Board of Directors

If you have further questions about Orff-Schulwerk in Northern California, please contact the President of NCAOSA. If you would like be added to (or deleted from) our mailing list, please contact our Registrar.

MEET THE BOARD

President Sarah Noll has served on the NCAOSA board as Social Chair, MiniConference chair, and Vice President in the past. Born into a large musical family in Madison, WI, Sarah holds a Master’s Degree in Music Performance. She has studied and performed in many disciplines including instrumental and vocal music, dance, mime and theater. Completing her Orff Levels in 1993, she is currently in her twelfth year teaching music and movement at the Head Royce School in Oakland, CA. For the last four years she has been the recipient of the Chao Family Chair for her work in global education through music.

Treasurer Keri Lindell Butkevich has served as MiniConference Registrar in the past. She holds a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor's of Music in Music Education/Voice and Acting and has performed professionally in vocal music, opera, theatre and film. In 2007 she moved into arts administration and is currently in her fourth year as Executive Director for Education Through Music--Bay Area. Keri has taught for over 15 years, serving on the faculties of the internationally acclaimed Chicago Children's Choir, Merit School of Music, Chicago Opera Theater, DePaul University's Community Music Division and teaching in the Bay Area for the Community School of Music and Art, Young Audiences, Cantabile Youth Singers and Music in Schools Today.

Secretary John Ashfield teaches K-5 classroom music in the Menlo Park City School District. He also is the frontman for the pop band The Bobbleheads www.thebobbleheads.com

Registrar David DeStefano has degrees in Music Education and Applied Clarinet from Bradley University.  Initially planning to be a band director, he stumbled into elementary general music in 1997 and currently teaches K-6 music at Phillips Charter School in Napa. His first brush with the Orff approach was the Intro to Schulwerk sessions he attended at the 1998 AOSA national conference in Tampa, Florida. Since then, David has completed Level III (Mills College 2004), taken several master classes and presented Orff-based sessions at CMEA state and AOSA national conferences. He credits his Orff training with helping him become a better teacher and overall musician.

Instrumentarium Chair Karen Wells is a musician and music educator, passing on her skills to young musicians in the Bay Area for the past twenty years. She teaches privately, and in the Berkeley Unified School District, including directing the BHS Band and Orchestra. She has been a guest conductor at Cazadero Performing Arts Camp. As a clarinetist, her playing credits include The Women’s Philharmonic, North Bay Opera, Sacramento Philharmonic, Opera and Ballet, Modesto Symphony, Cinnabar Theatre, Berkeley Opera and Berkeley Symphony.

Librarian Sarah Willner has taught in Orff with children and adults since 1996, mainly in Oakland. She loves to collaborate, and has specialized in teaching and coaching music integration. As professional violist and violinist, Sarah has performed professionally with local symphonies, chamber and world music ensembles, as well as lots of original music by local composers. Most of her music-making is with the local Balinese music and dance troupe, Gamelan Sekar Jaya. She lived and studied for three years in Bali, and specializes in musical accompaniment for traditional and contemporary shadow theater, as musician and producer with ShadowLight Productions. She’s psyched to be Librarian because she can then watch ALL the videos of Orff mentors!

PlayNotes Editor Amanda Hahn proudly serves as the editor for our chapter's journal. Currently teaching music to babies through 8th graders in Marin County, she has been an Orff specialist in a variety of settings since her first levels course at Mills College in 1998. Trained as a classical flutist, Amanda freelances a bit and enjoys performing in chamber music recitals. She is devoted to the flute and piano students in her studio and at the S.F. Community Music Center, and delights in encouraging her own toddler's musical discoveries.

Past President Greacian Goeke received her Level III Certification at Mills in 1999. She has been teaching movement, music, visual art, physical theater and writing as an artist in the schools for the past 22 years. She is the Orff Music Specialist at Mills College Children's PreSchool, teaching 2- to 5-year-olds and training teachers and student teachers. At Stagebridge, the senior theater company in Oakland, Greacian directs a program of elder storytellers in the public schools working with 4th and 5th graders. She also teaches Orff Schulwerk classes, creative movement and T'ai Chi to adults. She is artistic director of Impromptu No Tutu, a movement improvisation ensemble.

AV Chair/Tech Maggie Harth is in her 27th year of teaching music to children.  From 1985 to 1995 she was the Music Director at The Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, New York.  While in New York she also taught music theory at the Tisch School of the Arts. Since 1995 she has served on the music faculty of Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, California.  During that time she has also been the Music Director at Beyond Borders, a multi-cultural performing arts summer program for economically disadvantaged youth in the Bay Area.  She is the founding director of FORTE, the after-school music program at Marin Country Day School. Maggie has composed jazz, pop and children’s songs as well as children’s musicals (“The Moral of the Story,” “The Emperor’s New Condo” and “Horton Hears A Who”).