Staff + Board
Christine Staples
(Executive Director)
Christine joined Calliope in its formative stages in 2018 and became Executive Director in 2019. A long-time Berkeley resident, she currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation. Previously, Christine spent many years as a volunteer for the Berkeley public schools in various leadership capacities: (BSEP Oversight, Berkeley High School Development Group, PTA, Berkeley High Band and Orchestra.) Her educational background is in theatre, English and classical music, and she holds a B.A. in theatre from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In her free time, she enjoys singing classical music, gardening, and making organic liqueur.
Chanthip Phongkhamsavath
Chanthip Phongkhamsavath is a financial analyst who has practiced her trade for public institutions at the national and local levels. She loves throwing a good party and was a key player in our launch.
Marcos Saenz
Marcos Saenz is an arts and education administrator, music educator, composer, performing musician, recording engineer and sound technician, as well as a long time East Bay resident.
He is currently Operations Manager at Berkeley Symphony; in the past has served as Music Faculty, Music Class Coordinator at Community School of Music and Arts; in addition was Concert Hall Manager for Tateuchi Hall, CSMA’s concert venue. He has also served as Bay Area Regional Manager for Dayjams, National Guitar Workshop’s summer music day camp program, as well as music faculty for the Diocese of Oakland, Education Through Music Bay Area, El Cerrito Parks and Recreation Music Program, and adjunct music faculty at Holy Names High School. Marcos studied music composition at University of California, Santa Barbara with Jeremy Haladyna and Curtis Roads, and studied audio recording, live sound reinforcement, and digital multimedia at Mira Costa College. He has worked as a beta tester for synthesizers and video games, a producer and recording engineer, collaborated on digital music/art installations, and has toured America and Europe as a bassist and guitarist.
Tiffany Fajardo
(President)
Tiffany Fajardo is a passionate arts administrator, musician, and educator with a vision to make instrumental music a relevant and influential art form for all. She is currently Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Berkeley Symphony and a key member of the Hayward La Honda Music Camp as an administrator, artistic support, and oboe instructor. As an educator, Tiffany maintains a private oboe studio from her home in Oakland, teaching oboe students of all levels and ages.
Nadia Liu
Nadia is the Executive Director of Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) based in Berkeley, CA, founded by female conductor Jessica Marcelli in 1936. Nadia enjoys working with talented student musicians from all over the Bay Area. She is also an avid coffee enthusiast, having recently come from the world of coffee retail management- bringing 17 years of experience in customer service, leadership, and coffee/tea knowledge. She studied Math at Cornell University, and occasionally tutors. In her free time, she is still drinking a lot of coffee, and finally getting around to learning the violin.
Christina Ge
(Treasurer)
Christina Ge serves as Adminstrative Assistant to the music director of the San Francisco Opera. Passionate about the performing arts, she enjoys working closely with local non-profits including Valley of the Moon Music Festival & Calliope East Bay Music and Arts, providing a broad range of support with her arts administration background. Christina holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in music, rhetoric, and legal studies.
Cookie Segelstein
Violin and violist, received her Masters degree in Viola Performance from The Yale School of Music in 1984. Until moving to California in 2010, she was principal violist in Orchestra New England and assistant principal in the New Haven Symphony. Cookie is the founder and director of the klezmer trio Veretski Pass and a member of Budowitz. Cookie is featured on the ABC documentary, “A Sacred Noise”, and on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and appears in the Miramax film, “Everybody’s Fine” starring Robert De Niro. She has taught klezmer fiddling all over the world, including Living Traditions’ KlezKamp, Yiddish Summer Weimar and Yale University, and been on many recordings with mostly wonderful musicians. Cookie lives in Berkeley California with her husband Joshua Horowitz, a dog and her occasionally visiting adult children.
Mike Thompson (Secretary)
Mike is a music supervisor, metadata librarian and consultant, as well as a father of two and the husband of a talented mastering engineer. He is an avid musician, and enjoys playing guitar and mandolin in bluegrass and old time jams and gigs around the Bay Area. He is a three time co-winner of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention (BOTMC) String Band Contest. In his free time, he can usually be found sitting on a window bench at home with his dog Rooster on his lap.
Isaac Pastor-Chermak
Issac leads a diverse and active musical life at home in Northern California and around the United States. A quintessential 21st-century artist, he engages deeply as a cellist, teacher, conductor, and administrator, motivated by an abiding love of sharing great music with friends and collaborators. Mr. Pastor-Chermak earned degrees from UC Berkeley (BA, with honors) and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM, with honors). Isaac and Alison live in a 100-year-old house in the Berkeley Hills with their cat, Waffle.
Amy Kessler
Amy Kessler has extensive arts experience on both sides of the stage. She has worked in development and patron management for San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony, and Merola Opera Programs, and is currently development manager for Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. She made her stage debut at the age of five in a community production of SOUTH PACIFIC and has since sung with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, the Florentine Opera Company, the New York Choral Society, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Sacred & Profane, Oakland Symphony Chorus, and Chora Nova. With husband Merle Kessler and accompanist Joshua Raoul Brody, Amy was one of The Platones (former house band for NPR’s “Philosophy Talk”) and in the hit Ian Shoales show BROKE at the Marsh Theatre. She is also the parish administrator for St. Alban’s, home of Calliope. Amy is a fan of gardening, garage sales, Godzilla, vintage clothing and toys, weightlifting, and offbeat books and movies. Her cats are extremely spoiled and her hair is locally famous.