Elemental Strings Board Members
Varina Bleil is the Executive Director of Inside Out Community Arts, which provides free after-school arts and education programs to at-risk and underserved youth throughout Los Angeles. Varina received her Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's "Arts in Education" program, where she worked closely with the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. She previously served as the Development Executive at The Help Group and has over a decade of experience as a Teaching Artist with various arts organizations in Los Angeles, supervising theatrical performances for underprivileged teenagers, juvenile offenders, and psychiatric patients. Prior to her work with nonprofits, Varina worked in the film and television industry in which she served as a development executive, producer and writer, working with such companies as Warner Bros., Miramax, New Line, and NBC/Universal. Her experience includes Senior Vice President at Weed Road Pictures; staff writer on the television series Eureka; and Associate Producer on the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. She is honored to be one the Board of Directors of Elemental Strings, and to be of service to the incredible work Elemental Strings provides in our community.
Master luthier
Georg Eittinger is noted by his peers for his unique talent in the restoration and conservation of rare antique violins, violas, and cellos. A native of Ingolstadt on the Danube River close to Munich, Georg grew up in a family of professional musicians. He began his musical studies at the age of five and was introduced to the art of violin making through his studies of piano and violin. He is a graduate of the German State Violin Making School, located in Mittenwald located in the German-Austrian Alps. He holds the German Master Craftsman Certificate (Geigenbaumeister) and has worked for over two decades in the violin making trade. He held prominent positions in major violin restoration workshops in Germany, England, and the United States before becoming, in 2003, the owner of the legendary Hans Weisshaar firm, established in 1947 in Los Angeles. Since then the company has opened branches in Berlin and Tokyo. Throughout his career Georg has trained many apprentice restorers, and he regularly lectures to violin making students, musicians, and music organizations worldwide about the art of violin making and restoration and the stringed-instrument trade. He teaches the annual Hans Weisshaar Restoration Course at the German State Violin Making School in Mittenwald. He has written on the subject of violin making and violin history for The Strad magazine and other publications, and is a participating member of professional organizations, including the German Violin Making Federation (Verband Deutscher Geigenbauer und Bogenmacher) and the British Violin Making Association (BVMA).
Charlotte Koh currently works at Hulu as part of the Content Acquisition group. Prior to joining Hulu, she was Senior Vice President of Business Development for Marvel Studios and a Creative Executive at Fox Searchlight Pictures. She also spent several years consulting for telecommunication and media companies while working at Oliver Wyman (fka Mercer Management Consulting). She started learning the piano at age eight and enjoyed her lessons until she left home for Stanford University, where she received a BA in Political Science. Charlotte also holds an MFA in Motion Picture Producing from USC's Peter Stark Program. She is delighted to be a Board Member of Elemental Strings and believes deeply in its mission to inspire students with a love for making music.
Kevin McKeown is an instrumental music teacher for the SMMUSD, as well as the conductor of Wind Ensembles for both Santa Monica College and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. Prior to joining the Santa Monica community, he held positions at CSUN, CSULA, and Long Beach City College. Kevin earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education and a Master of Music degree in Conducting from UCLA. He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the Southern California area. Outside of his passion for teaching musicians of all ages, he enjoys playing golf and spending time with his wife and son. Kevin has been a strong advocate for this program since its inception and is now honored to be a Board Member of the Elemental Strings program.
Aaron Mendelsohn is founder and Chairman of the Maestro Foundation. During the over 25 years that he has spent in the financial services industry, he has retained titles from vice-president to senior director at Stearn Frank Meyer & Fox, Inc., Drexel Burnham Lambert, Blyth Eastman Dillon & Co., Paine Webber, and Bear Stearns & Co. Aaron currently serves on the board of the following companies: International Aircraft Investors, MRG, Display Products, and 2nd Sight. In a charitable capacity, he is also a director of several charities including The Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC.
Joseph A. Pertel is a civil rights attorney in Santa Monica. He and his wife, Dr. Tan Tan, are proud parents of two children, Anya, who will attend John Adams Middle School, and Minya Pertel, who attends Grant Elementary School. Anya, a violist, has been a member of Elemental Strings. He hold a BA from Yale University.
Tim Tortora is currently CEO of Andrews, Sumitt & Allen Management, a financial management company specializing in Outsource CFO services for the entertainment industry. Prior to founding ASA, Tim was CFO of Benji Returns Distribution a film production and distribution company that independently produced and distributed Benji Off the Leash in 900 theatres domestically generating more than $4.2MM in box office revenue. Prior to that Tim was in charge of worldwide production for ASA Management's production services partner Milk & Honey Pictures, headquartered in Los Angeles and Prague with offices and affiliates in Mexico, Italy, Canada, South Africa, England, Spain, Russia and Italy. Recently Tim was Executive In Charge Of Production for Oprah Winfrey's film production arm - Harpo Films. As head of production, he was in charge of all aspects of production from deal execution through delivery with an emphasis on financial/logistical execution and hi-definition delivery on such films as Tuesdays With Morrie (Jack Lemmon, Hank Azaria), Amy & Isabelle (Elisabeth Shue), The Wedding (Halle Berry) & Before Women Had Wings (Ellen Barkin). Prior to running production at Harpo, Tim was a production accountant for such projects as "Home Improvement," "Ellen," "The Fan" and "Metro." During his tenure as a member of the production accounting team he was in charge of tracking, estimating and managing $1 - $65 million production budgets for Walt Disney, TriStar Pictures, NBC, ABC and CBS. Also, he has extensive experience as a Media Supervisor assigned to the Sony Pictures marketing team. During his tenure at McCann-Erickson on the Sony business, Tim was in charge of domestic theatrical strategic planning for such media campaigns as "Terminator II: Judgment Day," "The Doors," "Total Recall," "Bugsy" and "Basic Instinct." Tim started his career as a recording engineer at a post production facility producing feature and record projects.
