Belvedere Staff
Ingrid Keller
Founder and Artistic Director
Welcome to our 2024-2025 season at The Belvedere Series. This third season blends masterworks and new music in striking ways. But our Series is about more than its programming. My hope is that you will discover something new with each concert you attend, and you will leave a little bit changed for the better.
The Salon concerts at our Marburg home are always going to be the heart of the Series, for many reasons. It is personal because my family and I live there. Recently, a Belvedere guest (now a friend) gasped at this, asking, “Wait—I thought it was an event space?! You live there.” We do!
We also host grand concerts at St. Stephen’s Cathedral and at the Louis F. Ryan Recital Hall. We use these larger venues because I want to program more than a trio or a quartet, and there's so much chamber music that requires more than four people to play. These spaces allow many more Richmond music-lovers to join us than our Marburg living room allows at present.
Everyone’s experience in a chamber music performance differs. For some, the mundane may be imbued with new meaning; for others, pain may be heightened or alleviated. You may hear a note of music as if for the first time. Some will experience a familiar piece as the embrace of an old friend; others will encounter emotional landscapes that may feel foreign.
My hope is that Belvedere will create an environment that will pique your curiosity and sense of wonder, and will allow you to explore emotions and expression through music and the arts, both new and old. Please join us in experiencing together something remarkable that resonates within.
Janice Guzman
Administrative Coordinator
Janice Guzman is an aspiring arts manager from Chesapeake, Virginia who strives to make performances a fulfilling experience for both musicians and audience members. They earned their bachelor’s in music education from Virginia Commonwealth University, which strengthened their belief that the performing arts can make profound impressions on people of all identities and backgrounds.
Janice is currently the administrative coordinator for The Belvedere Series, and serves as the choir manager and concert operations coordinator at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. This past summer, Janice participated in the Wintergreen Music Festival as an Arts Admin Leadership fellow with a focus on patron services and executive management.
Sara Laws
Content Strategist
Sara Wilson Laws is a marketing professional and lover of music and the arts. Like many, she was struck by Ingrid Keller's vision for The Belvedere Series and is honored to be a part of this rich community of global artists and Richmond locals.
With years of experience as a business-to-business marketer, Sara has also developed content for nonprofit and academic organizations. A professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a published scholar, Sara earned her PhD in English at the University of Oklahoma. She has authored articles in Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts and in the Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies. Her chapter on Joanne Kyger's poetics is featured in the collection Poet in Place and Time: Critical Essays on Joanne Kyger (Clemson University Press, 2024). Sara has lectured on American poetry and American Buddhisms at Mongolia International University, Beijing Normal University, and American University.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Ryan Furgurson, Attorney, Kiernan Trebach
Secretary Treasurer
Kenna Payne, CPA (ret.)
Director
Walter Bitner, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Richmond Symphony
Director
Cynthia Greene, Administrative Coordinator, Dumbarton Oaks (ret.)
Director
Taylor Jackson, MS, Resident in Counseling
Director
Christine Lu, Director of Communications, Marketing Strategy and Design, Equity Concepts, LLC
Stewardship
Nathan Bick, Executive Director of Development, VCU School of Medicine