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The Administration & Support Staff

Dr. Herbert L. Sheppard, Director
Kim Stroud, Assistant Director
Gene Bozzi, Department Chair-Music
Linda Burns, Department Chair-Dance
Jonathan Gillman, Department Chair-Theater
Pamela Nomura, Department Chair-Creative Writing
Kitty Sweet Winslow, Department Chair-Visual Arts
Andrea DeCarli, Assistant to the Directors
Jill Giles, Student Services Coordinator
Carol Jacques-Killian, Office Assistant
Lynn Hoffman, Academic Advisor and Outreach Coordinator
James Keller, Managing Director - Theater of the Performing Arts
Golfo Lambros, Secretary
Carrie Grady, Box Office Associate
Julio Birbrau, Custodian

Dr. Herbert L. Sheppard (aka "Doc") was appointed Director of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts in August 2000.  Prior to this appointment, Doc had been the Academy’s Managing Director for the previous four years.  A graduate of Boston University, School of Fine Arts, he studied voice with James Houghton and was part of a select group of singers chosen to entertain servicemen in Alaska and Europe.  Doc has been a principal at middle and high schools in West Hartford, Greenwich and Newington.  In 1983, he established SHS Enterprises, a sales organization providing recognition and promotional products to schools in Connecticut. In addition to Baccalaureate and Master's degrees from Boston University, he completed graduate work at Stanford University and earned an Educational Doctorate from Nova University in 1980.

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Kim Stroud, Assistant Director was Dance Chair at the Academy for seven years.  Some of Ms. Stroud’s former positions include: five years as the Administrator for the Dance Programs for City Youth through the School of the Hartford Ballet, five years as the Dance Chair for the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, two years as Head of the Diversity Committee for the International NETWORK of Performing and Visual Arts Schools, two years on faculty at SUNY at Purchase, four years on faculty at Hartford Camerata Conservatory, three years on faculty at University of Hartford, two years as union representative and contract negotiating committee member for the American Guild of Musical Artists and the dance review panel for the Ct. Commission on the Arts. Ms. Stroud has been on faculty of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City.  She was a Principal Soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company for eleven years, touring the world.  She has also danced and toured with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, toured nationally with “Your Arms Too Short to Box With God,” performed in the Universal Studio film production of “The Wiz” and as a guest artist with Katherine Dunham at the Gemini Dance Company. Ms. Stroud has been a master teacher for the University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, Randolf-Macon Women’s College in Virginia, University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and other institutions in the U.S. and abroad.  Ms. Stroud is an honors graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, earned her B.F.A. degree from SUNY at Purchase and is a certified Pilates instructor.

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Gene Bozzi, Department Chair - Music, Mr. Bozzi is the principal timpanist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.  Gene is also the Music Department Chair at the Center for Creative Youth, a summer residential arts program at Wesleyan University. He also teaches percussion at Wesleyan University at the college level.  As a jazz musician, Mr. Bozzi has worked as a sideman with many well-known recording artists including Dave Liebman and Steve Swallow.  He has appeared with Gerry Mulligan in a concert performance of Mulligan's "Birth of the Cool" compositions.  In 1992, he and Brazilian singer/pianist, Catalina Vigurs, co-founded the highly acclaimed Brazilian jazz group “Samba Brasil”. Gene also performs periodically with the Claudio Roditi Quartet.  In addition to chairing the Music Department and teaching percussion, he also has served as Music Director and conductor for many of the Academy’s spring musicals.

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Linda Burns, Department Chair - began her formal training at the School of Russian Ballet in Bermuda. Her experience includes work with Merce Cunningham, the Limon Company, Twyla Tharp, Viola Farber, Meredith Monk, Ernestine Stodelle, at Antioch College, and at the Hartford Ballet.  Additionally, she has danced for Connecticut Dance Theater, Antioch Dance Company, Bermuda Civic, Martynuk/McAdams Dance and independently for choreographers in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and Bermuda as well as touring throughout the United States. She currently teaches at the Hartford Conservatory, and has taught at Bermuda School of Russian Ballet, Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, Trinity College, The Hartford Ballet, Hartt School of Music, and in the Hartford Public Schools.

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Jonathan Gillman, Department Chair - Theater, has taught at the Academy since 1985 and is director of Looking In Theatre. He has a B.A. and an M.A. from Harvard and an M.F.A. in Theater (playwriting) from the University of Minnesota.  He is the past recipient of Connecticut Commission on the Arts individual fellowships in both fiction writing and playwriting, and is the author of two interconnected collections of short stories, Grasslands and The Magic Ring. He has been in residence as a writer at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, Blue Mountain Center in the Adirondacks, and at the Montana Artists Refuge, and was the 1997 recipient of CREC’s Distinguished Service Award for “exceptional service to students and families”.

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Pamela Nomura, Department Chair - Creative Writing, is a poet.  She is chair of the Creative Writing program at the Center for Creative Youth (CCY), a teaching artist for the Bushnell Partners Program, and has given readings at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival at the Hillstead Museum as well as at colleges and universities.  Her poems have been published in periodicals and magazines.  She has taught in prisons and in shelters for battered women and the homeless.  Ms. Nomura earned a B.A. from Trinity College.

