Board of Directors

Maury Brown, President

Maury Brown served the Agency for International Development as Director of Data Processing and Director of Development Information. He founded and chaired the International Network for Development Information Exchange which comprised more than 90 government and international agencies. Since retirement in 1998 he has been a management consultant to the World Bank and several private companies working in international development.

Mr. Brown holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in international relations from Syracuse University and New York University. He is a graduate of the Erie (PA) Conservatory of Music where he studied musical theory and composition. He was selected as first chair clarinet and saxophone to the Northwest Pennsylvania District Band two years in succession. He developed his musical talents into a lifelong avocation, attending musical performances in many parts of the world. Mr. Brown joined the Amadeus Board in 2005 and also serves on the Board of OAR, a non-profit organization providing rehabilitation services to inmates at the Fairfax Adult Detention Center. Mr. Brown actively mentors inmates at that facility.

Jennifer Murphy, Vice President

Mrs. Murphy recently retired as Assistant Vice President for Research & Economic Development/Director of Technology Transfer at George Mason University. She also served as Executive Director of George Mason Intellectual Properties, Inc. (GMIP), a non-profit corporation established to manage the university’s intellectual property. Ms. Murphy has been an enthusiastic supporter of and donor to the Amadeus Concerts for many years. She has served on the Board of Directors for three years. She is an active volunteer and lay eucharistic minister at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Great Falls where she was Senior Warden from 1991 to 1993. Currently she chairs the Stewardship Committee at St. Francis.

Shelley S. Mastran, Ph.D., Secretary

Shelley Mastran teaches graduate courses in Urban Planning at Virginia Tech in Arlington, where she specializes in Land Use Planning, Planning for Parks and Open Space, and practical studios. She is a planning consultant with the City of Falls Church and has consulted on planning issues with many nonprofit organizations and local governments.

She has a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Maryland and a B.A. from Vassar College. She formerly directed the Rural Heritage Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is a co-author of Saving America’s Countryside, Mountaineers and Rangers, and the Better Models for Development series with Ed McMahon. She has a publication forthcoming on Fairfax County. She is on the board of the Reston Museum and serves on the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee.

Shelley enjoys reading, hiking, traveling, and being with her children and grandchildren.

RJ Doro, Treasurer

Music has played an integral role in RJ’s life since he played (read: botched) his first note on the trumpet at twelve years old. He went on to play in the upper school orchestra and jazz band at St. Albans School in Washington, DC, as well as sing with the school’s chorale. Unable to satiate his musical appetite, RJ participated in several other instrumental groups in the area, namely the DC Youth Orchestra, American Youth Philharmonic, and Brass of Peace.

RJ matriculated at Washington University in St. Louis where he continued his musical endeavors, studying for his engineering degree on the side. He was a member of an all-male a cappella group and later joined the executive committee overseeing the school’s eleven singing groups. Upon graduation he returned to DC, and now works in data analytics for an insurance brokerage firm.

Benjamin Hobart (Hobie) Audet

Hobie Audet retired in 2004 from a 36-year career with the federal government as a physicist and operating systems programmer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy and the Department of the Army.  Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, he earned his Bachelor’s Degree (High Honors in Physics) from the College of William and Mary in 1968.

Mr. Audet became associated with Amadeus Concerts through his wife Mary Audet.  Together they have managed and coordinated the post-concert receptions for several years. They live in Rockville, MD.

Dr. Sanford Brotman

Retired from private dental practice in Alexandria after 42 years, Dr. Brotman writes the program notes for the Amadeus concerts. His history of community work goes from the 1960s to the present day, including the Alexandria Dental Clinic, a resettlement committee for Russian Jewish refugees, Northern Virginia Dental Society Patient Relations Committee, and assistance with Afghan refugees after the Russian invasion. Currently Dr. Brotman volunteers at the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic, teaches basic literacy to adults, and is, in his own words, “maybe the oldest undergraduate (non-degree) at George Mason University.”

Mark S. Gordon

Mark grew up on a farm in southeast Pennsylvania where his parents founded the first vineyard and winery in that state post-Prohibition. Mark spent his Saturdays as an adolescent and teen working in that small family business. This was the start of a lifelong love affair with food and wine.

After earning a B.A. in Political Science from Middlebury College, Mark worked briefly repairing and installing avionics in general aviation aircraft. Since he didn’t aspire to technicianhood, Mark undertook additional course work at the University of Pennsylvania while working as a tuxedo-clad waiter in a French restaurant then applied to graduate school in engineering. He subsequently earned an MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley then embarked on a lifelong career in technology and product development that included more than two decades in Silicon Valley.

