Kathryn Sansone – Executive Director

A versatile arts administrator, music educator, and non-profit professional, Kathryn Sansone currently serves as the Executive Director of Musical Mentors Collaborative.

Kathryn began her career in 2003 working with multiple non-profit arts organizations including Handel & Haydn Society, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, New England Conservatory, and English National Opera. In 2007 she moved to the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado to work as Choral Director for a rural school district – teaching middle school and high school. While working as a public school educator she also founded the Maroon Bel Canto Children’s Chorus which is now part of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s Education and Community programming. Between 2012 and 2022, Kathryn worked full time for the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) first as Associate Dean and most recently as Dean of Students. While working for AMFS she also oversaw all community and education programming, expanding access to Roaring Fork Valley youth and families through multiple in school and after school programs. Following a decade at AMFS, Kathryn worked for the Aspen based non-profit, Buddy Program, as Development Director. During her time with this youth serving organization, she supported their 50th Anniversary Impact Campaign and raised annual funds to help further their mission to empower youth through mentoring experiences to achieve their full potential.

In addition to being a career educator and arts administrator, Kathryn is a mother, wife, outdoorswoman, choral conductor, singer, avid reader, and former ski instructor. She received her BA in Vocal Performance as well as her MA in Vocal Pedagogy with a Music in Education Concentration from New England Conservatory.

Matt Siffert — Director of External Affairs

Matt Siffert is a musician and arts activist. At Musical Mentors Collaborative, he is dedicated to developing fruitful relationships between teachers, students, and staff, as well as expanding MMC’s reach to new communities.

After studying at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University, Siffert moved to Nashville and launched an international performing career. He has released eight albums as a solo artist, worked with musicians such as Jon Batiste and Adia Victoria, and performed all over the U.S., from the Metropolitan Opera to South by Southwest, as well as internationally, from Cuba to Croatia. His work has been featured in publications such as The New Yorker, NPR, and The Deli, where he won Nashville’s Emerging Artist award.

Siffert is an advocate for other musicians and helps build substantive relationships between artists and audiences. He has worked with a variety of artists and organizations, from Gorillaz to Norah Jones, Capitol Records to Smithsonian Folkways.

Siffert is also passionate about music education, regularly performing for and teaching music appreciation to both the elderly and young musicians. He is honored to be a member of the Musical Mentors Collaborative family.

Daniel Jacobs – Director of Education

Daniel Jacobs is a teaching artist, violist, and conductor. As an educator, Daniel was a conductor and teaching artist for Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA). He has conducted youth ensembles at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl, and other venues across the country. Daniel has been a guest speaker at El Sistema World Congress, YOLA National Symposium, and LAUSD focusing on teaching artistry, community collaboration, and activating artistry. He is a Firebird Fellow at the Academy of Impact through Music, and an ArtistYear AmeriCorps alum. Daniel has taught in many public school districts across the country including La Canãda(CA), Roaring Fork(CO), and Baltimore City(MD). He is certified in Conversational Solfège from the Feierabend Association for Music Education.

As a violist, Daniel has performed throughout North America and Europe; and has collaborated in performance with violinist Jorja Fleezanis, Pacifica Quartet, and members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic.  An advocate for new music, Daniel has performed at the LA Phil’s “Noon to Midnight” festival, Prototype Festival, and has worked with composers like Laura Schwendinger, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Donald Crockett. Daniel can be heard on Naxos recordings featuring orchestral works by Kevin Puts and Aaron Jay Kernis led by Marin Alsop and Leonard Slatkin.

Daniel holds a B.M. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a M.M. and G.P.D. from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. His primary teachers were Victoria Chiang and Sally Chisholm. He has studied chamber music with members of the Aspen String Trio, Pro Arte Quartet, and Alarm Will Sound. When Daniel is not teaching or performing, he enjoys hiking in the mountains, playing with his two cats, and cooking the latest NYT Cooking recipe.