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Kitty Sweet Winslow, Department Chair - Visual Arts, received a B.S. in Fine Arts from Skidmore College and a Masters in Art Education from Hartford Art School.  She has shown her work extensively throughout the Northeast and New York, including solo exhibitions at the Nicholas Davies Gallery in New York in 1997 and 2000, and the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT in 1993.  In Addition, her work is represented in many public and private collections.  She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including two Individual Artists Grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and a Pollack Krasner Foundation Grant.  She was a Yaddo Fellow, Saratoga Springs, NY in 1987 and completed a residency at the Edna Saint Vincent Millay colony, Austerlitz, New York in 1998.  She has been artist-in-residence in the area public schools, and has taught at the Hammonassett School in Madison, CT.  Prior to joining the faculty at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, she was an artist/teacher for the Vermont College MFA Program, adjunct faculty at Fairfield University and instructor in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University.

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Andrea DeCarli, Assistant to the Directors, joined the Academy in the fall of 1998 as secretary. In July 2000, Andrea was promoted to her current position. Andrea received the Distinguished Service Award at CREC’s annual FallStaff in October 2001 “for her dedication and commitment to CREC, its programs and its people.” Andrea lives in South Windsor with her husband, Larry and their cat Casey.

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Jill Giles graduated from Tisch School of the Arts, and has directed, stage managed, propped and performed in dozens of plays in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and locally.  She teaches at The Greater Hartford Academy of The Arts, with the Bushnell’s Partner’s Program, and The Center for Creative Youth.  Most recently, Jill performed in The Laramie Project at the Spirit of Broadway Theater in Norwich, CT, and The Learned Ladies with Capitol Classics at St. Joseph’s College.  For the past several years, she has directed for Oddfellow’s Playhouse in their teen rep program, and in 2004 she co –directed A Chorus Line at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts.  She was also a recipient of a Playwriting Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on The Arts, and attended Eugene O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference on an Educator’s fellowship.  Jill was promoted to Student Service Coordinator, and has created the school store: “The Mini-Bodega”, as well as coordinating the various Middle School Programs.

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Carol Jacques-Killian, Office Assistant, came to the Academy as a temp in October 2004 and became an official staff member in March 2005. She has worked for many years in the administrative field in public and private businesses

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Lynn Hoffman, Academic Advisor and Outreach Coordinator, is a writer, educator, and composer.She received a B.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition, cum laude, from Hartt School/University of Hartford, where she also chaired and taught theory and composition the Community Division Program. She has an M. Ed., with a concentration in Reading and Language Arts, from St. Joseph College, where she is an adjunct faculty member in the graduate education program. In 2006, Antrim House will publish her first collection of poetry. Recently, National Public Radio aired “True Story” (poem) on its “Theme and Variations” program; “Serving Your Country” is scheduled to air later this year. Three other poems have been anthologized in Sweet Lemons: Poems with a Sicilian Accent (2004). “The Gift” (poem) and “In Summer”(poem) appeared in the January and May ’05 issues of Off the Coast. Tic and Tiny, a playlet, received a rehearsed reading at Manhanttanville College (NY)in 2004. Excerpts from several other plays have been read at Trinity College. Lynn has conducted writing workshops for numerous organizations, including the International Reading Association, Old Sturbridge Village, the World Scholar-Athlete Games (Univ. of Rhode Island), the Young Writers’ Institute, Hartford Public Library, and the Academy for Young Writers, which she co-founded. She is an Aetna Fellow and Teacher-Consultant Young Writers, which she co-founded. She is an Aetna Fellow and Teacher-Consultant for the Connecticut Writing Project at UCONN, Storrs. Since the summer of 2000, she has been a writing instructor for the State Department of Education’s “Multicultural Instruction “Through the Arts” inter-district grants program in Farmington, New Britain, and Plainville.

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James Keller, Managing Director - Theater of the Performing Arts - Mr. Keller began working with the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts in 1998 as a consultant. He joined the school full time in 2000, when the Academy moved to the Learning Corridor campus. He was Technical Director at the Hartford Stage 1986-2000 and has held teaching positions in the Department of Theatre and Dance at both Trinity College and at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As technical director with the Nikolais Dance Company he participated in tours of the Far East, Europe and the United States. Mr. Keller has acted as Technical Director for several Off-Broadway production at St. Clements Theatre in New York City and was the Assistant Technical Director at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Massachusetts for two seasons. He has a B.A. in Theatre from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a M.F.A. in Technical Production from the University of Wisconsin/Madison.

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Golfo Lambros, Secretary, is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, as a modern dance major.  She has performed with Charles Nicoll/Joe Villane Dance Company of New York City.  Golfo is a member of American Guild of Variety Artists.  This is her fourth season as the Assistant Director for “Discovery Camp” at Perry-Mansfield School of the Arts in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  She joined the Academy after working one year as Executive Assistant to the Assistant Executive Director of CREC.

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Julio Birbrau, Building Maintainer, has 18 years maintenance experience with the Middletown Public Schools and has been with the Academy since 1996.

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Kevin Andersen studied voice, music history, and performance at the University of Hartford's HARTT School.  He teaches vocal preparation, music history, and voice in HARTT's Community Division.  He has performed with the Connecticut Opera, Concora, the Manchester Symphony, and the Underground Opera.  His most recent work was performing in La Padrone at the Ives Festival in New York.

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E. Ann Baldwin earned her B.F.A. at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio and a M.A.L.S. from Wesleyan University. She is a printmaker who exhibits nationally and her artwork is included in numerous private and corporate collections. She is also a juror, lecturer, workshop facilitator, and presenter on a statewide level. In addition to printmaking, ceramics, mixed media, and drawing are inclusive in her areas of expertise. Ms. Baldwin was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for Antioch College in 2003.

