Board & Staff members

2024 KVYSO Board

Stephanie Taylor, President 

Raffael Scheck, Vice President

Jennifer Tuminaro, Treasurer 

Shari Estes, Secretary 

Donna Maher, Board Member and Webmaster

Stephanie Taylor grew up in Southwick, MA, taking ballet and flute lessons. In college (Gordon College), she turned her focus to mathematics and computer science, but has never lost her love for the arts. In graduate school in Santa Barbara (UCSB), she studied circadian clocks, and for fun, went on bike rides and attended as many musical performances as time allowed. In 2008, she and her husband, Scott, moved to Waterville to teach at Colby College. Their sons George (15) and Milo (12) study violin with Betsy and Lori. Her research into circadian clocks continues, but it didn't allow the family to avoid jet lag when they traveled to Japan with the Pineland Suzuki School.

Raffael Scheck was born in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). He is John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Chair in History at Colby College, where he has taught since 1994. He has published six books and forty articles and chapters. Before becoming a historian, he studied cello for several semesters with Claude Starck at the conservatory of Zürich. He has more recently specialized in baroque cello and performed with a variety of baroque groups in Maine, including the Colby Collegium and Music' Quill. He has participated many times in the Portland Early Music Festival. 

Jen Tuminaro has lived in beautiful China, Maine for over twenty years.  She homeschools her four fantastic children and operates the books for the family's two businesses: BlackRock Investigations and Maine Upland Guide Service, in addition to working as a finance manager for the Maine CDC. She earned her Bachelor’s in Finance from the University of Delaware and an MBA from the University of Maine.  While she doesn't play any instruments of her own, she champions her children's musical education, which includes violin, guitar and piano instruction. When she's not teaching, working or shuttling kids around, Jen can be found reading. Her favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Shari Estes grew up in Gorham, Maine, taking piano and voice lessons and singing in choirs and musicals whenever possible, especially with a certain tenor whom she eventually married.  At Smith College, where she continued voice lessons and choral singing, she minored in Music and majored in Education and Child Study.  She returned to Maine and taught sixth graders at the James H. Bean School in Sidney for seven years before staying home to homeschool her own children, create and direct a homeschool co-op, and lead some children’s and adult choirs at her church.  Shari and Rob are thankful that their youngest two children, Diana (cello) and Martin (clarinet), have the opportunity to play in KVYSO.

A librarian at the University of Maine at Augusta, Donna Maher holds a masters degree in woodwind performance and a Ph.D in Music Education from Texas Tech University. Her bachelors degree is from Arizona State University. Following a full-time public school and collegiate music teaching career, she earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina and is delighted to make Maine home. In her spare time, she raises two dogs and her husband.

KVYSO Staff members


Betsy Kobayashi, Education Director



Lori Scheck, Orchestra Manager 




Note: Board meeting minutes are available upon request. Please email info@kvyso.org