Not content with microchips, systems, software, startups, hazardous waste and vacuum induction furnaces, and later electronics for trains and quality management systems, Mark dipped his toe in the real estate and historic renovation business by buying then renovating a 1901 Queen Anne Victorian building in San Francisco. That Queene Anne eventually gave way to rehabilitation of historic row houses in Baltimore, two with collapsed roofs.

Mark has been a lifelong lover of classical music and other musical genres. He remembers well listening to the single-frequency radio tuner in his parents’ house that played the Philadelphia classical station. He vaguely recalls falling asleep while hearing Artur Rubinstein play at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. With a son who is a professional ballet dancer and a daughter who is an engineer, Mark tries to stay up to date with both culture and technology while pursuing his other hobbies of cooking, hiking, bicycling, travel, and reading.

John Hardisty

Retired as an Executive at TRW (now Northrop Grumman), Mr. Hardisty was involved in systems engineering involving spacecraft, the FAA and Fingerprint identification. For the last ten years he has volunteered as Chief/Assistant Chief for the Fairfax County Election Board. He played the flute and later studied voice (he is a tenor). He has a BS from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Harvard University.

Tena Nauheim

Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Tena came from a family to which classical music was central. She began studying piano at age 6. She came to Washington and attended American University, majoring in Education and minoring in music with a speciality in piano. After graduating, She taught elementary school, and after a few years, taught choral music at religious schools in the area. Subsequently, Tena began a new career as an event planner, for ten years. Finally, she pursued a successful career as a residential realtor, for more than 25 years.

Tena has done extensive volunteer work, serving on boards of The Langley School, Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center, and her Homeowners Association. She was a docent at the B’nai Brith Museum, counseled prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail, and is active at her synagogue. In recent years, Tena has grown in her enthusiasm and support, along with her husband, David Harrison, for Amadeus Concerts.

Tena enjoys tennis, hiking, reading, cooking, traveling, birding and all things cultural.
She is blessed with two children, five grandchildren and a wonderful family blend of Nauheim-Harrisons.

Joanne Robinson

A lover of classical music since her childhood ballet and piano lessons, Joanne Robinson has enjoyed and supported the Amadeus Concerts since 2012 and joined the Board of Directors in mid-2022. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she graduated from Eastern High School and then received a bachelor of arts degree from Gettysburg College with a major in mathematics, and a minor in chemistry. She also sang and toured with the Gettysburg College Choir under the direction of founder, Dr. Parker B. Wagnild. She spent her career with the Office of Naval Intelligence in support of US naval weapon system acquisition programs, retiring in 2006. She then worked under contract to the National Intelligence Council as executive secretary of the Weapon and Space Systems Intelligence Committee through December 2016.

Joanne enjoys gardening, sewing, reading, and all form of the arts. She resides in McLean, Virginia.

Seth Arenstein, Advisor to the Board

Seth Arenstein was a founding board member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, serving that group for nearly twenty-five years. He also was a board member of the Washington Conservatory of Music for nearly fifteen years. Mr. Arenstein held officer positions on both boards, including Chairman.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Arenstein earned an M.A. from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University. As an undergraduate, he matriculated at The University of Manchester (U.K.). During graduate studies, he earned a diploma in International Relations at The Bologna Center of The Johns Hopkins University in Italy.

An award-winning journalist, Mr. Arenstein currently is a television critic, contributing weekly columns to CableFAX Daily, as well as periodic blogs at cablefax.com. A member of the Television Critics Association (TCA), he reports from Hollywood twice yearly. In addition, he freelances as a journalist, editor, grant writer and speechwriter. He is a Consulting Senior Advisor at Plexus Consulting Group, LLC, of Washington, D.C., specializing in New Media, Media and Strategic Communications.

Arenstein spent more than twenty years in Media, including 15 years with Phillips Publishing International and more than ten as Assistant Vice President and Editorial Director of Access Intelligence, LLC, an integrated Media and Events company based in Rockville, MD, which succeeded Phillips. He was Access Intelligence’s most-awarded journalist.

In his spare time, Seth Arenstein plays trumpet in the Washington Conservatory of Music Orchestra and in jazz combos. He studies and performs at the Washington Improv Theater (WIT). Arenstein does lighting and sound for numerous WIT shows at the Source Theater in Washington, D.C.

 

Staff

A. Scott Wood, Artistic Director

Nicole Powlison, Executive Director

Executive Director Nicole Powlison received her master’s and doctorate in historical musicology from Florida State University. Her dissertation, “Amy Beach’s Cabildo: An American Opera,” presents a historical context and critical edition of the composer’s unpublished opera. Her research interests also include the history of opera in the United States, music publishing, and music history pedagogy. She lectures on music history at local universities.