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Alison Bogatay, Since relocating from New York City, Alison has choreographed and taught for such organizations as the Hartford Symphony, Performing Arts Programs, the Hartford Conservatory, Kingswood – Oxford High School, Windsor Locks High School, CREC”S “Images of Cultural Identity: project and Connecticut Opera’s “Take Center Stage” outreach program. In 2003, Alison was selected as on of 8 choreographers in the state to feature her work for the CT Dance Alliance Festival, and choreographed the “Dance of the Seven Veils” for Connecticut Opera’s production of Salome. Ms. Bogatay has danced professionally with the New Dance Collective in Danbury and with Angels in Shadows in NYC. Her experiences range from staging such ballets as The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker for various CT Companies, to choreographing and performing in A funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the New Harmony Theater. She has also been in numerous musicals in regional theaters throughout the country. Recent performances include the Ted Hershey Marathon and the CT Latin Expo.

Alison has studied and performed at the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem, and was a dance major at Butler University in Indianapolis. Alison resides in West Hartford with her husband Michael.

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Christine Breslin is a documentary, fine art, and commercial photographer. The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Ms. Breslin has exhibited internationally and nationally, is in the Polaroid Collection and is a member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). She is a teaching artist at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, and the Bushnell Partners’ program and has been adjunct professor at Capital Community College, Manchester Community College, The Hartford Art School and the University of Connecticut. Originally from New York, Ms.Breslin resides in West Harford, CT with her husband and two children.

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Paul Brown known jazz bassist.  He began studying trumpet at age nine, and at age fifteen was performing professionally with Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, and other Rhythm and Blues groups.  In his late twenties, Mr. Brown began playing the bass.  He has traveled throughout the world performing and recording with such major jazz artists as Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Billy Eckstein, Philly Joe Jones, Clark Terry, Betty Carter, Dakota Staton, and Sarah Vaughn.  Mr. Brown has played all the major jazz festivals, from Newport to New Orleans and Monterey to Montreaux.  Throughout the year, Mr. Brown performs in many New York City jazz clubs such as the Village Vanguard and Sweet Basil's. Mr. Brown is founder and director of Hartford's Monday Night Jazz Summer Concert Series, the longest running free jazz series in the United States.  He is also founder and artistic director of the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz.

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David Chandler is the director and owner of the Eagle’s Quest Tai Chi Center. He is also the Stage Combat and Tai Chi instructor for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Memorial Theater Center since 1986 and for Gregory Abels Training Ensemble in N.Y.C. since 1997.  David is also a frequent guest professor at the Connecticut College Drama Department.  He teaches Tai Chi to the faculty and staff of Yale University, and Wesleyan University.   David has been director for the Papermoon Productions Summer Workshops, the Performing Arts Program at Quinnebuag Valley Community College, The Birds Mime Troupe and The Ya-Ta-Hey Native American Arts Festival. David has also been the summer staff coordinator and Tai Chi instructor for the Omega Institute, a teacher at the Ensemble Studio Theater in N.Y.C., creative consultant for The Adventure Game and the Women in Prison Program, Connecticut Correctional facility for Women.  As a member of The Studio Company at Cooper Union in N.Y.C., David critiqued the work in development by professional actors, directors, critics and teachers.  David has numerous movie credits, stage credits and is the author of “Overcoming Clumsiness” and “Wings”.

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Jonathan Chatfield attended Oberlin College Conservatory, where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies (Piano) in 1994.  After his return to Hartford, he began a freelancing career that carried him into a wide variety of musical endeavors.  He has played with such Hartford-based jazz talents as Steve Davis, Nat Reeves, Daniel Salazar and Paul Brown, as well as trumpeter Claudio Roditto. He has recorded with Texas Flood, and such jazz talents as guitarist Larry Coryell, Joel Rosenblatt and drummer Lenny White. Jonathan has just completed the second CD with the jazz-fusion group, Mystery Feet. He has performed and recorded with Latin jazz group, the Charles Flores Quartet, as well as leading his own original jazz trio.

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Robert DePalma attended Hartt College and the Hartford Conservatory of Music. Studied saxophone and improvisation with Dave Leibman. He is currently a member of the Hartford Jazz Orchestra and the New England Jazz Ensemble.  He performs regularly in the orchestras for numerous Broadway show national tours as well as Frank Sinatra, Jr. and The Temptations.  A member of the Hartford Symphony Pops Orchestra, since 1983 and instructor at the Hartford conservatory of Music since 1974.  He has toured the country and recorded with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. Mr. DePalma has also worked with Frank Sinatra Sr. and Ray Charles. He has also recorded with Barry Manilow.

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Eileen Dulen-Jennings is a graduate of The Goodman School of Drama in Chicago and has performed in numerous venues throughout the country.  She has toured nationally and internationally with The National Theatre of the Deaf and with Child's Play, a theatre dedicated to the performance of works written by children.  Eileen has lead workshops in theatre and non-verbal communication throughout the country and abroad for the past 10 years and was named a Master Teaching Artist by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in 1997.

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David Eberly received a BMus, Magna Cum Laude and an Artist's Diploma from the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.  He is a member of Alpha Chi, and Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Societies.  David taught piano at the community division of the Hartt School from 1982 to 1989.  He has accompanied ballet classes at Dance Connecticut and the Hartford Conservatory. David has appeared as soloist at the Hartford Jazz Society and at several Sarasota Jazz Society Jam Sessions.  He played keyboards for Pulse for 13 years and currently plays with the Gerry Carillo and Sam Pasco orchestras. He has been singing with the Harford Insurance City Barbershop Chorus since 1985.

