Skip to content

Board of Directors

Thomas Wolf
Chair of the Governing Board

Thomas Wolf is a native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Music and his Master’s of Music Degrees from Cleveland State University where he studied with Elizabeth Unis Chesko and subsequently studying with Nancy Stokes-Milnes in New York City. Other teachers have included Cornelio Cairati of ZĂŒrich, Switzerland and Patricia Göhl of Munich, Germany. He has also worked with Victoria de los Angeles and Maria Stader. He has worked closely with the late Marni Nixon of New York City.

Mr. Wolf has performed on several stages in the United States and abroad and is especially appreciated for his vocal and dramatic portrayals of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. He has also received acclaim for performances as PellĂ©as in PellĂ©as et Melisande, Lionel in Martha, Belmonte in Die EntfĂŒhrung aus dem Serail and Alfredo in La Traviata. A frequent visitor to the recital platform and a proficient linguist, Mr. Wolf possesses a repertoire of some 350 songs in seven different languages. He made his European recital and operatic debuts in 1991 in Germany.  On the occasion of his recital debut, Mr. Wolf’s singing led the MĂŒnchner Merkur, Southwest Germany’s largest newspaper, to comment on, “a particularly beautiful and warm tenor voice, wonderfully controlled throughout a very wide range and with an almost baritonal foundation.” The same writer further averred, “his considerable musical and interpretive abilities are beyond any question.” Mr. Wolf has also been much in demand on the concert stage, performing the Masses of Mozart, the great Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach and especially Uriel in Haydn’s The Creation, the role in which he made his debut at Carnegie Hall.

Thomas Wolf has coached extensively the art song and operatic repertoires and has provided frequent lectures for professional organizations and universities in New York City including Columbia University, the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall. His great knowledge of the 18th and 19th century works for the operatic stage and of vocal ornamentation is widely recognized. Mr. Wolf has also been heard as a frequent guest on the famed Opera Quiz heard internationally every Saturday afternoon during the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. As an Arts administrator, Thomas has worked as Assistant Executive Director at Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Assistant to the Executive Director at EOS Orchestra and is a founding Board Member and was for ten years Executive Director of American Singers’ Opera Project, all in New York City. As a Founding Member of Fenimore Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Wolf is a believer in the fact that the Arts can indeed be a life-changing experience individually and for the community at larger. His posture has always been that a great symphony orchestra is a hallmark of a deeply civilized society. Fenimore Chamber Orchestra looks forward to a great future serving the residents of Cooperstown and the Tri-County Region.

Karyl Clemens
Vice-Chair

For fourteen years, Assistant to the President of Hartwick College. For ten years prior, was Dean of Admissions for Hartwick College. Served 11 years on the Governing Board of Catskill Symphony Orchestra and for ten years on the Governing Board of Foothills Performing Arts Center, all in Oneonta, NY.

Seth Peace
Secretary of the Board

Seth Peace has been involved in the music industry his whole life, thanks to his parents being professional musicians, gaining early experience as a roadie, recording musician, and assistant studio engineer.  Peace played in a band and assisted with bookings and sound in his teenage years.  He was a soundman for a classic rock band in 2013. His experience working in philanthropy began when he co-founded a wheelchair tennis program in 2016.

Kent Jones

A board member of Troy’s Friends of Chamber Music from 2003-2023, Kent Jones served in various roles, including vice president and chair of concert logistics. He retired from Emma Willard School in Troy, NY in June 2021, where he served for 21 years, first as director of admissions and later as director of college counseling. Before that, he worked in financial aid and admissions at St. Lawrence and Colgate Universities and, for 17 years, as dean of admissions and financial aid at Skidmore College. Kent currently works part-time as an enrollment consultant with The Baker Group, a Boston-based consulting firm providing enrollment management guidance and services to independent schools. 

Kent earned his BA in English Literature and M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from St. Lawrence University. He and his spouse, Bonnie McGuire Jones, a retired trust and estate attorney, have been full-time residents of Cooperstown, NY since June, 2021. 

Melissa Manikas

Melissa is a registered financial professional, and has been the owner of the State Farm Insurance Agency in Cooperstown, NY since 2009. She has served on several not-for-profit boards, including the Susquehanna SPCA (Cooperstown, NY) and Super Heroes Humane Society (Oneonta, NY). Melissa is also the former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Catskill Symphony Orchestra (Oneonta, NY).

Diane Williams

Diane’s career at SUNY Oneonta spans over four decades, during which time she has held numerous leadership roles. Since 2008, she has served as Executive Director of Oneonta Auxiliary Services, a not-for-profit corporation that provides the comforts of home to the SUNY Oneonta campus.

Diane served as Chair of the Catskill Symphony Orchestra for many years, during which time Maestro Zoltowski was selected as Music Director. She is delighted to transition her focus and support to the Fenimore Chamber Orchestra.

Diane lives on a hobby farm with her dog Gus in Cooperstown, NY. She considers her greatest accomplishments to be her children, William and Emily, and their growing families. At last count, she has seven grandchildren who all seem to have inherited her love of music.