Meet Our Staff

Adrian Anantawan holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University and Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a violinist, he has studied with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, and Anne-Sophie Mutter; his academic work in education was supervised by Howard Gardner. Memorable moments include performances at the White House, the Opening Ceremonies of the Athens and Vancouver Olympic Games and the United Nations. He has played for the late Christopher Reeve, Pope John Paul II, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Adrian has performed extensively in Canada as a soloist with the Orchestras of Toronto, Nova Scotia, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver. He has also presented feature recitals at the Aspen Music Festival and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has also represented Canada as a cultural ambassador in the 2006 Athens Olympics, and was a featured performer at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

Adrian helped to create the Virtual Chamber Music Initiative at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Centre. The cross-collaborative project brings researchers, musicians, doctors and educators together to develop adaptive musical instruments capable of being played by a young person with disabilities within a chamber music setting. He is also the founder of the Music Inclusion Program, aimed at having children with disabilities learn instrumental music with their typical peers.

From 2012-2016, he was the co-Director of Music at the Conservatory Lab Charter School, serving students from the Boston area, kindergarten through grade eight—his work was recognized by Mayor Marty Walsh as a ONEin3 Impact Award in 2015. Adrian is also Juno Award nominee, a member of the Terry Fox Hall of Fame, and was awarded a Diamond Jubilee Medal from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to the Commonwealth. He is the current Chair of Music at Milton Academy and on faculty at Boston University Tanglewood Institute during the summer. Throughout the year, Adrian continues to perform, speak and teach around the world as an advocate for disability and the arts.​

Carrie Eldridge-Dickson provides SMB with 10 years of experience supporting people who are homeless via her previous work in fundraising, volunteer management, and community partnerships at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Carrie has a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University and a certificate in nonprofit management and leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, in affiliation with Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. Carrie is grateful for the opportunity to serve such a dynamic nonprofit. While the Beatles are her favorite composers, Carrie enjoys classical music tremendously and is delighted to be a part of providing access to transformational music to those who otherwise go without.

Kathleen Jara is a violinist and arts educator based in Boston. In 2005, she founded and taught in the first instrumental and choral program for Colegio Miguel Pro, in Tacna, Peru, a K-12 school founded in a Habitat for Humanity community. She has also been a teaching artist and co-director in the music program at Conservatory Lab Charter School, and she currently teaches with Project Step and at Milton Academy. She performs in local ensembles, especially in the avant garde, free improvisation community of Boston.

Over the past 8 years, Kathleen and her colleague Brad Barrett have received STARS grants through the Massachusetts Cultural Council to craft interdisciplinary performance art projects with students in grades 3-8. Projects such as these have supported her continued work in the arts as community activism and engagement for youth.

Sarah Leaf-Herrmann, trained as a classical pianist, is passionate about connecting Shelter Music Boston to the communities we serve. She works to create sustained funding by synthesizing her marketing expertise and development experience on behalf of Shelter Music Boston's mission.

Jessica Lynch joined Shelter Music Boston’s team in 2023 and is excited to support SMB’s mission from behind the scenes. In addition to her work as the Development Associate, Jessica teaches flute lessons and performs throughout the Boston area. As a performer, she enjoys playing with the Horizon Ensemble and Du Bois Orchestra, as well as in her flute and percussion duo. Jessica holds a M.M. in Flute Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and a B.M. from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Katie Colford is a practicing architect who brings her organizational and project management skills to this role at Shelter Music Boston. Katie holds both her bachelor’s and master’s of architecture degrees from Yale University, and she teaches at Brandeis University. As an artist trained in a different field than music, Katie is compelled by the intersections between the work of Shelter Music Boston—its capacity to transform neglected spaces into spaces of belonging through art—and her interests in the built environment.