The Team

Rebecca Jackson-Picht, Artistic Director

Violinist Rebecca Jackson-Picht’s performances have been described as “riveting” and characterized by a “fierce spirit.” Rebecca has been a part of commissioning and premiering 12 chamber works. In 2019, she performed the San Jose and San Francisco premieres of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s, Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope [made possible by Music at Kohl Mansion and Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions]. During her five seasons as acting member of Santa Fe Opera Orchestra the company won 2019 Grammy for Best Opera Recording for (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Her foundational belief is that music possesses power to heal and unite. This has propelled her career and professional outreach around the globe, having performed in marginalized communities across the U.S., Ukraine, Romania, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nepal, Costa Rica and Lebanon. While maintaining a regular performance schedule with a variety of groups, including as member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, she contemporaneously produces projects that build community through music outside the concert hall. Her largest project to date, she is the Founder and Artistic Director of Music in May, an annual chamber music festival established in 2008 with one division dedicated to engaging incarcerated youth. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that this outreach “revives the evocative and visceral power of music that can be too often deadened in more formal concert environments.” In 2013, she co-founded Sound Impact and Ensemble San Francisco, organizations with missions tied to many of her personal core values. In 2018, Rebecca received a KSBW Jefferson Award in recognition of her volunteerism and public service. The following year, she and her father coauthored the biography of her mentor David Arben, Holocaust survivor and former associate concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The book, ARBEN: David Arben’s Life of Miracles & Successes, by Dr. John Jackson and Rebecca Jackson is available on Amazon and at www.davidarben.com and their story featured on NBC News. Jackson-Picht received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School and a Master of Music from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jolene Woo, “Mom” to Festival Artists

Since meeting Rebecca and becoming part of the MiM family, I started to see that there was a need for someone to provide the visiting guest artists a space to relax, rehearse, and be themselves as they would be if they were at home. MiM needed a “mom" to provide guidance when needed, or maybe helping to figure out the driving time of getting somewhere, or serving homemade soup after a tough rehearsal. Over time, my grown son has joined me in being the anchors for the MiM music concerts. We love MiM’s dedication to helping our community and we love supporting MiM to allow them to do that.

Tu Cam Truong, Art Director

Tu’s introduction to MiM was a chance encounter during a concert in Carmel with Jolene Woo, where she met Rebecca Jackson-Picht. This meeting quickly became a friendship, and they collaborated to establish a new MiM aesthetic style. Tu is a seasoned UI designer with a wealth of experience, having worked for top companies like AOL, Apple Computer, and PayPal. She brings her vast skill set to MiM, where she has served as an art director since 2018. Her dedication to the brand, her passion for design, and her commitment to giving back make her an invaluable asset to MiM. She is currently the principal owner at TúDesigns, where she leverages her diverse skill set to the fullest, working with clients in various industries, domestic and overseas. tudesigns.net

Peggy Alberti, Strategic Initiatives
Peggy has had a soft spot in her heart for Music in May for a number of years. Now retired, Peggy spent years teaching Orchestra and Choral music at the high school and college level, and later running a local business. After retirement, Peggy and her husband Jim, who passed away in 2024, became interested in viticulture and winemaking. Although no longer making wine, Peggy maintains a beautiful little vineyard at her home in the Santa Cruz mountains. Besides MIM, Peggy likes to travel, garden, cook, read, sew and knit, and especially to play the piano and Celtic harp. She has 2 beautiful daughters and 4 wonderful grandchildren.

Penni Bengston, Online Strategy

Penni describes herself as a "Silicon Valley refugee," after spending her first career at Apple and Sun Microsystems. More recently, Penni founded Finish Line Productions, a race production and sport timing company that produces running events, triathlons, and open water swims. Penni is a certified USA Triathlon coach as well as a US Masters Swimming coach and Adult Learn to Swim instructor.

Matt Carr, Audio/Visual Recording

Classical Recording Engineer and Producer Matt Carr, works with artists from around the world, regularly producing recordings for commercial release. His recordings have garnered acclaim, characterized as having "purity that verges on miraculous" (Fanfare) and a "first rate sound" (Gramophone). Matt has engineered and produced recordings for notable artists including the San Francisco Symphony, Daniel Hope, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Alexander String Quartet, Andy Akiho, Amit Peled, and Sarah Cahill. During the summer, Matt works as the Assistant Recording Engineer for the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival alongside 6-time GRAMMY winning classical engineer Da-Hong Seetoo.

