2016 Faculty Bios - Sitka Fine Arts Camp

SITKA FINE ARTS CAMP 2016 FACULTY
Middle School and High School Camp Javier Barboza is an animator, filmmaker, and artist. His work tackles the
complexity of the urban city, using a surreal and narrative method to engage the
audience in experiencing what is best described as visual and immersive. Born
and raised in Los Angeles, Javier has been animating since the age of sixteen
through after school inner city outreach programs. He continued his studies at
East Los Angeles Community College, immersing himself in fine arts and
animation and then transferred to California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) and
majored in Character Animation and Film Video, earning his Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree in 2007. He received his Master in Fine Arts at The University of Southern California
(U.S.C), in The School of Cinematic Arts, DADA Animation Division. Javier continues to merge
medias. His thesis film ( el Coyote, an Animated documentary about human trafficking though the
Mexico/United States border) is currently hitting the film festivals. Javier is now freelancing,
teaching, and developing his next film.
Matthew Berliner is the Acting Principal horn of the Hawaii Symphony
Orchestra for the 2015-2016 season. He has played in a variety of
ensembles including the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Opera,
Seattle commercial recording studios, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre,
Hawaii Opera Theatre, Hawaii Ballet, Maui Pops Orchestra, Lancaster
Festival Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. He studied with
Roland Pandolfi at Oberlin College and Conservatory where he also
earned a degree in Environmental Studies. He also studied with David
Johnson at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano,
Switzerland, William VerMeulen at Rice University, and with members of the Toronto Symphony at
the Glenn Gould School. His festival attendance includes the Zermatt Festival Academy with
members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Lucerne Festival Academy, Banff Centre, National
Repertory Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, and Round Top. He enjoys cycling and
kitesurfing in his free time.
Zeke Blackwell has been involved in over 50 productions as a director, actor,
writer, designer, and technician, and has had the joy of making theater in
Sitka, Fort Worth, New Haven, New York, and Costa Rica, where he directed
the world premiere of the Spanish-language production of Once on this
Island! With a decade of improv comedy experience, he’s performed/taught
improv in LA, San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, Austin, Boston, and Washington,
D.C, and most recently at the Alaska State Improv Festival. His original play,
Still Life, was produced in the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival.
He graduated from Yale University in 2013 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science. He served two years
on the board of directors for Far Corners Community Musical Theatre, a non-profit dedicated to
providing arts opportunities for underserved youth in isolated regions of the world. Zeke is
returning for his second season at Sitka Fine Arts Camp as the Young Performers Theater Director
after working at the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, NY.
J Bradley has been working on all types of events, shows and productions
around the world for 24 years. He currently is the Technical Director of the
Sitka Performing Arts Center and spends time working on ballet tours from
Russia.
Clelyn Brown is in her seventh year of choral teaching and her fifth year at
Broomfield High School in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado.
Her choirs regularly receive superior ratings at contests and festivals and
several of her ensembles have won Best in Class awards at competitions.
She recently completed her Masters in Music Education at the University
of Northern Colorado and actively pursues further learning through
workshops and conferences throughout the country, including Kodaly
training at Colorado State University. Clelyn is active in the choral
community in Colorado as a member of the American Choral Director's
Association Colorado chapter board where she serves as treasurer and helps to organize the state
ACDA conference. During her years at Colorado, she has given presentations at state, district, and
collegiate meetings, and served as a clinician for school, church, and community choirs. Amy Butcher is a writer and author of the recently released Visiting Hours
(Penguin-Random House). Her work has appeared in The New York Times,
The Paris Review online, Tin House online, Guernica, Gulf Coast, and Brevity,
among others, and was recently awarded the 2014 Iowa Review Award by
guest judge David Shields. She earned her MFA from the University of Iowa
and now serves as an Assistant Professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan
University.
Laura Careless is a graduate of The Royal Ballet School, London, the EcoleAtelier Rudra Bejart, Lausanne; and The Juilliard School, New York. She is a
founding member and the Rehearsal Director of Company XIV, a dance
theatre company based in Brooklyn, New York. Her collaborative work with
XIV director, Austin McCormick. has resulted in a critically acclaimed
movement style known for its emotional expressiveness, animal power, and
musical sensitivity. Favorite roles with Company XIV include the Evil Queen
in their production of Snow White and Charles Bukowski’s women in a onewoman show based on his poetry. She is a faculty member at Eliot Feld’s
Ballet Tech school for children, She teaches classes for professional dancers
in New York City and assists Mr. McCormick in the creation of new Company XIV productions and
commissions.
Andrés Carlstein received his MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, where he was an Arts Fellow. He has been a MacDowell Colony
Fellow and Yaddo Residency Fellow and his short stories have been finalists
for the Doug Fir Fiction Prize and the Gertrude Stein Fiction Award. His
work has appeared in Connu and The Miami Herald. He is also the author of
the nonfiction travelogue Odyssey to Ushuaia, a Motorcycling Adventure
from New York to Tierra del Fuego. He currently works as a Professor of
Writing at the University of Iowa, and is working on his novel, The Red
Gaucho, which was a finalist for the Faulkner Society’s 2014 NovelinProgress Award.
Jennifer Lynn Carter has been a professional art educator since 1992. She
was born and raised in NYC and graduated from the High School of Art and
Design. She attended The School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston and
Tufts University where she received her B.F.A. in photography, printmaking
and art history. She then attended The Florida State University where she
received her masters degree in Art Education. Jennifer founded The Arts
Academy visual arts magnet at Savannah High School and went on to
develop the visual arts program at SAIL (School for Arts and Innovative
Learning) High School in Tallahassee, FL. She has also worked extensively as a consultant in
developing art curricula and museum exhibits. Although constantly attracted to expanding her artrelated skill set, her primary media for personal expression are photography and ceramics. Jennifer
currently enjoys living in Sitka with her husband and two children.
Amy Christian has been performing circus, puppetry and dance, and
creating hand wrought visuals for outdoor spectacle productions from
international festivals to political actions for over 25 years. Founder and
Artistic Director of Wise Fool New Mexico, an acclaimed physical theater
company and social circus program in Santa Fe, as well as Wise Fool
Puppet Intervention and In The Street Theatre Festival in San Francisco,
Amy believes in the power of art as a tool for change on all levels. A
TEDx speaker and an advisor to the National Social Circus Initiative, Amy
has acted as lead instructor of partner acrobatics, stiltwalking, and aerial
fabric at the Wise Fool Studio in Santa Fe, NM for the past 10 years
developing youth and adult curriculum as well as performing and choreographing acts for stages
across the US and Colombia. Amy uses the circus arts to encourage people to rise to new
challenges and realize that together we can create the world we envision. In circus everything and
anything is possible!
