Ben Dietschi is a Senior Consultant with the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management and serves as program lead for the Institute’s A3 initiative (Arts × Administration × AI). A3 is an applied research and innovation program that helps nonprofit arts organizations implement artificial intelligence in practical, ethical, and human-centered ways to increase productivity and organizational effectiveness.

Since joining the Institute in 2019, Ben has advised more than 150 arts organizations across performing arts, museums, higher education, public art, and community-based initiatives. He has led or co-led dozens of strategic planning processes for organizations small and large, across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Ben has also served as an advisor and instructor in capacity-building programs across cities in North America and the Middle East; conducted regional arts ecology studies to inform municipal cultural investment and public policy; and assisted capital planning strategies for new and expanded cultural facilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he provided pro bono rapid-response consulting support to more than 80 arts organizations.

In addition to advisory work, Ben has completed multiple interim executive engagements, stepping into senior executive leadership roles during pivotal periods of transition. He has also supported several founder transitions and executive succession processes, working closely with boards and leadership teams to navigate change with clarity and empathy.

Ben is a frequent facilitator and speaker on strategy, organizational change, and technology adoption in the arts, and serves as a faculty lecturer in the DeVos Institute’s Global Fellowship programs.

Tom is one of Ireland’s leading opera and theatre directors, whose productions have been seen at all the major Irish theatres and festivals, and internationally in over 30 cities on three continents.

A specialist in developing and directing new opera, his many world premieres include Jennifer Walshe’s MARS (Irish National Opera and Opéra de Lille), Emma O’Halloran’s Trade and Mary Motorhead (Prototype Festival, New York, LA Opera and Irish National Opera), Michael Gallen’s Elsewhere (Abbey Theatre and Irish tour), Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger (Abbey Theatre and BAM, New York), Annelies van Parys’s Private View (Muziektheater Transparant on European tour), and Jürgen Simpson’s air india [redacted] (Turning Point Ensemble, Vancouver). 

MARS won the 2026 Sky Arts Award for Opera, and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2025 International Opera Awards. Private View was the winner of the inaugural FEDORA Opera Prize in 2015.

Other opera productions include Don Giovanni, Giulio Cesare (Blackwater Valley Opera Festival), Maria Stuarda, Griselda and Les contes d’Hoffmann (Irish National Opera), Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Paris, Opera Collective Ireland), Acis and Galatea, Il segreto di Susanna and La voix humaine (Opera Theatre Company). He participated in the Opera Creation Workshop at the 2020 Aix-en-Provence Festival and was an Opera Hub associate artist with Opera Theatre Company from 2015 to 2017.

Recent theatre productions include 4.48 Psychosis (Dublin Theatre Festival) The Plough and the Stars, The Quare Fellow (Abbey Theatre), The President (Gate Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company), Conversations After Sex (Dublin Theatre Festival and Irish Arts Centre, New York).

Pianist Bernadene Blaha is internationally recognized as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician. Lauded by Piano and Keyboard Magazine for her “integrity” and “total clarity of line,” Blaha began her musical journey in Canada before gaining prominence with top awards at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, Lugano Switzerland Masterplayer’s International Competition, and New York City’s International Piano Competition. These prizes led to acclaimed recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library in New York City. She was also featured at the XXIX International Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, followed by appearances at such distinguished venues as the Concertgebouw, Salle Cortot, Phillips Collection, National Arts Center, and Disney Hall.

In 2009, Blaha co-founded the piano trio Latitude 41 with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano. The group’s debut album for Eloquentia, featuring Schubert’s monumental Trio in E flat, received high praise upon release. With a rich discography, Blaha has also recorded for CBC, Centaur, Analekta, and Naxos. Her most recent album of Polish Violin Sonatas (Noskowski and Zelenski) with Swiss violinist Laurence Kayaleh, was released in December 2023 on the Naxos Label.

Also in demand as a teacher, adjudicator, and clinician, Blaha has received the National Arts Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Award and the Thornton School of Music Dean’s Award for Excellence in Professional Activities. She has been invited to serve on distinguished jury panels, including the Gina Bachauer International Artist Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Competition and the International E-Competition.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Bernadene Blaha is a professor of piano performance at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

"Tao’s ability to get around a keyboard — with either nimble agility or pounding intensity as required — is something to marvel over."
– Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

Conrad Tao is a pianist and composer celebrated for his boundary-defying artistry as well as his powerful performances of traditional repertoire. He has been described by New York Magazine as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music,” and praised by The New York Times for his “probing intellect and open-hearted vision."

