01

Beth Morrison

President & Creative Producer

Recipient of the Musical America Award for Best Artist of the Year and Agent of Change and a Kennedy Center Next50 Honoree, Beth Morrison is hailed as a “contemporary opera mastermind” (LA Times) and “a powerhouse leading the industry to new heights” (WQXR), Beth Morrison is an opera and theatre producer, President and Creative Producer of Beth Morrison Projects, and Founding co-Director of the PROTOTYPE Festival.

Beth created Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) in 2006 to identify and support the work of emerging and established living composers, and to create a new kind of opera (“Beth Morrison is her own genre”-Opera News). BMP is celebrated as having been an industry disruptor and is now a tastemaker at the forefront of musical and theatrical innovation by commissioning, developing, producing and touring the groundbreaking new works of a diverse group of living composers and their collaborators, which take the form of opera-theatre, music-theatre, and vocal-theatre.

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02

Sam Linden

Executive Director

Sam Linden (he/him) comes to BMP from TDC, a Boston-based nonprofit consulting firm working across the arts and culture sector. There, his client work included shepherding business planning processes, grantmaking strategies, financial turnarounds, and large-scale mergers for performing arts institutions, funders, museums, and arts service organizations. Prior to TDC, Sam was the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at Yale Repertory Theater. Earlier in his career, he held roles in strategy, marketing, and operations at LaPlaca Cohen, Center Theater Group, the Yale Cabaret, and various community-based arts education organizations.

Sam holds a BA with honors in music from Harvard University, an MFA in Theater Management from the Yale School of Drama, and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. As a composer, lyricist, and librettist, he is an alumni of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner Andrew and their rescue cat, Latke, where he is an avid museum-goer, a former classical saxophonist, and a singer in the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus.

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03

Board Leadership

  • Nancy Sanders
    Board Chair
  • Beth Morrison
    President
  • Dr. Michael Siegal, M.D., Ph.D.
    Vice-chair
  • Richard Ellingsen
    Vice-chair
  • Miles Benickes
    Treasurer
  • Charlotte Isaacs
    Secretary
  • Kiki Ramos Gindler

  • Mark Wanek

  • Scott Lord

  • Helen Little

  • Greg Spears

  • Ralph Dandrea

  • Sandy Pressman

  • Kamala Sankaram

  • Morris Robinson

  • Marian Godfrey

  • Fred Peters

  • Nicholas Firth

  • Susan Feder
  • Astrid Baumgardner

 

ADVISORY BOARD

  • Linda Brumbach
  • Renée Fleming
  • Nathan Gunn
  • David Howse
  • Colleen Jennings-Roggensack
  • Joseph V. Melillo

EMERITUS BOARD

  • Peggy Sullivan
  • Gregory Gordon
  • Jane Gullong
  • Judy Freedman
  • David Gindler
  • Sue Bienkowski
  • Pamela Drexel
  • Lynn Loacker

04

Staff

Spencer Armstrong

2024 Mellon Producing Fellow

Spencer Armstrong is a producer and creator of original works. In New York, his productions have been presented at HERE Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, The Tank NYC, The Dramatists Guild Fund, and Dixon Place. Internationally, he has worked on premiers at The Greek National Opera in Athens, Greece, The Bienal Arte Joven in Buenos Aires, Argentina, The Sibiu International Theater Festival in Sibiu, Romania, Sourirwamena National Debate in Pori, Finland, and the In.Fo.MAT Festival Athens, Greece.. He has had the pleasure of working with New York’s leading downtown ensembles, including Elevator Repair Service, Theater Mitu, Tectonic Theater Project, 600 highwaymen, and SITI Company. Spencer is a proud alum of The Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors Lab 2019 and The Beth Morrison Producers Academy 2022.

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Cynthia Bastidas

Bookkeeper

Cynthia is a NYC based actor and filmmaker from California’s Imperial Valley. She has worked as a voiceover artist, in TV commercials and on stage and screen.

