The Music Academy has named a new board chair and four new members of its Board of Directors.

Leading the board will be Maurice Singer, a founding principal of The Evergreen Advantage, a real estate investment trust based in Santa Monica with offices in Montecito. He is currently a board director and served on the board from 2010-18. Singer succeeds Eileen Sheridan, who served as board chair from 2020-22.

The new board members are Michele Brustin, former executive director of the Performing Arts Association of New York State; Daniel Dokos, partner at the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges and head of global finance; Rachel Fine, executive director of the Yale Schwarzman Center; and Joshua Ramirez, a Realtor with Compass Real Estate in Santa Barbara, and co-founder of Princeton North, a branding and marketing company.

“We’ve strategically aligned to move entrepreneurial trailblazer Maurice Singer into the role of board chair,” said Scott Reed, Music Academy president/CEO. “His business acumen and philanthropic leadership are hallmarks of an outstanding volunteer.

“Our four new board members add rock-solid skillsets that will complement the excellent directors who are continuing their terms.”

“I’m honored and excited to serve as board chair of this dynamic, forward-thinking institution that affords the next generation of classical musicians the opportunity to continue to develop their skills and explore new inroads to the ever changing and challenging career paths in the music industry,” Singer said.

The new directors join a group of 23 local and national education, performing arts, and corporate executives and leaders. Among them are:

Ellen Barger, Santa Barbara County Education Office assistant superintendent; Dean Carter, Guild Education chief people officer; Clive Chang, incoming Young Arts president; Sonos CEO Patrick Spence; and Pam Strobel, former executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Exelon and former Joffrey Ballet, and Ravinia Festival chair.

Singer and the new directors begin their terms on Jan. 1. The full roster of the 2022 Board of Directors is available at the Music Academy’s website.

Born in New York City, Singer studied English and economics at the University of Vermont, then held a succession of senior management positions in the film and television industry, including president of HBO Films and senior vice president at Home Box Office, Columbia Pictures Corp., and Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.

Shortly after becoming a licensed financial advisor, he founded Los Angeles-based Riviera Capital Management in 1993, an independent firm specializing in wealth management, venture capital, and initial public offering consultation.

In addition to being a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the National Association of Television Broadcasters, Singer has served as a board director for Tempra Technology and Qnext Corp, and The Industry, a Los Angeles-based opera company.

He is currently a member of the Ojai Music Festival Board of Directors. Singer served on Music Academy Board from January 2010 through December 2018, and returned to the board in January 2020.

Brustin was an executive at NBC and an executive producer with her own company for 30 years in Los Angeles. Before that she worked in the nonprofit performing arts industry. She served as head of the Illinois Arts Council, and executive director of the Performing Arts Association of New York State.

In Hollywood she became vice president of drama programs, followed by senior vice president of comedy at NBC under Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff. She later formed her own company.

Brustin served as an executive director of numerous television projects under the umbrella of Universal Television, Columbia, and Scripps Howard. She retired early to enjoy life in Santa Barbara and has spent her free time involved in music organizations, which had been her passion since she was a piano student at Peabody Conservatory.

She was previously on the Music Academy Board for nine years; is now on the Ojai Music Festival Board, and was on the voard of the innovative opera company The Industry in Los Angeles.

When she worked in LA, Brustin was on the board of the UCLA performing arts organization and on the Music Center’s Education Board.

Dokos is recognized as a leading lawyer for Banking & Finance by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, where clients note “he’s one of the smartest lawyers in the industry.”

He is recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” for Bank Lending by Legal 500 US. Dokos is also recognized as a “Highly Regarded” lawyer for Banking in the U.S. by IFLR1000.

He has acted as outside corporate counsel for Roundabout Theatre in New York City. In his free time, he enjoys playing the piano, studying the cello, and working with his husband on residential real estate projects in Montecito and the Hamptons.

Fine is the executive director of the Yale Schwarzman Center, Yale University’s first center for student life and the arts, and former executive director/CEO of The Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center.

Together with the board of directors and administrative team, she established The Wallis as a major player and leading cultural organization in Los Angeles’ burgeoning arts scene.

At The Wallis, she demonstrated dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access; built artistic partnerships and projects between The Wallis and Los Angeles’ cultural organizations; launched a $55 million campaign; and steered and managed The Wallis through the pandemic.

Prior to her tenure at The Wallis, Rachel served as executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2010-15) and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (2007-10).

In 2009, she founded and built the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus’ Young Men’s Ensemble, a chorus for boys with changing voices, which has toured the U.S., Canada, Cuba, Vatican City, and Mexico City.

Fine has also held leadership positions at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and The Juilliard School. She is an alumna of the Music Academy, which she attended in 1988 as a solo piano fellow.

Ramirez is an estate agent at Compass Montecito and the founder of The Network, a group of luxury real estate agents from Aspen, Hamptons, New York, San Francisco, and Miami.

Ramirez transitioned to the real estate industry following a successful career in marketing and technology. After growing up in Santa Barbara, he spent several years in the tech industry in Sydney, Australia. Upon returning to the U.S. he continued in the tech and marketing world for almost a decade.

As a director at a publicly traded technology company, Ramirez was the keynote speaker at a conference in Manhattan, New York. He worked with brands such as Sugarfina, Avon, Ulta Beauty, and Road Runner Sports.

In 2016, he co-founded a creative marketing agency (Princeton North) that has worked with a number of local and international businesses.