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Jennifer Raine

Dr. Jennifer Raine has been involved in the field of arts education since 1996, working with such organizations as the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the International Schools Theater Association, the Midori Foundation, Marquis Studios, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Dr. Raine currently serves as Special Programs Coordinator at the Manhattan New Music Project, a position she has held since 2005. A much-sought-after teaching artist, professional developer, and curriculum writer, Dr. Raine creates and conducts student and staff development workshops in the New York area and internationally. Workshops focus on facilitating creation of original student work across all arts disciplines, particularly music, drama, and poetry. At the Manhattan New Music Project, she writes curriculum and conducts arts workshops for multi-year, citywide professional development programs that serve teachers of special education, ESL, and general education populations. Dr. Raine’s artistic training is in trombone performance; she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

LeeAnet Noble

LeeAnet Noble is a phenomenally talented actor, dancer, drummer and singer whose unique style of mixing tap dancing and masterful drumming simultaneously, has won her critical acclaim from across the USA. She performed leading roles in the New York casts of the international hit shows STOMP and DRUMSTRUCK. She was recently seen opening the star studded Black Ball at the Hammerstein Ballroom with a solo on the djembe that received rave reviews from Rollingstone.com. She has been featured with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Harry Belafonte, Hugh Masekela and Danny Glover among others. Her solo career has taken her from the Lincoln Center to every theater at The Kennedy Center. Her original choreography was featured in NATIVITY at The Public Theater with the Broadway casts of Lion King and Chicago and at the ANHM for an audience of thirty thousand at which she performed her critically acclaimed act with her mother, acclaimed vocalist and percussionist Lauretta Noble. She studied acting at Howard University graduating Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Theater. Ms. Noble has been featured on BET, ABC, FOX-NY, FOX-DC, CNN and Good Day New York. She has opened for such artists as Chaka Khan, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Bono and Sheryl Crow. Her critically acclaimed original spiritual choreography has been performed at such prestigious theaters as The Kennedy Center and in South Africa and Brazil. Her original one woman show KickN2theBeat premiered December 14th at The Zipper Theater. LeeAnet began teaching over ten years ago in Washington DC. She has taught at such schools as The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Montgomery College, Ballet Petite and various public school throughout New York. Due to her eclectic training and experience she teaches tap, step, poetry, gumboot dancing, South and West African dance, percussion and theater as well as Slammin’ workshops (alternative drumming and tap).

Joan Merwyn

Joan Merwyn is an award winning and critically acclaimed performing artist, teacher, choreographer and stage director. She has performed and taught in Europe, Canada and the U.S. with her solo performances and as a founding member of numerous experimental and physical theater companies. As a performer and educator, she has appeared from San Francisco to Montreal and throughout Europe, from site-specific locations to colleges, international performance festivals and opera houses. Joan Merwyn Physical Theater reflects 30 years of experience in the fields of mime and Physical Theater. She is currently performing and touring two, one-woman shows: SHIFTINGS, for evening audiences and CHO?CES for family audiences, youth, schools mental health and community centers.

Lynn Marlowe

Lynn Marlowe has been a teaching artist in the NYC area for the past 12 years. She also directs and choreographs in the public and private school system for ages 3rd Grade through High School and has written a theatre “curriculum based” program for the fourth grade at “The Lower Lab School” in Manhattan. Previously Lynn was a professional dancer, actress and singer performing in National Tours and Regional Theatre She was also seen in several National Commercials and on the soap opera “All My Children.” Lynn’s focus as a teaching artist is dance and scriptwriting.

Jessica Lurie

Jessica Lurie is an internationally renowned composer, performance artist, and woodwind-er originally hailing from Seattle and now living in New York. She performs and records worldwide with the Tiptons Sax Quartet (formerly the Billy Tipton Memorial Sax Quartet), The Living Daylights, and New York’s Latin group La Buya. Her own group, The Jessica Lurie Ensemble (JLE), highlights Lurie’s talents as band leader and composer as well as player. Jessica’s vocal prowess and skills on the saxophone and flute have garnered rave reviews internationally, and the diverse ground she covers has welcomed her into many musical scenes. Jessica’s internationally touring group includes many well known artists on the jazz and alternative music scenes. Her current New York line-up features Todd Sickafoose on acoustic bass (Ani DiFranco), Allison Miller on drums (Natalie Merchant) and Erik Deutsch on keyboard. Other regular guests include Scott Amendola (dr), Jon Evans (bs, Tori Amos), Nels Cline (gtr, Wilco) and Julie Wolf (pn, Ani diFranco) as well as Italian musicians Zeno de Rossi (dr), Danilo Gallo (bs) and Giorgio Pacorig (pn). With an original repertoire ranging from American folk to groove, haunting Eastern European melodies, Latin rythms, free jazz and high-energy interaction between members, she and her band create a dynamic and fresh direction in music. Her newest recording LICORICE & SMOKE (Zipa!Music, November 2005) showcases the great musicianship of Nels Cline (gtr), Todd Sickafoose (bs) and Scott Amendola (dr). The new disk presents a repertoire that is “… truly interesting, varied and intense. She … refuses to be limited by language or style when approaching the music and atmosphere of songs, be it Sicilian dialect, deep grooves, or combinations of sound that reflect the heat of the American south. What resonates strongly is that she performs all of these styles without ever losing her personality; Lurie has succeeded in imprinting herself on these various genres and not the other way around. ” (Paolo Bomben,Musicologi) She has collaborated with international artists such as Bill Frisell, The Indigo Girls, Danijel Zezelj, Amy Denio, The SHUA Dance Group, Ellen Fullman, Carlo Actis Dato, Skerik, The Pat Grainey Dance Company, Eyvind Kang, Wayne Horvitz, Paul McCandless, Booker T. Jones, Sleater Kinney, Steven Berstein and the Berkeley Symphony. Her projects have received support from CEC Artslink, The National Performance Network, Arts International, Artist Trust Seattle, Seattle, King County and Washington State Arts Commissions, Earshot Jazz, The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, The Croatian Ministry of Culture and Jack Straw Institute among others. Lurie started her own label, Zipa! Music in 2000, and she is featured on over 30 CDs as a leader and collaborator. She performs and teaches at workshops and jazz festivals worldwide, and her talents, song writing, avant-garde style and use of technology has marked her as an innovator in her field.