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Sarah Bellin

Prototype Festival Producer

Sarah Bellin, is an internationally active producer, director and musician for stage and film. During Sarah’s tenure as Managing Director for NYC’s critically acclaimed theatre company BEDLAM, she spearheaded the production of the company’s innovative Shakespearean New Media Series. As Co-founder and Producing Director for the Swiss performance group Kollektiv-20-14, Sarah oversaw the fundraising and producing efforts of a diverse body of experimental works that have toured extensively throughout the German-speaking world.

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Noel Holloway

Development Associate

Noel is a nonprofit fundraiser and classically trained percussionist who is thrilled to be joining the BMP team. With degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Miami, they look forward to blending their passion for contemporary chamber music with fundraising to support BMP’s vision for cutting-edge opera and vocal theater. Previously, they held positions at the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Adrienne Arsht Center.
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Mia Kong

Artistic & Management Assistant

Mia Kong is an arts administrator and classically trained singer native to Brooklyn, NY. She holds a B.M. in Music Business with a Vocal Emphasis from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and a M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from NYU Steinhardt. She has worked as an administrator and educator at organizations such as Reva Inc and most recently the Brooklyn Music School. She is thrilled to join the BMP team as the Artistic & Management Assistant.

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Julia Mendes

Senior Associate Producer

Julia Mendes first worked with Beth Morrison Projects as the Associate Producer for the 2023 PROTOTYPE Festival and is excited to join the organization full time as Senior Associate Producer. She has worked as a producer and administrator for a range of other organizations in the fields of music, theater, and film, including Mabou Mines, Sundance Institute, Second Stage Theater, and NJPAC, and is a proud graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is thrilled to be part of the BMP team, helping bring innovative new music into the world.

 

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Roderick Murray

Director of Production

Roderick Murray (in the beforetimes he was a lighting designer) The majority of his work has been with dance and music, both experimental and traditional, and experimental operas.

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Betsy Podsiadlo

2023 Mellon Producing Fellow

Betsy Podsiadlo is the 2023 Mellon Producing Fellow joining the BMP team after finishing her Master’s in Voice at The New School this May. In addition to her work as a producer Betsy is an active composer, performer, songwriter, and educator with specializations in new opera, choral music, and traditional Appalachian styles. She hopes to use her training from the BMP Producer Academy and the Mellon fellowship to create performances by and for rural Appalachian artists.
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Sheree Spencer

2024 Mellon Producing Fellow

Sheree Spencer is thrilled to be joining the BMP team as one of the 2024 Mellon Producing Fellows! Finding creative balance as a producer, stage director and performing artist, Sheree has a strong passion for interdisciplinary art expressions that blur the lines between music, theatre and opera. The opportunity to relocate to NYC for this opportunity is literally a dream come true for Sheree as she continues to expand her reach as a producer in both Canada and the United States.

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Patty TBD

Communications & Marketing Coordinator

Patty TBD is a designer.

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Liz Uchtman

General Manager

Liz is thrilled to be joining the Beth Morrison Projects team as the General Manager. Prior to joining BMP, Liz was the General Manager at Ensemble Studio Theatre, supporting the development of provocative and authentic new plays.

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Victoria Voketaitis

Director of Touring

Victoria Voketaitis is thrilled to join BMP after several years as a Performing Arts Consultant working with theater and music companies, along with serving as Artistic Producer for the documentary Rachmaninoff Revisited. An accomplished music industry executive, she worked for Steinway & Sons as Administrator of Concert and Artist Activities, co-producing the company’s 150th Anniversary concert series at Carnegie Hall.

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Kendra Wieneke

Director of Development

Kendra Wieneke (she/her) has enjoyed a diverse career as a music educator, classical singer, and nonprofit administrator and is thrilled to join the team at BMP after six years working in higher education advancement. She holds degrees in music education and vocal performance from Eastman School of Music and in arts administration from Florida State University. She is a proud Chicago native, dedicated yogi, and lives in New York with her rescue pup Johann Sebastian Chewbacca, known to friends as Chewie.

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05

Board Portal

Our board portal is a resource for you to have access to all the necessary information you need on BMP. The board portal is updated before and after each board meeting for your convenience.
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