Meet the Board
Mercedes Ellington
Founder and Artistic Director
Composer Of Dances And Situations
Theater! Dance! Jazz!.
Mercedes Ellington, Director/Choreographer, Producer, Performer, and Family Historian. This career has been affected in time related increments by race-ism, sex-ism, name-ism, and age-ism. Meanwhile…………..
After graduating from The Juilliard School of Music with a B.S. Degree in Dance, her first Union job was performing in the Australian company of West Side Story for seven months: three months in Sydney and four months in Melbourne.
Other work in New York City, included at least ten Broadway and Broadway related productions: Sophisticated Ladies, Play On, No No Nanette, The Night That Made America Famous well as three revivals at City Center, three of George Wein’s Jazz Festivals, New York City Opera’s L’Histoire Du Soldat, regional Industrial Shows and ten productions at the MUNY in St. Louis.
An honorary citizen of Paris, she recently narrated Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert Music at L’Eglise de Madeleine. Other overseas assignments include accompanying the Duke Ellington Orchestra on part of their 1971 Russian tour, three tours of The United Arab Emirates; two with Andre De Shields in Ambassador Satch and one with The Duke Ellington Center Big Band. Earlier overseas tours included Hong Kong, Tai Pei and six cities in Japan with her tap dance company: BalleTap USA assisted by Maurice Hines and Bernard Johnson.
She was awarded an Audelco award for her choreography in the York Theater production of Storyville.
Early groundbreaking credit as the first and only June Taylor Dancer of color on the Jackie Gleason Show for seven seasons, her first encounter with Ms. Taylor was as a dancer in three productions at The Jones Beach Marine Theater.
Recently involved in the world of Ballroom Dance Competitions, she and her teacher/partner, Michael Choi, won first and second places in Cuba last year.
The founder, CEO and Artistic Director of The Duke Ellington Center For the Arts, a not for profit 501C 3 since 2007, she currently presents concerts with Tony Waag and his American Tap Dance Foundation, at Birdland and other venues based on the musical output from the Ellington catalogue of almost 3,000 compositions.
Andrea Wright
Co-Chairperson and Treasurer
Andrea Wright lives in New York City and she is delighted to join the Board of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA) as the Treasurer. She has enjoyed a career as a prominent jazz singer and songwriter.
In 2003, she met Jon Hendricks’ protégé, jazz/bebop vocalist Marion Cowings at his New York Smalls Jazz Vocal Workshop. There she found her own identity and style through improvisation and has built a considerable jazz standard repertoire.
In 2009 she released her first studio jazz album September in the Rain with musicians Harry Whitaker, Saul Rubin, Noriko Ueda, Quincy Davis and Warren Vaché. Wright has performed at New York City Jazz spots such as Birdland, Carlyle Hotel’s Bemelman’s Bar, Fat Cat, Friar’s Club, Smalls Jazz Club, and Symphony Space. She has toured internationally in Japan, France, Canada, and on a State Department tour in Cyprus. Mentored by Mercedes Ellington and Phoebe Jacobs, Wright continues to work closely with The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts (DECFA) in many roles within DECFA as a stage manager, production assistant, performer as well as serving on the board.
As a singer/songwriter she debuted an EP entitled Riverside (2014) and went on to released Buoy Lights (2015), a live studio album. During the pandemic, Wright wrote and recorded Bruno (2021) in her apartment, playing the piano and guitar with her own background vocals. It is a deeply personal album about her difficulties of having a child of her own.
Wright is a proud member of Local 802 Musicians Union and Actor’s Equity. For more information visit: https://andreawrightmusic.com/
Mary Dove
Co-Chairperson
Mary Dove is Co-Chairperson of the Board of Directors at The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts and a psychotherapist in private practice in Chelsea, with a counseling role at The Juilliard School. She is the founder of Lean In NYC, where she led more than 35 public programs serving thousands of members, focused on leadership, equity, and empowerment.
Her creative and community work includes the Change Makers Project, a multimedia storytelling initiative created with photographer Jena Cumbo and writers Camile Sardina and Tira Harpaz, culminating in the book The Change Makers and exhibitions in partnership with Hudson Guild. She also developed Tap Into Your Story with the American Tap Dance Foundation, exploring resilience and artistic renewal through performance and dialogue.
Across her work in psychotherapy, education, and the arts, Mary is dedicated to creativity, connection, and healing, and to supporting the transformative power of artistic expression in individuals and communities.
Miles Purinton
Secretary
Miles Purinton has joined the Board of Directors of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts as Secretary, following more than a decade of dedicated service to the organization. Over the past ten years, he has contributed in a range of roles, including as an actor, in production, and through active participation in board meetings.
Miles has worked professionally as an actor since the age of five, earning early recognition in the New York theater community for his ability to take on complex and emotionally demanding material. He holds a BA in Drama from Kenyon College and recently earned his MA from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
His professional credits include work with Second Stage, The New Group, Lincoln Center Theater, Penguin Rep Theatre, The Drama League, and The Barrow Group, as well as collaborations with directors including Lars von Trier and Moritz von Stuelpnagel.
