Alex Swartsel, Board Chair
Alex Swartsel (Board Chair) has been a member of the Capital City Symphony Board of Directors since 2012. An inclusive leader and strategist committed to a future in which all people have the resources they need to fully realize their potential, Alex has been praised for her “uncanny ability to assess challenging situations and design clear strategic paths forward.” She currently consults for organizations focusing on quality jobs and economic mobility, and previously served as Chief of Development, Finance, and External Affairs of Teach For America (TFA)'s D.C. Region, where she oversaw fundraising, finance, and communications for a $5M, 22-person team supporting over 3,000 educators and leaders. Before joining TFA, her career included work in the U.S. Senate, national politics, and a global trade association.
Alex’s commitment to the transformative power of music and to strengthening D.C.’s arts community extends from CCS to the Choral Arts Society of Washington, where she is a member of the chorus and has served as chorus President since 2018. A native of Orlando, Florida, Alex holds a B.A. in Political Science and Music from Wellesley College and an M.B.A. from Yale.
Virginia Elgin, Vice Chair
Virginia Elgin (Vice Chair) joined the Board in 1997, attracted by the opportunity the orchestra afforded her daughter to continue playing cello after leaving university. She has served as Corresponding Secretary, Co-Chair from 2002 to 2005 and Chair from 2008 to 2013. Virginia worked in Singapore and London before moving to the DC area to work at the British Embassy. Now retired from managing her husband's medical practice she continues to enjoy choral singing, which she has done since the age of nine, and has recently celebrated her fiftieth year as a member of a local church choir.
Deborah Edge
Deborah Edge is a string bass player with Capital City Symphony and lives on Capitol Hill. She retired from the practice of internal medicine in June 2015. Prior to that, she had founded and worked in a private internal medicine practice on Capitol Hill, Washington Primary Care Physicians, for over 30 years and, after leaving her practice, worked half time for four years in the medical clinic at SOME. She is now able to spend as much time as she can playing music. She is a member of the Capitol City Symphony (first chair), NIH Philharmonia, FMMC Chorale Orchestra. She regularly plays with a pianist, and they have regular coaching sessions. She has participated annually with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Side-by-Side summer program, playing orchestral and chamber music there for one week/year. She plays chamber music whenever given the chance. When not playing her string bass, Deborah can be found volunteering for Hawk Mountain Sanctuary ( where she is on the board), biking, swimming, or enjoying being a new grandma. She lives on Capital Hill with her husband, Neal Mann. They have two grown daughters, and one new grandson.
Amy Driscoll
Amy Driscoll joined the CCS in 1998 after graduating with a degree in Cello Performance from the Catholic University of America in 1997. A resident of Washington, D.C. for close to three decades, Amy continues to perform with the CCS as one of its long-standing members and serves as a member of the Board of Directors.
Amy transitioned from a career in music to the world of digital arts and has been working in marketing and events ever since. Oscillating between her work as in-house Creative Director for a variety of trade associations, financial institutions and her own freelance business, Amy now leads Creative Operations for Montage Marketing Group, an experiential marketing firm located in Bethesda, Maryland. Her years of work in graphic design and marketing led her to develop international conferences and events, experiential brand engagements, multi-media campaigns, advertising, and traditional communications. Amy currently provides strategic creative strategies for clients such as the National Park Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Institutes of Health, USDA, KPMG, Deloitte, Amtrak, and Google.
Outside of her love of the CCS, Amy enjoys time outdoors, hiking, camping or golfing and is an avid wine enthusiast. She also spends time with her twin sister, Patricia, who is also a long-standing violinist of the symphony.
Phil Guire
Phil Guire, originally from Ann Arbor Michigan, has been in Washington DC for more than 25 years. He has been a successful real estate agent for the last 20+ years. During that time, he has built one of DC's most successful real estate teams with nearly $ 1 billion in sales. Phil moved to DC originally to do fundraising for nonprofits and political causes. He thinks fondly on his time as the membership director and corporate fundraiser for Washington Performing Arts.
Phil is passionate about the arts and feels that his cello playing experience was seminal in his maturation. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family, Sarah, Lucas, and Catie. If he isn't working or with them, he might be found on a golf course.
Howard Spendelow, Recording Secretary
Howard Spendelow joined the CCS Board in the late 20th century and has served as Recording Secretary throughout the entire current millennium. As a History teacher (East Asia / “World”) at Georgetown University since 1979, he learned about the CCS back when it was the Georgetown Symphony Orchestra and performed in historic Gaston Hall on-campus.
