Leadership

SpreadMusicNow is operated by an all volunteer board of directors.

Board of Directors

Greg Young

Co-Founder & Chairman

Greg Young is a devoted father, husband, and philanthropist. A lifelong resident of Connecticut and Maine, Greg dedicates his life to his family and making Connecticut and Maine a better place for all children. Greg’s philanthropic focus is on strengthening education, the arts, and community vitality through BeFoundation, the family foundation he founded in 2013.

With an abiding passion for music and an awareness of the importance and far-reaching impact of music education, Greg felt the need to address gaps in access to high-quality music education. In 2014, Greg co-founded SpreadMusicNow. Today, he continues his work supporting the arts and community alongside his fellow Granite, Inc. board members, with whom he is enormously grateful for joining this journey in creating a new community arts space at the Granite Church.

Richard Wenning

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Richard Wenning serves as Executive Director of BeFoundation, a family foundation devoted to strengthening the education of young people in his home state of Connecticut and the vitality of their communities. He co-founded SpreadMusicNow in 2014 with BeFoundation founder Greg Young. During an extensive career in public service, Richard has worked in leadership roles at the federal, state, and local levels of government and with national, state, and local nonprofits.

In 2022, following BeFoundation’s purchase of the former Gilbert Memorial Church, he began the historic rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the church into The Granite, a nonprofit performing and visual arts space in the heart of the historic Village of Georgetown, Connecticut.

Marvin McNeill

Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University

A professional musician, educator and passionate advocate for young students, Marvin McNeill is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. His research interests include New Orleans Brass Band Music and Culture, African American / Black Music and Culture, Youth Music and Culture, Afro-Caribbean Music and Culture, Music and Urban Geography Studies, Affect Theory and Popular Music Studies. He holds an MA in Ethnomusicology (Wesleyan University), an MM in Trombone Performance (University of Connecticut), a BA in Music Education (Virginia Polytechnic and State University), and is a member of many professional and academic societies and associations.

Before returning to academic study, Marvin served 20 years as a college band director at Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT) and University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT), and is the founding member of The Funky Dawgz Brass Band, a New Orleans-style Brass Band whose mission includes giving back to the community and connecting with and inspiring inner-city youth to engage in music learning and performance. Marvin and The Funky Dawgz run an after school and summer program through the Charter Oak Cultural Center, a Hartford, CT-based nonprofit.

Marvin performs widely throughout the Northeast and has served as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician for concert bands and marching bands on both the middle and high school levels.

Robert Mars

Creative Director

From his studio in Connecticut, Robert Mars creates artwork that celebrates the objects and icons of an America long past in a thoroughly modern manner. His ability to manipulate both the color and wordplay of vintage printed material has earned him reference with the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Richard Diebenkorn, among other masters from the School of Pop.

His early work focuses on the architectural and mechanical forms of the 50’s and 60’s. More recently, however, Mars’ artwork has shifted toward the culture of celebrity, and he is strikingly attuned to the fact that these instantly recognizable personalities continue to resonate not only with contemporary American culture but with a worldwide market. Mars began to delve deeper into American culture by focusing on Folk Art and Contemporary American Quiltmakers. Mars is credited as being the first to incorporate quilt patterns and a folk art sensibility into a pop art aesthetic creating his own genre of folk-laced pop. This past year, Mars has expanded on his body of work with abstract compositions.

A graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York, Mars often references his decades as a graphic designer in his work. Mars’ artwork is exhibited worldwide including museum, corporate, and private collections in Munich, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Paris, Aspen, and Dallas.