As the founder of MPD Culture Consultants, Menon Dwarka (he/him/his) is an arts leader with over 25 years of experience in executive director, artistic director, and community arts leadership positions in both Canada and the United States. Dwarka's expertise lies in leveraging technology to create diverse programming and administrative spaces, while also applying a post-colonial lens to IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Success) initiatives.

Dwarka has successfully guided arts and culture organizations of all scales, including grassroots organizations such as Toronto's 918 Bathurst Centre, where he served as both Artistic and Executive Director. He has also been a valued board member for organizations such as the Canadian Opera Company, where he was chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee. In the United States, Dwarka led the music departments at the 92nd Street Y and Harlem School of the Arts and served as the Executive Director of the Greenwich House Music School. As Senior Vice President of Arts Consulting Group, Dwarka completed IDEAS audits for the Winnipeg Symphony, ArrayMusic, and the Toronto Musicians Association.

Dwarka is a public speaker and has been featured on platforms including CBC Television, WBAI Radio, TVOntario's The Agenda, and The Walrus Talks. His expertise is also showcased through regular appearances on Sesame Street. He was a part of the inaugural cohort of the Banff/Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab and served on the City of Toronto's Economic Development and Culture's Strategic Planning Committee, a group specifically formed to advise the City on the creation of Toronto's 2018-2022 Culture Plan.

Dwarka holds BMus and MMus degrees in Music Composition from the University of Toronto, and was an ABD Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Stony Brook.

Appearance:
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion

Judith Lochhead is a music scholar whose work focuses on music cultures of the present from multiple perspectives: performance practices, artist-led research, music criticism, music analysis, and music history. Some recent publications include: Sound and Affect: Sound, Music, World, eds. Lochhead, Eduardo Mendieta, and Stephen Decatur Smith (2021); “On Kaija Saariaho’s Microsonology,” Oxford Handbook on Spectral Music (2022); “Timbre Realities,” Oxford Handbook on the Phenomenology of Music (2023); and “Multiplicities, Truth, Ethics: A Queering Analysis of Chaya Czernowin’s Anea Crystal,” Queer Music Theory (2023). Lochhead is a Professor of Critical Music Studies at Stony Brook University.

Appearances:
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”

Eric Feidner is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Innovation Officer for Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. His team continues 170 years of innovation at the iconic piano company and is responsible for technology in product development, software development, information technology, recorded music production, and content creation. Notably, they developed and brought the new Spirio product line to market starting in 2015 with continuous innovation and enhancement since then. Prior to this he served as President of Steinway’s former subsidiary, ArkivMusic, which he founded in 2001 and sold to Steinway in 2008.

Appearence:
Music & Mixer - MMF presents The Steinway Spirio and Young Artists Solos II

Sonja Wermager is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Williams College. She specializes in 19th-century German music and culture, with a particular emphasis on the life and works of composer Robert Schumann. She has previously published on Schumann's plans for a Martin Luther oratorio in 19th-Century Music and completed her dissertation at Columbia University, focusing on the question of why Schumann began composing sacred music in the early 1850s. Other research interests include the intersection of music and medicine in the nineteenth century, as well as Reformation history. 

Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”

Gail Newman is the Harold J. Henry Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Williams College. She has published widely on language, narrative, and subjectivity in German Romanticism, contemporary Austrian literature, and psychoanalysis. Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Mari Ruti, engages with creativity in our contemporary world.

Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”