Our Staff
Victoria Gau CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Now in her 29th season leading CCS, conductor Victoria Gau has been lauded by critics for her “strong sense of style and drama” (Washington Post) and her “enthusiastic and perceptive conducting”, and brings a wide range of musical experience and expertise to her work. In 2019 she left a nine-year tenure as Associate Conductor of National Philharmonic to assume the role of Artistic Director of Cantate, where she now conducts both the Cantate Chamber Singers and Concert Choir.
Gau has a passion for fostering ongoing expression in music and is known as a strong advocate for American composers, with a particular interest in female and BIPOC composers. Her interests extend to supporting young artists. She founded the Cantate Young Artists of Color program, where the chorus facilitates opportunities for and mentorship of young artists who are in residence for a season. The program was recently rebranded and expanded as Lift Every Voice, supporting an annual cohort of young artists. Gau continues to support the work of young composers through Cantate’s biannual Young Composer’s Competition, and to present young artists at CCS through partnerships with the Novik Piano Competition and the Johansen International Competition.
Maestra Gau is in demand as a leader of concerts for young audiences as well as a conductor and string educator at youth orchestra festivals and workshops. For a number of years she conducted National Philharmonic’s annual concerts for Montgomery County 2nd graders as well as the Junior Summer String Institute Orchestra. She is the former conductor of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, an elite group of string players from the DC Youth Orchestra Program, as well as the Akron Youth Symphony, and has conducted youth orchestra festivals in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and New York. Gau has conducted Side-by Side events with DC-area youth orchestras and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the SOGO Conservatory Orchestra (Olympia, WA), and All State Orchestra festivals in Vermont, Maryland (both Junior and Senior) and North Carolina. She is in demand in the region as an orchestral clinician, and teaches conducting both privately and at workshops, most recently at the American String Teachers Association National Conference and North Carolina Music Educators’ 2024 conference.
Orchestral guest conducting includes the Alexandria (VA) and Akron (OH) Symphonies, the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along, the Open Page Ensemble, and the Columbia (MD) Symphony. She has been active as Artistic Director of the Takoma Ensemble and is the former Conductor and Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra in Richmond, VA. Guest conducting includes a holiday concert with the Alexandria Symphony in December ‘26.
Maestra Gau started her career music directing opera. She has served as Artistic Director and Music Director/Conductor of the Other Opera Company in Bethesda, Maryland, which she co-founded. She has also served as music director for such Washington area companies as The Washington Savoyards, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Annapolis Opera Musicales, the Eldbrook Opera Ensemble, and the IN-Series. Gau has served on the opera faculty at George Mason University and worked with vocalists privately and in the Crittenden Opera Studio. She has toured with Odyssey Opera Theatre and the Baltimore Opera Company, performing educational outreach in schools throughout the state of Maryland.
Gau has worked with such choruses as the Fairfax Choral Society, the Metropolitan Chorus, Capitol Hill Chorale, and the Congressional Chorus. She assisted in preparation of the 150-voice National Philharmonic Chorale for approximately 6 concerts per season, and served as Co-Director of the National Philharmonic Singers, and Director and Co-Conductor of the National Philharmonic Summer Choral Institutes. In the summer of ‘25, she led two performances of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms in Paris, and she made her Carnegie Hall debut in May ‘26, conducting Johannes Brahms’ Schicksalslied.
She holds degrees in Viola Performance and Conducting from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she won the Phi Kappa Lambda Prize for Musicianship.
Erin Feng INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Erin Feng is an arts administrator and nonprofit leader with nearly a decade of experience advancing mission-driven performing arts organizations through strategic leadership, organizational development, and operational excellence. She currently serves as Director of Operations at Vocal Arts DC, where she oversees organizational operations, fundraising, grant strategy, audience development, and long-term planning. Since joining the organization in 2024, she has strengthened operational infrastructure, expanded institutional giving, and helped grow the organization's educational and community engagement initiatives.
