Staff

Executive Director

CHAD COOPER

Chad joined the BKCM’s Board of Trustees in July of 2014 and served as its Treasurer before joining the staff as Executive Director in August of 2016. Before BKCM, Chad was a Managing Director in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Bank Securities where he worked for over 15 years covering public and private real estate companies, investment managers and private equity platforms.

Prior to Deutsche Bank, Chad worked for four years at the St. Louis Development Corporation, the economic development agency of the City of St. Louis, Missouri. There, he designed and implemented community and economic development programs targeted towards alleviating poverty in some of the most economically distressed neighborhoods in St. Louis and East St. Louis. During his time in St. Louis, Chad also co-founded a project-based grassroots non-profit organization called Metropolis Saint Louis, whose mission it was to foster greater engagement of young people in city revitalization efforts.

Like many of the staff and board members at the BKCM, Chad was drawn to the organization by a love of music. It is a thread that connects many joyful and formative experiences in his life, from nervously singing in school plays before his 5th grade classmates; to performing timeless jazz standards in college with the Yale Whiffenpoofs; to the joy he experiences today seeing how music makes his two young sons instantly and ecstatically happy.

Chad is a novice guitar and piano player, having just started piano lessons (and not sounding very good yet). Chad earned his MBA from Stanford and his BA from Yale.

Acting Director of Administration 

MICHAELA MECHLOVITZ

Michal Mechlovitz joined the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music team in 2012. She has worn many hats at BKCM over the years from Gala Coordinator, to Human Resources Manager, to Instrument Explorers Teaching Assistant, and is excited to apply her years of experience and love for BKCM and its mission to her new position as Acting Director of Administration.

Michal is a born and bred Brooklynite. She has always loved her lively home borough for its diversity of culture and counts herself lucky to live in a city where she can hear music from different traditions and practices from around the world on any given night. She’s proud of BKCM’s work to extend opportunities in music education and therapy to the spitfire and tenacious people of her home city regardless of age, level, ability, and limitation. She loves being part of a team that believes music is for everyone.

Michal is a classically trained mezzo soprano, holding a degree in voice performance from the Boston Conservatory. She has a strong affinity for 20th century and contemporary music, particularly the French repertoire and the work that came out the context of the World War period. What she’s always loved most about classical singing is the crossing of master music and poetry at iconoclast historical checkpoints. She loves absorbing languages and the written word, and has collaborated on writing projects with fellow musicians and music projects with performance artists. She has a taste for art with attitude that’s rebellious, provocative, and challenges form and the status quo.

When Michal is not humming through the halls of BKCM, you can find her throwing clay or at the beach.

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

MELODY JOHNSON ABERG

Melody Johnson Aberg worked in book publishing for a decade, marketing a wide variety of titles from Random House and Workman Publishing, before establishing a freelance career in copywriting and ghostwriting. Today she is thrilled to be reunited with her first love, music, in a marketing role.

After singing her whole life and attending Baltimore School for the Arts and Northwestern University as a vocal performance major, it became her dream to one day promote an organization that provides quality music education and nurtures the performing arts in her community.

Melody’s favorite audience is now her two little boys, though she occasionally sings in live performances and recording projects. She provided backing vocals on Policy, the 2015 debut solo album from Will Butler of Arcade Fire (Merge Records). She is also a former BKCM Chorale member!

CONTROLLER

SHAMEEZA CHANDARPAL

INSTITUTIONAL GIVING MANAGER

ALICE JONES

Alice joined BKCM’s development team in 2015. In addition to coordinating institutional giving and curating the chamber series Parlour Room Sessions at the Conservatory, she is an active contemporary classical flutist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at both CUNY Queensborough Community College and SUNY Purchase College. Her research and pedagogical interests focus on the intersection between aesthetics and music cognition: the place where listener, performer, and composer meet. 

Mario Davidovsky referred to Alice as “the flute player who could really play” and Fanfare Magazine called her 2017 album “pretty music faultless.” She is committed to premiering new chamber music and performs regularly in conText, Ensemble 365, Fiati Five, and The Curiosity Cabinet, whose multidisciplinary events combine music with narration, art, puppetry, and dance.

Before joining BKCM, Alice was a Writing Fellow at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College and taught music for several years at the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College. She has received awards for musicological research and writing, teaching, and performance from SUNY Purchase, CUNY Queens College, the CUNY Graduate Center, and the National Flute Association. 

Her favorite thing about music is its richness as a starting point for thinking about everything else in this world—culture, history, sociology, physics, aesthetics, economics, politics—on top of being fun to play and listen to.

Alice graduated from Yale University (BA), SUNY Purchase (MM, AD), and the CUNY Graduate Center (DMA). When she’s not musicking, she’s likely walking her music-loving dog, Marcel (after the flutist, Moyse), or making ice cream.

www.alicehjones.com   www.drjonesmusic.me

EVENTS MANAGER

ARYEH KOBRINSKY

FINANCE & SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

MIRANDA KNUTSON

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE

MICHELE YAMAMOTO

OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE

MAX ROBB

MARKETING ASSISTANT

SYDNEY HILL

FINANCE ASSISTANT

KELLI LONG-JATTA

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

ANNIKA JERMYN

HEAD REGISTRAR

FATIMA JIHADA

REGISTRAR & OPERATIONS SPECIALIST

DOUGLAS BRADFORD

REGISTRAR & OPERATIONS SPECIALIST

KYLE WILSON

Kyle Wilson has been an active member of the creative music community in New York City since 2003. With over a decade of arts administration and performance experience, he continues to strive to make inspiring music, forge new creative collaborations and build community through the arts.

