CEO
Deandre Desir is a Guyanese-American classical musician, economist, and educator based in New York City. He has performed with musicians of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and New York City Ballet, and serves as a professor of ear training and music theory at The Juilliard School. He received pre-college and undergraduate degrees from Juilliard on full scholarship, a professional certificate from Harvard University, and a master’s degree from Columbia University, where he is currently a doctoral researcher focused on economics and policy analysis in music education. His work includes public-facing arts advocacy and major media and institutional contributions, including an Emmy-recognized PBS project (“Art is Essential”) and national recognition through a competitive teaching grant.
President & COO
Ehren Valmé is a classical musician, composer, and arts administrator based in New York City. His administrative career spans the U.S. General Services Administration, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Juilliard School, and Bravo! Vail, alongside investment operations (HNWI) and his own Valmé Arts Consultancy. He remains a working musician: bass trombonist with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, Low Brass Coach with the New York Philharmonic, and a composer and recording engineer with credits including WHYY and NPR. He serves on the board of the California Music Center and holds a BM from The Juilliard School and an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University.
EVP & Chief of Staff
Nicole Magallón is a professionally trained operatic soprano, jazz, and musical theatre performer based in New York City. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance at Texas Tech University and built corporate operating experience through management roles at P\S\L and Oxford Properties Group (OMERS). She brings a first-hand perspective on elite and state-system music education pathways, combined with demonstrated capability in corporate execution and cross-functional coordination. Her network spans classical, jazz, academic, contemporary, and independent communities, positioning Solfera to collaborate credibly across artists, educators, institutions, and stakeholders.
VP Artistic Operations
Marshall Estrin is a composer and scholar whose work emphasizes structural rigor, dramatic power, and contemporary musical language. He is currently a DMA candidate at The Juilliard School. His compositions have been performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia by leading performers and ensembles, and include major works for opera, orchestra, chamber, and solo repertoire, including award-recognized orchestral writing and recorded releases. He has lectured on music history, modernism, and theoretical systems, and is a classical languages scholar with formal distinctions in Ancient Greek and Latin.
Senior Composer
Hudson King is a contemporary composer and producer focused on expanding 21st-century musical vocabulary. He is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase Undergraduate Composition Conservatory and is currently enrolled in its Graduate Composition Conservatory. Over the last five years he has released multiple albums of original work and has engineered, recorded, mixed, and mastered projects spanning solo, jazz, classical, and orchestral contexts. He also supports instruction as a teaching assistant and tutor in music theory, ear training, composition, and audio engineering.
This team has taught at conservatories, performed with major orchestras and opera companies, run arts organizations, and managed operations in government and finance. Those strengths interlock: the pedagogy tells us what to build, the performing life tells us what good sounds like, and the operating experience tells us how to ship it and sustain it.
Solfera Inc is a Delaware C-corporation headquartered in New York City and pursuing B Corporation certification. Currently pre-revenue and in development.