CPAE Staff, Directors, and Teachers
Melissa Sites
CPAE Executive Director
Melissa is passionate about incorporating the arts in everyday life. As a working musician, Sites teaches and performs in and around Greenbelt and College Park. Sites is also a writer, working in poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and currently reports for the Greenbelt News Review. Since coming to work for College Park Arts Exchange in 2005, […]
Justin Newberger
Director of the College Park Youth Orchestra
Justin Newberger is the Director of the College Park Youth Orchestra, for musicians from Prince Georges County and the Greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. He is a York County, PA native who studied violin under Kathleen Yeater. He grew up as a musician in the York Junior and Youth Symphonies attending Susquehannock HS. He holds […]
Claudia Chudacoff
Director - College Park Youth Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
Ms. Chudacoff just completed her third one-year full-time contract as a member of the violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra. She is the concertmaster of both the National Gallery Orchestra and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and in 2015 retired from her position as concertmaster of the U.S. Marine Band’s White House Chamber Orchestra, in […]
Allison Hughes
CPAE Treasurer | Director - College Park Chorale
Allison Hughes is a singer, director, and teacher based in College Park, MD. She is the music director for the College Park Chorale, an adult community chorus, directs staged productions of youth and adult community musical theater, and also leads the fun and unusual (un)choir, a pop-up community sing. She is a member of the […]
Laura Lising
Director - College Park Homeschooling Arts Club | Co-Director - College Park Youth Players
Laura has been running the Arts Club and co-directing the Summer Musical for 6 years now, which allows her to combine her love for the arts with her love for creating spaces where children and families can build community while the children engage in fun and challenging art experiences in a supportive environment.
Eric Maring, “Mr. M”
CPAE Board Member, Community Music Coordinator | Director - College Park Youth Music Traditions
Eric Maring, known to his young students as “Mr. M”, is an early childhood music specialist, a performing songwriter, a dance caller, and a multi-instrumentalist. He has traveled far and wide in his musical pursuits – from his home in College Park, MD to Spain, India, Rwanda, and Peru – studying with virtuosos and singing […]
Ann Potter
Teacher - After School Art, Senior Art
Ann was born and grew up in Washington, DC. She holds a BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art and an MFA from The Cranbrook Academy of Art, both in Ceramics. Ann also likes to draw, paint, knit and learn about new art media. She has been teaching children and adults about art for more […]
Ian Blackwell Rogers
Arts Drop In Lead teacher
Ian Blackwell Rogers, a local artist and Early Childhood Educator with 30 years experience, is the Arts Drop In Lead teacher.
Jennifer Shannon
Violin/Viola Teacher, Sectional Coach & Board Member - College Park Youth Orchestra
Violinist Jennifer Stephens Shannon has been a member of the National Philharmonic Orchestra for over 29 years and maintains a teaching studio in her home in College Park, MD. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of Maryland and continued her graduate studies there as a founding member of the Graduate Fellowship String […]
Sarah Winston
Director - College Park Youth Band
Sarah Winston has been a music educator and conductor of all ages for over two decades. Currently she teaches for Prince George’s County Schools in College Park and Beltsville and maintains a private clarinet studio out of her home. During Sarah’s graduate studies at American University, she founded and conducted the AU Wind Ensemble, and […]
Anne Gardner
Admin - social media
Anne Gardner has lived in Greenbelt/College Park since 1996. She is a musician who performs locally on harp, violin, piano and organ, and she founded the Greenbelt Community Orchestra in 2023. She also works in Arts Administration and newspaper layout in Greenbelt, and enjoys dance and needlework in her spare time.
CPAE Board of Directors
Cindy Richbourg Xander
Cindy, a lifelong resident of College Park, is married to musician Kurt Gibbons. She runs the Wreath workshops for CPAE. Outside of CPAE, she is a Dental Hygienist and a former Girl Scout Leader. She loves to cook, dance, travel, and spend time with her grandchildren.
Richard Biffl
CPAE President
Claudia Chudacoff
Director - College Park Youth Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
Ms. Chudacoff just completed her third one-year full-time contract as a member of the violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra. She is the concertmaster of both the National Gallery Orchestra and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and in 2015 retired from her position as concertmaster of the U.S. Marine Band’s White House Chamber Orchestra, in […]
Allison Hughes
CPAE Treasurer | Director - College Park Chorale
Allison Hughes is a singer, director, and teacher based in College Park, MD. She is the music director for the College Park Chorale, an adult community chorus, directs staged productions of youth and adult community musical theater, and also leads the fun and unusual (un)choir, a pop-up community sing. She is a member of the […]
Laura Lising
Director - College Park Homeschooling Arts Club | Co-Director - College Park Youth Players
Laura has been running the Arts Club and co-directing the Summer Musical for 6 years now, which allows her to combine her love for the arts with her love for creating spaces where children and families can build community while the children engage in fun and challenging art experiences in a supportive environment.
Eric Maring, “Mr. M”
CPAE Board Member, Community Music Coordinator | Director - College Park Youth Music Traditions
Eric Maring, known to his young students as “Mr. M”, is an early childhood music specialist, a performing songwriter, a dance caller, and a multi-instrumentalist. He has traveled far and wide in his musical pursuits – from his home in College Park, MD to Spain, India, Rwanda, and Peru – studying with virtuosos and singing […]
Birgit Meade
CPAE Secretary
Birgit is a long-time resident of College Park, mother of two now grown children, who loves the City’s sense of community and commitment to art and culture. She joined CPAE’s Board in the early 2000s where she was active in a number of different roles and helped guide and grow programs for children such as […]
Janis Oppelt
CPAE Board Member
In addition to being a professional writer (soon to be retired from technical writing and finally embarking on what she wants to write), Janis is very active in two groups who focus on local environmental issues. For the Prince George’s group of the Sierra Club, she is still an active volunteer after a four-year stint […]