In the 2025–26 season, Tao returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and recitalist, performing Bartok with Karina Canellakis, and later presenting a recital program featuring Gershwin song arrangements alongside works by Schoenberg, Strayhorn, Schumann, and others. He also returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with Marin Alsop, and to the New York Philharmonic at the Bravo! Vail Festival performing with Santtu-Mathias Rouvali. Recital highlights include returns to Germany's Klavierfestival Ruhr, and to the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Seattle Symphony with Poetry and Fairy Tales, a program blending works by David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders, Todd Moellenberg, Brahms, and Ravel.

Tao reunites with Robert Spano for performances of John Adams’ Century Rolls (San Diego Symphony) and Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety (Atlanta Symphony). He also joins Matthias Pintscher and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for Pintscher’s NUR, and travels to Tokyo to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 with the NHK Symphony and Jaap van Zweden. He makes his harpsichord debut at Princeton University in Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s Dies Irae.
 

Andy Meyerson is a drummer and percussionist based in San Francisco, California. He is the Artistic Director and co-founder of both The Living Earth Show, one of the premiere experimental classical ensembles in the United States, and The Roar Shack, an experimental performance incubator in downtown San Francisco.

Meyerson is the drummer and co-founder of punk poetry trio Trust Me with vocalist Lynn Breedlove, dance band KoollooK with movement artist Babatunji, trans-idiomatic ensemble Bucket List with composer/pianist Mark Applebaum, rotating collective Lazyhorse with keyboardist Raven Chacon, and queer nü metal collective COMMANDO. He is also the former music director of renegade dance company Post:ballet and drummer for Russian feminist protest and performance art group Pussy Riot.  

Andy Meyerson has released two solo percussion recordings: “My Side of the Story,” a collection of percussion solos written for him by Adrian Knight, Jude Traxler, Brendon Randall-Myers, Samuel Adams, and Danny Clay on slash/sound recordings, and “Extra Time,” an album of percussion solos written for him by Sarah Hennies on Hasana Editions, as well as numerous albums created by The Living Earth Show.

He is an endorsing artist for Spaun Drums and Marimba One.

Michelle has dedicated her over-20-year career to the arts sector, holding administrative and leadership positions at Dance Arts Institute, Toronto Arts Foundation, Tafelmusik, Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage and Sony Centre. Her passion for fundraising and improving the health of arts organizations across the country makes Michelle the perfect person to lead MC into a new phase of its development as a hub for arts research, sector connection, and digital innovation. She is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University (BFA), York University (BA) and Dalhousie University (MBA Leadership). She has also successfully completed programs through Boston University (Fundraising) and Ivey Business School (Leadership) and maintains her Certified Fund Raising Executive designation. Michelle is currently a board member at Work in Culture, a Program Advisory Committee member for Humber Colleges' Arts Administration & Cultural Management program, and the Lead of the Creative Champions Network, an initiative of Toronto Arts Foundation. She is inspired by philanthropy, volunteerism and collaboration.

Jeremy Tusz is a classical recording producer and engineer with more than twenty years of experience capturing everything from solo recitals to full orchestras and film scores. His work spans over 150 albums, 175 orchestral radio broadcasts, and numerous livestreams and screen projects, earning seven Juno Awards from 21 nominations, three regional Emmys, and several Canadian Screen Awards.

For nine years he served as producer and recording engineer for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and for the past two seasons with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Career highlights include engineering Darren Fung’s scores for The Great Human Odyssey and Equus: Story of the Horse with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, producing Michael Tilson Thomas’ Urban Legend with members of the San Francisco Symphony, and video directing a medici.tv livestream for the Kansas City Symphony.

Jeremy is now relocating to Toronto, where he will freelance, specializing in immersive audio capture and collaborative, artist-driven projects.
 

Jesse LaVercombe is a playwright, screenwriter and actor. He and Ahmed Moneka co-wrote the book for The Tragically Hip's musical, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken, produced by Michael Rubinoff (Come From Away) and currently touring the country. He and Ahmed also co-created and starred in the Dora-winning theatre production King Gilgamesh, which played in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, Halifax, and twice in Toronto at Soulpepper Theatre. He also co-wrote the films Code 8: Part II (#1 on Netflix in 71 countries) and Float (Lionsgate). As an actor, he won the Toronto ACTRA Award and received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Violation (Sundance, TIFF) and appeared in four seasons of Murdoch Mysteries (CBC). Onstage, he’s performed with the National Arts Centre, Tarragon, Factory, Blyth, Necessary Angel, The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, and the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans.

www.jesselavercombe.com