I’m the executive director, so I oversee pretty much everything that goes on. Working with the staff and board members is a large part of it, plus raising money and making sure our finances are in good shape. And I work with David Shifrin in program planning, which is fun and challenging. Actually, my whole job is fun and challenging.

What is your earliest musical experience?

I started taking piano lessons at age 7. Not long after that, I was taken to a concert by the Budapest String Quartet, who played the quartet of Samuel Barber, the one with the famous Adagio. I’ll never forgot that experience, and it made me want to start learning to play the violin, which I did when I was 9.

How do you participate in the arts outside of CMNW?

I like to attend concerts and events here in Portland, to keep up with what’s going on in our arts scene. Also, I’ve visited festivals in other parts of the country for the fun of it – Santa Fe, Charleston for Spoleto USA, La Jolla… Then as a violist, I play with an informal string ensemble we call “The Rusties” that gets together in various combinations to massacre some chamber music. (Let’s just say that none of us plans to quit our day job!)

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

Read The New York Times and do the Sunday Acrostic puzzle, watch foreign films on video and Jon Stewart on cable, practice viola, cook stir-fry dinners with my husband Craig, and play with our pet birds, Sparky and Pip.

Where were you born and how did you get to Portland?

South Bend, Indiana, was my hometown. I came here in 1980 from Boulder, Colorado, after working for a music magazine and playing violin in Chicago after college.

Do you have a favorite past CMNW concert?

That’s a nearly impossible question, since I may be in a unique position: in 25 years I’ve heard every one from 1980 to now. But among so many wonderful choices, I’d have to single out these four inspiring ones: the Mahler Das Lied von der Erde in 1998 conducted by David Golub, during our first summer in the new Kaul Auditorium at Reed; and the three “Masterpieces of the Russian Underground” concerts in January 2003, created by Vladimir Feltsman.

What’s in your CD player right now?

Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Barbara Bonney and Andreas Scholl, Shostakovich’s 2^nd Piano Concerto with Yefim Bronfman, and Gavin Bryars’ “Cadman Requiem.”

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