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Brian Neal played trumpet as a member of the internationally-celebrated 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 is the Director of instrumental studies and professor of trumpet at the Kendall campus of Miami Dade College. He lives in Miami with his wife, Karen.
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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 2013 feature “Planes.” Cristy currently freelances for major studios and paints for pleasure in her spare time.
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Tommy Scrivens is a Florida native, where he trained at New Tampa Dance Theatre. Tommy graduated from The Ohio State University with a BFA in dance performance in 2005. While training, he has had the opportunity to work with many world-renowned choreographers and dancers. He has performed with Columbus Dance Theater contemporary ballet company, in the United Kingdom tour of Tap Fusion, as a guest artist with BalletMet, Columbus, Collide, and Parsons Dance. He is also currently dancing with dre.dance, Nicholas Andre Dance, marInspired, and Kristin Sudekis Dance. In addition to company work Tommy has been featured in several movies, musicals and TV shows. Recent highlights are The Big Gay Musical movie, City Center Encores' production of "Where's Charley ?" and "Fiorello" and the premier of Rosie O'Donnell's return to prime time TV on Rosie Show, featured on the OWN network. He has had the honor of working with Verdon/ Fosse Estate on archiving the legendary work of Bob Fosse and a principal member of American Dance Machine for the 21st Century. Most recently he performed in the pre-Broadway run of the new musical Roman Holiday in San Francisco and is slated to appear in an upcoming FX show Fosse/Verdon starring Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell. As a teacher he has taught master class all over the world including Brazil, China, and Russia. Teaching students that are mentally and physically handicapped, autistic and blind. In the United states he has been privileged to teach at Peridance, Broadway Dance Center, The Ohio State University, Adelphi University, Manhattanville College, Marymount Manhattan and many dance studios across the nation. While keeping up a diverse performance career he is currently teaching classes in studios in New Jersey and New York, judging competitions all over the nation, as well as an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan’s Musical Theatre Program.
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Zeke Blackwell has been involved in over 80 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 version of Once on this Island! With over a decade of improv comedy experience, he’s performed/taught improv around the country, and most recently at the Boston Comedy Arts Festival and the Wasatch Improv Festival in Salt Lake City. His original play, Still Life, was produced in the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival. He graduated from Yale University 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. Once, he beat-boxed for Lin-Manuel Miranda. This is his 5th season year-round at SFAC as the Young Performers Theater Director.
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Mark Ferrando is a actor/circus artist/stuntman based in Los Angeles. Growing up east of San Francisco, theatre, musical theatre and gymnastics always held his interest. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, with a degree in Dramatic Arts and a minor in Managerial Economics, Mark moved out to New York City. It was in New York City where Mark got swept away by the circus bug at Circus Warehouse. He performed acrobatics for the Metropolitan Opera, instructed flying trapeze and partner acrobatics, and traveled around performing dance, acrobatics, and theatre for many shows. Just before leaving New York, Mark filmed aerial and ground circus work for The Greatest Showman. But what brought him away from New York? Well, the desire to be a super villain, of course. Mark traveled with Feld Entertainment (Ringling Brothers) in their show Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes. Now Mark resides in Los Angeles where he continues to beat up, and get beaten up, by his friends.
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Violinist and composer Giancarlo Latta is interested in the intersection and convergence of music old and new. Fiercely committed to the music of our time and equally at home performing Mozart or Carter, Beethoven or Berio, Giancarlo has been involved in dozens of commissions and premieres, collaborating extensively with numerous composers both young and established. He has worked with Marcos Balter, Mario Davidovsky, Pierre Jalbert, George Lewis, Aaron Jay Kernis, Steven Stucky, Augusta Read Thomas, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Erik Ulman, among many others, and has performed in venues as diverse as the Rothko Chapel and Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston, Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, London’s Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, and Lucerne’s Neubad, a multipurpose performance space in a former public swimming pool. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), JACK Quartet, and members of New York’s Talea Ensemble and counter)induction. Recent highlights include duo performances with flutist Claire Chase as part of Houston’s Da Camera series, the U.S. premiere of Liza Lim’s opera Tree of Codes at the Spoleto Festival, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire on Nantucket Island, and residencies at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute (with pianist Robert Fleitz) and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In spring 2016, Giancarlo curated and premiered “16x16: The Rice Encores Project,” a large-scale commissioning endeavor featuring sixteen new short works for violin and piano and showcasing the entire Rice University composition studio; a recording of all sixteen pieces was released in early 2018. He is now embarking on a multi-year project, “24/21 [24 Caprices for the Twenty-First Century],” a commissioning mechanism for a new body of violin repertoire exploring the ever-broadening meaning of virtuosity. A founding member of KINETIC, a conductorless ensemble in Houston, Giancarlo is passionate about music-making on a small scale, and particularly interested in the creative and collaborative possibilities of performing without a conductor. As an orchestral musician, he was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America in 2013, and has attended the Lucerne Festival Academy and the Aspen Music Festival. Additional festival credits include the Banff Centre’s Ensemble Evolution, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Contemporary Performance Institute at Wellesley College/Brandeis University, and the Next Festival for Emerging Artists. As a composer, Giancarlo strives to blur the boundaries between pitch and sound, between notation and improvisation, and between composer and performer. His works have been heard in concert and on the radio in Houston, New York, and Aspen. Giancarlo is currently pursuing graduate studies at Rice University, where he studies violin with Paul Kantor and composition with Anthony Brandt. He is a Da Camera Young Artist, performing and teaching in the Houston area through Da Camera Chamber Music and Jazz. He previously studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago.