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Maria Escribano is a film artist-instructor.  She holds a filmmaking degree from the School of Dramatic and Liberal Arts in Madrid.  Additional coursework includes study at Piamonte Project, producing staged and audiovisual incentives in Madrid and a Masters degree in Screenwriting from the Viridiana Institute at Alcala de Henares University in Spain.  Maria has had the privilege of studying with Fernando Trueba, Pilar Miro, Jose Luis Borau, Jose Nieto, Maria Ruiz, Juan Madrid and Rafael Azcona among others.  Maria worked as a contributor to the Fine Arts Society’s Film Division in Madrid.  She has produced artistic and corporate films and videos for various firms including Eventos S.A., Warner Brothers, Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Tracking Video, Jet Services. Other collaborations include work with Spanish Cinema’s, Luis Garcia Berlanga, Santiago Segura, Cesar Almodovar, David Trueba, Jorge Sanz which resulted in the production of award winning short films including: Candida, Under Love’s Shadow and others. She worked on film and video productions in Lisbon, London and Barcelona. She also holds a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Film Studies from Wesleyan University.  She is a member of the Instituto Cervantes in New York, is AFAA certified and works as a Language and Script consultant.  Maria also produces videos, conducts workshops for area arts education programs and quest speaks at area film series.

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Kenneth Fischer received his Bachelors and his Masters degrees in music education from the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music.  He currently teaches at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor.  In his professional career, he has played a variety of styles for jazz groups, popular groups, and vocal coaching, as well as productions at the Coach Light Theater and the Hartford Stage Company.

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Gail Fresia has been a costume designer and technician with a variety of companies. Her experiences range from theater, dance, opera, musical theater, and contemporary fashion. In New England, Gail has been the costume shop manger of the University of Massachusetts Department of Theater, Hartford Ballet Company, Dance CT, and Goodspeed musicals. At the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Gail works as a technician in the Costume and Textiles Department. She has also worked with Amherst College, Shakespeare and Company, Middlebury College, Opera North, Eastern Connecticut Ballet, National Theater of the Deaf, Pilobolus Dance Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Zaccho Dance Theater in San Francisco, and Performance Workshop in Taiwan, ROC.

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Francine Gintoff received her B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (Temple University's Art School) and in 1983 earned her M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in painting.  She is a past recipient of a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Grant.  Ms. Gintoff has been in group and one-man shows in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.  Selected exhibitions include the Paul Mellon Arts Center; Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT; the New Britain Museum of American Arts, New Britain, CT; the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT; and Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT.  She taught at the University of Massachusetts and presently is a core instructor in the Visual Arts Department.

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John Gintoff  B.A. French Franklin and Marshall College, M.F.A. Photography, Tyler School of Art. Awards: Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant (2 years); Polaroid Corporation 20”x24” Camera Grant (3 years); Polaroid Corporation Grant. Collections: Private Collections; Yale University; Wesleyan University; Tyler School of Art; Polaroid Corp.; Collection; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.

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Jeanne Giroir originally from Texas, studied at School of American Ballet in NY on a Ford Foundation scholarship. She danced with the Harkness Ballet, also in NYC for two years before landing in Hartford. A principal dancer for the Hartford Ballet for 15 years, she danced such roles as the Sugar Plum Fairy/Clara in the “Nutcracker,” Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet,” and the Maiden in “Carmina Burana,” along with works by George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Michael Uthoff, Peter Martins, and Doris Humphrey. After retiring from the stage, she was ballet mistress for the Hartford Ballet. During her years there, she taught company class, rehearsed the company, and taught master classes in colleges and universities across the country. She presently teaches in the Diploma program at the Hartford Conservatory and at The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. She is married to photographer Thomas Giroir, and has two terrific teenagers, Christopher and Megan!

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Deborah Goffe is a performer, choreographer, dance educator and video artist.  Having earned her MFA in dance from California Institute of the Arts, the Hartford native founded and serves as Artistic Director of Scapegoat Garden, a creative engine rooted in collaboration and driven by the belief that a carefully “engineered” experience goes in through the nose, eyes, skin, ears and mouth to alter those who witness it and participate in it.  From 1996 to 1999, Deborah co-founded and directed Drink to This!, an intergenerational ensemble of performers, designers, writers and visual artists who created multimedia, collaborative works. During those same years, Deborah was a member of the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble and has now returned to the ensemble as a performer and movement teacher and most recently a video director and editor for “Starting Over”. Additionally, she has performed in works by Rebecca Lazier, Doug Varone, Milton Myers, Ruth Barnes and was a member of Velvet Lemons under the direction of Karen Bacon.  Deborah currently teaches dance in a number of institutions including The Academy, Hartford Conservatory and Trinity College.

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Jimmy Greene, Saxophonist, composer and bandleader, Mr. Greene is a positive presence in the creative music world.  His solo recordings, Brand New World (RCA Victor) and Introducing Jimmy Greene (Criss Cross) have been met with much critical acclaim.  Mr. Greene is a native of Hartford and attended Bloomfield High where he was selected to perform in several Regional, All- Connecticut and All-New England jazz ensembles and symphonic bands.  Jimmy studied with famed altoist Jackie McLean at The Artist’s Collective in Hartford.  Mr. Greene formed his first quintet while in high school and began composing music soon thereafter.  He was awarded a scholarship to attend the David Liebman Summer Saxophone Workshop and during his senior year, augmented his studies at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts under bassist/educator Dave Santoro.  As a member of the Academy Jazz Ensemble, Greene won the Most Outstanding Soloist award at the Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival and was selected to the 1993 Grammy All-American High School Jazz Band, conducted by Branford Marsalis.  Mr. Greene continued his studies at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford.  During his final year at Hartt, Greene performed often alongside trumpeter Claudio Roditi. In fact, Greene made his recording debut on Roditi’s Double Standards released on the Reservoir label. Greene entered the prestigious 1996 Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz International Jazz Saxophone Competition and was named first runner-up by a panel of judges that included Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Jackie McLean and Joshua Redman.  Greene graduated from The Hartt School Summa Cum Laude.  Greene moved to NYC and became a member of the Horace Silver Quintet.  In addition he performs regularly with the groups of Tom Harrell, Steve Turre, Lewis Nash, Avishai Cohen, Ralph Peterson, Kenny Barron, TanaReid as well as the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the New Jazz Composers’ Octet and the big bands of Harry Connick Jr. and Jason Lindner. Mr. Greene was recently named to the Board of Trustees of his Alma Mater, The Hartt School, and holds faculty positions at the Hartt School and the Academy.

