Speakers

Internationally recognized for his energetic presence, imaginative programming, and compelling musicianship, Vinay Parameswaran is one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors on the podium today. Parameswaran joined The Cleveland Orchestra as Assistant Conductor beginning in the 2017-18 season and was promoted to Associate Conductor in 2021. In this role, he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Festival, and on tour. He also serves as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

In the 21/22 season, Parameswaran will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in several concerts as well as return to the Toledo Symphony. Highlights of the 20-21 season included Parameswaran’s subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and return appearances with the Toledo Symphony. Recent guest appearancse have included debuts with the Detroit Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony.

In the summer of 2019, Parameswaran made his classical subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival in a program of Ives, Bernstein, and Rachmaninoff. He also led The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra on an acclaimed four-city European tour that included a performance at the Musikverein in Vienna.

Parameswaran came to Cleveland following three seasons as associate conductor of the Nashville Symphony, where he led over 150 performances.  During the 2016-17 season, Parameswaran made his subscription debut with the Nashville Symphony conducting works by Gabriella Smith, Grieg, and Prokofiev. 

In the summer of 2017, Parameswaran was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has participated in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, as well as with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. 

Equally at home in both symphonic and operatic repertoire, Parameswaran has led acclaimed performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love with Curtis Opera Theater.  In Cleveland, he has assisted Franz Welser-Möst on productions of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. Parameswaran is the conductor on the album Two x Four featuring the Curtis 20/21 ensemble alongside violinists Jaime Laredo and Jennifer Koh, featuring works by Bach, David Ludwig, Philip Glass, and Anna Clyne. 

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Parameswaran holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and political science from Brown University, where he graduated with honors.  At Brown, he began his conducting studies with Paul Phillips.  He received an Artist Diploma in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.

Ann Lee Hussey of South Berwick, Maine has made the eradication of polio and the alleviation of suffering by polio survivors her life’s work.  Over the past several years she has actively participated in 30 volunteer NID (National Immunization Days) teams organizing and leading the last 26 teams herself, choosing to take those NIDs to places that do not often see westerners – Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Niger, Nigeria, Madagascar, Pakistan as well as less “touristy” destinations in Egypt and India – where the need is greatest and where the publicity and goodwill surrounding the trip are as critical as the immunizations themselves to help communicate the need for eradication.  

As a global advocate, she has shared her story and passion hundreds of times at numerous Zone Institutes, District Conferences, PETS and Foundation events, and at the International Assembly in 2017, 2018, and 2019 carrying the message of polio eradication around the Rotary world and beyond, raising money and creating new converts to the fight.  She is determined that no child will needlessly have to suffer what she herself, a polio survivor, has been through.  Her concern for polio survivors includes working to ensure mobility and dignity for those who survived the disease but did not have access to the kinds of surgeries and treatments that she was able to receive.  And has led RI grants to this end. 

Ann Lee has put a face on the subject of polio eradication, winning hearts and minds and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.  A polio survivor herself, the story Ann Lee tells is personal, and so is her journey in the fight to eradicate polio.  

But for all the immunizations Ann Lee has herself made possible through NIDs, she considers fundraising, public awareness and inspiring others her most critical accomplishments. To this end she shares the opportunities that Rotary offers individuals for personal and professional growth. 

Ann Lee’s work has earned her the International Service Award for a Polio-Free World, the Rotary Service Above Self Award and she was honored as a White House Champion of Change for her humanitarianism and contributions to public service, aimed at improving people’s lives and making a better future around the globe. She was featured in the magazine Real Simple in June 2012. She was featured in a video in Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Annual Letter for February 2017. In March 2017, Rotary and The World Bank recognized her as a Woman of Action celebrating International Day of Women.  Locally in her home state of Maine, she was honored at the Maine State Senate chamber for her remarkable achievements and included in Maine Magazine as one of the 50 Mainers of 2017 who have changed our world, improved our lives, and broadened our horizons.

Ann Lee is a member of the Rotary Club of Portland Sunrise in Maine and served District 7780 in many capacities including as Governor in 2010-2011. Currently, Ann Lee is serving as Council on Legislation Rep 2020-2023; Executive Director of the Polio Survivors Rotary Action Group,, as Chair of the PDGs Fellowship, as District 7780 PolioPlus Chair and last year as as a member of the GPEI Integration Working Group. She ended her term as Chair of the RAGs Council in June 2019.

Previously she served as an Advisor to Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee and as a member of the Global Polio Eradication Transition Management Group from 2015-2018. She has also served as Presidents’ Representative at several district conferences and represented Rotary at an Easter Seals Annual Convention. Her past service includes being a member of the RI Rotarian Action Groups Committee, the Reach Out to Africa Initiative, and as Zone 32 Coordinator for Health and Hunger. 