Before joining BKCM, Kyle worked in Student Success Advising and Academic Affairs at his alma mater, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. It was here that he developed a passion for student affairs, academic and career advising, curriculum development and social justice issues within higher education.

As a saxophonist, he is involved with an eclectic variety of musical projects, including The Martin Nevin Group, Ben van Gelder’s Medallion, Noah Garabedian’s Big Butter and The Egg Men, The Danny Fischer-Lochhead Large Ensemble, The Slim Tones and SHWILSON. Under the electro-psych alias of SHWILSON, Kyle explores the versatility of Casio keyboards and synthesizers inspired by the sounds of vintage horror movies, library music and video games. He has released two albums with this project and has recorded on many others.

kylewilsonmusic.com

MUSIC PARTNERS DIRECTOR

DOROTHY SAVITCH

Dorothy Savitch has led the Music Partners program since 1996, developing fully enriched, sequential programs that build upon students’ skills from year to year. Under Dorothy’s guidance, Music Partners has grown from six sites with 700 students to 34 sites with 4,500 participants. Dorothy has expanded the course offerings to meet the needs and interests of our diverse community, including chorus for seniors citizens, West African Drumming, GarageBand Songwriting and programs for toddlers and pre-kindergarten students. Dorothy has been on the BKCM faculty since 1989, and prior to becoming Program Director of Music Partners, she taught music theory, history, classical guitar, chorus and recorder. In 2002, Dorothy Savitch was also named as the first Music Director of the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra. Since 1997, Ms. Savitch has also been Music Director of Long Island’s Sound Symphony Orchestra. Since her tenure began, both orchestras have grown and expanded into two of the finest community ensembles in the New York metropolitan area. They have received high praise for their vibrant performances and expansive repertoire. Before her transition to the podium, Ms. Savitch studied the classical guitar with Christopher Parkening and Vicente Gomez, and toured throughout the West Coast. She received music degrees from Columbia University and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Her conducting teachers include Harold Farberman and Maurice Peress.

MUSIC PARTNERS ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

SHERI GOTTLIEB

MUSIC THERAPY DIRECTOR

TOBY WILLIAMS

COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL DIRECTOR

BRIAN DRYE

SUZUKI DIRECTOR

JULIANNE CARNEY-CHUNG

Suzuki Program Director Violinist Julianne Carney-Chung has led the BKCM Suzuki Program since 2009. An active and versatile performer, from classical to rock to improvisation, Julianne has studied Suzuki pedagogy extensively, including completing the Teacher Training Program at the preeminent School for Strings, under Allen Lieb and Louise Behrend. Prior to her tenure at BKCM, Julianne was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and a music fellow at OMI Arts Center. Under Julianne’s leadership, the BKCM Suzuki Program has become a thriving center for excellence and community, nearly doubling in size and offering expanded teen programming, an early childhood component and a five-day summer camp. Julianne is also developing a pedagogy of improvisation for Suzuki students, using sonic storytelling and Soundpainting, an interdisciplinary conducting language of gestures for guiding improvisation.

SUZUKI ASSISTANT

ALISA BRUZA

MUSIC THERAPY ONSITE COORDINATOR

CHRISTINA STERRETT

Christina Sterrett holds a Master’s degree in music therapy from New York University, is a Board Certified Music Therapist with the American Music Therapy Association, and is a New York State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist.  Christina has been part of the Brooklyn Conservatory’s Music Therapy Department since 2010 and works with clients of all ages to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs.  She has extensive experience working with children with developmental delays in early childhood settings and has also worked in public and private school settings.  Christina is currently the Onsite Clinical Coordinator and Lead Onsite Music Therapist for the Brooklyn Conservatory’s Onsite Music Therapy Program ,and also works at several of the Conservatory’s outreach programs in schools throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan.

BROOKLYN CONSERVATORY CHORALE DIRECTOR

NELLY VUKSIC

Name: Nelly Vuksic

From: Argentina, but I have been “in music all my life”

I started teaching music in…1997

I started teaching at the Conservatory in… 2005

My inspiration: Music itself, in my family singing and playing music was a regular activity for all of us and I loved it. In addition, my first piano teacher opened to me a new world of classical music that increased my love and interest in it.

Few people know that I… have been active in different areas of music , as a pianist, music education teacher at all levels and as a singer, (Tangos and French songs with my husband at the piano before focusing in conducting. I think that making music and feeling a real connection with all its elements is one of the most healthy activities in life, physical, mental and emotionally.

Education: Rosario University (Argentina) Profesora Nacional de Musica – Music Education 
Ball State University – Master of Arts, Conducting

I play and teach: Chorus and orchestra conducting , piano, voice

My or other artistic/musical endeavors: At the moment I direct the Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale , and teach voice and piano privately. In the past : Director of the Americas Vocal Ensemble, UN Singers, Chamber Chorus of New York, Coros del Tolima (Colombia) others. Guest conducting and collaborations: American Composers Orchestra, American Choral Directors, NY Choral Society, Village Chorale, Carl Orff Association, America Society and many others.

Among some of other music related activities I have done, I can mention conducting workshops on Latin American Music and on Music Education in Queens College, Friends Seminary, Pro-Musica Rosario (Argentina) and Ministerio de Cultura de Huelva (Spain), serving as a grant panelist for the NY Department of Cultural Affairs, Meet the Composer, North South Consonance and Americas Society and I have recorded Music of the Americas for Opus One, New Port Classics, Premier, and 4Tay Records.