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Sarah K. Hersh, hailing from Springfield, Massachusetts, Sarah has been singing opera professionally since 1992, with companies all over the country including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sarasota Opera Association, Connecticut Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, The Aldeburgh Festival in England, and the Gregynog Festival in Wales. In addition to her performing, Sarah is the Principal Cantor for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, and the Assistant Director of Music at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph. Here at the Academy, Sarah teaches Classical Voice, Diction, and Vocal Survey for the Music Department, coaches for the Theater Department, and has a full complement of private students.

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Joseph Hertz has returned to his roots as a graphic artist, after a thirteen-year detour to study and practice medicine. He was a principle designer for The Ride, a transit bus map for the city of Anne-Arbor, Michigan, in 2002 and for Long Island Bus, a transit bus map of Nassau County, in 2001. He is planning to begin work updating the Neighborhood Maps of New York City located in every subway station, for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, fall 2003.

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Brian Jennings is a Core Faculty member in the Theater Department. He also teaches acting at the University of Hartford. He has directed numerous productions for the Academy, other local institutions. Most recently, he directed his own adaptation, RAVE: The Bacchae of Euripides-Remixed, which was subsequently performed by Academy students at the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Brian’s acting credits include productions for major regional theaters, Off Broadway, television, and radio. He was formerly a voicing actor for the National Theater of the Deaf. His plays for young audiences have been performed throughout the United States. His acting credits include productions for major regional theaters, Off Broadway, television, and radio. His plays for young audiences have been performed throughout the United States. He holds degrees from the National Theater Conservatory and Princeton University. Brian was named 2004 Teacher of the Year by International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools, and was the recipient of a 2005 Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship.

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Norman Johnson attended the Hartford Conservatory and the Hartt School of Music. He was the associate conductor for the Hartford Stage Company's summer youth theater from 1983 to 1986. Mr. Johnson has been on the faculty at the Hartford Camerata Conservatory since 1986 and was Dean of the Diploma Program from 1990 to 1996. He is presently Dean of the Record Production Program at the Conservatory.

Laura Kane is a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the former principal cellist of Hartford Symphony Core Orchestra.  An active chamber musician, she has performed at the Taos, New Mexico Festival, the Newport, and Yellow Barn Festivals and is a founding member of The Camerata Ensemble.  Her musical training includes private studies with David Wells, Raya Garbousova and Aldo Parisot.  She has taught at the Hartford Camerata Conservatory where she has been chairman of the string department and is currently on the faculty of the Hartt School of Music, Community Division.  Laura also teaches at the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University.

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Donna Martin has been working as a performing songwriter throughout the northeast since the early 90’s.  In that time, she has released four CDs of original music and has won numerous awards for her work.  Performing Songwriter Magazine gave her national recognition for her latest release; Ghost and a previous CD earned her a spot in the Lilith Fair where Donna performed along with Sarah McLachlan and Bonnie Raitt.

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Patrick McCullough is an award-winning producer and director.  He has produced and directed several award-winning films including the recent production of Sara’s Diary, a teen suicide prevention film, which received the Cine Golden Eagle Award for Excellence.  For the past three years Mr. McCullough has been honored as a Blue Ribbon Panel Judge for Children’s Specials in Writing and Directing for the Daytime Emmy Awards.  His theatrical script, Broham, was a finalist in the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriting Program.  He is currently in post-production on the feature film he produced, Beautiful Kid, with Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela’s Ashes.  Mr. McCullough studied theater at Carnegie Hall and has a BA in Communication Arts from Marist College.  He has produced and acted in productions that received critical acclaim and traveled internationally, including the Dublin Theater Festival in Ireland and the Signature Theater in New York City.

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Karen Sparks Mellon has been a set designer and scenic artist in the Hartford/New Haven area since 1979. Sparks has designed scenery for, among others, Amherst College, The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, CPTV, ECA in New Haven, The Lincoln Theater, Loomis-Chaffee, The New England Actors Theater, The Portland Stage Company, Trinity College and The University of Hartford. She is the resident set designer at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT., where she lives on campus with her husband and two daughters.  As a scenic artist, Sparks worked for the Hartford Stage Company for eight years, as well as being a freelance painter for the Long Wharf Theater and the Goodspeed Opera House.  Other projects include backdrop design for the last G Fox Christmas windows in downtown Hartford, interior painting for the first Banana Republic store in NYC, and whitewashing the inside of a barn for the movie “Funny Farm.”