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Amanda Galick was recently appointed Second Flute and Piccolo of the Sarasota Opera. A past Young Artist with Da Camera of Houston, she has performed as guest principal flutist with the Fort Worth Symphony and the Texas Ballet Theater Orchestra and has appeared with the orchestras of the Houston and Florida Grand Operas, San Antonio Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, The Louisiana Philharmonic and The New World Symphony during their regular concert seasons. As a chamber musician, Ms. Galick has performed locally in Houston with Aperio - Music of the Americas, Musiqa, Texas New Music Ensemble, Loop38 and WindSync.
A passionate outreach advocate and educator, Ms. Galick has been a faculty member of the Belvoir Terrace Summer Fine Arts Camp, The British International School of Houston, and The Vivaldi Music Academy, and currently maintains a large private flute studio in Houston. In 2016, Ms. Galick completed a certificate with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, which sent her on teaching missions to Guanajuato, Mexico and St. Croix, of the US Virgin Islands. Ms. Galick is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Michigan. |
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A familiar South Florida presence from performances with Seraphic Fire and the Miami Bach Society, soprano Karen Neal enjoys a multi-faceted 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. 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, and has partnered with Miami Light Project to teach poetry and diction to inner-city youth. She is currently Director of Vocal Arts at Gulliver Academy in Coral Gables, FL.
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Buba Basishvili is a theatre maker and performer from the Republic of Georgia living in the United States. He has worked in theatre, film, and as director and teacher in his hometown of Tbilisi and all across the globe. In his toolbox are many practical skills: Original Theatre Creation, Character, Mime, Mask, Clown, Dance, Directing, Choreographing, Vaudeville, Cabaret, Melodrama, Tragedy, Commedia Dell'Arte, Bouffon, Archery, Horse-back riding, Stage fighting, and Dramatic Acrobatics. He plays a little bit of drum and loves the silly and serious combined. He has his MFA in "Ensemble Based Physical Theatre" from Dell'Arte International in California, USA and performed, toured and taught with the Georgian State Pantomime Theatre for over 15 years. He is a director at Illiauni Theatre and University in Tbilisi. Buba received an MA in Mime Art from Shota Rusatveli State University of Theatre and Film, Tbilisi, Georgia.
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Elementary Camp Faculty
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Rebecca Poulson is a writer and artist who grew up reading and drawing in Sitka, Alaska. She commercial fished and repaired wooden boats before turning to art full time, earning an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 2000. She is a printmaker, and publishes The Outer Coast, a wall calendar of art and poetry. She has practicing her art in a deep dive into the history of the Sheldon Jackson School and College and its mission origins, through oral history interviews, archival research, video, writing (at sitkaartblog.wordpress.com), presentations, an art installation, and most recently the multimedia interpretive history project, Voices of Sheldon Jackson. She is the recipient of a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, and in 2018 of the Alaska State Records Advisory Board Archival Excellence award, for a place-based history curriculum. She is a member of the Alaska Historical Commission, the Alaska Historical Society board, and is currently Director of the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society. Rebecca is also active in managing historic preservation projects on campus. She works with kids in the arts, which more than anything has deepened her understanding of what art is and what it can do. She also creates scenery for community and youth theatrical productions.
