We Hear You Vol. 3

Cellist, Amanda Gookin, is a chamber musician, soloist, and educator living in New York City. She is the co-founder of the innovative string quartet, PUBLIQuartet, specializing in the performance of new music and improvisation. She has given master classes on improvisation and chamber music throughout the U.S. and is a Teaching Artist in New York City public schools. Amanda is on faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College and has been sought after as a speaker on career development by the Mannes School for Music. Her initiative, the Forward Music Project, commissioned seven new works for solo cello by today’s most forward-thinking composers who encourage social change and empowerment for women and girls.

Courtenay Casey is the Senior Director of Artistic Planning and Vice General Manager for National Sawdust, a Brooklyn based non-profit that provides state of the art facilities and support to a wide range of composers, musicians, and emerging talent, opening Fall 2015. She is also the Managing Director for VisionIntoArt, a new music driven non-profit that produces multi-disciplinary works around the world.

With over ten years “behind the stage” experience in the performing arts and working with some of the most prestigious artists from Broadway to the concert hall, Courtenay has managed and produced over seventy productions ranging from elaborate world premieres to intimate workshops.

Courtenay is a Board Member of Original Music Workshop and Art Song Preservation Society of New York. She was a 2012 Emerging Leaders of New York (ELNYA) fellow and is currently pursuing an Arts Administration Certificate from NYU. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Carla Dirlikov Canales is an internationally known opera singer who has also established herself as a leader in the area of using the arts to advance important social issues.  She is a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Turnaround Arts Program, was selected by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015 and won the Medal of Excellence from the Sphinx Organization.  In each case, she was the first opera singer ever to receive the honor.  As a singer she has received worldwide acclaim, and is best known for her portrayals of Bizet’s “Carmen” which she has performed over 80 times in a dozen countries.  She has performed as a soloist at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and top international venues in Europe, Asia and Latin America.  She is the founder and CEO of The Canales Project, aimed at giving voice to issues of Identity and culture through music and conversation.

Alyse Nelson is president and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership. A cofounder of Vital Voices, Alyse has worked for the organization for 20 years, serving as vice president and senior director of programs before assuming her current role in 2009. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has expanded its reach to serve over 15,000 women leaders in 144 countries. 

Previously, Alyse served as deputy director of the State Department’s Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative and worked with the President’s Interagency Council on Women at the White House. Alyse is a Member in the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society and is a Board member of Running Start. Alyse is a part of the Expert Group for the B Team and is on the Advisory Board of Chime for Change. Fortune Magazine named Alyse one of the 55 Most Influential Women on Twitter. Alyse was honored with a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award.

Alyse is the author of the best-selling book Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World and has been featured in various international and national media. She completed her graduate degree work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.