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Natasha D. Miles studied Technical Print Methods and the history of painting at the University of Hartford’s’ Art School. For the past six years, she has been a Visual Aesthetics instructor of art at the Armory Art Center of the Palm Beaches. When she is not in Florida, she is educating young adults through the creative exploration of painting, drawing, and personal journal brainstorming.  She focuses her energy towards redefining Visual Arts as a way of life, but also through collaborative visual aide projects within the greater Hartford community.

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Dianne Mower is an international recording artist and records on the Jazzcity Label.  Although her emphasis is jazz, Ms. Mower also sings country, folk, pop and Broadway music.  Currently she is working on her fourth CD, recording the music of Dave Brubeck with Norman Johnson and Dan and Chris Brubeck.  She also sings with an eleven-piece swing band, The New Millennium Jazz Ensemble.  She was the lead singer with the popular jazz vocal group, Jasmine.  Ms. Mower has performed at the top clubs in New York City including the Blue Note.  She has studied with Jackie Jarrett for many years and has performed with Dave Brubeck, Bill Mays, Dick Oatts, Don Elliot, George Coleman, Nat Adderley, and Harvie Swartz.  Ms. Mower continues to perform in New York.

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Alex Nakhomovsky was born in the former USSR.  After immigrating to the U.S.A. in 1978 he continued his studies at Hartt School of Music earning a M.M. in Piano Accompanying.  As a freelance musician in different styles of music, he performed in various cities throughout the United States, including New York's Village Gate and Town Hall.  He was a pianist and assistant conductor at Coach Light Dinner Theater and has been performing regularly with the Broadway Series at the Bushnell.  Alex has worked with Valery Ponomarev, Benny Golson, Jimmy Cobb and recently performed as a member of Tim Armacost Quartet at the International Jazz Festival in Novokuznetsk, Russia.  As a bandleader and pianist, he has traveled throughout the world aboard cruise ships, often performing classical programs.  He has taught at Trinity College, Connecticut College, and Hartt School of Music.

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Michael Nowicki holds a B.F.A. in Acting from the Experimental Theater Wing at the TISCH School of the Arts at New York University. In addition, Michael studied Commedia dell'Arte and improvisation at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California.  He has workshopped with a variety of groups ranging from Chicago's Second City Theatre to Anne Bogart's Saratoga International Theatre Institute. As a performer, Michael’s experience is seasoned with numerous regional acting credits, including 5 main stage productions and over 15 staged readings with Hartford Stage and an original piece that he performed at Off-Off Broadway’s famed P.S. 122.  As an instruct he has served on many local faculties including The University of Hartford and the Hartford Conservatory and the and has also taught abroad, with stops ranging from Iceland to Russia, where he spent 3 weeks as an invited guest artist. Michael is the Artistic Director of the Theatre Program at Simsbury High School and a lead teaching artist with Hartford Stage’s Education Department. Michael is the proud recipient of the 2003 Academy Artist/Instructor of the Year Award.

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Martin Obeng is a composer, educator, dancer and master drummer who has worked internationally for the last 25 years. A native of Ghana, West Africa, Mr. Obeng began drumming at age five and by seventeen, had been appointed Royal Court Drummer to the chief of the Aburi-Akuapim region of Eastern Ghana.  He toured West Africa as a drummer and dancer with Ghana’s National Arts council Folkloric Company and later moved to the U.S. where he worked with the New England based Talking Drum Ensemble.  He has taught drumming and dance at Brown University since 1988.  He uses the drum to create surprising melodies and counterpoints in addition to complex rhythms, and this unique style is captured on his distinctive recordings, Awakening and Sunsum (Spirit) and on the compilation Africa: Never Stand Still.  Marrying traditional instruments and rhythm patterns with original compositions, he creates a fresh new sound. He has performed in festivals, music venues and schools in the U.S., Mexico, South America, Africa, and New Zealand playing and recording with such luminaries as Max Roach, Ed Blackwell, Roy Hargrove, Jay Hoggard, and Anthony Braxton. KKO’s new CD available at www.obeng.org

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Jim Oblon received his B.A. in Jazz Studies from William Paterson University. He has made seven recordings with Dick Oatts, worked with Jazz musicians such as David Liebman, Clark Terry, Jerry Bergonzi and is currently teaching lessons to Paul Simon’s son, Quinn. He has toured Sweden with Dick Oatts, and has studied South Indian drumming.

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Maureen O'Brien is the recipient of a grant (to complete a novel) from Barbara Deming Memorial Fund/Money for Women.  She is also a recipient of a fiction grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her poems and stories have appeared in various magazines, including The Lilliput Review and The Louisville Review, and in the anthologies Through A Child’s Eyes, I am Becoming the Woman I’ve Wanted, Mother’s Nature, and Hard Ground: Writing the Rockies. She received an Honorable Mention in the Robert Penn Warren Award, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa, and is included in the Anthology of New England Writers 2003. Her debut novel, tentatively titled “B-Mother,” will be published by Harcourt in the Fall 2006.

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Clare O'Donnell holds a Master’s Degree in Dance from Wesleyan University and a B.A. in Theatre and Dance and Economics from Trinity College.  Ms. O’Donnell has been on faculty at University of Hartford, Hartford Conservatory, Dance Connecticut, and was a visiting lecturer at Trinity College.  Additionally, she has taught and performed throughout the United States and Europe and she is currently the Artistic Director of her own tap dance company called O’D n’ Tap.  Recently, she was chosen to perform at Oklahoma City University Doctorial Awards program to honor tap legends and masters who were awarded honorary doctorate degrees. The inductees included Geni Legon, Fayard Nicholas, Jimmy Slyde, Leonard Reed, Prince Spencer, Bunny Briggs, Buster Brown, Cholly Atkins and Henry LeTang. Ms. O’Donnell and her company have performed at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow International Dance Festival and at the New York City Tap Festival. Ms. O’Donnell has performed with tap legends Gregory Hines, Savion glover, Jimmy Slyde, Dianne Walker and with her teacher and mentor Brenda Bufalino. She has also shared the stage with several of the late great master’s including Buster Brown, Chuck Green and Lon Chaney.  Clare O’Donnell is a choreographer, dancer and educator who honors and dedicates herself to the American tap dance tradition.  She takes great pride in studying, teaching and preserving the history of tap dance as an indigenous, vital art form.