Annie Levy

Annie Levy is a director, collaborative performer and educator. Working with student populations from second grade through college, Annie teaches drama, movement, improvisation and writing as well as facilitating and directing student created original theatre pieces. She is the resident director of Storahtelling and the Northwoods Theatre Company. Regional and local directing credits include HERE Arts Center, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Vital Theatre, The Jose Quintero Theatre, Makor Visionary Festival and The Playwrights Theatre of NJ. International credits include The Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh, Scotland), Discoteca di Storia (Rome, Italy) and Acadia University (Nova Scotia, Canada). Some of her awards include a 2003 Steven Spielberg Fellowship in Theatre Arts Education, the Jewish Woman’s Education Grant and the S. Rubenstein Family Foundation graduate education grant. Most recently she received a 2008 Directing Assistantship at the Oregon Shakespeare Theatre. She holds a BA from Barnard College in Theatre and Political Science and a MFA in Theatre with a directing concentrate from Sarah Lawrence.

Judith Lane

Judith Lane has worked since 1994 as a Teaching Artist in the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s “Creating Original Opera” Program. She has also designed and conducted independent writing and performance workshops with school children in California, New York, and Germany. Ms. Lane studied music composition and creative writing at Bennington College, and received an MFA from NYU’s Musical Theatre Writing Program. She continues to write and compose musical theatre, and was commissioned to write and direct two operas for the Children’s Opera Company of Ossining. Ms. Lane has been three times acknowledged with the BRIO Award (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) for playwriting from the Bronx Council on the Arts, and has received numerous ASCAP Awards for music composition. She is a published children’s book author and has been in awarded residencies at many art colonies in the US, Spain and Costa Rica.

Lisa Karrer

Lisa Karreris an educator, composer, performer, and video artist. She also teaches Homemade Instrument, Music and Performance Skills residencies at schools and museums throughout the United States. She has developed innovative new music curriculum for many Special Needs Schools in the NYC area, and conducts PD Workshops for teachers who specialize in Learning disabilities. Her educational residencies have been supported by organizations such as The Rockefeller Fund and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. Lisa is currently a faculty member of the Kripalu Yoga Institute (along with her husband and co-teaching artist David Simons), conducting a wide range of Children’s Programs for ages 5 – 14. As an artist Lisa has received many grants to support her multimedia performance projects, both in this country and abroad. Her music can be heard on CDs by the groups Gamelan Son of Lion and Music For Homemade Instruments, as well as on The Birth of George, an opera with co-composer David Simons. For more information on her teaching programs, video projects, upcoming performances and installations please visit her website, www.simons-karrer.com

Peter Hoyle

Peter Hoyle is currently employed as Director of Education for the New Jersey Opera Theater, as a teaching artist for the Dreamyard Drama Project, as Senior Teaching artist at the Metropolitan Opera Guild (MOG) Education Department. He has extensive experience creating and leading professional development for teachers throughout the U.S. with the MOG Creating Original Opera Teacher Training Program, The Whole Schools Initiative in Mississippi, the Bronx Region 1 Drama Teachers Professional Development, and the M.O.G. Professional Development Institute. Hoyle’s collaborations with teachers have inspired student work in the areas of visual art, musical composition, music theater, poetry, character education, set design and construction, and film-making using arts skills in the service of curricular exploration. He has taught both music and visual art at institutions including the Holderness School, the Boston Museum School, the Middlesex School system in Massachusetts, and in over 30 public schools in the New York metropolitan area.

Greg Paul

Greg Paul has been a teaching artist for the past five years, working with such companies as The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Wingspan, and The Neighborhood Playspace. He is also the founder of PlayWork student theatre workshop, Stage One Productions, and The Arts Gymnasium under the auspices of Juggernaut Theatre Company,of which he is a founding member. In addition to teaching Greg is also a director and playwright. His most recent play The Amazing True Adventures Of Buckbean Bushytail was recently awarded a generous development grant from New York State Council of the Arts. Mr. Paul is currently developing a full-length play entitled Phobe as well as numerous smaller scripts. In addition to his musical theater credentials, Greg is also a seasoned designer, carpenter, and puppeteer.

Kevin Ray

Kevin Ray has been a teaching artist facilitating Creative Drama and Theater Arts residencies since completing the Arts in Education Workshop at the Actors’ Work Program in 2002. In addition to teaching, Kevin has also directed, music directed, set designed and choreographed musical theater with New York City students. He has developed and facilitated many Creative Drama and Theater Arts residencies with Periwinkle National Theater’s Department of Education. In addition Kevin has worked with the 92nd Street Y, Creative Educational Systems and Wingspan Arts. He received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Musical Theater from New York University. As a professional actor, Kevin is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and has appeared in many regional theater productions as well as national tours of *The Who’s Tommy* and *A Chorus Line*.
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Athena Reich

Athena Reich has released her 5th CD, LITTLE GIRL DREAMS, with Emmy/Grammy winning producer Cynthia Daniels. Her video LOVE IS LOVE can be seen on MTV’s LOGO and Canada’s MUCH MUSIC. She has been featured on Fox Business News, The Food Network, as a regular on 103.9 Proud FM and has shared the stage with Jim Carrey & Sarah Mclachlan. Along with MNMP, Athena taught songwriting to children with Lisa Loeb, and the experience was turned into a documentary that premiered at Tribeca Cinemas. She is also an actress with numerous TV, film & Off-Broadway credits. As a teacher, Athena has worked in numerous schools, organizations, and colleges across North America, including Oregon State University, Montcalm College, Manhattan New Music Project, TADA!, and Lincoln Center. She also teaches privately (voice, piano, guitar, acting & songwriting), and facilitates workshops to students and teachers on topics ranging from “Creating Original Musical Theater”, to “Storytelling”, to “Songwriting”. At the Manhattan New Music Project, she writes curriculum and conducts arts workshops for multi-year, citywide professional development programs that serve teachers of special education, ESL, and general education populations.

