The EastShore Chorale Advisors
The EastShore Chorale reaches out to various parties for expertise, experience, and resources in their respective field to help make us a better musical choir and organization and help us grow. We have working relationships in place with the individual’s and organizations listed here, and are deeply grateful for their interest in Eastman Community Projects and their efforts to help us realize our mission of Art Centric Communities, and music.
Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson is an independent fundraising professional focused on strategic planning, integrated marketing techniques, sustainable on-air fundraising, stewardship and direct-response programs in an ever-shifting media & fundraising environment. He has a knack for working within and across organizations to bring teams together, improve communication, and increase revenue.
Qualities include high emotional intelligence, flexible, good listener, creative and forward-thinking. Entrepreneurial thinker, self-starter, award-winning producer and effective communicator with 20 years experience in public media and 18 years experience in commercial radio. Barry believes that a team that feels appreciated and valued for their input and expertise will lift the entire organization.
In 20 years as a fundraiser for public media in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Houston, Nashville and elsewhere, Barry has led teams, formulated strategies, tactics and messaging that has raised more than $75 million to support the work of public media stations.
Benjamin Filippone
Benjamin Filippone is active throughout the Pittsburgh area as a choir conductor and voice teacher. He serves as Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, and the music director of the Mon Yough Chorale. He also teaches at the Community College of Allegheny County and sings with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. He performed the role of Ben in Menotti’s “The Telephone” and recitals at the Maiski Opera Festival in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, and performed world premiers as a soloist and ensemble singer with OvreArts. He holds a BA in music education from Grove City College, a MM in vocal performance from Duquesne University, and studied in the DMA program in choral conducting with a minor in music theory at the University of Arizona. He has appeared as the guest conductor for the Westmoreland County Music Educators Association Jr. High Chorus Festival, served as the chorus master for Undercroft Opera, and participated for three summers as a conductor with the Sarteano Choral Conducting Workshop with Simon Carrington in Sarteano, Italy.
Ryan Keeling
We are very pleased to report that Ryan Keeling has joined our Community Choir project in a consulting advisory role. Ryan Keeling is active as a teacher, singer and conductor in the Pittsburgh area and is the Assistant Conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s “Chorus of Choice,” and Director of Choral Activities at West Liberty University where he conducts the WLU Singers, Choral Scholars and College Community Chorus, and teaches Music History and Conducting. He also serves as Artistic Director of Voces Solis and Music Director of OvreArts where he conducts the OvreArts Sinfonia and is the founding conductor of the OvreArts Chamber Singers.
Our next step is the recruitment of a Choir Director for the project and that process in underway but in the early stages. We are very excited and thrilled to be working with Ryan.