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Beth Oman has worked with many performance groups and ensembles in the New England area including the Goodspeed Opera House, Harford Stage Company, Dupre Chamber Players and the Wildwood Groups. She has worked on many notable educational programs such as Symphony in the Schools, the Bushnell Partners program, and has appeared as a guest artist for the Greater Harford Arts Councils Visiting Artist series. Ms. Oman is also a member of faculty at the Hartt School of Music and is currently pursuing a masters degree in music education and clarinet performance. She also holds a B. M. A. in flute performance from the Hartt school of Music and an Artist Diploma in jazz saxophone form the Hartford Conservatory.

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Rafael Oses Core Teacher, Creative Writing Instructor and Interdisciplinary Class Instructor – “Paintry and Poeting”.  Rafael Oses was born in Hartford, CT. and holds degrees from Hartford Art School and Columbia University.  His work has appeared in Black Warrior Review and Fuge and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He received an artist fellowship in poetry from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts; and was a 2002 MacDowell Colony fellow.

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Christine Palm is a writer of feature articles, scripts and poetry. She has been a reporter for several newspapers, including the Hartford Times and the Advocate. She is editor of Readings, a publication of the Connecticut Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Christine is a frequent contributor to Connecticut Review, Northeast and Caesura, and is a columnist for the Hartford Courant. She serves as president of the Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens, and in 1983, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

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Maryjane Peluso received her B.S. in music education from the Crane School of Music, State University College at Potsdam, New York and a M.M. in piano performance from the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music.  She is the founding member of the Kelley-Peluso Piano Duo, which has released a new CD entitled, Pianodance, and performs in chamber and solo recitals as well. She is the assistant music director for the Plainville Choral Society, and has maintained a private piano studio since 1976. Maryjane has studied with Sandra Shapiro at The Cleveland Institute of Music, and was recently invited to perform at the Van Cliburn Piano Institute at Texas Christian University.

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Peter Peluso received his B.S. in music education from the Crane School of Music, State University College at Potsdam, N.Y.  He is currently the Choral Director of the Plainville Choral Society, and the Central Region Youth Theater.  He has studied choral conducting with Bert Konowitz and Peter Bagley.  Mr. Peluso has been guest choral conductor for the Association of Connecticut Choruses, The Connecticut Music Education's Regional Festival and The Charter Oak Music Festival.  He has also been musical theater director for Myth Farmington, Rocky Hill Theater Guild, Bristol Civic Theater and the Berlin Youth Theater.  He has been a guest clinician/speaker at Central Connecticut State University and for the Association of Connecticut Choruses.  Mr. Peluso has taught private voice lessons since 1987 and has had a flourishing piano tuning business since 1973.  Peter served as the Academy Music Chairperson from 1989 through 1991.

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Pit Menpusek Pinegar is a poet, fiction writer, playwright and essayist.  She is a teaching artist with the Bushnell Performing Arts Center, Litchfield Performing Arts, Inc., and The Center for Creative Youth.  For eight years she directed the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival’s urban outreach program. Ms. Pinegar has three volumes of poetry, Nine Years Between Two Poems, The Possibilities of Empty Space, and the Physics of Transmigration.  Her Broadside Miniatures ™ (combinations of poems and photographs) have been exhibited at The Shaw Cramer Gallery, Vineyard Haven, MA, The Norfolk, Artisan’s Guild, The Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT, the Buttonwood Tree Galley in Middletown, CT, The Magpie Gallery in Lewisburg, PA and the Gallery of the Performing Arts, Hartford, CT.

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Christine Simoes is a graduate of the Hartford Conservatory and alumni of the Academy. She is currently on the staff at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in New Britain and has done extensive training with numerous ballroom coaches for professional completions.  Christine has taught and choreographed for many local dance schools such as Dance Connecticut, and their Discover Dance Program in Hartford Public Schools, The Hartford Conservatory, The Academy of Dance in East Longmeadow, Alyson’s School of Dance in Uncasville, Priscilla Gibson School of Dance Arts/Manchester Ballet Company and Fred Astaire Dance Studio in West Hartford.

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Gregory R. Tate was a member of the University of Southern California BFA Company from 1976-1979. It was during this time that his first two plays – An American Trilogy and Lies were produced. In 1984 the Solano Arts Theater, in Vallejo, CA, also produced Lies. In 1986, Mr. Tate became the master electrician at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco. This relationship led to Mr. Tate being hired by the San Francisco Mime Troupe where he became a member in 1989 and remained until 2001. While with the SFMT, Mr. Tate was an ensemble member in the plays – Back to Normal, Social Work, I Ain’t Yo Uncle, Coast City Confidential, Escape from Cyberia and Killing Time.  Mr. Tate also served as contributing writer on these pieces and as head writer on the Mime Troupe’s first Youth Theater Festival play, “Gotta Getta Life.” Mr. Tate has also had two of his plays- ”The Patch” and “Ritual” produced off-off Broadway, at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, in 1991. From January – March of 1998, Mr. Tate worked for the Soweto Youth Drama Society in Johannesburg, RSA under a grant from the Oxfam Foundation. Mr. Tate taught Stage and Tour Management at the SYDS while tour managing the play, “Let’s talk About It”, which was one of South Africa’s first AIDS education projects. In September of 2001, Mr. Tate moved to Hartford, CT to become one of the founding members of HartBeat Ensemble.

