Directory

Dan Shaud is co-director of the Upper School orchestra and Middle School chamber ensemble and is the coordinator for the Conservatory Program. In addition, he teaches music theory, solfège, and chamber music classes and has been the horn instructor for The Rivers School Conservatory since 1999. He is an active freelancer on the horn in the Boston area and is also a church organist. He earned a BA and BM from Oberlin College and Conservatory and an MM from New England Conservatory.

Krissy Skare joined The Rivers School in the fall of 2024 as the Upper School and Middle School choral director. She teaches Middle and Upper School Chorus and also serves as advisor to the a cappella club. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a double major in psychology at UMass Amherst, where she won a Downbeat Student Music Award for vocal jazz ensemble; an M.M. at New England Conservatory of Music; and an M.Ed. in arts education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Krissy leads Neighborhood Rocks, a Brookline-based intergenerational pop/rock chorus, and the Boston Latvian Choir, New England’s only Latvian-language choral ensemble. She has conducted choirs of up to 1,000 singers in the US, Canada, and Latvia. She enjoys forest walks and making music with friends.

Ellie Strayer graduated from Skidmore College with a B.S. in theater arts and completed a theater program at the Accademia dell’Arte while studying abroad in Arezzo, Italy. She has a background in mask work, claymation, playwriting, directing, devising, movement work, and puppetry. Most recently, in response to the challenges of live performance during the pandemic, Ellie cofounded First Kiss Theatre as an outlet to produce and perform new works on a virtual stage. Besides teaching Middle School theater arts and mathematics, Ellie serves as assistant varsity softball coach. Ellie’s work with the Middle School BRIDGE Club has been both impactful and inspiring, and as DEI Coordinator she extends this impact across the entire MS division.