Paul Cox is currently Dean of Creative Arts at Cuyahoga Community
College in Cleveland, Ohio, where he oversees eight academic programs in
studio art, performing arts, new media and recording arts, as well as the
performing arts series and summer JazzFest. He has taught percussion and
music history at Oberlin and Case Western Reserve University. He earned a
PhD in musicology from CWRU in 2011, and served as Assistant Curator of
Music (1996-2004) and associate director of performing arts (2005) at the
Cleveland Museum of Art. Born and raised in Sitka, Alaska, he attended
the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in the 1980s and returned to teach percussion and
music composition in 2003.
Marco d’Ambrosio loves shaping music and sound, especially the kind that
enhances the visual arts. Making music that is evocative, enlightening, and
entertaining is a natural result of Marco’s creative expression. Marco’s musical
baptism began shortly after moving from Italy to Boston, when at age nine he
began playing trumpet. He pursued music and engineering at the Hartt
School of Music and University of Hartford. Marco has never been unduly
influenced by cultural and stylistic constrictions. He is equally adept at
playing and creating pieces that reflect classical, jazz, modern and ethnic
influences, and he thrives on blurring the lines between each. Many of his
compositions also reflect a romantic orchestral lyricism that can no doubt be
traced to his summers performing/studying at the University of Siena and touring throughout
Europe with the Puccini and International Festival Opera Orchestras. An East Coast transplant,
Marco has made a musical niche for himself in a studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a
composer, sound designer and multi-instrumentalist, he has scored numerous award winning films,
documentaries and theatre projects including the anime hit VAMPIRE HUNTER D BLOODLUST,
JOJO’s BIZARRE ADVENTURES, FIST OF THE BLUE SKY, HAIKU TUNNEL (Sundance 2001), the
Emmy winning documentary BLINK, DOUBLE DARE, and RED DIAPER BABY for the Sundance
Channel. Other scores of Marco’s have been on projects released by 20th Century Fox, Sony
Pictures Classics, Lucasfilm Ltd., PDI/Dreamworks, Pixar, Columbia TriStar HBO, and ION TV. In
2005, he was awarded the prestigious film scoring fellowship from the Sundance Institute, and in
2009 he was selected to participate in the BMI Conducting Workshop in Hollywood. You can hear
some of his later scores in THE RAPE OF EUROPA, for which he received an Insight Award for
Excellence from the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists, READY, SET, BAG!, WE
LIVE IN PUBLIC (co-scored with Ben Decter), winner of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury
Prize, and ATOMIC MOM, winner of a Gold Medal at the Park City Film Music Festival. Marco is
also responsible for creating much of the dynamic sound and music heard in the iconic THX trailers.
Marco has also enjoyed a stint co-arranging and performing with Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead)
More recently, he was also the studio orchestra conductor for the ABC TV series “Off the Map”
and “Intelligence” working on great stages in LA, like Capitol and Warner Bros. He has also been a
regular “house” conductor at Skywalker, working on larger scores for video game projects for
Microsoft Studios and Sony along with baton duty for other composers on their film projects.
When he’s not locked up in his mad sonic laboratory, Marco recharges his creative flow working the
land at Valle Verde, the Sonoma County ranch he shares with his wife Terri, son Armando and their
dog Diva.
Roblin Gray Davis is a versatile performer, director and teacher of theater
based in Juneau, AK. He is a founding member of Strange Attractor Theatre
Company and part of Perseverance Theatre’s company of artists. Roblin
holds an M.F.A. in Actor Created Theatre from Naropa University/London
International School of Performing Arts and a Certificate from the Dell’Arte
International School of Physical Theatre. Roblin has been a Teaching Artist
with the Alaska State Council on the Arts for the last 12 years and has
taught at Sitka Fine Arts Camp for over 20 years. He has been trained as a
Teaching Artist by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Alaska State Council on the
Arts and the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. Roblin is also an adjunct professor for the School
of Education at the University of Alaska Southeast and has been a Connie Boochever Artist Fellow
and is a member of United States Artists.
Wade Demmert is a bass tromboninst who performs throughout the Pacific
Northwest. He has performed with a variety of national and international
musical artists and ensembles including the Seattle Symphony and Opera
Orchestras, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Bellingham Music
Festival of Music, Broadway Shows, Pavarotti, and the Moody Blues. In
addition he can be heard on numerous movie, television, and theme park
soundtracks. Wade holds a Master of Music degree from Rice University.
Wade grew up in Sitka and attended the Sitka Fine Arts Camp as a student.
Michael Eisenstein is an actor, fight choreographer, musician, clown, and
martial artist who grew up just north of Chicago training at the Piven
Theatre Workshop. He was a member of their Young People’s Company for
three years. As a company member, Michael had the opportunity to work
with inner city youth teaching Piven’s Story Theatre technique with the Off
the Street Club. His love of theatre took him to New York University where
he strained at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, NYU’s Classical
Studio, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Since
graduating with a BFA, Michael has performed and choreographed with New
York Classical Theatre, Boomerang Theatre Company, Xoregos Performing Company, Inwood
Shakespeare Company, at the Provincetown Playhouse, and with the Montana Repertory Theatre
on their national tour of Biloxi Blues as Arnold Epstein. He has also performed as a clown with Art
Below Zero eating fire, juggling and making ice sculptures all the way in Kuwait. Recently, Michael
has turned his focus to on camera work. Be sure to look for him in the upcoming horror film Jersey
Shore Massacre. He currently lives in Astoria, Queens. Christian Fabian was born in Sweden and grew up in Germany. It was there
that he saw a Dizzy Gillespie concert when he was 12. He met Dizzy and
was so inspired he decided to play jazz. He studied at Maastricht
Conservatory and performed in Europe, then moved to Boston and
attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, graduating Magna
Cum Laude in 2000. Lionel Hampton selected him as bassist for the Lionel
Hampton Big Band, and he then studied with Herbie Hancock, Wayne
Shorter and Billy Taylor among other Jazz greats. He currently performs in
New York with The Mike Longo Big Band and The Lionel Hampton Big Band
among others. His compositions earned two awards and three nominations with Hollywood Music
in Media in 2008 and 2009 for Best Jazz Artist. Christian’s own band, the Fabian Zone Trio, has
released six CDs since 2006 and reached #1 on Music Choice, Top 10 on Jazz Radio for Canada and
Top 20 on Jazz Week. Christian Fabian co-founded The Native Jazz Quartet with Edward Littlefield
in 2011 and the band was chosen by the US State Department as global Jazz Ambassadors in 2013
and 2014.