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Judi Tolomea has worked with and performed the choreography of Anna Sokolow, Twyla Tharp, Wendy Perron, Bill T. Jones, and Yoshiko Chuma as well as the works of Isadora Duncan, Doris Humphrey, and Jose Limon. She has performed in solo concert at RAW, Trinity College, Wesleyan University and throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Ms. Tolomea has also performed as a principal dancer with CT Dance Theater, Judy Dworin, and Martynuk/McAdams.  Ms. Tolomea was former Dean of Dance at the Hartford Conservatory where she re-instated the Dance Diploma Program and began ANNEXDance, a repertory dance company of which she was Artistic Director.  Ms. Tolomea conceived, produced, and performed in the concert “Save the Planet”, a benefit for the nuclear freeze campaign, in which she invited Eiko and Koma and other guest artists to perform.  Ms. Tolomea has her master of arts from Wesleyan University where she was a visiting faculty member and has also taught at Trinity College, the Hartford Conservatory, and continues to teach at Westminster and Watkinson schools.

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Iris Van Rynbach is a graduate of Parsons School of Design. She attended Pratt Institute and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. She is currently teaching drawing and painting to the Theater Design and Production majors, Level 1 & 2, and Cartooning/Comic Books to the Creative Writing Department. Iris is the author/illustrator of 13 award-winning books for children. For 12 years, she was a regular contributor to the New Yorker Magazine, publishing numerous covers and inside illustrations. Iris currently provides her talents to The Hartford Courant. Iris also contributes monthly to the Sketch Book Page of the Hartford Magazine. Iris was adjunct faculty at University of Hartford, University of Connecticut, and Central Connecticut State University. She was the set designer and scenic artist for the Academy’s summer production “Once on This Island.”

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Debra Walsh started as an Artist/Instructor 18 years ago at the Academy. She was promoted to Core Faculty in the Theater Department in 2001. She brings over 25 years of professional work as an actor, producer and theatre arts educator to her students. Currently, she is co-producer at Capital Classics Theater and the Central Connecticut Shakespeare Summer Theater Festival. She is in the Acting Repertory Company as well as being the Education Director. She has worked with many local schools and arts agencies to develop and implement theater programs. These include: The Bushnell, Dance Connecticut and Trinity College. Capital Classics most recent productions (that she co-produced and performed in) include: It’s A Wonderful Life On Air! (produced in the Golden Age of Radio Style; the Angel) The learned Ladies, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Ford) and Romeo and Juliet;(the Nurse and Lady Montague). She is slowly, but surely, pursuing an advanced degree in counseling.

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Christopher Weed is a graduate of Oberlin College (1972) where he majored in music as an organist and harpsichordist. At the University of Hartford he pursued graduate studies in medieval and renaissance music. He has studied conducting with Robert Eichenberger and James Jordan at Westminster Choir College. Since his summer stock experience with the College Light Opera Company, he has coached and accompanied and music directed for local theater groups, including Simsbury Light Opera, Manchester Musical Players and Producing Guild.

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Nancy Wolfe has been Director of the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University since 1999. She is an educator in her 15th year at Greater Harford Academy of the Arts, with 10 years as Artistic/Instructor of Theater Programs at Simsbury High School, and several seasons as Artist/Instructor at the International Film and Television workshops in Rockport, Maine. A member of Actor’s Equity Association, Screen Actor’s Guild, and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Nancy worked for 20 years as a professional actor, director and producer for theater/film. She recently appeared in Harford Stage BRAND; a new series of staged readings, and served as Acting Coach on an episode of the NBC-TV drama “Third Watch” and on “Jewel”, a CBS-TV movie of the week starring Farah Fawcett. For two years Nancy served on the Theater Review Panel for the CT Commission on the Arts, and currently serves on the Education Advisory Board for the Goodspeed Opera House. She gained ten years experience in Arts Administration serving as a Co-Founder, Board Member and Managing Director of COMPANY ONE, an Actors’ Equity Association Theater Company. In January 2004, Nancy’s current “ leadership project” came to fruition when she and a delegation from CREC traveled to Cape Verde, Africa, establishing a new five-year agreement with the government for student exchange and for a CCY Arts Residency in Cape Verde.

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David Yih performs regularly with Caribbean and Latin Jazz ensembles in New England. As a member of various world music ensembles, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Space. A pianist and percussionist, David enjoys creating music for dance and theater, most recently for Trinity College productions of Blood Wedding and Turandot. David received his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, Trinity and is the author of a dissertation on the music and dance of Haitian Vodou. His field recordings and liner notes appear on the Smithsonian Folkways CD Rhythms of Rapture, and he produced a book/DC set on Haitian music, Angels in the Mirror. He taught at Wesleyan University, Trinity College, Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Bridgeport, and the University of New Haven.

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Nina Zilber graduated Chernigov School of Music, Ukraine, in the piano class of Eugenia Borisova.  Her teaching career started in 1980.  She also worked as a music editor at the Lviv Philharmonic Society, Ukraine, and as a choir accompanist.  She worked as a ballet accompanist at the Hartford Ballet, Nutmeg Conservatory and presently at Dance Connecticut.  She continues to teach privately as well.