Joshua Vickery, Chief Executive Officer
Joshua Vickery began his role as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the organization on October 18, 2021. Joshua was drawn to the mission and vision of Encore Creativity and is thrilled to be joining the team. He plans to bring his experience and passions to the table to have great influence across the nation.
Prior to joining Encore, Vickery served as Executive Director of Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts), an organization which he founded in 2010. This organization consists of thousands of artists in multiple choirs; an adult and youth symphony orchestra; children/youth arts program; theatre; School of Performing Arts and programs for seniors, vulnerable communities and arts and wellness. Vickery is a vocalist, actor, teacher, producer, musical director, arts administrator, and conductor. His love of music and the arts has allowed him to have an extraordinary career thus far.
Brian J. Isaac is honored to serve as the new Artistic Director of Encore Creativity for Older Adults (Annapolis, MD). He is also the Artistic Director of the Alexandria Choral Society (Alexandria, VA) and Founder / Artistic Director of Church Circle Singers (Annapolis, MD).
Mickey Love brings to the Director of Business Operations and Development position more than 25 years of nonprofit and for-profit business experience encompassing program expansion; financial development, grant writing, and fundraising; staff and volunteer oversight; public relations and marketing; strategic planning and facility management. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from Penn State University and a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Mary Ann East has been with Encore Creativity for Older Adults since August 2018 when she began conducting the Encore Chorale at Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads. In September of 2019 Mary Ann became the Program Director of Sentimental Journey Singers, Encore’s choral program for singers with early to mid-stage cognitive change and their care partners. On June 1, 2022 Mary Ann became the Director of Arts for Life working to expand Encore’s programing for those with cognitive change.
Kelli Williams has been employed in the office with Encore for 7 years; first serving at Encore's original location in the Kelly's home on the Chesapeake Bay. She assists with daily operations and helps with scheduling for all events, camps, and trips. She also responds to emails, telephone calls and requests. She is a proud champion of Encore's mission and a true advocate for its members. Kelli and her husband live in Calvert County, and have two children; a son in in Colorado, and a daughter in Australia. Kelli enjoys horseback riding, boating, golf, cycling, tennis, hiking and traveling.
Loretta recently joined Encore as Executive Assistant to CEO, Joshua Vickery. Loretta is a retired educator who spent many years teaching music, math, and English to elementary and secondary students primarily in Missouri and Illinois. After a 15-year stint as Assistant Director of the Early Childhood Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, she held several retail and administrative positions in San Diego and Orlando before joining CFCArts as a choir member for the 2011 fall season. 
Stephen Harouff is the conductor or the Columbia and Towson Encore Chorales. He is also the Music Director and Organist at Towson Presbyterian Church. As a collaborative artist he has performed with the Annapolis Opera Company, Peabody Opera, the US Naval Academy Band and Annapolis Wind Symphony. He holds a Master of Music degree in Organ from Peabody Conservatory and has undergraduate degrees in music education and piano from West Virginia University.
Joey Hoopengardner is the conductor for the Southern Maryland Encore Chorale. Joey taught choral music in the St. Mary’s County Public Schools for 33 years. He has been the guest conductor and adjudicator for various elite honors choirs and choral festivals across the state of Maryland. Early in his career, as a founding member of the Hollywood Harmoneers, Joey recorded six studio albums and traveled the Eastern seaboard performing with his gospel band. He served as the musical director at Lexington Park United Methodist Church for over 20 years.
Deborah Int Veldt has a B.S. in Music Education from the University of Maryland in addition to many years of private training in vocal performance, working with such luminariesas Ruth Drucker and Molly Donnelly. She taught secondary vocal music in the Montgomery County, MD school district for 20 years and has taught voice and piano privately in her home for the past 15 years. In 1994, Ms. Int Veldt joined the Frederick Chorale (where she met her husband Nick) with whom she is a frequent soloist and the soprano section leader. She is the Music Director at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick and leads a 30-voice adult choir there. She has high hopes of starting a children’s chorus at the church in the near future.
David Brian Lang is a prominent choral conductor, vocal coach, professional accompanist and concert organist throughout the greater Washington area. He has prepared choruses for performance in numerous concert halls, and worked with such notable conductors as Emil de Cou, Placido Domingo, Marvin Hamlisch, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Slatkin. Lang is now in his thirteenth season as artistic director for The Reston Chorale.
Dr. Ingrid Lestrud enjoys an active career as a conductor and educator. Drawn to music and singing at an early age, she studied vocal performance as an undergraduate and discovered a passion for conducting choral and orchestral music. She went on to study conducting at the graduate level, eventually completing her Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University, where she studied with Victor Yampolsky. While living in Chicago, Dr. Lestrud sang with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for several seasons under the baton of Riccardo Muti, performing in the Grammy award-winning recording of Verdi’s Requiem. She spent three years as the Voice Department Chair of the Merit School of Music, a community music school that serves over six thousand students with a focus on underserved communities. Collaborating with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she worked with Renée Fleming to develop curriculum for Merit’s Solo Voice Program, and her choir performed both for and with Ms. Fleming for special events.
DAVID SIMMONS, who is no stranger to Encore, was raised in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. Upon graduating from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA in 1988, David moved to Washington, DC, where he attended The American University, Washington College of Law, and where he lived for 33 years. After a short career as a litigation and real estate attorney, David returned to his true passion, music, where his career has taken him from the music classroom to the church organ and choir loft, and from work as a recital soloist and accompanist to a variety of conductor's podiums, stretching from choral and orchestral work to turns in musical theatre, jazz and opera.
Jeanne Kelly is the founder of Encore Creativity for Older Adults, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing an excellent, accessible, and sustainable artistic environment for older adults over 55 years of age, either beginning, intermediate or advanced levels, who seek arts education and performance opportunities under a professional artist.