Karen Fannin is Assistant Professor and Director of Bands at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha where she conducts the Symphonic
Wind Ensemble, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting,
instructs courses in music education, and provides leadership for all
aspects of the UNO band program. Previously, Dr. Fannin served as
Director of Bands and Department Chair at Hendrix College. While in
Arkansas, Dr. Fannin also held the position of Music Director and
Conductor of the Little Rock Wind Symphony. A native of Iowa, Dr. Fannin
began her teaching career in the Lynnville-Sully Schools as Director of
Bands and subsequently served as Director of Bands at Lockport Township High School in
suburban Chicago. Dr. Fannin maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician, and
adjudicator. Recent professional engagements include a residency in Guangdong, China, a
conference presentation in Stockholm, Sweden, and guest conducting or adjudicating in Canada,
Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Iowa, and
Nebraska. An active presenter, Dr. Fannin has shared her research at international, national,
regional, and state conferences. Passionate about making interdisciplinary connections that impact
a conductors work with an ensemble, Dr. Fannin has presented on topics such as pacing in
rehearsals and performance, communication in music, parallels between the ensemble and
business, and the lineage of Nadia Boulanger through wind repertoire. She is published in the
Journal of Band Research and is a contributing author to the Teaching Music Through Performance
in Band series published by GIA. Dr. Fannin earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from
the University of Colorado; a Master of Music in Conducting from Northwestern University; and a
Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Northern Iowa, where she was recently
honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Rhiannon Guevin graduated summa cum laude from University of Puget
Sound’s School of Music, where she received a BM in Vocal Performance
with Honors in Music. During her time at Puget Sound she performed in
opera scenes and full-scale productions, including the roles of Sophie in
Der Rosenkavalier, Miss Titmouse in Too Many Sopranos!, and Mabel in The
Pirates of Penzance. She was the fall 2011 winner of the University of Puget
Sound’s Concerto/Aria Competition. In summer 2011, she traveled to
Kunming, China, where she played The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte for the China Yunnan Opera Festival. In 2015 Rhiannon
appeared as Zerlina in Juneau Lyric Opera’s production of Don Giovanni, which performed in both
Juneau and Sitka. Rhiannon has studied voice with Dr. Dawn Padula and Joseph Evans. Rhiannon
works full time as the Program Manager for Sitka Fine Arts Camp and has served as the music
director for several productions of SFAC’s Young Performers Theater program.
Nora Munde Gustuson was raised in Missoula, Montana where she grew
up taking lessons in tap dance, ballet, baton twirling, piano, flute,
voice,and was involved in youth choir and The Missoula Children's
Theatre. She took this love for performance and the arts to The University
of Montana where she graduated with a double B.F.A in Acting and
Design/ Technology. Nora has graced almost every stage in Montana
working for The Bigfork Summer Playhouse, The Illustrious Virginia City
Players, and Summer Musicale. She has gone on five national tours with
The Montana Repertory Theatre with her favorite roles being Annelle in
Steel Magnolias, Meg in Leading Ladies and Rowenain Biloxi Blues. She also originated the role of
Elizabeth plus six other characters for The Montana Repertory Theatre's state tour of
Frankenstein:Unplugged. She would then go on to restage this show for Trembling Foot Theatre in
Road Island. For three summers Nora worked and trained at The Sterling Renaissance Festival
where she mastered the arts of interactive theatre, improv, stage combat, commedia dell'arte and
Shakespeare. In 2008 Nora moved to New York City where she currently lives and works as an
actor/singer/dancer/voice over artist/costume designer and model. She is a founding member of
the New York City interactive ensemble, ByTheMummers, with whom she has written and
performed eight original shows and 3 murder mysteries. Nora made her Off-Broadway Debut as
Maura in Blood (ByTheMummers), a musical she co-wrote and starred in as part of The 2011 New
York Musical Theatre Festival. Favorite New York acting work includes playing Juliette in Romeo
and Juliet, Ariel in The Tempest, Cucurucu in Marat/Sade and the numerous shows at Theatre For
The New City, Manhattan Children's Theatre, and Island Shakespeare. For six seasons, Nora has
been the head stylist to Santa at Macy's Herald Square and has accompanied Santa as Gingersnap
the Elf on Good Morning America, NBC's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and televised events in
Time Square. You can currently catch her film work as Marianne Dashwood in the hit web series
The Jane Games.
Sarah Harrison, is in her sixteenth year of teaching. She currently teaches at
Cherry Creek High School in Denver, CO where she directs several of the
high school’s choirs and teaches AP Music Theory. Under her direction,
choirs have appeared at several state CMEA and regional ACDA
conventions Prior to Cherry Creek, Ms. Harrison opened and spent five
years at Silver Creek Middle/Senior High School in Longmont, CO. She also
currently serves as Assistant Director and sings with Kantorei, a semiprofessional Denver choir. Additionally, she sings with various ensembles
throughout the community and is an orchestral and jazz string bassist. Ms.
Harrison has been a guest conductor and adjudicator in several states. She has served as
Colorado’s ACDA High School Repertoire & Standards Chair and as Choir Director and Organist at
Westview Presbyterian Church in Longmont. She taught orchestra in Minnesota before moving to
Colorado. Ms. Harrison obtained her Bachelor of Music Education degree, with instrumental and
vocal certification, from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and her Master of Music in conducting
and music education from Colorado State University.