Jane Rigler

Jane Rigler flutist, composer, improviser, educator and producer of events is an active featured performer in contemporary, improvisation and experimental music festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe, presenting both acoustic and electroacoustic shows as a soloist as well as within ensembles. Expanding upon her classical background (B.M., Northwestern University), she gained her M.M. and Ph.D. (UC San Diego) resulting in her book The Vocalization of the Flute which demonstrates a variety of imaginative ways the voice and flute interact based upon non-western traditions, Western 20th-21st Century works and her own compositions. Jane has given master-classes, seminars, workshops, and taught at a variety of universities, conservatories, conventions and performing art schools throughout the U.S., South America and Europe. While living in Spain she performed and organized more than 500 concerts for children. She organizes events such as the Relay~NYC! held in MoMA, NY in 2005, and the Spontaneous Music Festival in Brooklyn, NY to be premiered with local school children in November 2006. She has also received Brooklyn Arts Council grants and several artistic residencies, from Harvestworks, Art Omi and RPI’s Create iEar. She is currently Technology Program Coordinator for the Manhattan New Music Project where she is designing and developing a new interactive sensor-driven music composition program for kids with disabilities, called the Music Cre8tor.

Erica Rooney

Erica Rooney is a board certified, licensed Creative Arts Therapist with an MPS from Pratt Institute and an MFA in poetry from Cornell University. She has been working with children in one capacity or another since the 70’s, as a teacher and most recently as an Art Therapist. She has also been a scientific illustrator for journals, professors and scientific publishers. Erica has studied sumi-e, kabuki dance, piano and violin, and yoga, including yoga for special populations. As an Art Therapist, one of her primary interests is children and young adults on the autism spectrum. Helping parents do art with their children and bring an artspace into their homes for their children is an abiding underpinning of her work. Erica believes that all learning begins with desire, and that art harnesses a child’s desire. Children love to make, to build, to mark. When children do art, they are scientists of the first order; sharing their excitement is the essence of Erica’s work as a Teaching Artist.

Arianna Rose

Arianna Rose has been a Teaching Artist since 1998 in NYC, Florida, Pennsylvania and NJ. She currently works in NYC elementary schools through Manhattan New Music Project, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, TADA!, Making Books Sing, Arts Connection, and the Rockaway Artists Alliance. She specializes in musical theatre writing and performance, and photography. A professional singer, lyricist, librettist, vocal coach, music and theatre director, Arianna majored in theatre and music at Bucknell University, and was an adjunct theatre professor there. She is a certified Music Improvisation Instructor through Music for People. Arianna is a graduate of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, an accomplished photographer, and a certified Raw Foods Chef and Instructor. Arianna believes if we can create harmony in our songs, we can create harmony in our lives.

Ethan Schlesser

Ethan Schlesser Having studied music and piano since age 7, Ethan graduated from the University of Miami’s music program in 1989 and recently published his first musical, “It’s All In Your Mind” with Heuer Publishing. He currently directs the Urban Academy High School Pop/Gospel Choir, teaches for the Manhattan New Music Project offering specialized music programs for schools in NYC, and directs a “Create A Musical” program for young people (ages 10 –14) at the Berkeley Carroll Creative Arts Program. In 1996, Ethan worked for the NYC Board of Education as a middle school chorus teacher for 4 years and in 2000 founded the Brooklyn Youth Vocal Ensemble, a Brooklyn-based high school show choir. Ethan has written and produced the music for the Life Lines Community Arts Project in Sunset Park and in 2001 founded and continues to produce the “Jingle Bell Jamboree”, a Brooklyn holiday community concert. In 2002, he received the Borough President Citation for Community Service and was recognized as an outstanding songwriter by the John Lennon Foundation. Recently, Ethan published his first musical “It’s All In Your Mind” with Heuer PublishingWhen he was a younger man, Ethan performed and toured with many musical artists and productions, including Gloria Gaynor, and “Our Young Black Men Are Dying – A Gospel Musical”. In his spare time he also arranges music for the Brooklyn Community Chorus.

David Simons

David Simons work in music for theater and dance has brought him to Zagreb and Tallinn, Seoul and Yogyakarta, Munich and Berlin, Guantanamo, Honolulu, and Bali. In 2003 he was resident composer at the Rockefeller Foundation¹s Bellagio center in Italy, preparing a piece for NEWBAND and the Harry Partch microtonal instruments. Other awards include two NY Foundation for the Arts fellowships, Artslink and Arts International travel grants, Meet the Composer commissions, and international artist residencies. “Music for Theremin and Gamelan”, commissioned by the American Composers Forum was performed at Sacred Rhythm Percussion Festival in Bali 2000, and in NYC at Knitting Factory and the 2005 CalArts Alumni concert at The Kitchen. Simons’ writings on music and sound are published in Radiotexte(Semiotexte#16), EAR magazine, and Soundings. As a Teaching Artist David has worked with MNMP’s Creative Music Educators program to develop music curriculum for Special Education, teaches World Percussion for the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the schools, and homemade instrument building and composition workshops throughout the US and abroad.

