Santa Rosa Symphony announces new board members and chairs for 2017-2018
The Santa Rosa Symphony has announced five new appointments to its board of directors. They are Susan Flannery Adams of Petaluma, Corinne Antipa of Santa Rosa, Liz Martin of Santa Rosa, Robert May of Windsor and Shelby Milanez of Santa Rosa.
Jamei Haswell steps up this year as Board Chair, while Alan Seidenfeld fills her former role as Vice-chair. Ron LaBruzzo is the new Treasurer and Linda Castiglioni continues her duties as Secretary.
Haswell says of the appointments, "Collectively, these new board members represent a cross section of expertise and talent. Their skill sets include university business faculty, classical composition, senior care living, management, television and film production and contemporary dance. Their strengths will enable the Symphony to continue to become even more community centered."
New Board Member Biographies
Susan Flannery Adams discovered a love of music from her 4th grade band teacher in Middletown, Ohio, who encouraged her to learn the oboe, opening doors of opportunity in her young adult life. An enthusiastic patron of music, Susan Flannery Adams recognizes the importance of engaging our youth in music education and appreciates those who commit to be professional educators and musicians.
Currently a professional faculty member in the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University, Susan teaches undergraduate and MBA classes, coordinates the HR Certificate Program for working professionals, and develops programs designed to connect students with the local business community. Prior to this role, Susan Flannery Adams was an independent consultant, led Human Resources at PNI Sensor Corporation in Santa Rosa, and held senior positions at international consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and Chicago-based senior housing and healthcare provider United Methodist Homes and Services. She holds a BA in International Economics and Cultural Affairs from Valparaiso University, and a Master's degree in Human Resources and Organization Development from the University of San Francisco.
Susan Flannery Adams currently resides in Petaluma, Calif. with her husband Ed and their two boys, Bennett and Charlie (a current member of the SRS Preparatory Orchestra). In her spare time, she enjoys hiking with their yellow lab, growing tomatoes and tending their menagerie of rabbits and chickens. She enjoys actively serving the community through volunteer work for Pepperwood Preserve, the Avon 39 Walk to End Breast Cancer and St. Vincent De Paul schools.
Corinne Antipa is a longtime member of the Santa Rosa Symphony cello section, has an active private studio and is a freelance performer in northern California. She had the great good fortune of studying with Bonnie Hampton and then with Colin Hampton before going to college where the siren song drew her back to dance. Antipa holds a Bachelors and Master degree in dance from Mills College and until this last school year, spent forty years on the faculty of Santa Rosa Junior College teaching dance technique, dance history and choreography. She also has worked in the field of historical dance in reconstruction and performance. The cellist in her as well as the dancer led her to be trained in the Feldenkrais Method in 1994.
Antipa lives in Santa Rosa with a variety of four-footed companions and confides that if not for the good-sense guidance of her parents, she might have chucked it all for a horse, a saddle and the open range.
Liz Martin has been a season ticket holder since 1998, the year she moved to Sonoma County and married Waights Taylor. She had the good fortune to sit behind Sheila Einhorn at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts when the Symphony played there, and Einhorn convinced her to join the Symphony League. Since then she has been involved in raising money to help support the music education programs of the Santa Rosa Symphony, most recently as the Vice President Ongoing Fundraising.
Martin and Taylor have a total of five children and seven grandchildren, all living in the Bay Area. Martin is a retired Realtor with Coldwell Banker.
Robert May is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer of classical music. He has won numerous awards from CAPAC/ASCAP, CBC Radio National Composers Competition, Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation, Canadian Opera Company and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Competition for New Music.
He has studied with renowned composers including Pulitzer prize winning composers Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Bernard Rands and Michael Colgrass. May is a graduate of the Eastman School at the University of Rochester completing his MA in Composition with a minor in Musicology and course work for his PhD.
May also has a long career in gerontology and retirement living, and is currently the Executive Director of Fountaingrove Lodge for Oakmont Senior Living in Santa Rosa, the country’s first LGBT - Continuing Care Retirement Community. He has been involved in the operations of running profitable companies and is responsible for managing human and financial resources, including proven fundraising skills. He has held executive positions for Sunrise and Brookdale Senior Living Corporations and numerous emerging technology ventures.
May is an accomplished classical pianist and an avid collector of fine art inspired by the School of Fantastic Realism. His epicurean interests include fine dining and adding to his collection of fine French Bordeaux and Sonoma wines, along with presenting entertaining talks on wine and food, and Classical music.
Shelby Milanez is a recent transplant to Sonoma County from Brooklyn, New York, where she spent more than a decade supervising the wardrobe departments for various film and television productions. Notable film credits include Margin Call, Oscar-nominated Blue Valentine and BAFTA-nominated An Englishman in New York. Her noteworthy television credits include four seasons of Starz Network’s POWER and three seasons of NBC’s Royal Pains. She has degrees in both Sociology and Gender Studies from the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Although recently relocated with her husband to Santa Rosa, her family has deep ties to Sonoma County, including a great-great-grandfather who was the land grant commissioner for Northern California. She is very excited to integrate into the Sonoma County community her family has been a part of for so long—and to add to it, as she and her husband are expecting their first child this July.
Milanez was an avid supporter of the performing arts in New York and is focused on inspiring and supporting the next generation of artists within Sonoma County. She is an ongoing member of the Junior League Sonoma-Napa as well as the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