Prior to joining Vocal Arts DC, Erin served as Executive Director of Capital City Symphony, leading strategic planning, advancing organizational initiatives focused on equity and inclusion, and guiding the organization through a period of growth and transformation. She also spent eight seasons with Thomas Circle Singers, where she progressed from Administrative Director to the organization's first Executive Director. In that role, she led strategic planning, supported leadership transitions, strengthened community partnerships, and guided the organization through the challenges of the pandemic while positioning it for long-term sustainability.
With expertise spanning nonprofit management, fundraising, governance, strategic planning, and community engagement, Erin is committed to building resilient arts organizations that enrich their communities through artistic excellence, inclusive practices, and meaningful public impact.
Johannes Visser ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Johannes Visser is a South African Composer and Conductor, currently based in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area. His music reflects on his South African heritage and celebrates the diversity of the musical traditions he practised from a very young age. Ranging from large orchestral works to intimate solo improvisations with live electronics, Johannes’ music tells an expressive story shaped by his deep, emotional feelings regarding social justice, equality, and inclusion. His string quartet, vlug 295, casts an emotional light on the human impact of the Apartheid regime and the lingering consequences thereof. As orchestral conductor, Johannes holds positions with the Capital City Symphony in Washington DC as well as the Prince George’s Philharmonic in Maryland.
Johannes earned his doctorate degree in music composition at the University of Maryland, under the supervision of his mentor and dear friend, Professor Robert Gibson. He also holds graduate degrees in orchestral conducting and composition from the University of Louisville, and a Bachelor of Music from the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town. Notable awards include the Jan Royce Foundation Prize for his symphonic work, madiba se sprokie, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace Prize for vlug 295, and the Peter Klatzow Prize for compositional excellence. Johannes currently serves on the faculty at the University of Maryland as Assistant Clinical Professor of Music Theory and Composition.
Erin Snedecor MANAGER, ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Erin Murphy Snedecor is a collaborative cellist and arts administrator based in Brentwood, MD who strives to forge new paths for interdisciplinary and multi genre art. Her work spans the realms of classical, contemporary, pop, rock, electroacoustic, and folk, and she would be hard pressed to pick a favorite.
A fervent advocate for new music, Erin engages in both the performing and leadership of two contemporary music ensembles. As cellist and Co-Director of Balance Campaign, the MD-based ensemble commissions and performs new works by historically excluded composers. In 2025, Balance Campaign premiered their commission of a new work by Jeffrey Mumford as part of their 2023 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant. Erin is also the cellist and Co-Director of earspace, a North Carolina-based contemporary ensemble that curates multisensory programs that live outside of the typical concert experience. earspace has been in residence at the UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University and presented by Carolina Performing Arts.
In addition to her classical projects, Erin is known for her ability to perform in a myriad of genres. Erin is a longstanding member of Annapolis indie rock band Pompeii Graffiti, appearing on 4 studio albums and performing in local and touring performances. She is also half of the indie/folk duo Black Rhinoceros, and a composer and songwriter as her solo moniker, Zooxanthellae. In 2023, Erin was an Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, MD, where she mentored with bassist Michael Bowie, folk artist Cathy Fink, and banjo player Marcy Marxer.
In addition to performing, Erin is an arts leader in the DC area as the owner of District Strings, a program manager of Distrik Kollective, and the Personnel Manager and Orchestral Librarian for Capital City Symphony.
Al Rise PRODUCTION MANAGER
Al Rise is a Stage Manager and performer serving the greater DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia areas. He began his studies on french horn in his hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, with Mary Beth Orr, the current 3rd horn player in the Grand Rapids Symphony. He received his bachelor's degree in horn performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying under the tutelage of former principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra, Richard King. Most recently, Rise received his master’s degree from the University of Maryland, studying with Greg Miller and Phil Munds. He currently performs with several professional orchestras in the DMV and in Michigan, and is the Stage manager for the Apollo Orchestra, as well as a substitute Stage Manager for the Arlington Philharmonic and Alexandria Symphony.
Abby Lynch STAGE MANAGER
Abby is a freelance stage manager who has been working in the Washington, DC area since 2008, and with CCS since 2009. When not working behind the scenes, she is a fundraising officer at a local theatre company. Outside of work, she can be found around the DC area playing with her neurotic dog, working at her community garden, and planning her next entry into the DC State Fair pie contest.
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