Claire Tunkel

Claire Tunkel, originally from Virginia, graduated from Hollins University with a bachelor’s degree in dance and studio art. She is currently a Teaching Artist for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Manhattan New Music Project and Dance New Amsterdam. She has been teaching creative movement, modern, ballet and Asian dance for organizations that include the Hudson Repertory Dance Theater, Ballet Tech, and Kinderdance. Since moving to New York she has danced for the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Ellis Wood dance, Colleen Thomas, Theresa Ling, Elizabeth Hazelwood, Gina Kohler, ShaLeigh dance works and Ayo Jackson.

Richie Vitale

Richie Vitale has been teaching in the NYC public school system for eight years now with YANY (Young Audiences of NY) and MNMP (Manhattan New Music Project). Currently Richie is leading a seven to eleven-piece salsa band entitled Orquesta Universal, featuring twice Grammy nominated, Cuban born singer, David Oquendo. New York Salsa is in it’s 3rd release and is available on iTunes at: MySpace.com/richievitale and his performances can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/richievitale He teaches as Brass Specialist to grades 5 to 12 and the Recorder (wooden or plastic flute) to grades 3 and 4. Richie has been teaching one-hour salsa classes prior to his performances, which include the basic steps and a routine for partner work, and he has studied salsa dancing with Carlos Konig for 5 years now and has also studied with Maria & Eddie Torres, Jimmy Anton, Santa Rico School and Karisma School. His experience with big bands has been impressive. Richard has performed with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, James Taylor and Sting. Richie has also taught Jazz Ensemble at Long Island University and Master Class and Clinics at the Eastman School of Music and is currently teaching in the NYC public school system as an “Artist in Residence.”

Daniel Heffernan

Daniel Heffernan is a visual and theater artist whose paintings and videos have been internationally exhibited. Since 1992, Daniel has served as a faculty member for the Institute of Arts and Humanities of New Jersey. In this capacity, he has co-directed and designed performance productions for teen-age artists in which students created multi-media performance works that tour throughout the north east. Tour locations include: Fringe Festivals of New York and Philadelphia, the Kennedy Center in D.C., Young Peoples Theatre in Toronto, and Articule in Montreal, Quebec. Disciplines included theatre, movement, visual arts, video art, and music. He has also worked as an educational consultant most notably with the Galef Institute, an arts-oriented school reform organization based in Los Angeles, California. Daniel holds a Master of Fine Arts from New York University as well as Bachelor degree in International Relations from the University of Illinois at Champagne, Urbana. This spring, Daniel was invited to be a resident artist at the Jentel Foundation where he spent four weeks concentrating on his individual work. Daniel currently lives and works in New York City.

Adrienne Hecker

Adrienne Hecker, visual and performing artist, makes short films and objects. She currently records and performs with her band Son. Adrienne has taught art and art history through many institutions including The New York City Ballet, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Guggenheim. She received an M.F.A. from School of Visual Arts and a B.F.A. from the University of the Arts. Additional studies and awards include the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Skidmore College Fellowship in Ceramics.

Elizabeth Hanson

Elizabeth Hanson is currently teaching and performing Brazilian music in New York City. As a percussionist she has played with groups like the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic and the American Institute Opera Orchestra in Austria. While living in São Paulo she recorded on a CD of Brazilian music called Espaço Imaginario. Elizabeth has a degree in percussion performance from the University of Michigan and has studied marimba with Keiko Abe in Tokyo and more recently spent two years researching and playing Brazilian folk and instrumental music in São Paulo.

Nancy Volante

Nancy Volante has a B.A. in Theatre and Psychology, Columbia Pacific University, San Rafael, CA; Certified Movement Specialist, The New School, NYC, Certified Life Coach, The Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching, NJ. She was Artistic Director of Moving Theatre, New Works Theatre, and The Acting Space from 1998-2004. Nancy received her theatre training from Commedia Dell Arte, NYC, Anne Bogart, Site Company, NYC, Second City, NYC, Chekhov School for the Performing Arts, NYC, The Actors Institute, NYC, The Actor’s Center, NYC, Dance Training with Mark Morris, Lynn Simonson, Cindy Green, Miguel Lopez and Adrienne Hawkins. She has performed an original piece ”Stone Talk” at the 92nd St. Y, NYC, So Grand Studio, NYC, The Actor’s Institute, NYC, Choreographed for New Renaissance Theater, NYC, New Works Theatre, Produced, co-directed and performed, “Wasp” by Steve Martin. Moving Theatre, Created, co-directed and performed Le jeu de la vie, CT. Nancy was the movement director for the Off-Broadway Show “Bubble Meises”. She has also performed with Impulse Dance Company, Boston, MA, Ski John and Dancers, NYC, Monica Levy Group, NYC. Performed dance pieces by Rael Lamb, Warren Spears, and Marcus Schulkind. Nancy is currently working on a documentary…Our Next Citizens.

Markeisha Ensley

Markeisha Ensley is a singer/songwriter, actress and educator originally from Aurora, Colorado. As a teaching artist, she has worked in the areas of vocal technique and performance, storytelling through music, and drama. Also an accomplished pianist, Markeisha received her bachelor’s degree in Music Business from New York University and is a graduate of the Circle in the Square Theatre School in NYC. Markeisha’s original songs have received accolades in the Billboard World Songwriting Contest and she is also an ASCAPlus Award winner. Currently she is teaching and performing in the NYC area while writing new material for her second album.
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Harris Eisenstadt

