MEET THE SPEAKERS
Maria Finkelmeier
Named a “one-woman dynamo” by the Boston Globe, Maria is a percussionist, composer, new media artist, and Associate Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship at Berklee College of Music. Obsessed with making noise, she transformed Fenway Park into a percussive playground and turned the Roebling Bridge into a sound and light instrument. She's used AI to investigate gender bias through music, flipped a bus into a mobile electronic bucket drumming program, and performed at iconic global venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian, and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Her cutting-edge work has been featured in the Boston Globe, National Parks Magazine, Boston Magazine, Vulture, SunSentinel, I Care if you Listen and on WGBH, WBUR, and CBS. She is the Founder of the experimental music, art, and technology studio, MF Dynamics, and holds a BM from The Ohio State University and MM from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
Tori Sudan
Tori Soudan is a footwear designer, entrepreneur, and speaker whose work explores creativity, craftsmanship, and the enduring value of human imagination in a rapidly changing world.
For more than seventeen years, Soudan has designed Italian-made footwear through her eponymous label, Tori Soudan Brand, including time spent working alongside master shoemakers in Italy's renowned Brenta Riviera. There, she witnessed artisans who had spent decades educating the eye, refining their discernment, training their hands, and pursuing an exacting standard of excellence. The experience deepened a conviction that now informs her work: good work can be taught, but exceptional work is cultivated.
Her designs have been worn by Angela Bassett, Zendaya, Carrie Underwood, and Tamron Hall and featured in Vogue Italia, InStyle, and Essence. As founder of The Bronze Suite, a creative and cultural platform, she explores creation, craftsmanship, and culture through curated experiences around the world. Soudan is a graduate of Spelman College and holds an MBA in Finance from Northeastern University.