Meet the Kerrytown Concert House Team!
SWARTOUT-BEBOW
MONICA SWARTOUT-BEBOW - Artistic & Executive Director

Artistic & Executive Director
EMILY OLSON - Development Manager

Emily Olson brings a breadth of experience to her position as the Development Manager for Kerrytown Concert House, where she combines a background in arts administration and community fundraising with her career as a professional flutist, music educator, therapeutic musician, and arts & mindfulness coach. As a classical flutist, Emily has performed for over 20 years with the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras, Michigan Sinfonietta, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, and the Encore Musical Theatre Company. Summer music performances have brought her to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she has appeared with the Pine Mountain Music Festival and Strings on the Bay chamber music series.
As an arts administrator, Emily has worked to support music, music education, and arts programming in Ann Arbor and the surrounding community. She has served in positions with the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), Ann Arbor and Chelsea School Districts, Ann Arbor Symphony, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, Community Music School of Ann Arbor, Shar Music Company, Children’s Creative Center, and most recently, Macon Creek Center for Art, Innovation & Sustainability.
Emily’s connection with Kerrytown Concert House began 25 years ago as an SMTD graduate student, and she has enjoyed countless touchpoints with the House as a soloist and chamber musician, audience member, and volunteer throughout her career. She and her husband, Marc, were even married at the House! It is a privilege, at this stage of her life and career, for Emily to invest in building a future for artists and musicians to thrive at Kerrytown Concert House.
Development Manager
ABBY DOTZ - Operations & Events Manager
Abby Dotz returned to the KCH staff in the role of Operations & Events Manager after having served as House Manager & Marketing Assistant, then Director of Marketing & Event Management, from 2014 until late 2016. Most recently, Abby served as the Box Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for the Croswell Opera House (Adrian, MI), where she has also appeared onstage and behind-the-scenes in numerous theatre productions since 2011. As an instructor with Saline Community Education, she has directed and assistant-directed several educational theatre productions as a part of their Youth Theatre Guild and Junior Theatre programs. In recent years, she also served as a board member for the Comic Opera Guild and assisted Monica Swartout-Bebow in her inaugural year of Front & Center Cabaret Works. Abby holds a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in Theatre Arts from The University of Michigan. Outside of work and the performing arts, she is an avid fan of science-fiction and fantasy TV & film, and loves to sew and bake.
Operations & Events Manager
DEANNA RELYEA - Artistic Director of Edgefest and KCH Founder
Artistic Director of Edgefest
& KCH Founder
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Paul Glendon, President
Stephanie Hale, Vice President
Dennis Huibregtse, Treasurer
Martha Gove, Secretary
Ron Bogdasarian
Greg Bolino
Marcus Darden
Val Jaskiewicz
Ryan MacKenzie Lewis
Carlos Palomares
Bev Seiford
Cynthia Straub
Emeritus Board Members (bottom row)
Charles Borgsdorf
Dallas Dort
Shelley MacMillan
Edward Surovell
House Managers
TODD NICHOLS
House Manager
Todd Nichols has been House Manager for the Kerrytown Concert House since April, 2018. He holds his BM in Euphonium performance from The Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory and an MM from Eastern Michigan University. Before the Kerrytown Concert House Todd has been involved with arts organizations such as the Baltimore Symphony, the Boston Symphony and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestras as part of their operations and development staff. Also being a seasoned musician and teacher, Todd currently arranges Orchestral music for the Concert Band medium.
Originally from Lexington, Massachusetts, when Todd is away from the Concert House, you’ll to find him playing Golf, Tennis, walking his dog Buna, gardening, going to the Movies or growing his digital classical music library.
COURTNEY MARSHALL
House Manager
Courtney Marshall is excited to join the Kerrytown Concert House team as a House Manager! Courtney holds a BS in Public and Nonprofit Administration with a Minor in General Music from Eastern Michigan University. Currently, Courtney is a graduate student at EMU studying Arts Administration. At EMU she is also a Graduate Assistant for the Student Center’s Conference and Event Services/Operations. Courtney has held internships with the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and the EMU Foundation where she has developed her interest and passion for nonprofit work. Courtney began her work in Arts Administration at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival for the 2019 season as the development intern.
Courtney originally hails from Alpena, MI, a small town in northern Michigan where she enjoys being on the water and wandering through nature. Outside of work and school, Courtney enjoys playing her saxophone, singing, and spending time with her friends and family, exploring museums and attending theatrical shows.
OTHER STAFF & VOLUNTEERS
DEANNA RELYEA
Artistic Director of Edgefest, Founder of Kerrytown Concert House
Mezzo-soprano Deanna Relyea is the founder of KCH, recently retiring as its Artistic Director after 32 years. She continues to perform regularly at KCH and serves as Artistic Director of the internationally-acclaimed Edgefest music festival. Deanna has appeared on concert series and with symphony orchestras in the region and throughout Canada. She frequently tours with her brother, the
celebrated Canadian bass baritone Gary Relyea, and his wife Anna, as the “Voices-Relyea,” performing in festivals and concert series throughout Canada. Many composers have written for her and her forays into improvisation have taken her to NYC where she has appeared at John Zorn’s Stone and at Brooklyn’s Roulette in performances with prominent improvisers and composers. She is a featured singer on Jason Hwang’s CD VOICE.
BONNIE GABOWITZ
Volunteer - Concerts, House Managing, Marketing
Bonnie Gabowitz grew up in Boston, where she studied music education with a minor in violin at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has over 30 years of experience as a NY public school teacher. She received her BA degree in Elementary Education at Johnson State College in Vermont. Always the innovator, she became known throughout the country for her curriculum development in teaching reading/writing skills through the use of cartoon art; she even taught a graduate course in this. The New York Times and Editor and Publisher featured her success teaching with cartoons. Bonnie also became a drug/alcoholism counselor in order to be of more service to those she helped as a volunteer at a local homeless shelter. This led to a job as weekend manager at a halfway house. As a retiree, Bonnie became a coordinator for over 100 volunteers in a West Palm Beach cultural organization. Her experience as a “Jane of all trades,” doing office work, marketing, driving performers, shopping, party planning and decorating, training and assigning volunteers, and everything in between, makes her a perfect fit for KCH.
Bonnie has also developed, hosted, and produced local cable TV shows; she even won an award from the Public Relations Society for the Public Interest. She presently hosts Ward Talk on CTN’s channel 19 and interviews an Ann Arbor council member each month. Bonnie has been volunteering at KCH for ten years! She lives in Ann Arbor with Roger, her precious Shih-tzu, and enjoys spending time with her friends, nieces and nephews. She is happiest when helping, learning, and creating.