Harris Eisenstadt Since moving to to Brooklyn from Los Angeles in 2006, drummer/composer Harris Eisenstadt (b. Toronto, 1975) has been consistently singled out in the New York Times as a “venturesome drummer” and All Music Guide has described his compositions as “Ellingtonian in scope… breath(ing) fresh life into the small ensemble.” He has taught percussion, composition, improvisation, jazz, rock, classical and world music since 1998. He received his BA cum laude from Colby College (98) and completed his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in the Performer/Composer program (01). He currently works as a teaching artist for Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Conservatory, Manhattan New Music Project, and The Teak Fellowship. His bands Canada Day and Guewel record for the Portuguese label Clean Feed. Other current projects include co-led trios with Achim Kaufmann and Mark Dresser (Nuscope), Jeb Bishop and Jason Roebke (Nottwo), and Saris (duo with Sara Schoenbeck), in addition to numerous collaborations with many wonderful artists. Eisenstadt has received grants and commissions from American Composers Forum, Durfee Foundation, Meet the Composer, and SOCAN, performed throughout the US and Canada, in Australia, Europe, Japan and West Africa, and appeared on about 40 recordings.
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Vincent Ector

Vincent Ector hails from the musical city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he attended the University of Pennsylvania. Trained in Music beginning at age nine through GAMP, a music magnet school in Philadelphia that also enabled him to study at Temple University while still a junior high school student. He then began studying privately with drummers such as Mickey Roker, Ralph Peterson Jr., and Armand Santarelli, as well as performing for six years as a percussionist with the United States Army Band. As a performer, he has worked with jazz luminaries that include: Freddie Hubbard, Gloria Lynne, Charles Earland, Bobby Watson, Grover Washington Jr., Ted Curson, Dr Lonnie Smith, George Cables, Ralph Peterson Jr., Melvin Sparks, Johnny Coles and Shirley Scott. Vincent can also be heard on recordings by: Jimmy Bruno, Onaje Allan Gumbs and Charles Earland, as well as appearing as a musician on ABC television’s “One Life to Live” daytime soap opera, which features Vincent’s recorded drum performance. He performs regularly in New York City with several ensembles such as, The Charles Mingus Orchestra, The Mike LeDonne Organ Quartet and his own band in venues such as; Smoke, The Iridium, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and The Jazz Standard among others. Mr. Ector was a featured teaching artist in the 2001 Harcourt/Brace Media Literacy Video Series, which is distributed nationally, as well as internationally.
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Andrew Drury

Andrew Drury has been described as ‘a thoughtfully avant-garde drummer and composer’ (New York Times) and “(an) outstanding jazz and experimental percussionist…” (Timeout NY) Andrew Drury works internationally in the areas of jazz and free improvisation. A student of the legendary drummer Ed Blackwell, Drury has appeared on over 20 CDs and worked with artists such as Jason Kao Hwang, Myra Melford, Chris Speed, and Steve Swell, among others. Drury’s workshops give students access to the vitality and tradition of his artistic milieu emphasizing African-diasporic drumming. To date he has led nearly 1,000 workshops and trainings for music teachers, graduate students at the Columbia University School of Social Work, homeless people, music students in Sarajevo, Native American populations, young people in remote areas of Nicaragua and Guatemala, and students of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities. In 2000 the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation identified him as “one of the … most skilled and experienced community artists in America.” For more information visit
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Lisa Dove

Lisa Dove is an actor, director and composer living with her family in Brooklyn. As a teaching artist, she’s worked with the Met Opera Guild’s “Creating Original Opera” and “Sing Speak Play” programs since 2000, and joined the staff at MNMP in 2007. She has a strong background in Dalcroze, and has led the early childhood music programs of PS 58 and Linden Tree Preschool; she is currently on the faculty of the Lucy Moses School in NYC. A graduate from Juilliard’s Drama Division, she worked for many years as a professional actor, before settling down as a mom. She was the co-founder of Juggernaut Theatre Co., and has been the stage director for Northern Light Opera Company since 2002. As a composer, her musical compositions and soundscapes have been heard at HERE Arts Center, Juilliard, Soho Rep & Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and she was a composer in the New Dramatists’ Composer/Librettist Studio in 2007. Lisa has been the recipient of grants from the Fox Foundation, The Field, NYSCA, and Meet The Composer.

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Michelle Y. Burke

Michelle Y. Burke completed her MFA in creative writing at Ohio State University. She has published poems, essays, book reviews, and interviews in literary journals such as Hotel Amerika, Prairie Schooner, Spoon River Poetry Review, and the New Orleans Review. Her poetry chapbook, Horse Loquela, was published by the Alabama School of Fine Arts in 2007. In addition to working as a teaching artist for the Manhattan New Music Project, she also teaches creative writing through LEAP (Learning Expanded through an Arts Program) and with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. She also works as a professional facilitator for the FreeArts NYC weekly mentor program.

Jean Brookman

Jean Brookman received her MFA from Brandeis University’s Professional Theatre Design Program. She has taught Design and Costume History at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and Ohio Wesleyan University. Since 1999, she has been a teaching artist with the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, working in their “Creating Original Opera Program”. Her professional credits include costume design for several off Broadway and regional companies. Jean is resident designer for the Depot Theatre in Westport, New York.

Shellie Bransford

Shellie Bransford educator and performer, has been a teaching artist and program developer since 1983 creating programs for teachers and teaching artists with Washington Performing Arts Society, New York University, New York Philharmonic, Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts as well as the Royal Opera in London. Shellie is a trainer with the New York City Department of Education Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Music and Theater and Program Developer for the National Young Scholars Program with Envision EMI, LLC. She is on faculty at Fergus and Clark Academy for the Performing Arts, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, as Director of Curriculum, as a member of the voice department and as an acting coach. She collaborated in the creation of the Young Artist Program – an ensemble and individual studio lesson approach for young people – and The CoOP, an arts integration program that provides students the opportunity to design their own course. Most recently The CoOp presented The French Cafe, a study of French culture through a painting by Renoir, French Art Songs, Cabaret and popular songs, and French cuisine. As event manager she has planned and managed concerts, theatre and events in honor of Nelson Mandela; for the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and for Jessye Norman Sings for the Healing of AIDS with Maya Angelou, Whoopi Goldberg, Elton John, Bill T. Jones, Toni Morrison, Max Roach, Anna Deavere Smith and Director George C. Wolfe, among others. Shellie helped to create and performed in Everybody Says Don’t: Broadway Breaks the Silence presented as a result of a grant from Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts that illustrates the importance of the arts in challenging the community to respond to issues of social justice. Shellie Bransford worked for twenty years with the Metropolitan Opera Guild as Program Director, Teaching Artist and contributor to the internationally acclaimed Creating Original Opera Program.

