
Our Team

Joseph Pettigrew has served on the board of Vital Opera since its inception, and as board
president since 2013. Mr. Pettigrew is an attorney with Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP,
working in the firm’s securities, consumer, and antitrust practice areas since July 2006. Mr.
Pettigrew has served as a director or legal advisor for a number of arts non-profits, including the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Choir San Diego and the African-American Music Foundation.
Mr. Pettigrew has been the choir director/organist at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis,
Maryland since January 2016. Prior to that, he served as tenor section leader at Christ Episcopal Church in Coronado, California from 2007 until January 2014. Mr. Pettigrew was an
administrator and occasional festival chorus director for the annual Spirituals Festival held by the African American Music Foundation in San Diego, California. Mr. Pettigrew has sung in a
number of church and community choirs, including the Annapolis Chorale and the PACEM choir
in San Diego.
Mr. Pettigrew obtained his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his B.A. in
the history of art from Carleton College. He grew up in San Diego, California and lives in
Annapolis, Maryland. He loves singing and playing piano, reading, watching baseball and
spending time with his family.


A graduate of the Juilliard School, Wei-En Hsu is an accomplished pianist, organist, conductor, répétiteur and composer. He is now an Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. A native of Taiwan, he received his BFA degree in Piano at Taipei National University of the Arts, and was pleased to be the only candidate at Juilliard selected to Royal Academy of Music, London as an exchange student. Additional trainings at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and Rutgers University.
Mr. Hsu is the winner of many awards, including the 2010 Los Angeles International Liszt Piano Competition, the Scott Huxley Piano Accompaniment Prize, Major Van Someren-Godfery Prize Accompaniment Award (2004), Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize Accompaniment Award, Sir Arthur Bliss Prize, Distinction Performance Award from RAM (2005), and Sing for Hope Grant for Arts Activism and Community Outreach (2009). Mr. Hsu made his debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March 2008. He was named the Stern Fellow in SongFest 2009. He has served as a vocal coaching faculty in SongFest 2010 and 2011. He is the Founder/Music Director for Pocket Opera of New York, the Executive Director for Metropolitan International Music Festival, and the Artistic Director for More Than Musical (HK). In 2013 and 2017, he is appointed the official pianist in the Renee Fleming Masterclass in Hong Kong. He was elected in 2017 as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for his contribution to the music profession and community. In 2018, he was named the 2018 NTCH Artist in Residence in Taiwan. http://weienhsu.com


Elizabeth Robinson is an innovative and passionate educator and facilitator working in the global public health and development sphere. She is skilled at building networks and mobilizing partnerships to ensure sustainable collaborations, and is adept at mentoring to support individual growth and development through education.
Ms. Robinson currently manages Global Health Initiatives for the New York University School of
Medicine, including their International Health Program that supports medical students to participate in research projects globally. She facilitates workshops for students focusing on social justice, cultural humility, and equity. She oversees two monthly lecture series in global health and several academic courses for medical students.
Ms. Robinson completed her Masters in Public Health at New York University’s College of Global Public Health in 2017, including a research collaboration in Iganga, Uganda on health system capacity for maternal vaccinations. She also received a Masters in Development in 2012 at the Institute for Development Studies in the UK, focusing on poverty alleviation through health and the social determinants of adolescent vulnerability.
Previously, Ms. Robinson worked intensively in HIV prevention. In 2004, she returned from two years of teaching in Namibia, to found Sekolo Projects Inc, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provided HIV educational resources and training for adolescents and teachers in Namibia. She led Sekolo for eight years, living in Namibia for two, and built holistic and empowering curriculum for adolescents, trained teachers, and managed psycho-social support programs for Namibian adolescents.