Kenny Rittenhouse
Music Director
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kenny@bbj-youthorchestra.org
Kenny Rittenhouse is a versatile trumpeter, composer, arranger, and educator with over 30 years of professional experience, including three decades of distinguished service with the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” as a member of the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble. He taught trumpet for 13 years at George Mason University and 5 years at Morgan State University and now serves as Professor of Trumpet at American University, continuing his long-standing commitment to teaching. He is also the Music Director of the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Youth Orchestra and a current member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, remaining active as a performer, clinician, and advocate for jazz education.
Bob Murad
Associate Music Director
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Bob is a pianist, composer and recording artist who has performed as both a leader and sideman in numerous jazz venues throughout Washington DC, New York, and the Midwest. He debuted his well-received 2015 CD “The Observer” as a band leader. Bob lives in Washington, DC where he performs, composes and teaches jazz piano and improvisation.
Fred Foss (1949-2019)
Founding Music Director
Fred Foss was a native New Yorker who started studying music at the age of 19. He performed with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Hugh Masekela, Dollar Brand, Tito Puente, Patti Labelle, The Temptations, and The Four Tops. Foss also worked with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He taught music at the Filmore School and the University of Maryland. Fred created the Fred Foss Youth Orchestra which performed in Cuba’s Havana Jazz Festival. Foss enjoys teaching his knowledge and wisdom to young musicians who, in many cases, become professional musicians. In 2019, the DC Jazz festival honored Fred with it Lifetime Achievement Award.
Rick Brown
Founding Board member and former Vice-President
Rick Brown is a native Washingtonian and has been a life-long real estate broker and investor. Raised in Silver Spring, he and his family reside in Potomac and Kent Island, Maryland. He purchased the Bethesda Theater in 2012 and built the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club into one of the premier entertainment venues in the Mid Atlantic region. Raised by a jazz drummer, he created the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Youth Orchestra to provide a venue for young aspiring players to study and learn their craft. He is a Senior Project Director with The Pacific Institute, a leading company in the field of individual and organizational performance training.
Board of Directors
Cynthia Ellis-Givens
President
Cynthia Ellis-Givens is a native of Savannah, Georgia and graduate of Savannah State University with a bachelors degree in chemistry. Cynthia spent most of her career in pharmaceutical sales for three of the top Fortune 100 pharmaceutical companies. She is an active member and leader in several social, community and national organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Jack and Jill of America Inc., and Wings for Joy. As founder of “Let Me Be Me” LLC., she is dedicated to supporting youth access to the arts and providing a bridge to under-served communities. A resident of Silver Spring, MD, Cynthia is the mother of BBJYO vocalist Alexa Givens.
Gary Mason
Director
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Gary is an attorney in Washington, DC who specializes in consumer class actions. He is a Founding Partner of Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP, a plaintiffs law firm with offices in Raleigh, NC, Nashville, TN and Washington, DC. His son, Matthew (16), a drummer, joined the BBJYO when it started in 2017. Gary served as Executive Director from 2018 to 2022. Gary lives in Bethesda with his wife, Thea, and son, Matthew. His daughter, Jessica, is a Senior at Wesleyan University.
David Parker
Director
Dave is an investor and Founder's Club member of Bethesda Blues and Jazz Club. A graduate of Georgetown University, he has spent over 30 years as an IT Sales and Marketing Executive with organizations including: IBM, Oracle, EMC Corporation, and most recently Pure Storage. A resident of Silver Spring, MD, Dave is an avid bass player who performs with his band, Off Color and with the Journey's Crossing Church band in Germantown, MD.
Daryl Davis
Director
Daryl is an American R&B and blues musician, activist, author, actor and bandleader. Known for his energetic style of boogie-woogie piano, Daryl has played with such musicians as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, B. B. King, Bruce Hornsby, and Bill Clinton. His efforts to improve race relations, in which as an African-American he engaged with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), have been reported on by media such as CNN, NPR, and The Washington Post.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Director
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Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Wench, Balm, and most recently Take My Hand. In 2011, she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. In 2017, HarperCollins released Wench as one of eight "Olive Titles," limited edition modern classics that included books by Edward P. Jones, Louise Erdrich, and Zora Neale Hurston.
Dolen received a DC Commission on the Arts Grant for her second novel BALM which was published by HarperCollins in 2015. In 2013, she wrote the introduction to a special edition of Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, published by Simon & Schuster, which became a New York Times bestseller. She followed that with an introduction to Elizabeth Keckly's Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House published in 2016.
Dolen is the current Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. On behalf of the foundation, she has visited nearly every public high school in the District of Columbia to talk about the importance of reading and writing. She is currently Associate Professor in the Literature Department at American University in Washington, DC.
Bennie Barnes
Director
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Bennie Barnes, a Congressional retiree, served on the staff of United States Congressmen Charles B Rangel, John Conyers, Jr., and Ronald V Dellums from 1974 to 1996. Since her retirement, she has worked in various roles in the private and public sectors. Notably, she played a key role in promoting jazz education, connecting with the late Saxophonist Fred Foss and introducing youth jazz programs to prominent figures like Congressman John Conyers, Jr.
Bennie is widely recognized in the DC area and beyond as the manager and mother of Grammy Award Winner Bassist Ben Williams. She has been actively involved in youth jazz programs, including serving on the Board of Directors for the Bethesda Jazz and Blues Youth Orchestra. Bennie's commitment to jazz education extends internationally, where she collaborates with jazz communities in Europe and Japan.
Her significant contribution to the DC area jazz scene includes her work with Mr. Foss at the Fillmore Art Center, where she helped maintain and elevate the youth jazz program. Through her efforts, the program gained sponsorship from The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, providing lessons from prominent jazz artists to students, including her son Ben. Bennie's involvement didn't stop at the high school level; she assisted other jazz studies programs outside the DC area, helping Professor Rodney Whitaker of the Michigan State University Jazz Studies Program recruit students from the DC Public Schools.
Maintaining outreach into the international jazz scene, Bennie serves as the sole agent for her internationally acclaimed son, Ben Williams, occasionally taking on special projects with other artists. Currently, she and her sons are collaborating on the release of Ben's upcoming project, further solidifying her impactful legacy in the world of jazz education and promotion.