John Bellia

John Bellia, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and schooled in Brooklyn elementary schools, studied Harmony and Composition at the “Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music”, and with private music tutors. He started his musical career by writing songs and performing at the age of 16 when he recorded his first record single. From then on, his participation in the Buenos Aires music scene has been prolific. He’s composed, arranged, and produced for the biggest names in Argentinean popular music, and performed for years as a solo artist as well as in bands. Since 1986, Mr. Bellia has composed music internationally for TV, radio, advertising agencies, and original music for theater, writing the score for several plays at the most important theater house in Buenos Aires: ‘Teatro Municipal Gral. San Martin’. In 1995 he composed, arrangements, and co-produced an MTV Unplugged for one of Argentina’s biggest rock stars. That same year he composed and produced music and songs for a children’s TV show, ‘Tardes de Sol’, receiving an award for ‘Best Children’s CD’ by A.C.E. (Association of Show Business Critics of Argentina). This led him to be commissioned by the Government of Buenos Aires to compose a Hymn, ‘Este Es El Lugar’, for the city’s public kindergartens. Today, ‘Este Es El Lugar’ is sung in Buenos Aires schools at every official act by students, teachers and parents. In virtue of his extensive and prestigious career, John Bellia has been praised by the American Federation of Musicians of the US and Canada, and has been granted an O-1 visa, reserved for outstanding artists, by the US Government. He is currently a US resident. For many years, John Bellia has taught music, directed choirs. and conducted music workshops in Elementary, Middle and High Schools; coached top recording artists (Sony Music, EMI); gave seminars and clinics on MIDI, Sampling, Sound Editing, and Modern Recording Techniques for popular music, cinema and commercials; and tutored private students.

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Danny Ashkenasi

Danny Ashkenasi is an American citizen born and raised in Berlin, Germany and currently living in New York City. He works as a composer, actor and director on both continents. Most recently he performed in “beTwixt, beTween & beTWAIN”, a Mark Twain Musical Comedy he wrote and composed, which played at The Producer’s Club May 16-June 8, 2008 as well as had a special performance at the Westport Library in CN. Other Produced musicals of his include “Wir Pfeifen auf den Gurkenkoenig” (text: Peter Lund), which had a long run in Berlin 1990 and “Hexen” (text: P. Lund), which has enjoyed dozens of productions throughout Germany since 1991, three alone in Berlin, including at the Deutsche Oper,. He is the only composer twice invited as a finalist to the Hamburg Musical festival. His recent US work includes “The Song of Job 9:11″ (Text: D. Ashkenasi), performed in concert in New York numerous times since 2002, and produced theatrically at the FringeNYC Festival in 2004; and the chamber opera “Jenseits” (Text: Helga Krauss), produced as “Beyond” at the FringeNYC Festival 2005, both directed by Mr. Ashkenasi. He also composed a musicalisation (or “musicabre”) of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, which he performed (accompanied/surrounded by three cellos) at the Metropolitan Playhouse’s Poe festival and the 2006 FringeNYC Festival, where he won the FringeNYC award for “Outstanding Music and Lyrics”. Other musical works produced in New York include “When Thou, My Music, Music Play’st” (Text: W. Shakespeare, adapted from his Sonnets”), “Lucky Hans” (Text: Margie Duffield) and “Les Artistes” (Text: Greg Steinbruner). He has also composed several one-act musicals for the Berkshire Ensemble for Theatre Arts and the International Schools Theatre Association England Summer Program. As an actor he has worked on television (the miniseries “Rote Erde”), film (“Kraftprobe”) and much theatre regionally and Off and Off-Off Broadway, including the one-man-four-puppet holocaust drama “Uncle Arthur”, which he also toured internationally. Recently he performed in the Rabbit Hole Ensemble productions of “A Rope in the Abyss” and “Nosferatu”, which played in New York City and Cape Cod.

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Arts in Education

Using Orff instruments, found objects, voice, body and percussion, students create accompanying scores to stories, poems, films, videos, animation, and storyboards. Students can create their own written notation and conduct and perform for one another.

Recommended for grades PreK-5

Arts in Education

Open up a new world of artistic connections with this residency. Students bring paintings to life theatrically by creating scenes, lyrics and characters inspired by the style, mood, color, and texture of famous and/or original works of art. Students learn to work collaboratively with their peers through this unique artistic and theatrical experience.


Recommended for grades K-12

Arts in Education

There are many kinds of paintbrushes, many kinds of paints, and many kinds of surfaces to paint on, not to mention numerous methods of application: strokes, spatters, drips, palette knives, hands. Exploration is the keyword in this residency, students enjoy “just painting” through instruction and practice in myriad areas. The residency will culminate with each student creating a project using his or her choice of favorite brush, paint, surface and technique.

Recommended for grades 4-9

Arts in Education

Students learn the basic components of filmmaking and storytelling in this new media workshop. Basic camera functions inherent to the course are discussed, as well as the fundamentals of composition, lighting, motion, and framing. Segments and scenes from film and video history are viewed and analyzed by the students, who will then complete their own projects in various genres, depending on age range and interests. Students will also be introduced to iMovie.

Recommended for grades 6-12

Arts in Education

Learn the art of storytelling through mask-making and physical theater. Students will create their own colorful masks, express characters and emotions using their bodies, and learn how to write a story by creating and performing original plays.

