About

Monadnock Music Board of Trustees

Paul Venezia - President
Andre Jaeger - Treasurer
Tonya Marshall - Secretary
Michael Dell’Orto
Lundy Lewis
Carl Marsh
Liz Newcombe
Christine Paryl
Elisabeth Small
David Sturm

Paul Venezia is a computing and internetworking infrastructure architect, writer, music producer, and a multi-instrumentalist musician. He grew up in Keene, NH, in a home where classical music was playing continuously. His father has exceptionally deep knowledge and a profound love of the genre, and passed on that love of music.

He is Vice President, Engineering at Xperi, a California company, where he designs global computing infrastructures to deliver music and audio content and data to automotive and mobile applications. Over the years, this work has taken him to far corners of the planet, but he primarily works from home.

A professional musician since the age of 16, he has toured the world and played as a sideman to several regional artists and groups in Boston and greater New England. He lives in Keene with his daughter Isabella, and currently plays in several groups in the area, as well as recording and producing music in his studio.

Andre Jaeger

Treasurer

Michael G. Dell'Orto is an actor, writer, and director who holds an M.F.A. in Directing from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association (the Union of professional theatre actors and stage managers) and SAG-AFTRA (the Union for professionals in film, TV, radio and other media). He served for twelve years as Actors’ Equity’s Area Liaison for New England. Michael has made his home in New Hampshire since 1979, and since 1985 has lived in Wilton Center, where he volunteers at the Historical Society and is the current Chair of the Wilton Heritage Commission. He is a co-author of the book Wilton, Temple and Lyndeborough, part of the Arcadia Publishing series Images of America.  He has worked as an actor and director at theatres throughout New England and beyond, and has done work in films, TV, radio drama, and interactive home video. He is married to the happily retired Jacqueline Kahle, and their daughter, Sarah Dell’Orto, is a Senior Project Director at Advance NYC, an arts development consulting firm.

Dr. Lundy Lewis is a Professor at Southern New Hampshire University where he teaches courses in Digital Music, Social Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Innovation. Lundy has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Georgia and an MS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is an inventor with 37 US patents and an author of three technical books on telecommunications management. He founded four startup companies in computer networking and artificial intelligence. He is a Fulbright Research Scholar and a Christos and Mary Papoutsy Distinguished Chair in Ethics and Social Responsibility. Since 1993 Lundy has lived in Mason NH. He is a patron of Monadnock Music, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Peterborough Players. Lundy has a passion for many types of music and enjoys concerts and playing guitar and piano. He paid for much of college by playing in various bands.

Carl Marsh, American orchestrator, arranger, composer, and studio musician has deep Tennessee roots of childhood classical training that grew into a prolific and multifaceted music career. One of a handful of musicians to blend classical, rock, R&B, country, and pop genres, Carl is a Grammynominated professional who has contributed to hundreds of projects reflecting his eclectic path, from ZZ Top and Art Garfunkel to Garth Brooks and Manhattan Transfer.

Marsh began playing piano at age five, adding bassoon, recorder, and guitar by age twelve. He developed a love of music that blossomed into an exploration of diverse musical directions. By the age of twenty, Marsh was proficient on over thirty instruments. His young musical path wound its way through an array of experiences: substitute organist and choir member at his childhood church, bassoonist in Tennessee All-State Ensembles, performer in local high school rock bands, member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, DJ for the classical radio station WKNOFM Memphis, and creative force behind R&B and pop projects in Memphis recording studios.

Carl earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from University of Memphis. He found musical inspiration during these formative college years from artists spanning genres and generations, from Maurice Ravel and Charlie Patton to The Beatles and Nat King Cole. Marsh soon began recording as a studio guitarist in Memphis. His career as a studio guitarist and as a classical bassoonist ran in parallel for many years. However, a more definitive career choice loomed on the horizon. In 1973, Marsh was faced with a choice between classical bassoon study with Bernard Garfield, legendary bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and work with Memphis R&B phenom Steve Cropper. He chose the latter, embarking on a path that in 1974 led to unexpectedly covering vocals on a demo submitted to the legendary Clive Davis at Arista Records in New York. As a result, Carl was signed as a recording artist with Arista. The following year, Carl was asked to arrange and orchestrate three important projects: John Prine’s Common Sense, José Feliciano’s Just Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Big Star’s 3rd. 3rd was subsequently chosen as one of Rolling Stone’s 500 best albums of all time.

The success of these three albums caught the attention of colleagues in the Memphis music industry, and opened the door to thousands of recording sessions in every imaginable genre. In 1976, Carl shifted his studio focus from guitar to keyboard, in part to bolster his arranging skills. His studio experience in Memphis included work with artists such as The Temptations, Leon Russell, Wilson Pickett, and many others. As the late 1970s ushered in a heyday for synthesizers, Marsh became interested in music production and synth programming, using a Fairlight computer at Ardent Studios in Memphis. By 1978, he was working as a keyboardist and arranger/writer on records across the world for Three Hats Productions (Toronto), the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (Alabama), Joe Cocker and Fastway (London), Debra DeJean (Soon, Marsh relocated to Nashville and became an active member of Music City’s studio scene. Throughout the next decade he performed as a session keyboardist for artists from Bon Jovi to Willie Nelson, and countless others. Carl’s studio work introduced him to producers who hired him to write for and conduct studio orchestras.

After so many years as primarily a session musician, Carl transitioned to more work as an arranger / orchestrator / composer, bookmarked by his 1992 collaboration with Amy Grant and producer Brown Bannister on the album Home for Christmas. Marsh’s orchestrations have taken him to London’s famed Abbey Road Studios over fifty times, to conduct the London Sessions and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. See Alongside his myriad credits as instrumentalist, arranger, and orchestrator are Marsh’s songwriting credits, appearing on works with seminal New Orleans funk band The Meters, the legendary R&B duet Sam and Dave, multiplatinum artists The Spinners, ZZ Top, The Jeff Healy Band, and French artist Axel Red.

Today, Carl continues his influence in the North American music scene. After serving as orchestrator and music director for Opera Carolina’s 2018 production of Douglas Tappin’s “I Dream,” Marsh reorchestrated that successful score for an expanded 2021 Opera Carolina production. In September, 2022, the Atlanta Symphony premiered Carl’s orchestrations for R.E.M. Explored - a collection of re-imagined R.E.M. songs envisioned by R.E.M bassist, Mike Mills.

Liz Newcombe is a financial consultant with Fidelity Investments serving as a wealth advisor to high net worth clients for several years, and a Mom of two amazing kids. She is from Keene, but moved around the country and internationally quite a bit before she and her family settled in Peterborough two years ago. She has coached youth soccer and is active in her church community, but was really looking to get involved in something which resonated with her more, so when she was invited to consider serving on the Board of Monadnock Music, it felt just right. Liz has attended many MM events since she returned to NH five years ago, and is excited to be a part of a non-profit which brings so much culture and joy to the community. Her son is very musically inclined, which has brought her to appreciate all that Monadnock Music does even more as she tries to expose him to more opportunities for listening and appreciating beautiful music. Music is transformational, and is exactly what we need more of in this world, today more than ever!

Christine Paryl teaches piano and woodwinds to children and adults in her home studio, presently only virtually. She has both a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and Elementary Education and a Master of Arts in liberal studies from Benedictine University. She is a certified teacher with the state of Illinois, and the Music Teacher National Organization (MTNA), and holds the title of Advanced Specialist in piano for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Before moving to New Hampshire, Christine held many positions with various music organizations in the Chicago area including the Naperville chapter of the MTNA, the Downers Grove Music Club, the Downers Grove Piano Festival and Competition, the Royal Conservatory Achievement Program, and the Illinois Music Educators Association. She makes it a priority the annual MTNA conferences to continue her music education and has recently been elected Treasurer for the New Hampshire MTNA.

Christine performed on saxophone with the Naperville Municipal Band for the past 48 years and served on the Board of Directors for two terms. She also performs with the Merrimack Valley, Windham, and Amherst Concert Bands.

Music is a major component of Christine’s life. She enjoys the symphone, opera, and other local musical concerts. Outside of music, she enjoys hiking, biking, downhill, cc skiing, and snow shoeing, and is so happy to have moved to New Hampshire.

Elisabeth Small's multi-faceted career has touched upon a wide realm of possibilities for a violinist: university professor,
symphonic player, soloist, chamber musician, studio musician, NYC freelancer, clinician, presenter and adjudicator. She
continues to enjoy performing, leading masterclasses and teaching privately.

Small, now Professor Emerita at the Belmont University School of Music, shepherded and developed the String Department there as Coordinator of Strings over 38 years. She received her Bachelor and Master degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay.

Her varied career includes engagements as soloist with orchestra, including the National, Atlanta and Nashville Symphonies, chamber music and recital broadcasts on regional television and on public radio stations in the U.S. and Canada, at festivals, as well as service as Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony. Small's 2015 solo/piano-trio tour of eight cities in China included performances and master classes at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Tianjin Conservatory, Nanjing Culture and Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory of Music, and Shenzen Concert Hall. Precovid, she and her husband, Carl Marsh, collaborated to perform Bach & the Blues in London, UK, and Geneva, Switzerland. Elisabeth has led master classes and clinics as far afield as the Dresden Hochschule in Germany, and many of her presentations at national ASTA and state conferences have focused on muscular-skeletal injury prevention.

Small can be heard on the Premiere Records label in performances of Loewe and Röntgen duos. As an active member
of the Nashville recording industry, Elisabeth has sweetened tracks for such Pop luminaries as Ray Charles, Garth Brooks, Bob Seger, Johnny Mathis and Amy Grant.

Her former students hold positions in all levels of education and in symphony orchestras. Elisabeth’s pedagogical philosophy blends her conservatory training with an open mind to nurture all musical styles in her students, whose careers range from Classical to jazz/rock to Bluegrass/Celtic. Her former students continue to be heard on stages the world over, in Classical venues, as well as with renowned acts such as Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Awards and honors of former students include CMA Musician of the Year, 2019, 2020& 2021 and 2016 and 2017 Grammies.

David Sturm is a business and estate-planning attorney. He lives in an antique home in Mont Vernon with his wife and law partner Sheila and their two dogs, Lily and Henry. Born in England, he grew up in Indiana and has lived in New Hampshire for over thirty years. He lived in the Burlington, Vermont area and worked for IBM as an engineer, before attending law school at Cornell Law School. He loves New Hampshire and has no plans to leave.

He enjoys nearly all musical genres and exploring new-to-him music, especially world and ethnic traditions. The victim of piano lessons early in his childhood, he plans to resume lessons and enjoy it this time! Now, however, he spins a mean record.

In addition to serving as a Trustee of Monadnock Music, David is very active with the Milford Rotary Club, serves as town moderator for Mont Vernon, and is involved in other civic and charitable organizations.

David enjoys mountaineering, hiking, biking, skiing in all forms, reading, traveling, hanging with his pups, and enjoying Sheila’s culinary prowess. He has participated in many road and trail running races and has completed about two dozen triathlons, including an Ironman and a handful of half-Ironman distance races. His super power is telling jokes.