Photo by Lois Greenfield
Tony Waag
Tony Waag (tap dancer, director, producer, choreographer, teacher, film maker & speaker) founded the American Tap Dance Foundation (formerly known as the American Tap Dance Orchestra) in 1986, along with Brenda Bufalino and the late Charles "Honi" Coles. From 1989-1995, he co-created and operated, with Ms. Bufalino, Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center which became a model for numerous tap organizations and tap studios worldwide creating, producing, and presenting various educational programs for adults and children year-round, as well as annual winter tap intensives with master classes, courses and workshops taught by leading International artists and master tap dancers.
In 2001, he renamed the organization the American Tap Dance Foundation and created Tap City, the annual New York City Tap Festival with premiere performances of all styles of tap by artists from around the world, as well as an extensive training program for adults, teens and children, city wide events, tap jams, student showcases, panel discussions, lectures and film screenings.
As a performer and choreographer, he has been featured in hundreds of concert, film and television productions including appearances at the legendary Apollo Theater, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the United Nations, the Atlanta Arts Festival, the Utah Arts Festival, the Colorado Dance Festival, the Lincoln Center "Out-of-Doors" Festival, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, PBS’s "Great Performances, a national Seagram's commercial, and in a French car commercial for Renault in Paris. International appearances include USIA tours of Turkey, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia, and recent American ambassador tours of Armenia and Romania with his production of Tap City on Tour. He has also taught and performed in Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, the UK and Spain. Mr. Waag has received numerous grants towards the presentation and preservation of tap dance as a unique American art form.
In 2002, he created the first International Tap Dance Hall of Fame honoring the contributions of legendary tap dancers by preserving their legacies for future generations to enjoy. He also created the annual Tap Preservation and Hoofer Awards, the Gregory Hines Youth Scholarship Fund, Rhythm in Motion, Tap it Out and Tap Treasures.
In 2009, he created and staged the touring production of “Thank You Gregory”, a tribute to the Legends of Tap Dance.
In January of 2010, he opened the American Tap Dance Center in New York City where he directed on-going education and training programs for tappers of all ages and levels until 2014.
In 2014, he received the Dance Magazine Award for his unique contributions to the dance field.
And in 2024 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his 40 + years of service, leadership, and inspiration to the tap community.
Most recently Mr. Waag donated his entire archives to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library at the Lincoln Center, NYC.
Check out current activities by visiting: atdf.org or tonywaag.org
Jeffrey A. Barr
Board Member
Jeffrey A. Barr is a lifelong New Yorker who has been practicing law for nearly 39 years, focusing on General Commercial Law, Trusts, Estate and Real Estate Law.
Jeff graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University in 1977. He graduated with a juris doctorate degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University in 1983 Jeff is admitted to practice in both New York and New Jersey. He is admitted in Federal Court and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals since 1987.
Photo by Melanie Futorian
Antoinette Montague
Board Member
“My Grandfather said of Ella Fitzgerald that she was ‘Beyond Category’, and I would would like to say the same of Antoinette Montague, that she is ‘Beyond Category’.”
Mercedes Ellington, CEO
Antoinette Montague, a member of the DECFA Board of Directors, International Women in Jazz ACTIVE Advisory Board Chair, Professor at Marymount College Manhattan
If you had a chance to see Antoinette Montague WOW the audience at the Charlie Parker Festival at Richard Rogers Theater In Marcus Garvey Park, you’ll know she is a great crowd pleaser and festival favorite among many attendees and staff. She included “Bird” in her programming and delivered an excellent SHOW. Antoinette is internationally renowned Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Category singer and ENTERTAINER. Known as one of “The Hardest Working Woman in Jazz” by insiders & “Jazz Woman To the Rescue” (an edutainment piece and 501c3 she created to donate instruments to kids) and is musical performing and teaching service provider for many jazz organizations, i.e. Jazz at Lincoln Center Syncopated Leadership for MBA students,, Music on the Inside Prison Program (Alina Bloomgarden), Jazz Power Initiative, Jazz mobile festivals and Celia Cruz program, Schools, Senior programs and Jazz Vesper events.
To that effect, she has received the Cedar Grove "Jazz and Blues Entertainer of the Year Award 2017", among other community awards.
Recently voted onto the WBGO CAB, (Community Advisory Board, 2019), she has her OWN radio show on WHCR 90.3fm highlighting artists in what she calls “The. 3EEE’s” Emerging, Established and Elder States-persons, Jazz, Blues and beyond category.) Antoinette has supported and mentored many in the inter generational Jazz community.
A member of several Jazz Boards (The Duke Ellington CFA, Advisory Board Chair for International Women in Jazz.
Antoinette Montague has recorded several CDs Pretty Blues, Behind the Smile, as a leader with Mulgrew Miller, receiving national and international airplay. Her most recent CD, timely World Peace in the Key of Jazz. This Summer she will be at The Litchfield Jazz Fest, Morristown Blues and Jazz Fest. For more information visit: antoinettemontague.com
Kent Drake
Kent Drake, former board member emeritus, is a singer, performer, and former host of the Apollo Theater. Known for his dynamic stage presence, he has appeared in major jazz celebrations, including Duke Ellington birthday events. His enduring contributions to performance and arts advocacy continue to inspire audiences and support cultural legacy.