Executive Director

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Executive Director	Mr. Jason Shelton
E-mail	jason@portaraensemble.com
Term Start	January 2016
Jason's Experience: Jason Shelton has served as Portara's assistant director since its inception, and moved into the position of Artistic Director during the 2015/16 season. A published and award-winning composer, Jason has worked with choirs all around the country and specializes in creative, collaborative programming. In addition to his work with Portara, Jason is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. He served as Associate Minister for Music at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville from 1998-2017, and is now pursuing a freelance music ministry in the broader world as a church music consultant, composer, and worship leader. He is an advocate for using music as a means of creating community in multi-faith, multi-cultural environments.Formerly a Franciscan brother, Jason received an MDiv from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2003 and was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 2004. He studied theory and composition with Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB (St. Meinrad College, IN), and Drs. Wesley Vos & Jeffrey Kowalkowski (DePaul University, Chicago), and conducting with Robin Fountain and Dr. David Childs (Vanderbilt) and Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe (USC). Jason's compositions are published by Santa Barbara Music and Yelton Rhodes Music.

Co-Executive Director

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Co-Executive Director	Mr. Alan Fey
E-mail	alan@portaraensemble.com
Term Start	May 2019
Alan's Experience: Alan Fey, a classically-trained percussionist, was named the Administrative Manager for Portara in May 2019. As a percussionist, Alan has performed with ALIAS, the Nashville Symphony, Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Nashville Opera. He spent two years as the Assistant Music Director and Rehearsal Conductor for the Belmont University Opera, has arranged nearly a dozen works for voice and marimba, and has recently written a Requiem Mass for choir. He has toured throughout the southeast as a soloist and clinician.Alan is a co-founder and current President of Make Music Nashville, a city-wide festival that happens each year on the summer solstice - June 21 - with performances, lessons, instrument petting zoos, and play-along events that are free, outdoors, and all-inclusive. Alan directed the Make Music Nashville production - and the Nashville premiere - of John Luther Adams' Inuksuit for 35 musicians at Cumberland Park in May 2015.Alan studied primarily with Chris Norton at Belmont University, where he earned his Bachelor & Master of Music degrees in percussion performance. He spent a year studying with Dresdner Staatskapelle timpanist Bernhard Schmidt at the Hochschule fuer Musik. In addition to his work with Portara & Make Music Nashville, Alan is the Managing Director for ALIAS Chamber Ensemble and the Operations Assistant for the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra.

Senior Staff

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Name	Title
Mr. Patrick Dunnevant	Assistant Director

Staff

Full Time Staff	0
Part Time Staff	1
Volunteers	32
Contractors	1
Retention Rate	100%

Plans & Policies

Does your organization have a Fundraising Plan?	Under Development
Does your organization have a Strategic Plan?	Under Development
Years Strategic Plan Considers
When was the Strategic Plan adopted?
Does your organization have a Management Succession Plan?	Under Development
Does your organization have a Policy and Procedure Plan?	Under Development
Does the organization have a Nondiscrimination Policy?	No
Does the organization have a Whistle Blower Policy?	No
Does the organization have a Document Destruction Policy?	No

Evaluation

Is there a formal evaluation for...		Frequency (if applicable)
CEO/Executive Director	No	N/A
Senior Management	No	N/A
Non-Management	No	N/A

Awards

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Award / Recognition	Organization	Year
Best Vocal Group	Nashville Scene	2014

CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments

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Our current staff is almost 100% volunteer. The benefit to this is that our team is driven by passion. The challenge is that the team must balance their careers and personal lives with their commitment to Portara. We are working to secure operational grants in order to begin compensating key leadership positions within the organization.