Staff & Leadership

Maria Sensi Sellner

Artistic & General Director, Founder

Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner’s artistry, versatility, and reputation for innovation are making her an increasingly coveted collaborator and an impresario for the 21st century. Praised as “mightily impressive”, she was the first three-time winner of the American Prize for Opera Conducting and is a proud alum of The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Maria is the Artistic & General Director of Resonance Works, the multi-modal performing arts company she founded in her native Pittsburgh in 2013; co-founder and lead producer of the Decameron Opera Coalition; and a frequent cover conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Her unique, artist-driven programming has been praised for its “innovative streak” (Post-Gazette) and for bringing a “welcome infusion of sophistication and diversity” (I Care If You Listen) to Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape.

Consultants:

Dane Suarez, Season 12 Artwork

Melissa Neely, Program Design

Alisa Innocenti, Production Photography

Workhorse Collaborative

Brennan Sellner, Director of Operations

Robert Frankenberry, Associate Producer

Jeffrey Klefstad, Company Manager

Katy Lindhart, Author at Large

Rachele Schmiege, Administrative Coordinator

Kristian Tchetchko, Recording Engineer

Board of Directors

  • Coletta Perry

    President

    Owner/CEO, Avatar DPS
    Mayor of Crafton Borough

  • Demareus Cooper

    Vice President

    mezzo-soprano, Teacher of voice at Pittsburgh CAPA

  • Kim Falk

    Secretary

    Evaluation Specialist, Allegheny County Department of Human Services

  • Peter Bianchi

    Voice Department Interim Chairperson, Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts magnet school

  • Lindsey Goodman

    Flutist, soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, orchestral musician, educator, and clinician

  • Zuly Inirio

    Soprano; Founder, Afro-Latin Song and Opera Project; Sphinx LEAD Fellow

  • Alisa Innocenti

    Photographer, Violist
    Owner, Weddings by Alisa

  • Douglas McGill

    Lead Consultant at Q-Centrix

  • Natalie Polito

    Head Paralegal, Alter, Kendrick & Baron, LLP; Founding Member, Boston Opera Collaborative; Opera singer

  • Brennan Sellner

    Treasurer

    Director of Software Technology, Seegrid, Corp.

  • Anna Singer

    WQED-FM 89.3 Announcer & Music Programmer; Opera singer and painter

  • Daniel Teadt

    Baritone, Voice Practitioner; Assistant Teaching Professor of Voice, Carnegie Mellon University; Vice President & Co-Founder Magnvm Opus Tasting Concerts

  • Vanessa Braun

    Manager of Employee Engagement & Director of Accessibility, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust