Thomas Joseph, President and Treasurer

Thomas Joseph is a patent attorney with Grant Street Group, a financial software firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He has over six years of experience in the practice of patent, trademark, and copyright law. He received a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida, and a Juris Doctorate from George Washington University.

Mr. Joseph is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Federal Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

He is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He has also participated in the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts program.

Mr. Joseph has served as the chair of the Pittsburgh chapter of ASM International, the materials information society. In 2004, he was named as the chapter's Outstanding Young Member. He has also been a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

He has also participated in the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Pittsburgh Clan.

Jeffrey Nytch, DMA, Vice President for Artistic Development

Former PNME Managing Director Jeffrey Nytch is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at The University of Colorado at Boulder. Jeff has built a diverse career as a composer, teacher, performer, and arts administrator, continually creating fresh ways to support and nurture that career, whether it be through developing commissioning opportunities, establishing residencies with community organizations, or building relationships with patrons. He has also run a small business, helped found a non-profit service organization in Houston, performed a wide range of repertoire as a vocalist, and served five years as Managing Director of PNME.

A native of Vestal, New York, Nytch completed a bachelors degree at Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), studying with John Carbon, and earned Masters and Doctoral degrees in composition from the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University (Houston), under the guidance of Composer-in-Residence Paul Cooper. He has also studied with Donald Erb at Gunther Schuller’s Schweitzer Institute of Music in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Hailed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as "both impressive and satisfying," Nytch’s music comprises a wide range of works that have been performed at venues throughout the United States and Europe, including Lincoln Center, the Soho Arts Festival, The Festival at Sandpoint, the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival, the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, and the Breckenridge Music Festival. His compositions have been performed by such artists as Richard Stoltzman (clarinet), Ann Labounsky (organ), the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Ahn Trio, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Binghamton Philharmonic, and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nytch has received numerous grants, awards and commissions, including First Prize in the American Festival for the Arts American Composers’ Competition, a Creative Artist Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston, and awards from ASCAP, the Ithaca College Choral Composition Competition, The Morton Gould Composers’ Competition, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center and the Mellon Foundation. Nytch’s music has been recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Black, the Seattle Symphony with Richard Stoltzman and conductor Gerard Schwarz, and by George Manahan and the New York Chamber Symphony.

Since leaving the PNME staff, Nytch has held a variety of teaching posts, including Artist Instructor at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music and Visiting Assistant Professor at Franklin & Marshall College, as well as maintaining strong ties with PNME as a performer and Vice President for Artistic Development.

In his off time Jeff enjoys gardening, bowling, hiking, cross-country skiing, and fine food and wine.

Roger Dannenberg, PhD

Dr. Roger B. Dannenberg is an Associate Research Professor of Computer Science and Art on the faculty of the School of Computer Science and School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is also a fellow of the Studio for Creative Inquiry. His compositions have been performed by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and at festivals such as the Foro de Musica Nueva, Callejon del Ruido, Spring in Havana, and the Conference on World Affairs.

Dannenberg is well known for his computer music research, and he has given keynote addresses at major computer and music conferences including the International Computer Music Conference, the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, and the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, and the Connecticut College Symposium on Art and Technology. His current work includes research on computer accompaniment of live musicians, content-based music retrieval, interactive media, and high-level languages for sound synthesis. His pioneering work in computer accompaniment led to three patents and the SmartMusic system now used by tens of thousands of music students. He also played a central role in the development of the Piano Tutor, an intelligent, interactive, automated multimedia tutor that enables a student to obtain first-year piano proficiency in less than 20 hours.

Dannenberg held a patent for large-scale interactive games controlled by crowd noise, and these “stadium games” have entertained many NFL fans. Other innovations include the application of machine learning to music style classification and the automation of music structure analysis. As a trumpet player, he has performed in concert halls ranging from the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem to the Espace de Projection at IRCAM, and he is active in performing jazz, classical, and new works.

Gordon D. Fisher, Esq.

Tony Joseph

As co-founder of Motionplan, Inc. Tony brings a breadth of global business and technology experience by working with domestic and international clients to provide technology, training, and business solutions in the retail, public education, healthcare, hi-tech, and communication sectors.

Serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Motionplan, Inc., Tony’s primary responsibility is to expand Motionplan’s Learning Solutions presence, brand, and client base across North America. In this role Tony manages client relationships to ensure Motionplan’s training solutions support both the business need and learning objectives, while in turn striving to create long standing relationships.

Tony is also responsible for the growth of the Motionplan brand. In this role Tony works with clients, vendors, and business partners to increase Motionplan’s profile in the marketplace along with being an active member in the community through several non-profit and professional organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Tony is active in the community and, in addition to serving on the PNME Board, Tony holds a Board seat with The Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater. Tony's passion is soccer and he is a player/coach for the United States Adult Soccer Association PA-West Adult Men’s League, while also holding a position on the PA-West Adult League Board.

Kevin Noe

Kevin Noe is currently the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. A passionate supporter and promoter of composers, creators, and the arts of our time, Mr. Noe has commissioned and premiered over thirty new works written for new music ensembles and orchestras in the last five years alone. He has a particular interest in works which employ a variety of art forms including music, dance, theater, film, and visual arts, and he serves regularly as conductor, stage director, actor, and filmmaker for a variety of mixed-media, operatic, and theatrical productions. Mr. Noe is a co-founder of the newly formed company Now Here This which creates and performs new works in a wide variety of forms, and is currently in creation of its first multi-disciplinary work entitled Glass Witness.

Mr. Noe has held conducting posts at the University of Texas at Austin, Duquesne University, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Opera Center and he works regularly as a guest conductor with a wide variety of ensembles. Noe completed his graduate studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas where he received the prestigious Sally Shepherd Perkins Prize in Music and was awarded the Maurice Abravanel Fellowship as a conductor at the Tanglewood Festival. Mr. Noe’s principal conducting teacher was Larry Rachleff, and he also studied conducting with Robert Spano, Gunther Schuller, and Seiji Ozawa.

Kenneth J. Witzel, Esq.

Kenneth J. Witzel is an attorney with the Pittsburgh law firm, Watkins Dulac & Roe P.C.  He is primarily a commercial litigator, but frequently counsels new and established businesses on a broad range of legal matters, including entity formation, employment matters, commercial lease agreements, contract negotiations and disputes, warranties, trade secrets and unfair competition, and oil and gas law.

A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Witzel received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Utah.  It was primarily during this time that he developed a great passion for music, which continues to expand through the help of PNME. 

He earned his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, where he served as an Articles Editor for the Dickinson Law Review.  After law school, Mr. Witzel was a law clerk for the Honorable Zoran Popovich, a Judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, before moving to Pittsburgh and entering private practice in 1999. 

Having lived in Pittsburgh since that time, Mr. Witzel and his wife, Diane, consider themselves to be “transplanted Pittsburgh natives.”  They have two daughters, two sons, and one very energetic golden retriever.

Active in the community, Mr. Witzel is a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Pittsburgh LDS Professionals Association, a barrister in the W. Edward Sell American Inn of Court, and a member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.  He is honored to serve on PNME’s Board of Directors.

527 Coyne Terrace, Pittsburgh, PA 15207

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