David Edelman

Executive Director, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus

David Edelman joined Big Apple Performing Arts in March of 2005 having most recently served as Executive Director of Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio. He has also served as Associate Producer at Olympia Dukakis’ Whole Theatre, Managing Director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey and Managing Director of the Delaware Theatre Company. David has long volunteered his time in many civic, political and community organizations. In the 1980’s he served two terms as President of the New Jersey Theatre Group, the statewide association of professional theatres and was a founding board member of ArtPride, the state’s advocacy organization. David served as President of the board of the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition, was an early organizer with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and volunteered for GMHC in the early 1980’s. David has served on numerous boards and committees including AIDS Delaware, Sister Cities of Wilmington, the Wilmington Arts Commission, Wilmington Riverfront Business Improvement District, Wilmington Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, the Brandywine Valley Cultural Tourism Planning Committee, the Ohio Department of Education’s Arts Standards Advisory Committee, HRC - Columbus’ Membership Committee, and served as founding President of the Delaware Liberty Fund, a LGBT political action committee. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, earned a MFA in Acting at Rutgers University, and completed the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Steve Smith

Executive Director, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus

Steven F. Smith has served as Executive Director of the BGMC since 1995. Under his leadership, the BGMC’s annual operating budget has grown from $150,000 to $600,000 and increased its annual audience by 200 percent. As a consultant, Steve has worked with small and large choruses in the areas of strategic planning, branding and audience development, and marketing and corporate sponsorship. He has given seminars and served as a panelist for Arts/Boston, GALA Choruses and Chorus America. He also serves as Chairperson of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium, a cooperative association of more than 60 choral groups. He was recently selected by the Massachusetts Cultural Council to participate in a year-long professional development and coaching program for arts administrators at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A magna cum laude graduate of the Arts Management program at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, Steve has served as an arts administrator for 22 years for institutions including Northeastern University, Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, and Karen McFarlane Artists Management.

Joann Usher

Executive Director, Cantus

Joann Usher has recently become the Executive Director for Cantus, a nine voice professional male chamber ensemble. Prior to that, she served as the Executive Director of the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus for eight years. As their first Executive Director, she led the organization through significant growth in subscriber base and contributed income. Usher has over 20 years of non-profit management and fund-raising experience. She has held a variety of administrative roles in a graduate school of theology, social services and community mental health.

Usher serves on the Board of Directors for GALA Choruses. She serves on the Fund Development Committee and chairs its Events Committee. She has also served a three-year term as President of the St. Paul Chapter of Zonta International, a volunteer service group dedicated to improving the status of women in the world.

Usher was appointed by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to serve on an Advisory Committee which has developed the Minneapolis Plan for Arts and Culture, a ten-year strategic plan that defines the role of the city of Minneapolis in supporting the arts and culture.

Anne Howden

President, Anne Howden Consulting

Anne Howden is President of Anne Howden Consulting which provides consulting and education services to nonprofits and foundations throughout the country. Anne Howden Consulting specializes in strategic, business, financial, operations, board, and general organizational advancement through assessment, planning, group facilitation, and educational seminars and presentations.

Anne formed Anne Howden Consulting in 2005. During the prevous ten years she served as Senior Consultant with The Stevens Group, which became LarsonAllen Public Service Group. Prior to joining the Stevens Group, she served in senior financial and administrative roles for major Twin Cities nonprofit social service and arts organizations as well as for local government and private funding organizations. This breadth and depth of experience has provided Anne with very practical perspectives on a wide variety of nonprofit management and financial issues.

In addition to her role as consultant and advisor to many local and national nonprofits and foundations, Anne is a national lecturer, public speaker, and trainer on a variety of organizational management and financial topics. She has served on the faculty of St. Mary’s University; the Council on Foundation’s New Staff Institute, the University of St. Thomas Center for Nonprofit Management, and the Minnesota Council on Foundations New Staff Institute. She is co-author of "Budgeting Your Way to Financial Stability", a publication of LarsonAllen Public Service Group. She holds a master’s degree from the Harvard University School of Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Lawrence C Kaptein

Director of Choral Activities, University of Colorado at Boulder

Dr. Lawrence Kaptein, Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music and Conducting at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is known for the vibrant and exciting sound of his choruses, as well as for his sensitivity, humor, teaching style, and creative programming ideas. Through presentation and rehearsal of selected repertoire, this three-hour session will touch on some of the many and varied aspects of creating a beautiful and energized choral sound: warm-ups, repertoire selection, placement of singers, innovative rehearsal techniques, and conducting gesture that reinforces a vibrant tone. Kaptein comes highly recommended by Colorado artistic directors as well as other GALA directors who have worked with him during his twenty-two year tenure at the University of Colorado.