A native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, pianist Joseph Hauer has performed
at venues and series throughout New England and the Midwest, including:
the Kennedy Center, the Avram Theater, Loewe Theater, Young Masters
Recital Series (New York), Freeport Community Concert Association,
Britton Recital Hall (Ann Arbor), Overture Hall (Madison), and the Fox
Cities Performing Arts Center (Appleton). He is an Artist-in-Residence at
the Apollo Music Festival in Houston, MN, where he performs chamber
works from duos to quintets each summer. Hauer has performed
Rachmaninoff’s 4th Concerto, Beethoven’s 3rd Concerto, and Liszt’s
Totentanz with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Fox Valley
Symphony, and Oberlin Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast on Wisconsin Public
Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, “Celebrating Our Musical Future” on WWFM (Pennsylvania and
New Jersey), and “Cleveland Ovations” on WCLV 104.9 Ohio. Based in New York City, Hauer
serves on the Adjunct Faculty at NYU Steinhardt, where he is completing a Master’s Degree in
Piano Performance with Eteri Andjaparidze. Although he concertizes widely as a piano soloist and
chamber musician, he studied violin for 10 years and held a position in the Fox Valley Symphony
from 2008 to 2010. When he is not engaged in music, he enjoys biking the streets of New York,
speaking Russian, and dabbling in jazz piano.
Christian Hendricks is a Brooklyn-based artist working in photography, film
and mixed media. He received his BFA from Bowling Green State University,
was a Norfolk Fellow at the Yale Summer School of Art, and is currently an
MFA candidate at Hunter College. He has produced documentary films and
photo-books on a variety of subjects, as well as commissioned work for
major media outlets and production companies. Raised in Philadelphia, Brendan Jones moved to Sitka at the age of
19 to work in commercial fishing. He ran a construction company for
six years. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, and has
published work in the New York Times, Ploughshares, Narrative
Magazine, Popular Woodworking, The Huffington Post, and recorded
commentaries for National Public Radio. The recipient of an Elizabeth
George Foundation Grant, he is currently a Wallace Stegner fellow at
Stanford University, where he teaches. His novel, The Alaskan
Laundry, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2016.
Andrew Krahn is a multi-instrumentalist who received his degree in music
therapy from Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is also a Board
Certified Music Therapist. While at Berklee, he had the opportunity to
work with a variety of populations, from infants to the elderly. The
techniques he developed for working with these populations ranged
from group improvisation to songwriting using MIDI software. Andrew
has been playing saxophone and keyboards in the world/funk band, The
Effective Dose, for the past several years and has performed with them
up and down the east coast.
Carla Kountoupes, violinist, is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music. She performs as a member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra, Santa
Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony
Orchestra. In addition to performing, she has been a dedicated music
educator twenty years. She holds a master of music in music teaching
and directs a public school orchestra program in Santa Fe, NM. She is a
registered Suzuki violin instructor and enjoys working with students aged
pre-k through adult. Ms. Kountoupes is a former tenured member of the
Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra, and was on the faculty of that
orchestra’s Youth Program. She has toured and performed in Central
America, Taiwan, the United States, and Europe. From 1999 through 2002
she was a member of the Bella Cosí String Quartet, based in San
Francisco. As a member of the quartet, she participated in numerous recitals, master classes
(including a week long series of “Encounters with Isaac Stern”), and outreach concerts in the Bay
Area. An active freelance musician, she has also performed with chamber groups and orchestras all
over the country including the New Century Chamber Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, and
Tucson Symphony, among many others. Ms. Kountoupes also enjoys performing, teaching, and
recording Latin, popular, folk, and jazz music.
Jessica Krichels has worked as an artist and teacher for seventeen years
and counting. Originally from Maine, Jessica lived in Mexico for 13 years
until she relocated to Albuquerque, NM seven years ago. She received a
B.A. in Visual Arts from Brown University and later, an M.A. in Education.
While living in Mexico Jessica studied printmaking and pursued her
photography work traveling to all corners of the country. In 2005, Jessica
founded and started a collective gallery/workshop space, Colectivo
Progreso 81 in Guadalajara, Mexico. As an artist, Jessica is always
experimenting with a wide variety of media and techniques. Her interests
range from darkroom photography, to Photogravure and Monotypes prints, to collage and
papermaking and more. Jessica has exhibited her work widely in Mexico and New Mexico and in
2012 she received a National Art Teacher Fellowship Grant, awarded to 22 arts teachers in the U.S.
With her funds she furthered her printmaking skills and became a member of New Grounds Print
Workshop in Albuquerque, NM, where she is still an active artist member today. Jessica loves
teaching, and has worked with kids from ages 3 to 79. She currently works in public elementary
schools, trying her hardest every day to give her students a space for creativity, messes and
happiness.
Ben Leddick has been performing improv for ten years and teaching for
over five. This last year he has taken his performing from the Los Angeles
area and has expanded to performing in Rocklin, Las Vegas, Columbus,
and Denver. With this year of travel and performing, he has discovered
the diversity and unique qualities of a city and how to perform in a way
that is both true to the performer and specific to the crowd.
Daniel Lendzian is thrilled to be in Sitka this summer! He has served in
various capacities in the theater including voice coach, director, and
fight director/choreographer. As an actor he has worked for the
Seattle Children's Theatre, Zach Theatre in Austin, The Winnipesaukee
Playhouse, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Shakespeare
Live!, and Two Pigs Productions. He has taught theater/voice/text at
Interlochen Arts Camp, The University of Texas at Austin, and
Playground Drama Day Camp. Dan teaches at acting and public
speaking at Kean University and SUNY Sullivan. He is a certified Pilates
instructor and teaches at Sixth Street Pilates and Harmony Pilates. He holds an MFA in Acting from
the University of Texas, BFA/BA from Fredonia State University.
Dr. Grant Linsell is the Director of Bands at Mt. Hood Community
College in Gresham, OR. He has held similar appointments at Willamette
University in Salem, OR and Minot State University in Minot, ND. A
sought-after conductor and clinician, Dr. Linsell works with many
ensembles – from middle school to professional – across the United
States and Canada. He also researches, writes, and presents
internationally on music and music education. His main interests are
Stravinsky, curriculum development, and conducting pedagogy, but he
also gives informal lectures on the neuroscience of music. A native of Detroit, MI, Dr. Linsell
attended the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and
Clarinet Performance. There, he studied clarinet with Deborah Chodacki and Fred Ormand and
played in H. Robert Reynolds’ Symphonic Band and the Michigan Marching Band. He holds a
Master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Oregon (where he studied with
Bob Ponto) and a Doctorate in Wind Ensemble Conducting from Arizona State University (where he
studied with Gary W. Hill). At ASU, he was a research fellow at the Intelligent Stage Motion
Capture Facility in the Arts, Media, and Engineering Program where he worked on computer-aided
conductor motion analysis and on developing a conductor driven and musically responsive
computer system – the only such system in the world. Prior to his collegiate tenure, Dr. Linsell
served as the Director of Bands at high schools in both Detroit and Lansing, MI. He has two dogs
and two cats.
