Faculty and Staff
Meet the people who make the music happen
Laura Kakis Serper
Founder, Artistic Director
Laura has vast experience conducting children’s choirs and serving as a community- builder through music programing. Ms. Kakis Serper received her degrees from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music as well as attended Westminster Choir College, and the Aspen Music Institute. She has performed for many years as a soprano soloist and in operas and musical theatre. Her Greek heritage inspired the name of the Kairos and its choruses and her folksong choral arrangements have been sung by choirs world-wide, including at Carnegie Hall. She is also the Director of Choral Music at The Crowden School where her choirs have performed with the San Francisco Symphony for three seasons, most recently in Orff’s Carmina Burana. Ms. Kakis Serper was recognized at the California State Senate for over twenty years of excellent musical service to the community through Kairos Choir programs. She is dedicated to helping children find their voice for life through the art of singing.
Arkadi Serper
Pianist and Composer
Arkadi received his music education in Russia at the Gnesin State Musical College and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He continues a distinguished career as a pianist, composer and music educator. Mr. Serper is Director of Piano and Composition, Music Theory and History at The Crowden School, and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory in the Pre-College Department. He has written many choral compositions for Kairos Youth Choir, some of which have been published through the Henry Leck choral series. As an acclaimed composer, his symphonic and chamber compositions have been produced by several major orchestras. Kairos singers have the added benefit of performing tailor-made musicals composed by Arkadi Serper, with librettos by local writers. As a pianist, he continues to perform concerts, both as a soloist and a chamber musician.
Asher Witkin
Managing Director
Asher is a singer-songwriter from Berkeley, California. He began singing with Kairos Music Academy as a third grader in 2008, and immediately fell in love with the warm community and exceptional artistic instruction. He’s been working with Kairos in one capacity or another ever since he graduated in 2012. Since then, Asher has sung with Coldplay, Daveed Diggs, The Stone Foxes, Alexander Rybak, and recorded for Kehlani. He’s written with Graham Candy, Robin Brink, and grammy winner Dan Wilson. Asher graduated from Columbia College Chicago and Mannheim’s Popakademie with a Bachelor of Music in 2022. His newest project, bandcalledbeach, is signed to Public Air Records.
Rita Lilly
Avghie/Anthos Conductor
Soprano Rita Lilly has performed professionally since 1985 and is best known for her work in baroque and early music. She holds a Bachelor of Music from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, and The New York Times has praised her “voice of strength, clarity, and virtuosity.” As soprano soloist with the Waverly Consort, she toured the US, Canada, and abroad, appearing at Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since moving to the Bay Area, she has sung with American Bach Soloists, the California Bach Society, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and many others. She taught voice at the SFEMS Baroque Summer Workshop and Pacific Boychoir Academy, directs the Women’s Chorus at Mills College, and maintains a private voice studio in El Cerrito.
Susy Porter
Asteria Director
Susy Porter has taught music to young children since 1996, and her “Sing, Dance & Play” classes have been a favorite with families for over 25 years. Trained in acting and singing, she has performed in musical theater, plays, and voice-over work, and she is an accomplished flutist, singer, and guitarist. She has completed advanced training in Music Together, Musikgarten, and Kindermusik, and keeps up with the latest in child development and music teaching through regular workshops and conferences. In her classes, Susy puts joyful, creative music-making ahead of perfection, helping children explore pitch, tempo, and dynamics while building confidence and a strong bond with their caregivers. She adapts to every child’s learning style, whether they jump right in or prefer to watch first, and brings warmth and humor to every class.
Frosene Phillips
Grant Writing, Marketing Consultant
Frosene Phillips is a longtime Bay Area journalist, arts advocate, and champion of the Greek American community. For three decades, her entertainment and dining column, “Frosene on the Scene,” appeared in the Bay Area News Group’s East Bay Times, and historic Oakland Tribune. For 18 years she served as Managing Editor of The Hellenic Journal, the only Greek American news publication in the western states. From 2018 to 2024, she was Executive Director of the Elios Charitable Foundation and The Elios Society, where she gained hands-on grant experience, while also holding marketing, operations, and client services leadership roles at the San Francisco agency Gumas. A lifelong cantor and soloist at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension in Oakland, she was also lead vocalist of the band Mediterranean Soul. As Grant Writer and Marketing Consultant at Kairos, she draws on her nonprofit leadership, grant experience, and storytelling background to help advance the organization’s mission.
Emile Serper
Composer, Multi-Instrumentalist
Emile Serper started cello at the ancient age of six, yet he was singing with Kairos Youth Choir from the womb. Currently, he studies cello and composition at USC. He was the Co-Principal cellist in the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has performed on tour in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. He also studies composition with David Conte, is a two-season winner of the Kris Getz Composer’s Award, and has a published choral work entitled “Ave Maria”which is dedicated to environmental concerns. In addition to music-making, Emile enjoys mathematics, hiking, running, following baseball, and spending time with his recently-formed Kairos singers/alumni vocal acappella group “Evnia”, as arranger, singer and beatboxer. His Greek heritage comes to the fore in his love of friends and food!