Outside Rotary, she has served multiple terms as a trustee of York Hospital in York, Maine, currently serving as Vice-Vice-Chair of the Trustees Board.  She was an active volunteer for the hospital’s Covid Vaccination Clinic. 

Ann Lee, who with her late husband, Michael Nazemetz, DVM, recently retired from their practice, Village Veterinary Clinic in Rollinsford, NH.  Ann Lee resides in South Berwick, Maine USA with her devoted yellow Labrador, Parker and her curious cat Elliott. 

She is a member of the Paul Harris Society, a Rotary Foundation Major Donor and Bequest Society member.

Richard Flanders is a member of the Rotary Club of Pleasanton North, California, U.S.A.  He was the President of the Rotary Club of San Ramon Valley for the year 2001-2002 in District 5160.  A Rotarian since 1995, Richard has served as Assistant District Governor in Districts 5170 and 5160.  He was District 5170 Lieutenant Governor – Chief of Staff in 2010-2012.  As a Club President in 2001-2002, his club received First Place in Club Service, First Place in Community Service, First Place in Vocational Service, and First Place in International Service at District 5160 District Conference in Ashland, Oregon, and was named the Best Club in the District.  

 

Richard was District 5160 Group Study Exchange Team Leader, leading the District’s Group Study Exchange Team to District 3350 in Thailand.  He has chaired Group Study Exchange Committee and Rotary Foundation Scholarship Committee in Districts 5170 and 5160.  In District 5170, he has chaired District Vocational Service Committee, District Rotary Foundation Alumni Committee, District Rotary Foundation Permanent Fund/Major Gifts Committee, District Avenues of Service Dinner, District 5170 Conference, and The Richard D. King Tribute Dinner, honoring Past Rotary International President Richard D. King for his 50th year of Service in Rotary.  He served as a member of the Rotary International New Generation Membership Committee and Rotary International Special Services Committee.  He also served as a Member of the Peace Major Gift Initiative with The Rotary Foundation in 2019-2020.

 

Rotary District 5170 has presented him with the “Lead The Way” Award in 2007 for his commitment to the Service of Rotary, the Neal J. Hoffman Award in 2008 for the most outstanding younger Rotarian in the district who has shown exemplary leadership skills in their club and/or the district, the Karl Stucki Award in 2015 for Rotarian in the District who exemplifies the Greatest Commitment to Rotary Ideals, and the Richard D. King Award in 2018 for the Rotarian in the District who makes the greatest personal commitment to the programs of The Rotary Foundation.  He is also a recipient of the Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service Award.

 

Richard is an attorney practicing in Alameda, California.  He belongs to Alameda County Bar Association.  He volunteers with the Alameda County Superior Court as a settlement officer and assisting self-represented litigants at hearings.  Richard and his wife Florence have girl/boy twins, Brennyn and Ryson.  

Assessor - County of Santa Clara

San Jose Magazine named him one of Silicon Valley’s 100 most powerful leaders. Pulitzer Prize winning author and Washington Post reporter, Haynes Johnson, described Larry Stone in his bestselling book, Sleepwalking Through History, as “bright, articulate; an American rarity, a proven political success in a time of political failure.”

He was first elected Assessor in 1994 and overwhelmingly re-elected six times by the residents of Santa Clara County, which stretches north to Palo Alto, south to Gilroy, and includes San Jose, the “Capital of Silicon Valley.”  The County boasts a population of 1.9 million – greater than that of 13 states.

Stone has been a financial manager on Wall Street and co-founded a successful Bay Area real estate investment and development firm.  He served 16 years as a council member and mayor of Sunnyvale, a period during which the city earned an international reputation for effectiveness and became a model for President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s efforts to reform the federal bureaucracy.  President Clinton said, “The National Performance Review was modeled in part upon the remarkable reinvention efforts pioneered by the City of Sunnyvale, where Larry Stone served as mayor.”

As County Assessor, Stone has overseen remarkable improvements to streamline the operations of his office, eliminate backlogs, and achieve higher levels of public service, all while consistently operating substantially under budget.  The State Board of Equalization acknowledged his office as one of the best-managed assessors’ operations in California.

Larry Stone also has been an active and effective civic leader in many fields ranging from the arts, to education, to the environment.  He was instrumental in co- founding an innovative $11 million education endowment foundation that has contributed nearly $20 million to benefit a local, public elementary school district.  A native of Seattle, he has an MBA from the University of Washington and has studied at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  He and his wife, Carmen, have lived in Sunnyvale since 1970, where they raised three sons