Edward Littlefield attended the University of Idaho where he majored in
instrumental and vocal music education with an emphasis in percussion,
studying with Daniel Bukvich. He has played in the show band on various
cruise ships for Carnival Cruise Lines in the Carribean and the Bahamas.
Ed was previously the music teacher at Sitka High School. He has toured
throughout the country as the percussionist for the critically acclaimed
Dallas Brass. He is currently a member of the percussion ensemble,
Juxtapercussion, and a freelance musician and clinician in the Pacific
Northwest. Ed is a former student of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Ed cofounded The Native Jazz Quartet with Christian Fabian in 2011 and the band was chosen by the US
State Department as global Jazz Ambassadors in 2013 and 2014.
Cristy Maltese is an artist who lives and works in the greater Los Angeles
area. She graduated from Art Center College of Design with a degree in
Fine Art and entered the animation industry as a traditional 2D
background painter. Her work can be seen in classic Disney films such as
The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. She supervised
the Background Painting Department on both Pocahontas and Home on
the Range, and was the Art Director on Walt Disney’s Dinosaur as well as
smaller projects. Her most recent contribution to the Disney lineup was
visual development for the upcoming feature “Planes.” Cristy currently
freelances for major studios and paints for pleasure in her spare time.
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and raised in California, Gustavo
Martinez now resides in Tacoma, Washington. He received a Bachelor of
Fine Arts in Spatial Art with a minor in Mexican American studies from
San Jose State University, San Jose, California. He has been involved in
the completion of public artworks for the city of San Jose. In 2007
Martinez spent six weeks exploring sacred archaeological sites in
southern Mexico and Central America, where he also studied traditional
indigenous pottery and techniques at Escuela Valentine Lopez (San Juan
de Oriente, Nicaragua). He received a Masters of Fine Art from the
University of Washington in the 3D4M: Ceramic / Glass / Sculpture program, and was the recipient
of the Parnassus Teaching With Excellence award. In the fall of 2012 Martinez worked as a ceramic
water filter production consultant for Ecofiltro SA in Guatemala, where he also helped organize the
first annual ceramic symposium and sculpture exhibition at Ecofiltro SA to raise funds for the
donation of ceramic water filters to the rural Guatemalan communities in the most need. Martinez
is part of the Fine Art Department at Green River College as adjunct faculty where he teaches
Ceramics and Art Appreciation.
Amanda Mattes is currently the Resident Costume Designer and
Costume Shop Manager at the Birmingham Children’s Theatre in
Alabama. She received her M.F.A. in Performance Costume Design at the
University of Edinburgh’s College of Art in Scotland, and her B.A. in
Theatrical Design and Technology at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham. While in Scotland, Amanda designed costumes for the Royal
Scottish Conservatoire and various short films, as well as working on set
for several Film and TV companies, including the BBC, HBO, and Starz/
Sony Entertainment Group. Her painting and dye work can be seen on
such shows as Atlantis and Outlander. She also had the privilege of Cutting and Draping for the
first Hayao Miyazaki sanctioned stage production of Princess Mononoke, which performed in
London and toured in Tokyo. Amanda has also worked at the Santa Fe Opera, as a Cutter and
Draper’s Assistant, as well as Shakespeare & Company, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The
Alabama Ballet, and Romantasy’s Exquisite Corset Company, and internships at The Moulin Rouge
in Paris, as well as Fabric modification in North Anglesey, Wales. Her work is on display at her
personal website: www.AmandaMattes.com.
Leah McGray is the Director of Instrumental Studies for the Department
of Music at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. McGray conducts
the Rhodes Orchestra, Rhodes Wind Ensemble, teaches classes in
conducting and music appreciation. In addition to her work at Rhodes
College, she is the conductor for Memphis Symphony Orchestra's
"Leading from Every Chair" program, a guest conductor with the
Memphis Youth Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted and
adjudicated in Canada, South Korea, and the US. She earned her Doctor
of Musical Arts in conducting at Northwestern University in Evanston,
Illinois, the Master of Music in conducting from University of Toronto, and Bachelors Degrees in
Music and Education from Acadia University. She is the co- director of a Toronto-based wind and
choral chamber group Windago, that is dedicated to the performance of music by emerging
Canadian composers. A two-time winner of Social Science Humanities and Research Council grants
from the Canadian government, her research focuses on new works written for the wind ensemble,
with an emphasis on the works for winds by Baltimore composer Joel Puckett.
Belinda McGuire, originally from Toronto, graduated from The Juilliard
School (BFA 2006). Through Belinda McGuire Dance Projects, she
performs primarily solo work, choreographs and engages in
collaboration and production. McGuire was nominated for the 2013
Dora Award for Outstanding Performance (The Heist Project), was
recognized by the 2007 Susan Braun Award of The Dance Films
Association, and has taken part in choreographic residencies at Ross
Creek Centre for the Arts (Nova Scotia, 2014), Éspace Marie Chouinard
(Montreal, 2013), The International Choreographic Arts Centre
Amsterdam (2010), and the Bessie Schönberg Residency at the Yard
(Martha’s Vineyard, 2008). Her choreography has been presented across North America, including
the Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal (Nova Scotia, 2015), Juilliard in Aiken Festival (South
Carolina, 2015), Dance Ontario Weekend (Toronto, 2014 and 2015), at Festival de la Ciudad Merida
(Mexico, 2009), the Canada Dance Festival (Ottawa, 2002), and in New York City on the stages of
the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and Alice Tully Hall, and Joyce Soho. She has danced with The José
Limón Dance Company, Gallim Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers and The Canadian Contemporary
Dance Theatre. She teaches and choreographs as a guest artist for The Limón Institute, New York
University/Tisch and The Juilliard School, the New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, for CCDT
(Toronto), École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal, New Dialect (Nashville) and for various
other schools and universities across North and Central America. As a producer, Belinda launched
her one-woman show The Desert Island Project in New York City and Toronto (autumn, 2008) and
The Heist Project in NYC (December 2011) and in Toronto (March 2013). Through these solo
endeavors, she has commissioned new work from Kate Alton, Andrea Miller, Sylvain Émard, Sharon
B. Moore, Idan Sharabi, Zoe Scofield and has collaborated with Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten.
Adam McKinney is the Chair of the Dance Department at New Mexico
School for the Arts in Santa Fe, NM. He is also the co-director of
DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization committed to healing
through the arts and dialogue (www.dnaworks.org). McKinney is a
former member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Béjart Ballet
Lausanne, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet,
and Milwaukee Ballet Company. In 2006, he served as a U.S. Embassy
Culture Connect Envoy to South Africa. He has organized programs on
social justice and the arts with a long list of organizational partners. His
choreographed works have been performed in Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Israel, Hungary, South
Africa, Spain and the United States. McKinney holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance with high
honors (Butler University) and an M.A. in Dance Studies with concentrations in Race and Trauma
theories (New York University).