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Aidan Neal is an admirer of all art forms and cannot make up his mind about which one to pursue, so he has combined them all by receiving a BFA degree in music theater at Florida State University’s renowned School of Theater. He is entering his third year in the program and has already received such recognition as Broadway World’s Regional Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast as well as a Carbonell award for Best Production of a Musical (Assassins – Zoetic Stage). Aidan has participated in over 15 professional and school musical productions including Highlands Playhouse, Zoetic Stage, and the FSU School of Theater’s main stage productions. He is highly passionate about the art of dance and currently trains under renowned faculty at the FSU School of Dance (Suzanne Farrell, Gwen Welliver, and Kehinde Ishangi to name a few). He also proudly illuminates Laura Careless and Danny Ryan as pivotal contributors to the dancer he is today. While he is not in a dance studio, he is exploring his passion for vocal jazz, being a member of the FSU Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Mr. Neal welcomes the possibility of any life within the performing arts and is a strong believer of an artist’s power to impact and inspire the lives of millions to change the path of society in the face of injustice (Cue the confetti cannons)!
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Sandra Fontaine grew up drawing, especially drawing and creating paper dolls and their worlds. Sandra also began drawing birds in fifth grade. She has retained her interest in birds, enjoys drawing them, and has also used that teacher’s technique of allowing children to draw during read aloud time every day during her teaching career. She has also had students take part in the Alaska Junior Duck Stamp Contest, an annual program that encourages students’ interest in wetlands and wild birds, as well as teaching them techniques in drawing and painting birds in acrylics and watercolor. An elementary teacher for almost thirty years, Sandra has used art projects extensively as part of the learning process in many different subject areas. She also taught art at Blatchley Middle School for six years, helped create and teach at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp after school art program for several years, set up and curated several community art shows for the Greater Sitka Arts Council’s Arti Gras celebration, and has participated in the Artist In Schools program at Baranof Elementary School.
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Janet Clarke is the Education Director at the Sitka Sound Science Center and coordinates the Scientists in the Schools Program. She earned her B.S. in Biology from Virginia Tech and Secondary Teaching Certificate from UAA; she has over 30 years of experience teaching science and math for middle and high school students. Janet has another passion that is rather unique – racing sled dogs! For 15 years, Janet and her family raced and maintained a sled dog kennel in Eagle River, Alaska. Janet holds the top finishing spot (3rd place!) from South Central Alaska in the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship Sled Dog Race! While she no longer runs sled dogs, Janet is the Race Marshall for sled dog races and is currently the only Alaskan certified by the International Federation of Sled Dog Sports, as a race marshall!
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Liz Zacher is Assistant Professor of Art at University of Alaska Southeast. She has her B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School and her M.F.A. from Ohio University. She has taught at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp for many years.
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Roger Schmidt has been the Executive Director of Sitka Fine Arts Camp (Alaska Arts Southeast, Inc.) since 2000. During this time, the summer program has grown from a two week camp serving 40 adolescent students to a ten week program serving 1,000 students ages five to adult. In 2010, Roger negotiated the donation of the historic Sheldon Jackson School which had closed its doors in 2007. Subsequently, he has overseen the restoration of the campus by harnessing the support of thousands of volunteers and donors. Under Roger’s leadership, the Camp has grown to include a year long arts advocacy program that offers a performing arts series, a statewide teacher training institute, after school arts classes for all ages, and a vibrant young performer’s theater program. In addition, the Campus has become an important part of the economic future of Sitka as a home for many conferences and conventions.
Roger grew up in Sitka and attended the Sitka Fine Arts Camp as a student from 1980-1984. The arts have been a central part of Roger’s life. He graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in philosophy and trombone performance with additional music studies at the Aspen Music Festival, Pierre Monteux School and internationally in London and at the Bruckner Conservatory in Austria. As a musician he has worked in the San Francisco Bay area as well as toured throughout Alaska and other parts of the United States. Roger is also an avid traveler and adventurer. His trips have included a 3-month solo kayak trip from Vancouver B.C. to Sitka, Alaska, a kayak crossing of the Bering Strait, a Patagonia Ice-Cap ski crossing, and a year-long sailing trip from Siberia to Uruguay. He is the 2004 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Arts Education and in 2007, under his direction, the Camp received the Coming Up Taller Award at the White House. In 2012, he was inducted into the Alaska Hall of Fame and received the Sitka Arts Advocate of the Year award. Roger is also a fellow of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program and a graduate of the Aspen Executive Seminar. |
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Nate Olson is an illustrator currently living in Alaska. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Nate also spent his childhood in a variety of places, including Norway and England. Nate graduated with a degree in illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
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