Board & Committee Members from top left, clockwise: Ellen Rosen, Bill McLaughlin, Chris Rinaldi, Karen Vesely, James Hamlet, Isabela Alvarez, Mary Kate McGrath May, Jonathan Edwards
The Foundation is marking its 2026-27 year with several milestones: honoring two Board Members for their years of service as officers, and welcoming new officers, committee chairs, a Board Member, and several Committee Members. We look forward to the perspectives and expertise they bring to support music organizations throughout Greater Philadelphia.
Honoring Ellen Rosen
In July, our Board President, Ellen Rosen, was succeeded by Chris Rinaldi. Rosen led the Board with a steadiness that comes only from someone who has done the work of understanding where the organization is and where it needs to go. The strategic plan she helped steward stands as a written commitment to who we intend to be and how we intend to get there. Earlier in her Board leadership, she raised her hand in 2019 to establish the Foundation’s first DEI Committee and carried that commitment through three years as Board President, centering our mission, the communities we serve, and equity as a governing value rather than a program add-on. She did this quietly, consistently, and never put it down. Rosen has been a thoughtful, principled, and generous leader and we look forward to celebrating her leadership this fall.
Honoring William McLaughlin, III
William McLaughlin, III has served as a Board Member of the Foundation since 2009, marking many of those years as Vice President, Executive Committee member, and Chair of the Foundation’s largest grantmaking area, Advancement of Music. Throughout those years, McLaughlin has been a steadfast steward of the Foundation’s mission and governance, championing artists, educators, and organizations with insight, rigor, and genuine passion for the art form. McLaughlin has also embodied the highest ideals of fidelity, thoroughness, and quiet dedication to the ideals of Theodore Presser and the generations of musicians whose lives this Foundation has touched.
New Officers & Committee Chairs
We are pleased to announce Board Members who are stepping into important Officer and Committee Chair roles for the 2026-27 year. We’re grateful for their dedication to the Foundation’s mission and look forward to the perspectives and expertise they bring to support music organizations throughout Greater Philadelphia.
Leading the Foundation forward, we are happy to welcome Chris Rinaldi to his new role as Board President. Rinaldi joined the Board of Directors in 2020 and has served on the Capital, Assistance, Finance, DEI, and Executive Committees. As the retired President and CEO of Jacobs Music Company and director on multiple music organization boards, Rinaldi brings a lifelong commitment to music education to this new role.
As he has put it, “Seeing firsthand how the pursuit of music education could transform lives, whether it was the individual focus of highly talented young people advancing to conservatory and performing careers or, more often, the lighting up of a young person’s face when they participated in making music at any level, is when music education became my passion.”
Officers
- President – Chris Rinaldi
- 1st Vice President – Stanford Thompson
- 2nd Vice President – Rollo Dilworth
- Secretary – Sharon Sorokin James
- Treasurer – Mary Jane Bobyock
- Strategic Planning Officer – Ellen Rosen
Chairs
- Advancement of Music – Peter Burwasser
- Assistance to Music Teachers – David Kring
- Capital Support – Ellen Rosen
- Philadelphia Music Education – Stanford Thompson
- Special Projects – William McLaughlin, III
- Scholar Award – Mary Ellen Poole
- Finance – Mary Jane Bobyock
- DEI – Rollo Dilworth
- Nominating & Governance – Sharon Sorokin James
New Board & Committee Members
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards is the CEO and co-founder of FamFrequency Productions and is an educator, music producer and entrepreneur. He has more than a decade of experience in the education space as a teacher, management consultant, and nonprofit director. Edwards joined Teach for America (Rhode Island) after graduating from Brown University and has committed to empowering young people who are historically underrepresented and under-resourced with regard to education and career resources. Edwards is a new Board Member and will be on the Philadelphia Music Education and Nominating & Governance Committees.
Isabela Alvarez
Isabela Alvarez is an Associate in Dilworth Paxson LLP’s Tax and Trusts & Estates Departments. She represents individuals, small and large businesses, and tax-exempt entities in a broad range of areas, including tax planning and filing, trusts and estates, the general taxation of trusts and estates, and charity and foundation formation and governance issues. Alvarez studied violin from a young age and serves on the Board of Settlement Music School’s Mary Louise Curtis Branch and as Vice President of Communications for the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania. She will serve on the Advancement of Music Committee.
James Hamlet
James (Jim) Hamlet is a CPA and a member of Aprio, LLP, which he joined in 1985 with a specialty in the audit area. He has more than 40 years of experience in the accounting industry. Active in all aspects of client service, he offers business consulting to not-for-profits, manufacturers, real estate developers, and service organizations. Hamlet has been a board member, member of finance and audit committees, a founding member of nonprofit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia area, and has a great deal of experience with many performing arts organizations. He will serve on the Finance Committee.
Mary Kate McGrath May
Mary Kate McGrath May is the founder of Center Stage Legal Consulting with over 20 years as a litigator to trial strategy work for attorneys and witnesses. She has represented clients from the earliest stages of a case through verdict at trial in courts across Pennsylvania, building a track record grounded in meticulous preparation and courtroom command. Before law, she trained as a professional performer, going on to perform on Broadway, on a national tour, and in leading regional theaters, with two Barrymore Award nominations. She was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in 2026 and lives outside Philadelphia, where she serves as on the board for Philadelphia Youth Choral Ensemble. She will serve on the Philadelphia Music Education Committee.
Karen Vesely
Karen Vesely, CFA, is a nonprofit-focused investment professional with 25+ years of experience advising mission-driven organizations, boards, and donors. She brings extensive nonprofit governance experience through current board and committee leadership roles with organizations including the Chester Children’s Chorus (Finance Chair), ChesPenn Health Services (Treasurer), and Congregation Beth Israel of Media (Endowment Committee Member), providing financial and budgeting oversight, investment guidance, endowment stewardship and fundraising assistance to these organizations. She will be on the Finance Committee.