Vita West Muir

Founder/Executive Director

Litchfield, CT

Executive/Artistic Director of Litchfield Performing Arts since 1989, founded LPA in 1981. Her efforts have guided its evolution into a force in the arts in Connecticut and nationally. Ms. Muir has developed and run many programs over 28 years, from classical concerts to the critically acclaimed Litchfield Jazz Festival.

She has secured scores of grants to support LPA’s work, at the local, state and federal level. Her Project Poetry Live! was selected by the U. S. Department of Education for a major three-year grant. She has served on the boards of The Connecticut Junior Republic, Young Audiences, and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and as an NEA panelist. Muir received her B.S. in Biology from Fordham University and had a long career as a writer, specializing in medical science. She was Managing Editor of The Bioastronautics Data and Biomedical Results of Apollo for NASA and has written for Reader’s Digest, Family Health Magazine, and others. Her awards include Rotary’s Paul Harris Medal, The Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship, the Inge Morath Award and, most recently, the 2008 Connecticut Governor’s Award for Excellence in Culture and Tourism.

Mario Pavone

President
Prospect, CT

Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with legendary innovators and today's most respected young musicians to define the cutting edge of jazz for the past 40 years. He was playing professionally by 1965, though his full-time job was putting his Industrial Engineering degree to work for major corporations. Upon hearing the news of Coltrane's death in 1967, he left his briefcase on his desk, got in the car, and drove to the funeral, where he decided on the spot to dedicate the rest of his life to music. Since then he has anchored the trios of Paul Bley, Bill Dixon, and the late Thomas Chapin, and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Marty Ehrlich, and Michael Musillami. His list of sidemen includes Steven Bernstein, Gerald Cleaver, Dave Douglas, Peter Madsen, Tony Malaby, Joshua Redman, George Schuller, Michael Sarin, and Matt Wilson. And, unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of-the-year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, Down Beat, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda, the Village Voice , and the New York Times.  mariopavone.com.

Don Braden

Vice President
and Treasurer
South Orange, NJ

A native of Cincinnati --and a former Harvard University Engineering student-- saxophonist/composer/educator Don Braden has toured the world with jazz greats Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, and many others. He has recorded nearly fifty CDs as a sideman and has produced fourteen as a leader. He has composed music for countless concerts, for all of his CDs and for a number of independent films. For four years he served as composer for the CBS sitcom “Cosby” and has written for "Little Bill,” and “Fatherhood." In 2000, he received the Doris Duke Foundation New Works composer's grant.

In addition to touring, he works extensively as an educator, teaching for Litchfield Performing Arts and as Music Director of its Litchfield Jazz Camp since 1998; for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and for the Prins Claus Conservatoire in Groningen, Holland. He was formerly adjunct professor at William Paterson University and is a guest clinician at many colleges and universities. donbraden.com.

Tim Breslin

Director
Litchfield, CT

Tim Breslin, an educator for almost forty years, has lived with his wife, Sue, and their three children in Litchfield for the past twenty years. In addition to serving on the Litchfield Performing Arts Board of Directors, he served on the Wisdom House Board of Advisors for three years. Breslin earned his B.S. at Mount Saint Mary’s College, his M.A. at Johns Hopkins University, and his Ph.D. at Duke University. He has served as principal of Litchfield High School and Newtown High School. Currently he is principal of Farmington High School and was recently selected Connecticut’s Principal of the Year for 2009.

Louise Baranger

Secretary

Falls Village, CT

Trumpeter Louise Baranger was born in Hollywood and studied with jazz great Bobby Shew. In Los Angeles she played with the bands of Harry James, Nelson Riddle, Ray Anthony and others. She has played at the Playboy, Concord, Kansas City, Boston, Sedona, and Monterey Jazz Festivals, and performed with JJ Johnson, Clark Terry, Plas Johnson, Buddy Collette, Ron Carter, John Pizarrelli, Joe Cocker, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Womack, Carmen McRae, Alan Broadbent, Buddy Greco, Barney Kessel, Mel Powell, and many others. In the summer of 1984, Louise was the youngest member of the Los Angeles Olympic Jazz Festival house band which featured Shelley Manne, Louie Bellson, Bill Holman and a host of international jazz stars. Her "little" big band has played at the Emmy Awards and many private events in the US, Europe, and Japan. Her own CD, Trumpeter's Prayer features Arturo Sandoval, Tom Kubis and Carl Fontana. She is a private instructor and has been a resident artist at the Litchfield Jazz Camp since 2004.  trumpetdiva.com.

Bob Lenz

Director
South Kent, CT / NYC

Bob Lenz received his degree in Fine Arts & Painting from the University of Illinois. He exhibited paintings in the Chicago area during the late fifties and to help earn his way through college, he played the drums (his second passion) with various local jazz & dance bands. Upon graduation, in 1961, he moved to New York City and promptly began a career as an art director in the advertising business at McCann Erickson. In 1979 he, and four other partners, founded Backer & Spielvogel. As Executive Creative Director of the new agency he was responsible for the creation of the extremely successful TV campaign, “Tastes Great/Less Filling”, for Miller Lite beer. Backer & Spielvogel grew rapidly and was purchased by Saachi & Saachi in 1987, and eventually merged with Ted Bates, a large international agency. Bob became Chairman, Executive Creative Director of the merged entity in 1989 and retired from the industry in 1997.

He then returned to his first love, painting, after a 36-year hiatus. Since then he has studied at the Silvermine School of Art & the Washington Art Association, both in CT. also the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in NYC. Now with his studio in South Kent, CT, he has returned to exhibiting, and has resumed a vital and prolific career as a painter and print maker. He exhibits his work locally at the Morrison Gallery in Kent, CT. Bob is the former co-chair of the Silvermine Guild Art Center and former chairman of the Bermuda Artworks Association. He currently sits on the Board of the Kent Land Trust Association and the Board of Trustees of the New Milford Hospital. He also teaches painting at the Washington Art Association. He still plays the drums occasionally, but only at parties in his own home, “where I can’t embarrass myself too publicly.” Examples of his work can be seen on his web site: rlenzart.com.

David DeRosa

Director
Naugatuck, CT

An attorney in Connecticut since 1999, David DeRosa has a solo practice in law with a focus on Appellate advocacy and general practice in State and Federal Courts in Connecticut. As a student at Fairfield College Preparatory High School in Connecticut, he became interested in jazz. While attending Boston College, he began attending the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island every year, and began attending some jazz performances at Boston College and in Boston. After graduating from Quinnipiac College School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut 1998, he began his career as an attorney and relocated to Morris Connecticut in Litchfield County. He heard about the Litchfield Jazz Festival in 1999 and volunteered as a member of the stage crew. He has volunteered almost every year since. He has seen the festival and its summer camp grow from an idea to an institution.

In the past, Mr. DeRosa was a board member and assisted in the production of La Traviata for the Nutmeg Opera Company in Danbury, Connecticut. In addition to his position as a director in this organization, he is currently a member of the Connecticut Bar Association Young Lawyer Section Executive Committee and is assigned to the Appellate Committee putting on educational and vocational programming for fellow lawyers. He also volunteers once or twice a semester to teach high schools students writing for the Grainville Academy, an after school coaching and counseling program designed to give inner city youth an introductory knowledge of business and industry, in Waterbury, Connecticut.