and education organizations deeply rooted in local communities and national performing arts and service organizations. Clients have included the American Theatre Wing, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Chamber Music America, Creative Capital, Dances For A Variable Population, Hook Arts Media, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Jalopy Theatre and School of Music, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation, and the Writers Guild Initiative.

Sebastian Ruth

Founder & Artistic Director / Resident Musician
Sebastian, CMW’s Founder & Artistic Director, is a performer, educator, and organizer. Sebastian started working on the ideas for CMW with many colleagues and advisors in 1997, taking particular inspiration from philosopher and educator Maxine Greene.

Sebastian has been lucky to learn from many teachers in music and otherwise, including Rolfe Sokol, Eric Rosenblith, Lois Finkel, Ted Sizer, Kim Kashkashian, and the good people at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca New York.

Sebastian teaches and performs on violin and viola and has had the opportunity to create and lead courses on the connection of music, social justice, and community practice at Yale School of Music, Brown University, the online platform Coursera, and through College Unbound. He is the recipient of a 2010 MacArthur Fellowship, recognized for “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician,” and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Brown University.

Sebastian is married to violinist Minna Choi and they live in Providence with their two daughters and a lovely cat.

Lisa Sailer

Resident Musician
Lisa, a violist, directs all of the ensembles in CMW’s Daily Orchestra Program. A certified Alexander Technique teacher, Lisa incorporates body awareness and freedom of movement into her string teaching. She has been a guest Alexander Technique teacher and Teaching Assistant at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. Her Alexander Technique practice has led her to teach workshops from Alaska to Florida and many places in between, and more recently, to work one-on-one with CMW faculty members. Before joining CMW, she taught strings in several programs throughout the Boston area and was a Teaching Artist Fellow in the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s META (Music Teachers/Teaching Artists) Fellowship’s first cohort. Lisa earned a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from SUNY Purchase and a Master of Music in viola performance from The Boston Conservatory. When not playing or teaching music, she can be found doting upon her three cats and her sourdough starter.

Erik Talley

Luthier/Building Manager
Erik is a violist, strings teacher, and luthier who has been repairing instruments for CMW since the early 2000’s. He has taught instrument repair techniques to CMW fellows and is preparing to expand the program to CMW students. He has been working as a Luthier since 1999 and runs his own shop in the Providence area. In 2022 Erik began working as CMW’s Building Manager, handling maintenance and day-to-day operations of
CMW’s Westminster location. Erik also serves as the Recreation Director for the Woonasquatucket River Watershed council, leading canoe and kayak trips, hikes, and bike rides to increase community engagement with the river.

Adrienne Taylor

Resident Musician
Adrienne, cellist, draws inspiration from collaborations with other artists in music, theater, and dance. Performance collaborations include Trinity Repertory Company, Newport Contemporary Ballet, the Kronos Quartet, the Sphinx Virtuosi and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. This year Adrienne and long-time collaborative partner Shura Baryshnikov premiered Two, an original cello and dance performance experiment that explores the dancer/musician and composer/choreographer relationship and the intertwining of composed and improvised material. Driven by the belief that music can make meaningful change in people and communities, Adrienne founded the Daily Orchestra Program at Community MusicWorks following her experience as a Sistema Fellow at New England Conservatory. Adrienne also writes music, and a MacColl Johnson Composition Fellowship provided her with the opportunity to write Lullabies for string quartet, premiered this season by the MusicWorks Collective.

Miguel Vásquez

Resident Musician
Miguel, a cellist, is an active performer and educator in the New England area. Miguel has participated in several music festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center in 2017 and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, where he was part of their 2009 – 2013 tours, as well as in their Carnegie Hall concert in 2010. Miguel graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2014 from Longy School of Music of Bard College and Emerson College in Boston, where he studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra cellist Mihail Jojatu. In 2016, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Cello Performance from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Borromeo Quartet cellist Yeesun Kim.

Kamyron Williams

Resident Musician
Kamyron, a cellist, is originally from Tampa (FL) where his musical training started when his best friend persuaded him to join the middle school orchestra program in order to have a class together. This spontaneous entrance into the orchestra community has since led him to an abundance of opportunities as a performer, collaborator, and educator. While Kamyron has performed on stages across the Midwest and New England, his work with diversity-oriented arts organizations, ensembles, and initiatives has garnered significant attention, in the “American Black Journal” series on PBS and NPR Michigan Radio. After both performing and leading community outreach for the Sphinx Organization, he has dedicated his musical passion to tackling the challenges of equity, attendance, and enthusiasm that classical music still struggles to overcome. Kamyron holds degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (B.M.) and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance (M.M. and Specialist Degree).