Leadership

Brian Isaac, Artistic Director

Brian Isaac 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).

Brian was most recently the Managing Director for Arts Laureate, a recording team which delivered over 1500 virtual performances across the country during the pandemic. Previous appointments include: Artistic Director of the Williamsburg Choral Guild (Williamsburg, VA), music faculty at Encore University, Interim Director of Choral Music at Thomas Nelson Community College (Hampton, VA), adjunct music faculty at Tidewater Community College (Portsmouth, VA) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA), Assistant Conductor with the Washington Master Chorale (Washington, D.C.), and Director of Choirs at Damascus High School (Damascus, MD).

Brian’s professional and community ensembles have commissioned and premiered new works by composers such as Tawnie Olson, Lori Laitman, Christopher Hoh, Jonathan Kolm, and Ola Gjeilo. Reviews include: “perfectly brilliant” (composer Dr. William Averitt, Shenandoah Conservatory), and having “fine balance” and “delivering sounds that ranged from sensitively soft to knock your socks off soaring” (Virginia Gazette).

Mickey Love, Director of Business Operations & Development

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.

Prior to joining Encore, Love’s employment history included 10 years as the Executive Director for the Dorchester Center for the Arts (DCA) in Cambridge, Maryland. During her tenure, DCA was recognized by Dorchester County Economic Development as “Nonprofit of the Year”-2014; Dorchester Chamber of Commerce: “Not for Profit Business of the Year”-2011; and What’s Up? Eastern Shore Magazine’s “Nonprofits to Know” – 2013;“Best Arts Program”- 2012; and “Best Gallery Recognizing National and Regional Artists”-2011. A high point of her term with DCA was the successful $1.9 million capital fundraising campaign for the renovation of a historic 14,000 square-foot facility, which became the organization’s permanent location in the downtown Arts and Entertainment District.

Anthony Tambasco, President

Anthony (Tony) Tambasco enjoyed a life in academia, highlighted by thirty-five years as a professor of biblical studies and social ethics in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. He also taught in the University’s evening Graduate Liberal Studies Program for most of those years. His academic duties included two three-year terms as chair of his department and five years as an Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program. He is author of five books, editor of three, and was a frequent speaker in adult education venues across the area, including at the Smithsonian Institution Associates Program, where he pioneered lectures on biblical topics and ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.

He moved to Goodwin House Life Plan Community in Bailey’s Crossroads, where Encore Chorale had one of its roots, and has sung with the Chorale there since 2010. He also traveled with the Chorale on its Danube Cruise in 2014 and enjoyed a singing weekend at The Homestead in 2017, followed by a week with Encore Chorale in Chautauqua that same year.

Since retirement, Tony has been a member of his church choir. He is also involved with his wife, Anne Stewart, in other activities at Goodwin House. Among other things, Tony is the only resident on the Goodwin House Board of Directors and also serves with his wife on the Board of Directors of Goodwin House Foundation, the charity-giving arm of Goodwin House.

Frank Burgess, Vice President

Burgess Frank Burgess came to Encore in 2014. He was a judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1983 through 2013. During his tenure, he presided over criminal, civil, tax, family, probate and tax cases. He served as Presiding Judge of the court’s Criminal Division and Presiding Judge of the court’s Probate and Tax Division. Among committee posts, he was Chairperson of the court’s Rules Committee. He is now retired.

Prior to joining the bench, Frank was a staff attorney at the District of Columbia Public Defender Service, and served for one year as the Chief of its Appellate Division. Before joining the Public Defender Service, he was an associate at the firm of Palmer & Dodge in Boston, Massachusetts. He was law clerk to the Honorable Levin H. Campbell when Judge Campbell was both a United States District Judge and United States Circuit Judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Frank holds a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Larry Kelly, Treasurer

Larry Kelly has over forty-seven years of management experience with large and small businesses in the private sector, federal government and the U.S. Navy, where he was the program director for a $200M/year revenue generating business.

Larry is a Consultant for Whitney, Bradley and Brown, Inc. He provides information technology capital planning and portfolio management consulting support to a component of the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, he worked as a Program Manager and Principal Consultant for SAIC and Total Systems Technologies Corp.

Janie Powers, Secretary

Janie Powers

Janie Powers joined Encore in 2010. She currently sings with Annapolis ROCKS and with the Chorale at AACC, where she is Co-Chorale Master. Janie served on the Board of Queen Anne School, an independent school in Upper Marlboro, where, for several years, she chaired the school’s annual fundraising auctions. Janie also served as both Board Member and Treasurer of The Roedown Races and The Marlborough Hunt Club.