Recommended for grades PreK-12

Arts in Education

This delightful program showcases the vast cultural expression of our neighbor to the south, Mexico. Each region of the country has its own rituals, celebrations, costumes, language and music. The students will be treated to a program filled with colors and sounds, encouraging them to look beyond the mariachi stereotype and into the fascinating story and history of the Mexican people.

Recommended for grades 1-12

Arts in Education

History jumps off the pages of a textbook and into your classroom during this interactive study. Using the historical period that students are already studying as part of their social studies curriculum, students explore a time period or a significant event by creating a piece of collaborative theatre. Through research and examining artistic depiction of the time period/event (such as paintings and photographs), students will craft a story, develop characters and write their own script that connects them to history in a dynamic way. Writing and performing original monologues and scenes will actively engage students in learning. The workshop will end with a final production containing historical reenactments and dramatization of original dialogue written by students.

Recommended for grades 3-12

Arts in Education

By creating their own musical theatre production, students explore playwriting, singing, composition, and various dance and theatre techniques. Students will choose a theme and/or storyline (or something from the curriculum as suggested by the teacher), learn how to develop interesting characters and place them in compelling scenes and scenarios. The students will understand the chores involved in producing a musical (actors, singers, musicians, assistants, stage, props, costumes, sound, etc.) as well as the different phases of its production (creation, reading, workshop, full staging). In the final phase, students will refine, rehearse, and eventually perform their master creation!

Recommended for grades 2-12

Arts in Education

Bring stories to life through music composition! Using books and stories from their literacy curriculum, students will create musical compositions to support and enhance the drama of the narrative. Music can include both vocal songs and instrumental compositions, and theatrical performance can also be incorporated.

Recommended for grades K-12

Arts in Education

All over the world, people love to tell stories through song. This residency explores different genres of songwriting, including folk songs, pop songs, and the blues. Children will learn some common song structures and, using instruments and voices, create original lyrics and set them to music. This program can focus on either solo or choral music, and song topics can be based on classroom curriculum.

Recommended for grades K to 6

Arts in Education

In this hands-on session, teachers have a blast making music while learning practical and inexpensive ways to incorporate drumming, improvisation, composition and voice work into the classroom. Each participant receives a printed packet containing detailed lesson plans and resources for further exploration. This program can be adapted to address issues of particular relevance to your school or organization.

Arts in Education

Use music and movement to demonstrate mathematical concepts on any level, and to develop your students’ problem-solving skills. This residency directly addresses the Math Standards as well as the Arts Blueprint.

Recommended for grades K to 5

Arts in Education

Make your students feel like professional composers, using industry standard Macintosh computers. Macintosh now offers a wonderful composition program (GarageBand) that allows even non-musicians to create music. By the end of a 10 to 20-week residency, each student or group of students will have created an original music composition, while learning how to use the Macintosh computer and operating system.

Recommended for grades 3 to 12

Arts in Education

In this mixed-media course, we examine the links between visual art and music. From jazz and abstract expressionism to hip-hop and graphic novels, students are exposed to a wide range of musical and visual art forms, focusing on the parallels between the two fields as well as their inspirational effects on each other. Students create original music and art throughout the semester.

Recommended for grades 3-12

Arts in Education

Transform any class into a percussion ensemble that composes, improvises, and performs using plastic buckets, tin cans, flowerpots, conventional instruments, and found objects. Student compositions emphasize elements from jazz, hip-hop, funk and rock, as well as drumming from Brazil, Cuba and West Africa. Students may also incorporate voice, theater and dance techniques.

Recommended for grades K-12

Arts in Education

Students take a voyage through some of the most vibrant musical centers of Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco. Focusing on indigenous rhythm and song, students explore the culture of each region and gain hands-on experience with the instruments of Brazil.

Recommended for grades K-8.

Arts in Education

This program is available to any instrumental group. Teaching artists join existing student music programs to lead sectional rehearsals and tackle difficult sections of current repertoire. Throughout these rehearsals, students learn in depth about technique and style, play musical games, and may even create original music.

Recommended for grades 4-12.

Arts in Education

Improvisation is an art form that develops the qualities and skills most needed in everyday life and work. Using theatre games and acting techniques, teachers discover new levels of artistry, communication and collaboration. The exercises are designed to encourage participants to take risks, listen and receive with an open mind.
Training is open to all levels of experience.

Arts in Education

Students learn to think on their feet, as they react to their peers in theatrical improvisations. Different settings, musical motifs, favorite songs, environments, sounds, and everyday objects are used as tools to inspire the imagination. Creating individual characters, students develop monologues and dialogs, and eventually learn to build scenes.

Recommended for grades 4 to 12

Arts in Education

Myths, legends and folk tales come to life as your students experience dramatized stories indigenous to the cultures in your curriculum. They will then create their own original curriculum-based plays and perform in a culminating event with music, costumes, and a set. Your students will love this creative way to approach history and literacy!


Recommended for grades 2 to 9

Arts in Education

Students explore the power of silence in drama through the art of pantomime, using their bodies to convey emotions and actions. The classroom curriculum can be integrated into the workshop, as students tell silent stories about anything from fairy tales and myths to current events.

Recommended for grades Pre-K to 8

Arts in Education


Make meaningful connections between poetry and dance by encouraging students to use one as inspiration for creative expression of the other. Students will be introduced to dance fundamentals such as balance, rhythm, spacing, gesture and breath. In addition, students will explore the principal components of poetry, such as imagery, metaphor, simile, personification, tone, and structure.

Recommended for grades 3 to 12

Arts in Education

This program ties current popular dance trends to their cultural roots. Students receive an introduction to the basic steps and history of Western African folk dances, and learn to identify traditional elements in the dance moves of today’s hip-hop stars. Students then combine old and new styles to create their own folk-inspired modern choreography.