WT McRae disappointed all of his teachers and professors when at
the end of his serious theater training he began to create a career
centering around mime and clown. Growing up in Denver, CO and
moving to New York in 1997, WT studied acting, scenic design, dance,
and pre-med at Adelphi University. Since then he has made his living
primarily touring with orchestras performing mime and clown based
shows in Tri-State Schools. He spent 6 years teaching the arts in inner
city schools, and funneled those two pursuits into the creation of his
own clown based theater company Fool’s Academy. Fool’s Academy is
now a running theater pursuit that blends education with clowning,
bringing silly but educational performances to New York City schools.
In addition to teaching, WT is Sitka Fine Art Camp’s Theater Director and also coordinates the
Camp’s evening ArtShare Performances.
loves Van Halen and Phish.
Joe Montagna has been playing guitar since 1984 and professionally
for over 20 years in various bands. He toured the U.S. in the late 90’s
in an authentic KISS tribute band, “Dressed To Kill” playing the part of
KISS frontman Paul Stanley, even taking them to Sitka in 2009. By day
he is “Mr. Joe” to his Kindergarten P.E. students at Baranof
Elementary School here in Sitka, on week- ends he is an active
founding member of local rock/ funk band ‘SlackTide’, performing
everything from the Beatles to Zappa. He loves to improvise on his
instrument and jam with new musicians, especially in his newest
collaborations in Sitka with the ‘Holland Tunnel Orchestra’. He is a diehard Mets, Jets, and Knicks fan, born and raised in Queens, NYC. He
Louis Morton is an animator and filmmaker living in Los Angeles, CA.
His films have screened at over 40 festivals around the world including
Sundance and Annecy International Animation Festival, and have been
nominated for various awards including a Student Academy Award. As
a freelance artist he has done work for clients including MTV, Google,
Twitter, CVS, Mike Judge and Disney Television Animation. He has
taught as a visiting adjunct faculty at USC. He holds an MFA in
Animation and Digital Arts from USC and a BFA in Design for the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
three children.
Brian Neal played trumpet as a member of the internationallycelebrated Dallas Brass. Classically trained at the renowned Manhattan
School of Music in New York City, during summers he was a fellow at
Tanglewood, Waterloo, Fountainbleau conservatory in France and
Norfolk Chamber music festival. He has performed as soloist and
collaborator with Charles Dutoit, Yoel Levi, John Nelson, Seiji Ozawa,
Simon Rattle, Stanislav Skorbachevsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, and
Leon Fleischer. Brian has recently taken the position of Director of
instrumental studies and professor of trumpet at the Kendall campus
of Miami Dade College. He lives in Miami with his wife, Karen and their
A familiar South Florida presence from performances with Seraphic
Fire and the Miami Bach Society, soprano Karen Neal enjoys a multifaceted career performing with internationally acclaimed ensembles
and as soloist in venues across the nation and Europe. She has
performed as guest soloist with the New World Symphony at the
25th Anniversary Gala under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas,
the Tropical Baroque Festival, the Dallas Brass in the United States as
well as recently at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia, and in
Märknerkirchen, Germany. Recordings include the songs of Eric
Ewazen for Albany Records with the Ibis Camerata, and songs of
modern Latin American composers for NODUS on the Innova
label. Karen Neal’s solo projects include “Wine, Women and Song” featuring art songs by women
composers and “Sheherazade” at PAX, an evening of French Song in a club atmosphere. She has
collaborated with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Brass, Art Basel
2011, the Concert des Solistes de l’Acadèmie International d’Etè de Nice, France, as well as
consistent engagements with several ensembles throughout South Florida, the San Francisco Bay
area, and Alaska. Karen Neal holds a Vocal Performance degree from the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles. She was also awarded a Tanglewood fellowship and has studied French
repertoire intensively in Nice, Paris, and the Abbè Royaumont in Asniéres-sur-Oise, France. She has
served as adjunct faculty at University of Miami and Florida International University, is a studio
musician and commercial actress, has partnered with Miami Light Project to teach poetry and
diction to inner-city youth, and serves yearly on the Voice Faculty at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in
Sitka, Alaska. She is currently Director of Vocal Arts at Gulliver Academy in Coral Gables, FL.
music together this summer!
Donna Parkes is an Australian trombonist who is currently Principal
Trombone of the Louisville Orchestra and Principal Trombone of the
Colorado Music Festival . She considers herself fortunate to have
performed with many different orchestras around the world including
the Sydney Symphony,Malaysia Philharmonic, National Symphony ,
Utah Symphony and even the Qatar Philharmonic in the Middle East.
She has been teaching young musicians for over twenty years. She
has loved visiting Sitka every Christmas to perform in the Annual
Brass Holiday Concert and is excited to come here for the Fine Arts
Camp. She is looking forward to meeting everyone and making great
Rebecca Poulson grew up in Sitka, and has always drawn. She's a
printmaker and publishes a calendar of art and poetry called The
Outer Coast. She loves working with kids with art. Lately she's been
collecting the oral history of Sheldon Jackson School and College and
is working on a book. Her hobby is writing letters to the school board.
She is married to the Forest Service cabin guy and has two children,
and loves bushwhacking in the rain, picking berries, and putting up
fish.
Graduate of the Musical Theatre conservatory program at Circle in
the Square on Broadway, Jamie Roach has performed in myriad New
York film and theatre productions from Shakespeare to Musicals; on
such stages as Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop,
New World Stages and multiple times as a physical actor at the
Metropolitan Opera House where he currently is on a principal artist
contract as a Vaudeville clown. Jamie is a company member of
theatre company, Accomplice, that customizes site-specific theatrical
experiences for clients such as Disney, Facebook, Google and
Goldman Sachs. As a playwright, Jamie has had three of his plays
produced in New York City. As an educator, Jamie is a graduate of
NYU’s masters' program in Educational Theatre, and works with multiple New York-based theatre
companies, including The New Victory Theatre, Lincoln Center Education and New York Theatre
Workshop. He is excited to be a part of this summer's creative experience.