At age 50, Janie chose to begin a career as a Mediator. Janie is a Harvard Law School trained Mediator and holds a Certification by the Maryland Council for Dispute Resolution. To augment her mediation skills, Janie earned a Master’s Degree in Clinical Counseling from Johns Hopkins University. For the last 22 years, Janie has maintained a private Mediation practice focusing primarily on property, financial, and domestic disputes and serves on the Circuit Court Panel of Mediators.

Janie brings a sincere love for Encore and the desire to maximize and enhance each singer's Encore experience through the process of lifelong learning. Janie places a high value on the opportunity to contribute to the Board and, more importantly, serve each Encore singer.

Valerie Amerkhail, Board Member

Valerie Amerkhail joined Encore in 2010 and currently sings tenor with Capitol Encore and Encore Rocks - DC. She originally came to DC after graduating from Swarthmore College, to work as an economist at the U. S. Department of Commerce and then the Department of Agriculture. After marrying a visiting economist, she lived in Afghanistan and Germany, and then returned to DC, first working for the Congressional Research Service, then joining the private sector to analyze and forecast government economic policy, and later forecasting corporate taxes for the Congressional Budget Office.

For the past 30 years she has specialized in Transfer Pricing, helping companies that do business with related companies in other tax jurisdictions to ensure that the prices of the goods, services, and intangibles in their intercompany transactions are consistent with the "arm's length pricing" requirements of the governments that tax the resulting profits, and helping the companies defend their prices when governments question them.

Jan Augustine, Board Member

Jan Augustine started her participation with Encore as an enthusiastic audience member for Capital Chorale in its early days. When evening rehearsals became available, Jan joined the tenor section first with the Chorale and then with the nascent DC Rocks. Since that beginning, she has sung with the Capital and Schweinhaut Chorales and with DC Rocks. Jan has been thrilled to sing in the 10^th Anniversary Concert and at many of the Kennedy Center Holiday concerts. She has also enjoyed summer sessions at Washington College, Chautauqua, and the 2018 trip to Canada. She currently serves as the co-Chorale Master for the Capital Chorale.

In addition to Encore, Jan keeps busy volunteering with the Smithsonian’s American Art/Portrait Gallery Museums, Ford’s Theatre, Chevy Chase At Home (a community-sponsored “senior village”), and most recently with the Capital Area Food Bank where she helps load emergency food relief boxes in a setting reminiscent of “Lucy and the Chocolate Factory.” When not in lockdown, Jan travels extensively and has visited all 7 continents.

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a BS in Mathematics, Jan began her professional career at the U.S. Department of State with assignments in DC, Tokyo, and Montevideo. She then moved to the private sector working on USAID and World Bank projects around the world, lending her computer and project management skills to various governments. Ultimately she ended up in the education sector in international operations, setting up computerized testing centers for the GRE, GMAT, and various professional licensure exams. Her career allowed her to live and work in Cairo, Hyderabad (India), Manchester (UK), and Mexico City, with short term assignments throughout Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.

Jan is pleased to support Encore during this transition period by serving on the Board.

Jan Bloom, Board Member

Jan Bloom has been singing with the Scheinhaut Chorale in Silver Spring since 2011. She has also participated in many summer camp programs. She has enjoyed singing all her life.

Before her retirement in 2009, she was an elementary school teacher for 28 years. She taught all the grades from one to six. Teaching was all she ever wanted to do since she was a child herself.

Jan has given many volunteer hours throughout her teaching career and in her retirement. She has held leadership positions in her synagogue, in the Brandeis Women’s Committee, and in Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Jan is the current president of the White Oak chapter of the Friends of the Library and chairman of the Library Advisory Committee. These groups raise money to help the library provide programs for the very diverse White Oak community it serves. She is also an active volunteer with The Metropolitan Washington Ear reading orally and recording print publications for their blind clientele to dial-in and access the news of the day.

Jan welcomes the opportunity to serve on the Encore Board of Directors and to participate in helping to create the future of Encore Creativity.

Jackie Barbarito, Board Member

Rick Ritter 1 Jackie Barbarito, MHA, LNHA
As Assisted Living Administrator for Goodwin House Alexandria, Jackie Barbarito provides leadership, management, and overall regulatory compliance responsibility of the assisted living and memory support household.Jackie fell in love with the senior living industry at an early age. Jackie pursued her passion throughout the years by advocating and serving older adults. She seeks to improve the quality of life of her residents, one day at a time. Jackie is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She holds a B.S. degree in Health Promotion from the American University and a Masters in Healthcare Administration from The George Washington University.