​Liz Benjamin has been a member of the Monteverdi Music School board of directors since 2018 and secretary since 2019. She has been studying composition with Erik Nielsen for six years. She has included music and singing in her work with children, youth, and adults all her life. She taught Music Together for ten years and was a kindergarten teacher and a minister of religious education.

Erin Eberhardt is a multi-instrumentalist and music educator from the Adirondacks. She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where she studied education, marimba, and how to best serve students with special needs. Erin’s goal as a teacher is to give customized instruction, with student-created goals.

Erin specializes in teaching music to students with diverse needs. She started teaching a United Sound chapter in 2016, and has been using the arts to unite people since then. Erin also works with the Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs.

Deb Smoller has been a Monteverdi board member since 2017 and President since 2019. Deb has taught piano lessons for 27 years (bio here) and flute for 18 years. Her early careers in Burlington included work in the nonprofit sector including Flynn Theatre for Performing Arts, Discover Jazz Festival, and Burlington City Arts as well as in the for-profit sector in cinema. More recently Deb spent 6 years with a local/sustainable food organization as operations manager and currently as a manager sub with Hunger Mountain Co-op.

Leslie Welts is a state government attorney with a background in music performance and education. She has a bachelor's of music degree from UMass Amherst where she concentrated in bassoon performance. She also studied, and later worked, at Kinhaven Music School in Weston. Now she plays bassoon with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra and is a Suzuki parent to an elementary school-aged pianist. Leslie lives in Montpelier with her husband James, their daughter Anna, and dog Yuki. She spends time with her family enjoying Vermont's beauty and taking in as much live music as possible.

Jeff is a self-taught multi instrumentalist who's played in many bands and recording projects over the past 25 years. He currently plays drums and tours with Magic User, a synth and sax post-punk band based in Vermont. Past projects include Lake Superior (drums) and July 26 Movement (bass/drums/keys). He is also the founder and co-owner of several businesses including Naive Melody Instrument Exchange, an instrument store in downtown Montpelier. He is a graduate of Vermont Law School (JD & MSEL) and a former member of the Vermont Bar Association.

Brady Jalili is a lifelong musician currently working as a branch manager at M&Ts Morrisville Branch. He is a University of Vermont graduate with degrees in Political Science and Music. He grew up overseas, but since attending UVM has called Burlington home.

His musical background includes growing up playing classical Violin, but now has shifted to playing the Bass Guitar in groups around Burlington. He also enjoys recording, writing, and producing music.

A vocal performance major at NYU, Jolynda worked as a performing artist in New York City for a number of years after school. In 2017, she returned to Vermont with a breadth of nonprofit management experience gained in NYC and Philly.

She has worked with Just Basics, the nonprofit that runs the Montpelier Food Pantry, and chaired the board of MRPS Partners in Education for 3 years.

Jolynda happily joined Monteverdi Music School in 2022. Working in the arts again has been a breath of fresh air, and the opportunity to help Monteverdi build more programming and community reach is a dream job for her!