George Rodriguez hales from El Paso, Texas. He moved to Seattle to
undertake an MFA at the University of WA, which he completed in
2009. Following this time of study he was granted a two year artist
residency at Pottery Northwest. He took a year off from the residency
to travel with his recently awarded Bonderman Fellowship- through
the University of Washington. With this fellowship he visited 26
countries while traveling for eight months! This was a life changing
experience that still brings many adventures, people, and sights to
mind. George currently teaches ceramics courses and community
classes in the Seattle area. He also has a private studio at his home
property in Seattle, WA. George's work draws from experience growing up in Texas, travels,
interest in people and decoration. A sense of community and the inter-relations are themes with in
his humorous, narrative works. The heavily embellished surfaces draw the onlooker closer while the
large scale of the objects calls from afar. He also works with printmaking as another avenue to
capture ideas and stories.
Abel Ryan was born in Ketchikan, Alaska in 1978. His home is in
Metlakatla on the Annette Island Reserve in Southeast Alaska. Abel is
half Tsimshian, a member of the Metlakatla Indian Community, and a
member of the Wolf Clan. In May of 2006 Abel graduated from
Sheldon Jackson College with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and a minor in Art.
In May of 2009 he graduated from University of Alaska Fairbanks with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Native Arts Studio and Printmaking. Abel
studied traditional Tsimshian art under master carver Jack Hudson of
Metlakatla. He has carved in Metlakatla, Sitka, Juneau, and Fairbanks
for over 24 years. Working in the medium of wood and metals, Abel
produces masks, bowls, spoons, pipes, ladles, plaques, combs,
bracelets, rings, pendants and other hand carved items. He is also proficient in two-dimensional
graphic design using Northwest Coast formline art. In June 2013 Abel was invited to an
international carving competition in Beijing China. Abel has also taught classes at Sheldon Jackson
College and the University of Alaska in Sitka and Fairbanks, and the Alaska Native Heritage
Foundation in Anchorage as well as done artist demonstrations at the Sheldon Jackson Museum in
Sitka, Museum of the North in Fairbanks, and the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, AK. Abel’s work
is sold in galleries in Juneau, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, and Sitka. He also has work in private
collections.
Danny Ryan began his professional training with Rafael Delgado in his
hometown of Milwaukee, WI before moving to New York to further his
studies with the Joffrey Ballet School. He went on to perform with the
Louisville Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater, dancing in
works by George Balanchine, Ben Stevenson, Val Caniparoli, Twyla Tharp,
Adam Hougland and Trey McIntyre to name a few. Mr. Ryan has taught for the Kansas City
Ballet School, Texas Ballet Theater School, Portland Festival Ballet as well as Louisiana Delta Ballet
and has choreographed on dancers of the Louisville Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater School, Magnus
Midwest Dance Intensive and Louisiana Delta Ballet. Danny is currently a company member of
Wonderbound, a contemporary dance company in Denver, CO.
Roberto Salas is a multidisciplinary visual artist/musician whose work
addresses a wide breadth of traditional and experimental approaches.
Roberto earned his MFA degree from the University California San
Diego during a time when the faculty was comprised of (including David
and Eleanor Antin, Manny Farber, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Allan Kaprow) some
of the most interesting conceptual thinkers of our time. Roberto has
used his highly theoretical based education together with his Hispanic
heritage and his passion for global travel and study of diverse art and
culture as influence for his personal vision. His diverse works include
large-scale public art pieces, multi/cross cultural musical performance
and community projects involving inner city and underrepresented low-income youth. Roberto also
owns and directs Crossing Tracks Gallery in San Diego, California where he curates exhibitions and
musical performances by regional, national and international artists and musicians. Whether it be a
small musical gathering or a long-term public project, Roberto is self directed and passionately
committed to his artistic vision. Roberto’s experience working within diverse cultural pockets and
disenfranchised communities, such as in the Arctic Circle, in the deep south of Louisiana, in Bali,
Indonesia, and Mexican villages, proves his adaptability to living and working in other cultures.
Matter of fact, he thrives on the prospects. His personal work evolves through the adaptation and
integration of mixed cultural iconographies. His perspective on the world is both inclusive and
celebratory.
Raph Odell Shapiro, songwriter, performing artist, and New Yorker by birth,
graduated from Yale University with a degree in American Studies, after
singing with the nation’s oldest collegiate a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs,
and Yale’s oldest and only folk chorus, Tangled Up In Blue. For the last year he
has been touring and recording with his acoustic Americana band, Odell Fox.
He’s now based in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his Catahoula mix, Joni
Dog Mitchell.
Vern Sielert is assistant professor of trumpet and jazz studies at the
University of Idaho. From 2001-2006 he was Director of Jazz
Ensembles at the University of Washington, and he has also served on
the faculties of Baylor University, Illinois State University and Millikin
University. Sielert has also directed jazz ensembles at Normal
Community West High School in Normal, Illinois. He holds BM degrees
in jazz studies and music education, a MM degree in jazz studies from
the University of North Texas and a DMA in trumpet performance from
the University of Illinois. Sielert has been a student of Jack Adams,
Keith Johnson, Don Jacoby, Michael Ewald and Ray Sasaki. He has
performed with artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Freddie Hubbard, The Spinners, The O’Jays,
Bobby Shew, Don Lanphere, Gerald Wilson and Ralph Carmichael, and in such diverse settings as
the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra,
Norwegian Cruise Lines and Walt Disney World. Sielert was also a member of the University of
North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band, which has recorded several of his compositions and
arrangements. Sielert maintains an active performing schedule with groups such as the Jim Knapp
Orchestra, Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and the Jay Thomas Big
Band. He can be heard on recent recordings by Kelly Wright, the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra and
Phil Kelly’s Northwest Prevailing Winds. Sielert is also an active clinician and adjudicator, and he has
appeared at schools and jazz festivals throughout the US and at conferences of the Washington
Music Educators, MENC Northwest Division and the International Association for Jazz Education.
His jazz trumpet solo transcriptions have appeared regularly in the Journal of the International
Trumpet Guild since 1998, and he was host of the 2005 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet
Solo Competition at the University of Washington.
