Rochester, NY – The Board of Directors of the nonprofit Rochester Fringe Festival is proud to announce two new members, who were elected at its annual general meeting last Thursday.
“We are so pleased to welcome Erin DiVincenzo and Jefferson Svengsouk to our Fringe leadership,” says Fringe Board Chairperson Justin L. Vigdor. “Each of them offers needed skills, experience, and passion, and we are grateful for their demanding but rewarding service as a member of our Board.”
Erin DiVincenzo is no stranger to Fringe – she was its very first Director of Marketing and, as such, helped to promote the fledgling festival in 2012, its successful debut year. She has remained a friend of Fringe, while lending her impressive marketing skills to corporations that include her current position in Global Solutions Marketing at Reward Gateway.
“I am so excited to be joining the Rochester Fringe Festival board, especially as we emerge from such a challenging year,” says DiVincenzo. “The Fringe represents this region’s ability to be resilient, inventive, and inclusive. It’s really an honor to be supporting those that make such a renowned festival happen every year.”
Also joining the board is a frequent Fringe performer: Jefferson Svengsouk, M.D. Not only is Dr. Svengsouk a professor of emergency medicine and a hospice and palliative medicine physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center, but he’s also a well-known Native American flutist. He performs with his band, the Cobbs Hill Consort, founded the Finger Lakes Flute Circle, and is a Native American Music Awards nominee.
“I am so honored to join the Rochester Fringe Festival Board of Directors. I am a passionate supporter of the arts and creativity, and I care deeply about the well-being of our community,” he states. “I very much look forward to helping the Rochester Fringe Festival make its powerfully positive impact on the Rochester experience.”
The Fringe Board announced earlier this month that the tenth annual KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival will be a hybrid experience, featuring both safely enjoyed, in-person as well as online performances and events from Tuesday, September 14 through Saturday, September 25, 2021.
Last year’s Virtual Fringe offered more than 170 online productions, both live-streamed and on-demand, giving artists a platform and connecting audiences throughout our community and beyond. The 2019 Fringe featured more than 650 performances and events – over 200 of them free – in 25+ downtown venues and broke all previous attendance records with more than 100,000 visitors.
From its five-day debut in 2012, the 12-day KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival has become one of the fastest-growing and most-attended fringe festivals in the U.S. It is also the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival in New York State. As a bifurcated festival, it allows for a combination of headline entertainment curated by the non-profit Rochester Fringe Festival as well as an open-access portion.
Rochester Fringe Festival connects and empowers artists, audiences, venues, educational institutions, and the community to celebrate, explore, and inspire creativity via an annual, multi-genre arts festival. It was pioneered by several of Rochester’s esteemed cultural institutions including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman Museum and Garth Fagan Dance; up-and-coming arts groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine; and higher-education partners such as the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. The not-for-profit organization’s overarching mission is to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills while also offering unparalleled public access to the arts. It strives to be diverse and inclusive, and to stimulate downtown Rochester both culturally and economically.
2020 sponsors included: KeyBank; New York State Council on the Arts; University of Rochester; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; Nocon & Associates Waldron Rise; RIT; Estate of Marianne Rohack; National Endowment for the Arts; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; Konar Enterprises; Mary Mulligan Trust; Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; ESL Foundation; JM McDonald Foundation; The Pike Company; Louis S. & Molly B. Wolk Foundation; Fred & Floy Willmott Foundation; ESL Foundation; Big Slide Creative; Cheshire Audio Visual;13WHAM TV; CITY Newspaper; D&C Digital; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; City Blue; WXXI; The Rubens Family Foundation; Bond Schoeneck & King; Boylan Code; and Canandaigua National Bank.
About KeyBank: KeyBank’s roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $176.1 billion at March 31, 2021. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of over 1,000 branches and more than 41,000 KeyBank ATMs and Allpoint surcharge free ATMs for many customers when using a KeyBank debit card nationwide. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.
Media please note: Fringe press assets can be found at rochesterfringe.com/press.
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