Abigail Kaun, Content Creator and Editor

Abigail Kaun is the daughter of MiM co-founder David Kaun, and a current member of the MiM board of advisors. Abigail began her career as an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Yale University. She currently serves as executive adviser to the dean at the UCSC Baskin School Engineering, where she is responsible for conceiving and launching a variety of special projects and strategic initiatives. Abigail is a native of Santa Cruz and moved back in 2017 to be closer to family as well as to partner with David on his philanthropic adventures.

Natalia Duarte, Accounting & Donor Relations
Besides my affinity for the ocean and the Santa Cruz mountains, l love music! I have attended and listened to so many decades of exceptional music concerts right here in my very own home town. Working in the finance department with the City of Santa Cruz for over 20 years has allowed me the opportunity to be a part of the team that supports our amazingly vibrant Music in May organization.

Juan Jaramillo, Festival Manager & Youth Outreach
I am a violinist from Venezuela that won a scholarship in 1996 to study in Pittsburgh. I learned to play through the "El Sistema" program growing up, and now I am a full time member of the Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet, Sarasota Opera and also the principal second for the Wheeling Symphony. Besides music, I love cooking, enjoy the outdoors, connecting with people, and watching movies. Rebecca and I connected right away performing together, but also sharing our passion for community outreach through Sound Impact, a non-profit organization that Rebecca co-founded. I feel very passionate about bringing music to all sorts of audiences, particularly those who are not usually exposed to it. New to the MiM team, I closely identify with MiM's mission with music at the center of it all.

Kai Christiansen, Musicologist
Kai Christiansen is a musicologist, amateur multi-instrumentalist, radio host, writer, lecturer, and general chamber music fanatic, and has participated in several MiM seasons as a speaker, program note contributor, and enraptured concertgoer. As an outgrowth of decades of studying and presenting chamber music, Kai has created the “chamber music exploratorium”, a website at earsense.org launched in 1997 and approaching its 30th anniversary. Leveraging his skills from a career as a professional software engineer and a chamber music curator, earsense is the most comprehensive encyclopedia of chamber music in the world, widely praised by musicians, teachers, students, and music lovers internationally.

Jane Picht, Marketing
Jane grew up in Iowa, where small‑town roots and a love of music shaped her early years. She built a long and meaningful career in the medical field, ultimately working in the liver transplant department at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2024, she chose to retire and move to San Francisco, embracing a new chapter centered on family and the joy of helping care for her baby granddaughter. Music remains a constant thread in her life, deepened by her admiration for Rebecca’s talent and her involvement with Music in May.

Scot Goodman.jpg — Scot Goodman, Photographer
Scot, a MiM junkie, is a veteran stage and theater photographer. He has photographed for Smuin Ballet, Aurora Theatre, Musaic, and World Institute on Disability, among others. He teaches photography classes for the REI Outdoor School. Scot’s connection to MiM started in 2008 when a chance meeting with cellist Wendy Law during a photo shoot at the Copacabana Club in New York City led to attending a MiM concert in Santa Cruz a year later, a moment he considers an “intervention.” Scot has two of the greatest nephews in the world, and loves to listen to them laugh and play music.

Benjamin Goodwin, Student Intern

Benjamin Goodwin is a first-year student at Oberlin Conservatory, majoring in composition. He is a violinist with a background in music theory and piano. He has written chamber music for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Student Staff program and premiered an orchestral work with the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony. He has also participated in other ensembles, like the CCS Honor Orchestra and the Papillon string quartet.

Maya Huet, Student Intern

Maya Huet is a sophomore at Pacific Collegiate School. She is the concertmaster and current featured soloist for the Santa Cruz Youth Symphony. She also plays chamber music and piano, and has been concertmaster for many youth orchestras. In her free time, Maya enjoys going to Korean Martial Arts Academy and crocheting. She is super excited to gain experience through the MiM program.

Board Members & Advisors