Recommended for grades 5 to 12

Arts in Education

Students gain a well-rounded view of their social studies curriculum through the world of dance. This program leads students through traditional dances from the USA, Mexico, Latin America, China, or West Africa while integrating lessons on music, art, geography, history, and other aspects of the culture from the chosen country. Bring history to life in your classroom!

Recommended for grades Pre-K to 12

Arts in Education

Creative Movement classes focus on Montessori’s theory of the connections between physical patterning and mental development in children. Children are led through a series of imaginative movement games, and as they gain confidence and skill, they will expand their creative horizons and learn healthy movement habits. Classes combine dance, song, rhythmic games, creative movement and musical accompaniment.

Recommended for grades Pre-K to 3

Arts in Education

Students enjoy new paths to literacy with a hip and modern approach to poetry. We will explore techniques to create vivid and descriptive poetic language, as well as effective form and structure. Once the words are crafted, students hone their dramatic skills in a theatrical presentation of their original poems.


Recommended for grades 5 -12

Arts in Education

Do your students like to rap? Getting kids interested in writing poetry is a snap with this residency. Students will, individually and/or collaboratively, write rap lyrics about topics related to their classroom curriculum. They will select or compose a beat track appropriate to their lyrics, and merge music and poetry to create complete hip-hop songs.

Recommended for grades 2-12

Arts in Education

Feel like a modern-day Shakespeare after participating in this playwriting workshop! Students will write an original play that can be performed on stage or as a Reader’s Theatre activity. Subjects in character education, such as friendship, bullying, and responsibility, will be stressed while students write their play. Curriculum material can also be integrated into the student work.

Recommended for grades 2-12

About Us

Paul Nash (1948-2005) was a gifted composer with an original voice. When Nash lost his battle with brain cancer in 2005, the world lost a visionary with a unique harmonic sense and a passion for infectious, driving rhythms. His music reflects a restless commitment to musical experimentation—integrating by turns the sound worlds of jazz, classical, and rock through his own personal synthesis.

A Bronx native, Nash earned B.M. and M.A. degrees in music composition from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and Mills College in Oakland (CA), respectively. In 1977, he created the 10-piece Paul Nash Ensemble in San Francisco. The group included trumpeter Mark Isham who, influenced by Nash’s genre of morphing ideas, created New Age music for Windham Hill Records and become a Grammy and Academy Award nominated soundtrack composer. Nash also helped to organize the Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra, an ensemble that explored the merging of jazz and classical music.

In 1990, he returned to New York and founded Manhattan New Music Project, bringing together various new music performers, including French horn innovator Tom Varner, and unsung guitar great Vic Juris. Under the MNMP umbrella, Nash wrote chamber music, orchestral pieces and playful avant garde compositions inspired by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Nash began a new musical direction with the creation of site-specific musical work, culminating in a series of performances in New York City parks. Still Sounds Run Deep deploys musicians around public spaces and provides for interactivity with ambient sounds and the rhythms of passersby. Passionate about music education, Nash simultaneously worked to establish Manhattan New Music Project as a reputable arts-in-education organization, recruiting a strong roster of teaching artists and developing educational partnerships.

Teaching Artists

MNMP recruits teaching artists who are among the leading practitioners in their art forms and in the growing field of arts-in-education. We maintain a high standard of professionalism, classroom experience, and artistic merit.

Scroll through the drop down list on the right to see who is on our teaching artist roster.

“It has been a joy to work with students and see their excitement as they explore their own artistic abilities. As a teaching artist, I always hope to inspire my students to discover their own passion for the arts, but I usually end up feeling just as inspired.”
- MNMP Teaching Artist, Markeisha Ensley

Arts in Education

The Music Cre8tor is an interactive music composition device particularly suitable for the physically and cognitively challenged. The user can create musical landscapes by manipulating various aspects of composition — pitch, timbre, tempo and dynamics — using Nintendo Wii controllers. These controllers can either be held or attached to a person’s wrist, arm, or leg, and their sensitivity can be adjusted to the parameters of each individual user’s range of motion. Up to four people can play and interact with each other, record their creations and edit sound playback files. More information below»

Music Cre8tor

This program is designed for use by all ages and a diverse set of populations within special education, and has been successfully tested for use in middle and high school. During our trials, the Music Cre8tor was enjoyed by students with limited mobility and cognitive capacity.

The Music Cre8tor, which is in its final stages of development, was conceived by the late Paul Nash, founder of the Manhattan New Music Project, was fine-tuned by his successor and co-conspirator Julia Reinhart, and is currently being finalized by Jane Rigler, a renowned musician and experienced teaching artist, and musician and programmer Zachary Seldess.

The Music Cre8tor was developed with the generous support of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Contact us if you want to bring the Music Cre8tor to your school.

• Still Sounds Run Deep as Part of Make Music NY 06.21.2010
• League of Composers Orchestra Finale @ Miller Theatre 06.07.2010
• Darcy James Argue & Todd Sickafoose @ 45 Bleecker 05.14 & 05.15.2010
• MS 325X Strategic Foundation Building Retreat @ DreamYard 04.21.10
• Gene Pritsker’s Sound Liberation Orchestra @ Le Poisson Rogue 01.06.10
• MNMP Holiday Party @ SALT artspace 12.14.09
• Noveller & Zemi 17 @ X-Initiative 10.08.09
• Interactive Music Festival Part 2 @ N6 Media Lab 06.25.09
• Interactive Music Festival Part 1 @ Coney Island Boardwalk 06.21.09 (Make Music New York!)
• Colin Stetson & Erik Friedlander @ Abrons Arts Center Recital Hall 06.05.09
• B3+ & Sabine Players @ Chelsea Art Museum 06.03.09
• First Annual Student Showcase @ Abrons Arts Center Playhouse 06.02.09
• Hans Tammen & Third Eye Orchestra /
  Jason Hwang & Spontaneous River @ Galapagos Arts Space 05.27.09

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