Princeton Festival Adds Three Trustees To Board

Press release from Princeton Festival:

July 20, 2020

Three prominent area residents – Gail Kohn, Leila Shahbender, and Rita Shklar – have been elected to three-year renewable terms on the Board of Trustees of the Princeton Festival (www.princetonfestival.org). The Board is the governing body of the Festival, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to serving its communities with an annual world-class summer festival of the performing arts.

“We are fortunate that three such accomplished and dedicated supporters of the performing arts have chosen to join our Board,” said Benedikt von Schröder, Board Chair. “They bring us a rare combination of technical expertise, organizational skills, and commitment to education and outreach.

“Our Board is preparing to meet the challenges of a new age for the arts – not just in using technology to reach our audience, such as our recent Virtually Yours season of online performances, but in broadening our offerings to serve more segments of our community. Our new members will help us reach that goal.”

As a member of the Princeton Festival’s Gala Committee, Princeton resident Gail Kohn has made the visual arts a prominent part of the popular annual event. She is an active promoter of the visual and performing arts within the community, including serving on the Princeton University Concerts Committee. Ms. Kohn’s career included working for Mathematica Policy Research.

Leila Shahbender of Hopewell serves on the Festival’s Technology Committee, and has applied her technical expertise to a number of important database projects. Her extensive non-profit experience also includes serving as Board Chair and Secretary for the Princeton Girlchoir. For 28 years Ms. Shahbender worked at Princeton University, where she was a Director in the Office of Information Technology.

Rita Shklar of Princeton is an award-winning pianist and teacher. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, she has performed extensively in the U.S., Russia, Hungary, and Italy. She has served on the faculties of Westminster Conservatory, Westminster Choir College Continuing Education Program, and the College of New Jersey. Ms. Shklar is helping the Princeton Festival with its Piano Competition, scheduled for September, which will be conducted online for the first time in its 14-year history.

This press release was produced by the Princeton Festival. The views expressed here are the author's own.