Jim Damren, Board Chair

Jim Damren is an Upper Valley native, residing in his hometown of West Lebanon, NH. He graduated from Lebanon High School and earned a BA degree in English from Plymouth State University. He is very active in the community, serving on the Board of Second Growth, a Corporator of Mascoma Bank and an active member of Lebanon Riverside and the Rotary Club of Lebanon for over 30 years. He is a Senior Account Executive with the Colby Insurance Group. Jim has a passion for the game of hockey and is the Head Coach of the boy’s hockey team at Lebanon High School. He resides in West Lebanon with his wife Lisa and three sons, Ryan, Nate and Aaron.

Alan Austin-Nelson, Treasurer
Alan Austin-Nelson was born in New Britain, Conn., and educated at Middlesex School in Concord, Mass. In 1953, he served two years in the 11th Air Borne Division during the Korean War. In 1960, he graduated from Yale University where he majored in English and Classics. At Princeton University he pursued graduate study in 18th Century Literature. He started a career in teaching at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass. He then taught English at Dartmouth College where he was also Assistant Dean of Freshmen. Subsequently, he taught for many years at Middlesex School. Upon his retirement, he returned to Hanover where he currently lives with his wife, Marilyn Austin-Nelson. Their home, with a garden-scale train and two pianos, has become a site of community musical activity.

Sarah Chu, Secretary
Sarah Chu holds BS and MS degrees in chemistry from China’s Lanzhou University, where she often performed at vocal concerts. Sarah came to the United States in 1998 and obtained her MS degree in computer engineering from University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has lived in the Upper Valley since 2000, where she serves as a business intelligence architect at Hypertherm. Ms. Chu is also active in community and charity events, such as Upper Valley Haven, Maynard House (formerly Upper Valley Hostel), and fundraising with by local Chinese professionals to provide masks to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She also brings a parent perspective to the Board, as her two children both study cello with Linda Galvan.
 
Christine Greenough
Christine Greenough is a graduate of Boston University and has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education with a concentration in Voice Performance. She also has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Political Women’s Folk Music from Dartmouth College. She has been teaching music to young children for more than 25 years and has taught Choral and General Music at Mount Lebanon Elementary School since 2006, and has been instrumental in the success of the Camerata Strings Program as liaison with SAU88. Ms. Greenough currently sings with the Bel Canto Chamber Singers. She is the mother of two grown musical daughters, and lives with her husband and two spoiled cats in Meriden, NH.

Margie Elsberg 

Margie Elsberg is a novice piano student with a passion for classical music and a special place in her heart for small ensemble chamber music. A native of Washington, D.C., and journalism graduate of Boston University, Margie’s musical background has been, almost exclusively, as an audience-member. She and her husband, Mickey, were National Symphony Orchestra and Washington Performing Arts Society subscribers for more than 25 years, and of Marin Alsop’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra after they moved to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In the rural town of Chestertown, Maryland, they were early supporters of the two-week National Music Festival and the Resonance chamber music series (lots of chamber music, at last!). Margie was a member of the Washington press corps for 25 years, from Vietnam War protests and Watergate to the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit. After leaving newsroom life, she became a media and presentation coach, helping clients talk more easily and effectively to their audiences. Margie and Mickey are rowers, tandem cyclists, and Nordic skiers. They’ve lived in Norwich, Vermont, since 2020.

Carlos Galvan, Executive Director
Carlos Galvan founded and served as president of Preferred Technologies Group, Inc., in Lebanon, NH, a computer software development and consulting firm specializing in recreational and medical management systems. A graduate of the University of Hawaii, where he studied political science and business administration, Mr. Galvan’s business experience ranges from sales and management at the NCR Corporation, to raising capital for international mining interests, to real estate development. A specialist in startup organizations and capitalization, Mr. Galvan has been a principal in the Carlin Development Company, Mountain States Associated Companies, and the Kalamath Group, companies specializing in the financing and development of real estate, mining, and investments. Mr. Galvan has served on the Boards of Directors of the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire and the Handel Society Foundation in Hanover, NH, and on the Board of Overseers for Lebanon College.

Linda Galvan, Principal Cello (non-voting member)