Meet the Team

Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE, 
Patron MUJF

Sir Willard Wentworth White,  world renowned bass-baritone, was born on October 10, 1946, in Ewarton, Jamaica.

Willard White, a graduate of Excelsior High School in Kingston and founding member of the Jamaican Folk Singers,
commenced formal musical training at the Jamaica School of Music and continued his studies at The Julliard School in New York where he received several scholarships during his studies at the conservatory.  

He made his professional operatic debut with New York City Opera, where he played the character of Colline in La Bohème in 1974. His European debut was with Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, Wales, where he played Osmin in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio.  He has since gone on to perform in the world's major opera houses, and his powerful voice and commanding stage presence have made him a popular and admired singer across a wide range of musical styles. White is best known for performing as Mephistopheles in The Damnation of Faust, a role he has played many times. Besides his traditional classical repertoire, he is celebrated for his performances as Porgy in Porgy and Bess. 

​Winston A. G. Ewart, JP, MA, LRSM
MUJF Chairman, Pianist, Organist and Conductor

Winston Ewart is a retired commercial banker. He joined Barclays Bank, DCO in 1969, now known as The National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited, and remained with the organization until September 1996 when he was seconded to the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts as the Director of Studies for Music. After the period of secondment ended some 30 months later he opted to remain at the college and was later promoted to the position of Vice Principal – Administration and Development.

In 2007 he resigned this position and served for a short stint at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission as Music Specialist before moving on to the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) as coordinator for the Masters in Business Administration Program where he served until March 2013.

Winston is very involved in the musical landscape of Jamaica. He has served as President of the Jamaica Music Teachers Association on several occasions and continues to serve as: Musical Director of the National Chorale of Jamaica; Organist of Christ Church (Anglican) for over 50 years; and as an Accompanist.  He is also the Local Representative for Trinity College, London.

Rosina Christina Moder, Ma. Mus (Hons.)​
Co-Founder and Executive Director

Rosina Christina Moder was born in the Styrian Hills of South-east Austria and has resided in Jamaica since 1985. She graduated from the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria, with a Certificate in “Kindersingschule” - Early Childhood Music Education (1974), a Bachelor’s degree in Recorder Teaching (1976) and a Masters degree, (Hons.), in Recorder Performance (1977). Rosina received her post-graduate studies at the ‘Schola Cantorum Basiliensis’ (Jeanette van Wingerden) in Basel, Switzerland, and at the Music University ‘Mozarteum’ (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) in Salzburg, Austria.

Her performance career has taken her from Europe, Japan, Argentina, and the United States of America to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

​Rosina is co-founder and executive director of the ‘Music Unites Jamaica Foundation’, a non for-profit organization with the mission of raising funds for music scholarships and mentoring talented students in need. Research on Jamaican composers, as well as hosting free concerts and workshops island-wide, are further aims of ‘Music Unites Jamaica’. Rosina is also the founder and musical director of ‘Flauto Dolce’, the Jamaican Recorder Society.

Peter Ashbourne, CD, Composer, Musician and Music Lecturer, Co-Founder and Director

Peter Ashbourne attended the St. Hugh’s Preparatory School, the Wolmer’s High School for Boys, the University of the West Indies in Kingston, the Jamaica School of Music, and has a Bachelor of Music (composition) degree from the Berklee College of Music (Boston, Mass., USA).  Mr Ashbourne, who holds a LRSM (Performance) diploma in violin, was considered a child prodigy on that instrument from as early as age 9.  He also plays the piano.
 
An experienced composer, arranger, performer and band leader, Ashbourne taught at the ‘Jamaica School of Music’ in its Jazz Department from 1976 – 1979. He conducted an Art Music and Reggae Workshop at the ‘University of Music and Dramatic Arts – Graz’, Austria in 1986 and held a lecture and seminar on the ‘Development of Jamaican Popular Music, from Mento, Ska, Reggae to Dancehall’ at the ‘University of Southern Maine’, U.S.A., in spring 2007.  His lecture ‘Two Turning Points in Jamaican Popular Music’ held at the Global Reggae Conference 2008, at the University of the West Indies (UWI) was universally well received and was published in the Book ‘Global Reggae’ in 2013. In 2019 he was invited to present ‘An Overview of Jamaica’s Musical Landscape’ at the annual UWI ‘Philip Sherlock Lecture’.

Alicia Ortega-Richards, BS
Administrative Manager

​Alicia Marilyn Ortega-Richards was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She graduated from the ‘Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado’, where she received her degree in Public Accounting (November 2006). During her thirteen years of professional experience she has developed a wide range of skills and abilities in accounting, management,tax administration and computing.

Alicia has been living in Jamaica since February 2013 and came to this wonderful island in the company of Jamaican classical guitarist Shawn Richards, with whom she is married and has a beautiful daughter.

Although she is not a professional musician, her whole life has been surrounded by music as her father, her younger brother and several members of her family are born musicians. Her love for this beautiful art has been with her since birth and will always be present in her life.