Camellia Aftahi – Program Manager

Camellia Aftahi (she/her) is an Iranian-American double bassist currently based out of Southern California. Her interests lie in the intersection between art, community, and self-exploration. From a background focused in classical music, Camellia now uses her skills as a bassist, musician, and teacher to engage in the performance and creation of original art, both hers and others’.
Camellia was a fellow of the 2018-20 class of the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship, where she earned her MM in Double Bass performance from CCM while regularly performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the mentorship of CSO principal bass Owen Lee. During her time in Cincinnati, Camellia received the opportunity to attend SphinxConnect as a SphinxConnect Fellow, attend workshops which allowed her to work one-on-one with such leaders as Vijay Gupta and Ed Barker, and begin engaging in truly integral conversations concerning racism in classical music. Camellia looks forward to a lifetime of work towards ensuring that classical music is accessible to all. Camellia earned her BM in Double Bass performance from San Diego State University while studying with Jeremy Kurtz-Harris and Jory Herman.Camellia is a strong believer in the power of organizing within one’s own community to achieve structural change. In Cincinnati, Camellia became a founding member of the new music chamber ensemble New Downbeat. Led by bassoonist Dr. Caroline Sackleh, New Downbeat is a space that provides female-identifying musicians the opportunity to premiere new works and work closely with composers. Also during her time in Cincinnati, Camellia became acquainted with the El Sistema educational system while teaching at the El Sistema-based non-profit MYCincinnati. In the summer of 2020, Camellia joined the Bass Players for Black Composers administrative team, serving as secretary and board member, helping to commission 11 new works by Black composers for the double bass. Most recently, Camellia started working for the non-profit organization, Musical Mentors Collaborative as their University Chapters Coordinator.
Other performing credits include performing with the La Jolla Symphony under the direction of Steven Schick, a summer with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra as a Diversity Fellow, the Colour of Music festival, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists led by Peter Askim. In the summer of 2021, Camellia attended the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute at MASS MoCA as a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow.

Aimee Toner – Development Coordinator/Grant Writer

Aimee Toner is a flutist, educator, and arts administrator dedicated to relationship-building through music-making and expanding the scope and accessibility of the musical arts.

Toner’s performance experience has involved serving as flutist and piccolo player in orchestras including the Norwalk Symphony, the Enigma Chamber Opera Orchestra, and the Du Bois Symphony, and collaborating in chamber groups that have ranged from jazz trios in Italian restaurants to wind quintets on stage at Carnegie Hall. Aimee also currently serves as a teaching artist for the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School, the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras, and Arts for Learning Connecticut. Toner is honored to represent Wm S. Haynes Co. as a Haynes Young Artist, and plays on a custom silver Haynes Flute.

As a grant writer, Aimee has written and supported Development initiatives for the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York. Toner is passionate about advocating for funding for the arts, and has successfully secured funding from state, federal, corporate, and foundation sources to support performing arts and arts education programming. Aimee is particularly passionate about writing for MMC, as she was fortunate enough to serve as a volunteer flute instructor for MMC during her undergraduate studies.

Aimee is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Cynthia Meyers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for her Master’s in Flute Performance and obtained a concentration in Music in Education. Toner is also a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, where she majored in Ethnomusicology and Economics.

In addition to full and part-time staff, MMC retains a number of advisors who bring expertise in pedagogy, operations, musical performance, and institutional fundraising.

Alex Van Gils (advisor)

Alex Van Gils composes music for humans, instruments, and computers. He is currently captivated by notions of transition and gradient—liminal spaces and in-betweens. Alex holds a Ph. D. in Music Theory and Composition from UC Davis. His dissertation work included The Permanent, a concerto for improvising jazz saxophone and orchestra. Alex lives in Brooklyn, NY, and his active projects include XBUCKET, a performance trio featuring live-processed violin and generative video, and also a discipline of daily compositions with Max/MSP/Jitter visuals uploaded to @avg.music on instagram. Alex is a founding member of Cutelab, a place for colors and sounds in NYC.

Chy Davin (advisor)

Chy Davin is a television and integrated marketing producer. As a producer she has developed and executed different mediums for campaigns, live-streams, and new media. She studied at New York University and specializes in social good, integrated marketing, and challenge development for competition television.

Ricky Schweitzer (advisor)

Ricky graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Pre-Medical Studies and Music after spending most of his life on or near Broadway (Jason Robert Brown’s “13,” “Beauty and the Beast,” etc.). He received his Master’s of Music from Berklee’s Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games program in 2017. In addition to working with MMC, Ricky also writes film scores, sings, tutors, and has recently worked as an assistant and coordinator for songwriter Toby Gad (John Legend’s “All of Me,” Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy,” and Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry”). Ricky managed Toby’s recording studio as well as his day-to-day life, often times assisting – or running – recording sessions. His predilection for intense melody and warm textures combined with his diverse musical influences help him provide unique insight into any musical endeavor. Ricky apologizes for writing his bio in the third person and promises that he is much more grounded in real life.

Kiki She (advisor)

Kiki graduated from New York University with a major in Music Business and minor in East Asian Studies. She joined Musical Mentors Collaborative at NYU in her junior year as a violin instructor and later served as its Vice-President for Fall 2020 semester. Besides dedicating her time to MMC, Kiki continues to advocate for musicians in her role as an Admin Associate in the Department of Licensing and Copyright at Reservoir Media. She specializes in YouTube CMS, Digital Licensing, and Music Maestro IP management.

Caeli Smith (advisor)

Called “intense, precise, and full of personality” after appearing as concerto soloist with The Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall (OperaClick), Caeli Smith is an award-winning chamber musician, educator, and facilitator. She has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Sejong Soloists, Jordi Savall, and the Verbier Chamber Orchestra. Caeli is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, the post-graduate performance, education, and leadership program of Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School.