Vita West Muir

Executive/Artistic Director
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Vita West Muir, 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 since LPA began, 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 levels. 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.

Lindsey Turner

PR & Marketing Director 

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Lindsey Turner was raised in Litchfield, CT totally immersed in the arts as her mother, Vita West Muir, founded Litchfield Performing Arts the year she was born. Her early exposure to the arts led her to explore music, theater and photography, finally settling on music receiving a B.A in classical voice from the University of Connecticut in 2003 where she was the recipient of the Victor Borge Scholarship, a section leader in three choirs and a founding member of the Student Programming Advisory Committee for the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at UCONN.

She spent summers as a volunteer for Litchfield Performing Arts and later worked summers handling the administration of Litchfield Jazz Camp. She spent her last semester at UCONN as an executive intern at the Metropolitan Opera, and after graduation worked in the Development Office at the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase College until she returned to Litchfield Performing Arts where she now serves at the PR & Marketing Director. Lindsey lives with her husband Nathan, a long time LPA volunteer, in Brooklyn, New York.

Karen Simpson

Program Coordinator & Festival Technical Director

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Karen Simpson was born in a small New Jersey town and came to Connecticut as an infant. Her interest in piano and visual art was sparked early by supportive parents who encouraged her to pursue both. Karen graduated from Arizona State University in 2005 with a degree in Art History and worked as an Art Administrator & Registrar in the professional art world until the spring of 2010. She joyfully accepted the offer to join the Litchfield Performing Arts team in April of that year and delighted in the opportunity to finally meld the best of art and music in her life.

Karen is our Litchfield Jazz Festival Technical Director and the Program Coordinator for Project Poetry Live! where she manages an arts-in-education program for some 1200 7th graders across Northwest Connecticut. She is a lover of animals and enjoys hiking, horseback riding, jewelry making, piano and drawing. She lives in Simsbury with her husband and Sedona, their cat.

Kaitlin Kurdziel

Administrator & Jazz Camp Registrar
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Kaitlin Kurdziel is from Stratford, Connecticut.  Her passion for the arts has led her to pursue them in several forms since childhood.  After years of lessons in piano, dance, and drawing, she continued her arts education at the University of Connecticut and graduated with a B.F.A. in Fine Arts Painting and a minor in Art History.  After a short period of working in the interior design industry, she decided to go back to her roots in the performing arts world and happily joined the Litchfield Performing Arts family.

Kaitlin is Litchfield Performing Arts Inc.'s Office Manager, and camp registrar.  When she is not giving painting and drawing lessons, she enjoys hiking, music, kayaking and fishing. She lives in Collinsville with her boyfriend Jonathan.

Jackie Greenwood

Development Associate
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Jackie Greenwood is a Connecticut native. A dancer for over 10 years as a young lady, she is an avid lover of the arts in all forms. Jackie graduated from Johnson and Wales University with a degree in Travel and Tourism Management and has worked in the hospitality field in sales, marketing, event management and client relations.

Four years ago Jackie took the role of Director of Development at a private school in CT managing donor relations, marketing, social media, publications, annual fund campaigns, alumni relations and all special events and fell in love with the non-profit world. She lives in Goshen with her husband Doug, daughter Lexi and dog Mulan. She enjoys kayaking, hiking, cooking, visiting art museums, theater going and painting.