Howard’s main artistic interest is in choral music. He’s been a member of the Oberlin Musical Union, the Memorial Church Choir at Harvard, and even a semester with Moscow State University’s Academic Choral Collective. Since 1980 he’s performed with the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
Charlton (Chuck) Templeton
Mr. Templeton comes to the Capital City Symphony after spending 14 years as principal tubist with the Georgia Philharmonic in Atlanta. A Nebraska native, Chuck he began his musical career with the Omaha Area Youth Orchestra before attending the University of Nebraska on the Westbrook Memorial Scholarship for Music Performance. During college, Chuck also was accepted to the 43rd Army National Guard Ceremonial Band based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and received military and musical training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO.
Mr. Templeton was a student of Craig Fuller, himself a student of the renowned Harvey Phillips, as well as Don Strand of the Atlanta Ballet. He holds a BS in information systems and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a diploma from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also earned a Wharton Leadership Certificate.
As a Chief at the FDIC, Mr. Templeton leads a team responsible for implementing the statutory authorities of the Dodd-Frank legislation and ending too-big-to-fail. Previously he held a variety of positions in mergers and acquisitions and portfolio management for Bank of America and First Data Corporation. Chuck resides in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; when not counting rests in the back row, he is an avid BMW motorcycle enthusiast and can never seem to find enough books on U.S. history and politics.
Cara Wulf, Treasurer
Cara Wulf joined the CCS board after our 2018-19 season. Originally from southeastern Michigan, Cara now calls Montgomery County, Maryland home. Cara is a percussionist, and although she enjoys playing any and all percussion instruments, she has a particular soft spot for the cymbals, which she played for four years in the University of Michigan Marching Band. Before settling in the D.C. area, Cara sought out and performed with many community-based ensembles, and through those experiences, she gained a deep appreciation for the joy that music can bring to a community. Although she is currently a “non-practicing” percussionist, she is thrilled to continue to be involved with music through her service on the CCS Board.
Cara is an attorney who focuses her practice on government contracts, counseling clients regarding compliance with federal, state, and local public procurement requirements. She holds a B.A. and a J.D. from the University of Michigan, and an M.B.A. from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Crystal Hill
Crystal Hill is originally from Virginia Beach Virginia, and now resides in the District of Columbia. Crystal has worked in the federal government as an Operations Research Analyst and now serves as a Program Manager with the Department of Homeland Security.
Crystal is a classically trained violinist and has played since her childhood. Though she is not actively playing with an orchestra, she is delighted to integrate her love for music and service to the community by being a member of the Capital City Symphony Board of Directors. She earned a Bachelor of Science from James Madison University and a Master of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, reading, and playing her violin.
Christopher Ratto, Orchestra Representative
Christopher Ratto joins the CCS Board as an Orchestra Representative for the 2023-2024 season. Chris joined CCS as a cellist in 2012, when he moved back to the DC area after graduate school and was looking for a community orchestra that played great music in a fun part of town. More than a decade later, he's still having fun and making friends along the way.
By day, Chris works a machine learning engineer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, where he currently supervises the Artificial Intelligence group in the lab's Research and Exploratory Development Department. He studied cello under Bob Newkirk and Michael Mermagen at The Catholic University of America while earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He also holds an MS and PhD from Duke University, where he played in the Duke Symphony Orchestra for ten straight semesters under maestro Harry Davidson. Chris and his family reside in Montgomery County, Maryland where he also volunteers as a youth baseball coach for Montgomery County Little League and as the fundraising 'popcorn kernel' for Cub Scout Pack 275 in Silver Spring.
Jason Markzon, Orchestra Representative
Jason Markzon is excited to join the Capital City Symphony Board in 2023 after his first year as timpanist with the orchestra. He believes that performing arts organizations have the ability to build and nurture community both on and off the stage.
Now a principal business consultant at The MITRE Corporation, Jason led a decade-long career as a percussionist, performing full-time as principal percussion with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and appearing with some of the nation’s most well-known orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Jason holds a B.M. in Performance from the University of Michigan, M.M from Temple University, and M.P.A. in economic development, nonprofit management, and policy analysis from Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Jason lives in the D.C. neighborhood of Brookland with his wife, Marilyn Turner. In his free time, he enjoys playing music, hiking and long distance running.