Curtis Boyd
Patricia Buffler
James Cohen
Janie Conner
Dan Gorham
Dorothy Harroun
Anne Hodde
Barbara Hodges
Richard Kerr
Stanford Lehmberg
Lenz Neuhauser
Susan Pool
Susan Rooney
Jean Van Camp
Karen Wolfe-Mattison

Joseph Illick
Executive & Artistic Director

Joseph Illick is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Concert Association. He is also the Music Director and Principal Conductor of Fort Worth Opera, a post which he has held since 2002. He has just completed his third year as Artistic Director of Voices of Change, the new music ensemble of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as artistic director of the Lake George (NY) Opera Festival; as interim artistic director of Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera); as music director of the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, and artistic director of Shreveport (LA) Opera. For Teatro Lirico D'Europa, he has conducted performances of Rigoletto, Tosca, Nabucco, Turandot, and Aida in Copenhagen, Paris, and Siena, as well as New20York, Los Angeles, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, and other cities. In addition to artistic leadership, his roles in these organizations and others have included working in programming, finance, management, and marketing.
 
Mr. Illick’s other operatic engagements include Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Carolina, San Francisco Opera’s Merola program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Augusta Opera, Skylight Opera Theater, Eugene Opera, Nevada Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera’s national tour, Atlantic Opera USA, Stadttheater Aachen in Germany, the Vienna Chamber Opera, and London’s Covent Garden Ensemble. He is the conductor of the 2007 world premiere recording of Thomas Pasatieri's opera Frau Margot, and the conductor and pianist on the CD Monologues with soprano Lauren Flanagan and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, both released on the Albany label.

Mr. Illick’s symphonic engagements include the Augusta Symphony, the Austrian Radio Orchestra in Vienna, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Vizcaya Mozart Festival in Miami, Mid-Columbia Symphony (Washington), Santa Fe Pro Musica, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. As a concert pianist he won first prize in the Mid-Somerset Festival in Bath, England, and he is active both as a piano soloist and chamber musician in Europe and in the United States.
           
As a composer, Mr. Illick won first prize in the 1978 Van Someren Award, in England, for an original song cycle. His monodrama Emma was performed on Miami Public Television. His symphonic works have been performed in New York, Washington, and Santa Fe. Recent compositions include Ulysses for soprano, violin, and piano; Trio in B Minor for piano, violin and cello; Genetic Love for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, violin, and double bass; Union for soprano, French horn, and piano; and Fantasy for Violin and Piano. He is workshopping his full-length opera Bliss this August in New York.

Mr. Illick is a strong advocate of outreach and education for all audiences. His lectures and informal talks on classical music, composing and opera, illustrated with live musical examples, are extremely popular. He has given hundreds of live presentations to audiences around the United States and in Europe, as well as on numerous radio and television broadcasts about classical and symphonic music.
 
A native of San Francisco, Mr. Illick is married to soprano Virginia Browning. They and their son, Eric, are currently based in Santa Fe.

Craig A. Smith
Associate Director
csmith@santafeconcerts.org

Craig Smith, associate director, comes to SFCA from The Santa Fe New Mexican, where he worked for eight years as a free-lancer and nearly 12 on staff. He was a staff writer for Pasatiempo, the paper’s weekly arts magazine, as well as its music and arts critic. His journalism awards include a second-place national prize in 2009 from The National Federation of Press Women for Best Review.

Smith’s non-profit experience has included fund raising, organizational development, program development, business management, and public relations with organizations including Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Western States Arts Federation, Santa Fe Stages, and in Chicago, Music of the Baroque and Windy City Gay Chorus. He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he also pursued doctoral studies, and has trained through The Fund Raising School of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. He first came to Santa Fe in 1983 to sing in the Desert Chorale’s premiere season and knew he’d found a permanent home.

Marilyn "Mickii" Cohen
Operations Manager
mcohen@santafeconcerts.org

Marilyn “Mickii” Cohen, operations
manager, is a nomad who attended 13 primary
and secondary schools around the country prior
to college. She likes to quote Einstein who, in
1954, said, “I have no particular qualifications; I
am just endlessly curious.”
Growing up using a baby grand piano as a fort,
Mickii is a music enthusiast, loves traveling and
driving “Indy” cars (she's gotten up to 180 mph),
has a quirky sense of humor, and is passionate
about providing a perfect experience for each
Santa Fe Concert Association patron. She and
her husband, Eliot, live in Santa Fe's “Angel
Chair” house with various and sundry critters.