Trustees

Barbara Lister-Sink, President, is an internationally acclaimed pianist who has performed throughout Europe and North America with many of the world’s most distinguished musicians. A graduate of Smith College and recipient of the Prix d’Excellence from Utrecht Conservatory, she is currently Director of the School of Music and Artist-in-Residence at Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC. As an acknowledged world leader in teaching injury-preventive technique, she has been featured at numerous national and international music conferences, in over 18 states as Music Teachers National Association conference artist and/or clinician, and was featured pedagogue for the 2010 Piano Texas/Cliburn Institute International Piano Academy. Her DVD Freeing the Caged Bird - Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique won the 2002 MTNA-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award and was praised as “A monumental work!" by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Formerly keyboardist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, she has taught on the Artist Faculty of the Eastman School of Music, at Duke University and Brevard Music Center. Currently, Lister-Sink is in the Doctoral Cohort Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York pursuing research in neuroscience and piano pedagogy. She directs America’s first Professional Certificate Program in Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique at Salem College.

Mary Ellen Bliss is a graduate of Smith College and Rutgers Law School. Her legal career began in New York City: five years prosecuting fraud in the New York State Medicaid program, followed by ten years representing major not-for-profit health care facilities in New York during a time of significant changes in patient rights and in the way hospitals and nursing homes are paid. She is also an amateur violinist and violist, and has always loved playing chamber music. It was through chamber music that she met her pianist husband, Enoch Gordis. After they moved to the Washington DC area, she worked for AARP as a legal analyst and advocate on a range of health care issues important to older persons. Since retiring in 2001, she has been studying violin seriously and has also learned enough clarinet to start playing the lovely chamber music literature for that instrument as well.

Jessie Coulter attended Salem College from 2003 to 2007 where she majored in piano performance and international relations. She attended the William and Mary School of Law from 2007 to 2010. She now practices law as a legislative attorney in Austin, Texas. Jessie works for a state agency that provides bill and amendment drafting services to the Texas legislature. When the legislature is not in session and she has more free time, she teaches piano on the side and plays with a band called the Chicon Street Orchestra. She volunteers with several Austin not-for-profits and is an active member in her church. 

Timothy Durkovic, Vice President and Treasurerwas born and raised in Guatemala City, He received the Bachelor of Arts from the National Conservatory of Music of Guatemala where he studied piano with Consuelo Medinilla.  Accepted to the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jacob Lateiner, he then went on to study with Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem College. He later studied at the University of Southern California with Daniel Pollack and Kevin Fitz-Gerald where he received a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, and a Master of Music. Mr. Durkovic has served as Guest Lecturer at the USC Thornton School of Music and on the faculties of the Orange County High School for the Arts and the University of La Verne. In fall of 2005, he was appointed as Director of Keyboard Studies at Long Beach City College. Mr. Durkovic received the gold medal at the 1996 Los Angeles Liszt Competition, and has performed in recital and as soloist with orchestra in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and Central and South America. He has appeared at the International Festival BRAVISSIMO (Guatemala City, Guatemala), the Banff Festival for the Arts (Alberta, Canada), SMU in Taos (New Mexico), and Music in the Mountains (California). His performances have been broadcast on the International Voice of America, NPR, and TGNA. Mr. Durkovic also serves as the Director of Music and Organist at Church of the Good Shepherd, United Methodist in Arcadia, California, and is on the Executive Board of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers. In addition, Mr. Durkovic is an official Steinway Artist.  

Enoch Gordis M.D. is originally from New York City, where he received his early formal musical training, studying the piano from the age of 5. He is a graduate of both the college and medical school of Columbia University. He has played solo piano and chamber music during his whole life, both in New York and in the Washington, DC area where he moved with his wife Mary Ellen in 1986. Prior to that move, he was Professor of Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. From 1986 until his retirement in December 2001, he was director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the NIH. Retirement allowed him to resume serious study of the piano, and he was fortunate to connect with Professor Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC, whose creative teaching, piano virtuosity, and enthusiastic support of all her students have been an inspiration.

Jamie Grigsby, Secretary, earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Iowa, and a Masters of Music from the University of Colorado-Boulder in piano performance. She has also received the Professional Certificate in Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique from Salem College, and is a Certified Lister-Sink Method Instructor, Level III. She lives with her family in Denver, CO where she is a beloved piano teacher, especially of young students. With rare exception, she trains all of her students in the Lister-Sink Method, both successfully and joyfully. She is an accomplished pianist and performs regularly at local venues. While working with Barbara Lister-Sink as she retrained injured keyboardists, Ms. Grigsby has also ventured into the world of physical therapy and is completing prerequisites for admission into a doctoral program in physical therapy. Her aspiration is to be able to reach out to injured musicians both through retraining them in the Lister-Sink Method, as well as in being a part of the medical team throughout the healing process.