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The elected candidates will serve on the CSO Executive Board for the Spring 2026 semester (Communications Chair) or the 2026-2027 school year: Social Chair (2), Marketing Chair (2), Fundraising and Outreach Chair, Communications Chair, and Secretary. Appointed positions to be filled for the 2026-27 school year are Concert Manager, Equipment Manager, and Chamber Director.

ELECTED POSITIONS

Social Chair (2)

Liya Taxali - Hi, I'm Liya, a second-year violinist and Global Public Health major! Outside of CSO, I am a part of Remote Area Medical, Hindu Student Association, and Her Campus at UVA! I enjoy hobbies like painting, watching new movies, and spending time outdoors. I would love to bring these interests into the role of Social Chair- specifically, imagine movie nights once a month, painting & music workshops, more CSO hikes, CSO family competitions, and fun food events! I would also love to continue the classics like murder mystery, field day, and the End-of-Year Banquet. Additionally, I'd like to make these events extra memorable by creating an end-of-semester photo album. As a Social Chair, my goal is to foster an environment where everyone feels included and welcome, maintaining the positive spirit of CSO that goes beyond the music!

Marketing Chair (2)

Sara Dombroski - My name is Sara Dombroski and I am a 3rd year majoring in Biochemistry. I am from Connecticut and some of my hobbies include making friendship bracelets, going for walks, and rotting. I would love to be one of the Marketing Chairs for CSO because I love expressing my creativity in unique ways and I have loved being able to contribute more to CSO and help advertise and raise money. I think I am a good candidate for the position because I feel like I have grown a lot during my first year as Marketing Chair and have become significantly better at designing and creating! I love coming up with concert themes, instagram posts, ways to raise money, and more. I still have so many more ideas (merch!) that I would love to be able to contribute if I were to be elected as Marketing Chair!

Liya Taxali - Hi, I'm Liya, a second-year violinist and Global Public Health major! Outside of CSO, I am a part of Remote Area Medical, Hindu Student Association, and Her Campus at UVA! I enjoy hobbies like painting, watching new movies, and spending time outdoors. I find myself highly creative and organized, which aligns with the role of Marketing Chair. Specifically, I would like to promote our ensemble through fun videos, interviews with CSO members, updates to our social media pages, and, of course, designing cool swag! I would also like to incorporate T-shirt design contests and maybe opportunities to speak at events or local high schools to promote CSO to prospective members. For two years in high school, I was on the marketing team for the Junior Achievement Company program and have experience running social media pages and creating promotional content. In Her Campus, I also create monthly Instagram posts and Canva designs. Overall, my goal as a Marketing Chair is to maintain our strong presence within the UVA community and beyond, and do so in a way that brings all members together!

Fundraising and Outreach Chair

Communications Chair

Autumn Lee - Hello CSO Nation! I'm Autumn Lee, the Spring 2026 Communications Chair, and I am hoping to rerun for the 2026-2027 school year! I have had so much fun being both a first violinist and member of the Executive Board, and I would love to continue keeping the orchestra informed and organized! I also hope to extend CSO outreach and foster the welcoming environment CSO provides to everyone!

Secretary

Kaitlyn Thai - Hi everyone! My name is Kaitlyn and I’m a first-year violinist, looking to major in chemical physics! I enjoy swimming, going out for café runs, spending time with friends, and being part of CSO of course!

I’d like to run to be your secretary for the 2026-27 year because throughout my first year in CSO, I’ve been so impressed by the level of organization and management the orchestra maintains and would love to be part of this group of people who help make this happen. I’m a creature of habit when it comes to organization and planning, so I love the role of secretary! Prior to UVA, I’ve had similar roles in my orchestra where I helped maintain archives of music and prepare music for distribution for the players. In addition, I work as a scribe which I think would be helpful when documenting exec board meetings. I’m excited to hopefully bring these experiences to this role while supporting this amazing orchestra!

APPOINTED POSITIONS

Concert Manager

Autumn Lee - Hello CSO Nation! I'm Autumn Lee, and I hope to become the 2026-2027 Concert Manager! I want to help create more awesome concerts like CSO Presents: Horizons and CSO Presents: Amour! I would also like to ensure that concerts run as smoothly as possible for everyone involved and hopefully gain more UVA audience involvement!

Nat Taylor - My name is Nat Taylor and I am a current first-year in CSO as well as the first-year representative. I enjoy playing Viola (obviously), running, playing soccer, baking anything that is a dessert, and doing escape rooms. I want to be concert manager or equipment manager for CSO because during my time with CSO this year, I have thoroughly enjoyed the community and want to help contribute more. I love the spectacle of the concert and feel like I am starting to understand how to set up many of the complicated percussion equipment so I think I would work well for either of these roles. I would be excited and honored to be able to serve CSO on exec again!

Equipment Manager

Chamber Director

Liya Taxali - Hi, I'm Liya, a second-year violinist and Global Public Health major! Outside of CSO, I am a part of Remote Area Medical, Hindu Student Association, and Her Campus at UVA! I enjoy hobbies like painting, watching new movies, and spending time outdoors. I joined my first Chamber group last spring and am currently a part of CSO's Barbie Chamber group. Chamber has been an amazing way to connect with ensemble members and play exciting pieces that everyone enjoys. In high school, I led my school's Strings for Nursing Homes program, bringing together a small group of students to learn music and perform at local nursing homes. As Chamber Director, I would love to get members involved in similar service opportunities, as well as gigs and chances to perform at events. Another idea is to create more themed groups like Barbie Chamber- e.g., a movie music group, pop-music chamber, Tchaikovsky chamber, and any ideas you guys have! Overall, I find myself to be creative, detail-oriented, and organized, which supports this role and tasks, including establishing the groups, keeping things on track during the year, and organizing the Chamber concert.

Sam Gernhardt - Hello, I am Sam Gernhardt, and I am a first-year cellist planning to major in biochemistry and Classics. When I am not cello-maxxing, I am participating in the UVA colorguard, skating (I mostly iceskate, but I am learning how to rollerskate), and engaging in a variety of Brown College activities, whether it is running events as a Portal Rep, playing Blood on the Clocktower, or attending weekly Govboard meetings. I would like to be the Chamber Director for CSO, because I believe I understand what this program needs in order to flourish. First of all, I would like to add structure through a slightly more rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule and more frequent communication, which would involve deadlines for tasks like piece selection. Failing to meet these deadlines would not result in any punitive action; I would simply offer guidance (i.e. help the group find a piece with the right instrumentation and difficulty level). In terms of the schedule, I would like to at least add a few intermittent rehearsals near the end of the semester during which musicians could get valuable feedback from me and other chamber performers. I did this as part of a for-credit chamber group in my fall semester, and I found it incredibly helpful, as I got to reflect on what other groups were doing well and how I could incorporate those elements in my own performance. Lastly, I would like to schedule outdoor chamber performances, as well as performances for other organizations, as outdoor locations like the Lawn have many people passing through, but most of them will not stay for long periods of time, thus providing a lower-stakes performance environment to help musicians prepare for the traditional on-stage performance setting, and, similarly, organizing performances for other organizations’ events will both help musicians practice performing and build connections between CSO and other facets of the university community.

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