Marisol Soledad is a performer, creator, and teaching artist based in
New York City. She is a graduate of Princeton University and of
Giovanni Fusetti's Helikos: Scuola Internazionale di Creazione
Teatrale in Florence, Italy where her Lecoq-based training included
mask work, mime, clown, commedia dell'arte, bouffon, ensemblebased creation, and a wide range of comedic styles. Recent
performances and devising work include Reimagining Reality (The
Simulation Studio), The 1st NY Indie Theater One Minute Play
Festival, Minotaurs.Toreros (Turn to Flesh Productions), Experimental
Peace Project (Target Margin Theater Collaborative Theater Lab/
Kyoung's Pacific Beat), and Experiment #39: Old City (Institute for
Psychogeographic Adventure/Philadelphia Live Arts). This summer, Marisol will take part in the
inaugural Z Forge Forward theater devisers’ retreat at the brand new Drop Forge and Tool creative
residency space in Hudson, NY. Marisol is a teaching artist with the New Victory Theater, TADA!
Youth Theater, and At The Well Young Women's Leadership Academy, and has also participated in
the Seeds of Peace Educators Program. Her arts-based group facilitation and clown work have
recently brought Marisol to San Antonio, TX; Israel; the West Bank; Jordan; Princeton, NJ; and
Whidbey Island, WA. She is thrilled to be working and playing at Sitka Fine Arts Camp this summer.
The Yup'ik Eskimo shaman's role is to be a conduit between human,
animal and Spirit realms. Before a hunt, Peter Williams smudges
with Labrador Tea, praying for safety and clean kills. He asks the
animals for their lives before he shoots, and gives them their last
drink of water before he skins. These acts honor the animals so their
Spirits will visit again. As a designer, he carries on the ancient art of
elegant, simple construction built to endure. The fur is sewn by hand,
each stitch binding the human world closer with the animals. Peter
was born in Bethel and raised in Sitka attending Sitka Fines Art camp
as a middle school student. His work was profiled by International
news organization The Guardian “Why Would Anyone Want To Shoot A Sea Otter”. Peter had a
Fashion Presentation in February 2015 at TechStyle as part of New York City's Fashion Week.
Recently award Rasmuson Foundation Artist Residency at Santa Fe Art Institute and was selected
as an accessory designer for Seattle Fashion Week August 2016. William (Will) Wilson is a Diné photographer who spent his formative
years living in the Navajo Nation. Born in San Francisco in 1969, Wilson
studied photography at the University of New Mexico (Dissertation
Tracked MFA in Photography, 2002) and Oberlin College (BA, Studio Art
and Art History, 1993). In 2007, Wilson won the Native American Fine
Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum, and in 2010 was awarded a
prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Wilson has held
visiting professorships at the Institute of American Indian Arts
(1999-2000), Oberlin College (2000-01), and the University of Arizona
(2006-08). From 2009 to 2011, Wilson managed the National Vision
Project, a Ford Foundation funded initiative at the Museum of
Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, and helped to coordinate the
New Mexico Arts Temporary Installations Made for the Environment (TIME) program on the Navajo
Nation. Wilson is part of the Science and Arts Research Collaborative (SARC) which brings
together artists interested in using science and technology in their practice with collaborators from
Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs as part of the International Symposium on
Electronic Arts, 2012 (ISEA). Recently, Wilson completed an exhibition and artist residency at the
Denver Art Museum and was the King Fellow artist in residence at the School of Advanced
Research in Santa Fe, NM.
Susan Wingrove-Reed fell in love with accompanying while in high
school, find- ing that playing for musicals, choirs, and soloists/
ensembles was a ton of fun; collaboration is so invigorating! She
plays piano and harpsichord with the Anchorage Symphony, is the
accompanist for the Alaska All State High School Mixed Honor
Choir, and performs with the Alaska Chamber Sing- ers, the Hiland
Women’s prison orchestra, La Dolce trio, and many soloists, school
and community groups. She has been the resident music educator
(pre-concert lectures and program notes) for the Sitka Summer
Music Festival and the Anchorage Symphony for almost thirty
years, sharing stories about composers, music, and history. She
earned a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and a Master of Arts in Teaching at Indiana
University before returning home to Alaska to work with Anchorage Opera and the Alaska
Repertory Theatre; she taught music and drama in Anchorage schools. She has worked on over
thirty operas and musicals throughout Alaska and received an Alaska Governor’s Award for her
contributions in arts education. She was the featured soloist with the Anchorage Symphony in
January, 2013, playing a new piano concerto by American composer Jennifer Higdon.
Julie Zhu is an artist working in Chicago. Growing up near
Washington D.C., she shook hands with Presidents twice: once in
front of Starbucks on a Sunday morning, and once as a Presidential
Scholar in the Arts. At Yale University, she majored in mathematics
and art, and after, she graduated from a Belgian music conservatory
in carillon performance. Julie’s work is at the intersection of her
three worlds: mathematics, music, and painting (julie-zhu.com).
Working with a variety of media, she has exhibited in Belgium,
America, and China, and has toured carillons in many more
countries. Julie has taught at Sitka Fine Arts Camp for the past two
years, and is a co-founder of the Sitka Fellows Program.
Kelly Zimba is a Flute Fellow at the New World Symphony. She has
been a member of the Tanglewood Music Festival Orchestra, Battle
Creek Symphony Orchestra and Lake George Music Festival
Orchestra, among others. As a soloist, chamber and orchestral
musician, Ms. Zimba has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall,
Shanghai Grand Theatre, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing
Arts, and the Teatro del Lago in Frutillar, Chile. Ms. Zimba has had the
privilege of working with numerous contemporary composers, and is
featured on several premiere recordings of works by Bright Sheng,
William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Evan Chambers
and Joel Puckett. She has performed under renowned conductors Charles Dutoit, Andris Nelsons,
Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, Ludovic Morlot, Marcelo Lehninger and Stéphane Denève.
An advocate for education and community outreach, Ms. Zimba previously held a flute instructor
position in the Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston. In 2013, she taught
instrumental music at Belvoir Terrace, an all-girls visual and performing arts camp in Lenox,
Massachusetts. Her outreach efforts include participating in a benefit CD recording for Hekima
Place, a boarding school in Kenya for girls orphaned primarily by HIV/AIDS, and mentoring young
flute students in La Serena, Chile during a summer residency with the YOA Orchestra of the
Americas. Originally from Pittsburgh, Ms. Zimba completed her graduate studies at Rice
University’s Shepherd School of Music. She received bachelor’s degrees in flute performance and
music education from the University of Michigan, where she graduated with highest honors. Her
teachers include Leone Buyse and Amy Porter.