ABOUT
Our Team
The center is run by a dedicated team of staff, teaching faculty, board members, donors, and volunteers.
Center Staff
Brianna Matzke
Executive Director
director@musicartdance.org | 513-948-0019 (call or text)
Dr. Brianna Matzke grew up in Minnesota and moved to Cincinnati in 2009 to study piano at CCM. Very quickly, She fell in love with this city, a place that thrives on creativity and has a way of saying “yes” to new ideas.
Brianna Matzke holds a doctoral degree in piano performance with a specialization in pedagogy, and from 2014 to 2025, she worked as a music professor, teaching, performing, and mentoring the next generation of musicians. Her work as a performer has always centered on collaboration across art forms: “I love to pair music with all kinds of other creative disciplines.”
Alongside teaching and performing, she directs two music organizations: concertnova here in Cincinnati and the Cortona Sessions for New Music, an educational festival in the Netherlands.
Star Carys
Programs Manager & Registrar
registrar@musicartdance.org | 513-948-0015 (call or text)
Star Carys, a Cincinnati native, has long held a natural passion and talent for the arts. She is currently a part-time student at the University of Cincinnati, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
Throughout her youth, Star immersed herself in self-directed learning across a variety of creative disciplines, including digital design, visual art, photography, filmmaking, and writing.
Driven by her passion for creativity, she spent her final two years of high school at the Warren County Career Center studying Digital Design. By the age of 17, she had already secured a position as a Graphic Web Designer—a role she held for seven years before branching out to explore new opportunities and life experiences. These experiences ultimately led her to WFAC, where she has been a dedicated team member since 2023.
In addition to her academic and professional pursuits, Star is the founder, leader, and curator of The Jade Room, a small arts organization. Through this initiative, she brings together her love for jazz and Asian culture, curating unique art experiences for community events across Ohio.
Ömer Kayhan
Operations Coordinator
admin@musicartdance.org | 513-948-0021 (call or text)
Ömer (pronounced /œmɛɾ/) started his journey in choral music with award-winning choir Rezonans, in Istanbul Turkey. Ömer Aziz Kayhan is a Cincinnati-based conductor and baritone, who is starting his new role as Operations Coordinator at WFAC!
He is the founder, artistic and executive director of early-music ensemble Ars Audax and professional choir Ensemble O₂. He regularly works with concertnova as Assistant Operations Manager and works closely with MET Opera conductor Tim Long as personal assistant. He served as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Redlands. An Eastman alum, he has worked with notable ensembles and festivals including GRAMMY-award winning Gil Rose at Art park Festival, Seraphic Fire at Aspen, and the Norfolk Festival.
Recently, he was assistant conductor with Choral Arts Initiative and led the 2025 PREMIERE|Project Festival. Now singing with the LA Master Chorale, Ömer's research is dedicated to Turkish choral music and creating innovative concert experiences and expanding audience bases.
Our board is made up of passionate volunteers committed to supporting the Wyoming Fine Arts Center in its mission.
Board Members
Interested in giving back to your community? We are always seeing active volunteers! Currently we have a critical need for individuals with market research or fundraising expertise.
If you’d like to learn more about joining the board or serving as a volunteer on one of our committees, please submit our volunteering form!
Caroline Hyatt comes from a family that is passionate about music. Her most prized possession is a pair of Klipsch cornerhorn speakers — the best way to listen to music… if you can’t listen live. She is a civil right attorney with Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein, where she represents those whose rights have been violated by the government, and when she isn’t working, she likes to cook (which she does reasonably well) and garden (which she does quite badly). She lives in Wyoming with her husband, Nathan, and their daughter Josephine, who loves to come to art classes at the Center.
Marissa Stuparyk has been working in technology since she was a teenager building some of the first consumer websites in the late 1990s. With over twenty years of experience working as a product and user experience designer, Marissa thrives in this creative intersection where art and technology meet. She has designed and delivered dozens of websites and software products, from small bespoke agencies to education technology platforms, and she is currently a Staff Product Designer for Tanium, a cybersecurity company.
A lifelong arts enthusiast, Marissa grew up studying piano and ballet. She earned her BA from Cornell University and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Marissa and her family moved to Wyoming in 2019, where the Wyoming Fine Arts Center has been foundational to the family's continued arts education and growing connection with their community. She has been delighted to be able to volunteer her time and professional skills to create a new website experience for the center!
Zachary Johnson grew up in Cincinnati playing in his school band and doing lights/sound for school plays. Before moving to Seattle to pursue a career at Microsoft Zach graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, where he majored in accounting and minored in architectural history. He eventually moved back to Cincinnati to start a family, and he lives in Wyoming with his wife and two young sons.
Zach has always loved the arts (especially theater and architecture) and one of the many reasons he chose to reside in Wyoming is its close-knit community, of which the Wyoming Fine Arts Center is an integral piece; he serves on the board to ensure its continued availability to his children and to future generations.
Adam Wallace has loved musical theater since the age of 4 when he began with acting and dance lessons. While he end up pursuing a 20 plus year career in IT professional services, music, art and dance have always been close to his heart. Working with global customers at VMware, Adam has a long record of using people and technology to achieve business outcomes that exceed expectations.
Adam volunteers with National Ski Patrol during the colder months. He can also be found serving as a small group leader to the youth and singing in the choir at Kenwood Baptist Church.
Adam lived for many years in New York City, where he could be found enjoying live performances whenever he could. While in New York City, Adam served as both President and Vice President of his Co-Op Board. Returning to Cincinnati with his wife, Mary Kathryn, an Equity Stage Manager, and his three children, he lives in Wyoming and is excited to be working with the Fine Art Center.
Brad King is 67 and a retired attorney, public school administrator, and adjunct professor at UC and Cincinnati State. He has been married for 45 years to his wife, Annie, who retired after 28 years as an elementary art teacher. They have three adult children and six grandchildren. Currently, they provide full time daycare and after-school care for the three local grandchildren (ages 7, 8, and 11) Both of his daughters played strings in high school (viola and bass) and both pursued fine arts in college. One with a BFA and one minored in ceramics. All three local grandkids have gone to art or music camps at WFAC and one takes piano lessons there.
His board experience includes four years on the Board of Crossroads Crisis Center in Lima, Ohio, eight years on the Finneytown Athletic Association board, six years on the Finneytown Board of Education, and currently as Secretary of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) in Over the Rhine.
A lifelong Wyoming resident, Jason Bartel grew up in a musical family and business. Jason’s father Paul, founder of the Baroque Violin Shop, as well as the Wyoming Fine Arts Center, exposed Jason to his passion for the arts at an early age.
After growing up in the family retail store, the Baroque Violin Shop, he chose this as his career path after graduating from the University Of Cincinnati with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design. In 2011, Jason took his passion for music, and his experience in the orchestral string retail shop, and combined them into a new business, Maple Leaf Strings.
Maple Leaf Strings is an orchestral string manufacturer and national distributor that offers instruments from the student level to the professional level, as well as complimentary marketing and branding solutions for their customers.
Elise Edelman has worked as an Innovation and Human Potential Consultant for the past 8 years. She previously spent 24 years in Product Development at Procter & Gamble, where she uncovered consumer insights to guide technology development and bring products to market. Her experiences developing new product ideas led her to coach teams and leaders on strategy, creative problem solving, and holistic idea development. She specializes in assessing organizational dynamics and leadership coaching. She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Toledo. She lives in Wyoming with her husband Ken and daughter Fiona, who participates in art and musical theatre classes.
Michael Presley