The Management Team

Jill Linzee, Director of Public Programs at Northwest Folklife, is a public folklorist who received her M.A. in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. She has served as state folklorist in New Hampshire, as staff folklorist for other state, federal and non-profit agencies and as a fellow in the Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the NEA. She has coordinated a variety of ethnic, cultural and regional programs such as the Women's Singing Traditions of New England and the state Traditional Arts Apprenticeship programs in Florida, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Linzee's festival experience includes work on local and regional festivals as well as national events like the National Folklife Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. Her most recent work has been in cultural and environmental conservation, including a New England maritime folklife documentation project and public radio series, Culture of the Coast, and a northern forest cultural exhibit, Deeply Rooted: New Hampshire Traditions in Wood, and public TV documentary, Trees and Traditions: The Conservation of Nature and Culture.

Alma Plancich, Executive Director, co-founded the Ethnic Heritage Council in 1980. She is also co-founder and co-director of Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble and Ruze Dalmatinke Orchestra, winners of the 1996 Washington State Governor's Award. Ms. Plancich is a 1998 Nordstrom Community Service Award recipient. She served on the Jack Straw Foundation Board of Directors from 1980 to 1984 and was a 1999 Bumbershoot panelist. Currently, she is a panelist for Artist Trust (1996-present), a member of the Seattle Mayor's Task Force on the Arts (1998-present), a member of the Folklife Community Advisory Board (1996-present), and a member of the WOMAD USA Advisory Board (1997-present), as well as Cultural Chair for the Shoreline School District. Ms. Plancich is the subject of the award-winning film Children of Ellis Island, aired on ABC TV.

Mary Sherhart, is one of America's leading performers, teachers and promoters of traditional Balkan singing. Ms. Sherhart is co-director of New Land Music which produces touring artists from the Balkans in their Seattle performances. For fifteen months in 1984-85 Mary studied and performed with the choir of the professional folklore ensemble "Varna," and conducted field research in throughout the country. Ms. Sherhart is a featured artist in residence in Northwest Folklife's catalog Folklife in the Schools, directs two children's choirs, and teaches frequently at music camps, residencies and workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada. As an independent soloist Mary has appeared with: Nisava, Balkanarama, Bonboni, Kultur Shock, Balkan Time Zone, Trio Ruzice, guitarist Miroslav Tadic, percussionist John Bergamo, and a number of community choirs including Seattle Pro Musica, Pacifica Children's Choir and the City Cantabile Choir. Formerly, Mary was soloist with ensemble Aegean View, founder/director of both the Vecerinka and Sedyanka Balkan Women's Choir, co-founder of the Ruzice Folk Choir, vocal director of the Vela Luka Croatian Ensemble, vocal coach for the Radost Folk Ensemble and member of the Koleda Folk Ensemble. Mary holds a B.A. in liberal studies with concentrations in ethnomusicology and arts management from Antioch University.

Return to Who we are.