Staff

Executive Director
Maria V. Coldwell served as Executive Director of the Early Music Guild of Seattle for eight years (1991-99). Before that, she served for three years as Executive Director of Seattle Camerata, a "chamber music in historic sites" series in Seattle. She was formerly a college professor, and taught music history at Yale University and the University of Chicago. Most recently (1999-2002), she was Program Manager for the University of Washington's Division of Educational Outreach, administering certificate programs in nonprofit management, arts management, fundraising, and various arts areas.

Maria received her Ph.D. in music history from Yale in 1979 and is a medievalist who has published various scholarly articles. She won the Noah Greenberg Award of the American Musicological Society in 1981 for editing and producing a performance of the "Roman de Guillaume de Dole," a 13th-century French romance with music. She has studied flute and Baroque flute; she led the Yale Collegium Musicum for two years, coaching ensembles in repertory from the 14th through the 18th centuries. She sings with St. Mark's Cathedral Choir and the Tudor Choir in Seattle.

She served on the board of Early Music America for 6 years, two as President. She has twice served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has also served as a panelist or juror for the Seattle Arts Commission and the King County Arts Commission. She has given presentations at various national meetings, including those of the American Musicological Society, Chamber Music America, the Berkeley Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival. She has been married for twenty years to Charles Coldwell, and has one son, Thomas, who is a student at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Membership Director
Sally Mitchell joined the EMA staff in September, 2002. Sally worked for the Early Music Guild of Seattle from 1996 to 2002, as Education Director and, during the 1999-2000 season, as Acting Executive Director. She has also managed the Medieval Women's Choir and Seattle Baroque. She is a semi-professional recorder player, teaches recorder and medieval music through Music Center of the Northwest, and has taught at workshops in Washington and Oregon. As a volunteer, she has served as board president of Baroque Northwest and the Seattle Recorder Society, and was a long time board member of the Early Music Guild. Back in the '80s she owned and operated a small typesetting and graphic arts business. Her favorite music to perform is medieval, although she is currently exploring the doo-wop and torch song repertoire.

Advertising Manager, Circulation and Web Site
Patrick Nugent joined the EMA staff in July, 2006. Patrick has worked in the publishing industry for over ten years. He was advertising manager with Seattle-based Sea Kayaker magazine and advertising executive with New Age Retailer magazine. Patrick also served as editor-in-chief and advertising manager with NAV Magazine, an Atlanta-based monthly magazine focusing on contemporary instrumental music. He has a B.A. in History and Political Science from Hillsdale (MI) College. He and his wife, Sarah, recently took a year off to live in Germany and travel throughout western Europe. Patrick has played piano for several years, has recently taken up the electric bass, and is working on various film projects.