Faculty

Nia Jackson

Nia Imani Jackson was born and raised in New Jersey. She is a graduate of the Academy for Performing Arts in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, where she had the opportunity to work with many choreographers and teachers. Jackson has been a member of the Freespace Dance Junior Company and The Well Performance Project. In 2013 Jackson continued her dance training at Rutgers University where she studied dance and education. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts in May of 2017 and  her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance Education in 2018. Jackson has worked with choreographers such as Carolyn Dorfman, Brian Brooks, Sidra Bell, Camille A. Brown, and more.

Along with working with various choreographers, she has also won multiple awards for her own choreography. Jackson is one of the newest members of the hip-hop company, The Wannabes. Her most recent performance with The Wannabes included performing for “World Of Dance Live” with contestants from the television show. In addition to performing, Jackson is a yoga instructor, completing her 200-hour yoga teacher training through the Om Factory Yoga Center in New York.

Kendall Klas

Kendall Klas is a graduate of James Madison University where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Minor in Dance. Additionally, Kendall holds a Master of Science degree in Social Work from Fordham University and is a licensed clinical social worker. Klas danced competitively with Summit School of Dance and began choreography work in 2009. She has worked with Porch Light Productions in Glen Rock, NJ and choreographed multiple musicals in the Glen Rock and Millburn school districts. In 2012, Klas was nominated for Best Choreography in the Metropolitan High School Theater Awards for her work in Grease at Glen Rock High School. As a dance educator and choreographer, Klas believes in fostering confidence, improving self-esteem, and increasing understanding of movement and music through dance technique.

Lilli Markey

Lilli Markey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theatre Arts from New Jersey City University and has studied at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Markey has directed numerous children’s theater productions including Romeo & Juliet, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Una and the Goblins, Cinderella, Daisy-Head Mayzie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, How to Eat Like a Child, Aesop’s Fables, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Sherlock Holmes and the Emerald of Alcazar. Some of her favorite performing roles include Blackbird (Una), The Country Club (Chloe), Closer (Alice), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Suzanne), Popcorn (Scout), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia), Much Ado About Nothing (Hero), Barefoot in the Park (Corie).

Markey has toured with various professional children’s theater groups including Theater Project of New Jersey, Women’s Theater Co., The Cameo Cast, and The Shoestring Players. She appeared in film for American Baby Magazine playing herself as a first-time Mom. Most recently, Markey starred as Donna Marsala in Tony and Tina’s Wedding at NJPAC and as the Velveteen Rabbit for Alliance Repertory Company at the Union County Arts Center. Markey has been teaching drama to children for over a decade, leading classes and workshops in improvisation, creative movement, theatrical make-up, and acting technique.

Mariah Dalton

Mariah Dalton is a graduate of Muhlenberg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre, concentration in Acting. With a deep love for all things involving theater, music, and dance, Dalton has appeared in productions of The Addams Family (Morticia), Avenue Q (Mrs. T), American Dream (Mommy), and ‘dentity Crisis (Edith Fromage) while in college and various productions while a student at Summit High School. Dalton has a background in choral music and improv comedy in addition to her training as an actor. Recently, she has performed in cabarets in both New York City and Pennsylvania as part of the Fishbowl Collective, a theater collective from of Muhlenberg Alumni.

Joyce Alexander, Early Childhood Music and Music for Special Needs

Joyce Alexander is a Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC). She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Therapy from Montclair State University and has also studied voice, theory, and performance at The New School in New York City.

Alexander received the Department of Music David Ott Scholarship and Outstanding Student Music Therapist Award while at Montclair State University. She has advanced teacher training in Kindermusik and Musikgarten. Alexander has served as music therapist in several settings including Bayonne Public Schools, Regional Day School (Morristown), American Day Treatment Center (Verona), Essex County Hospital (Cedar Grove), and S.A.G.E. (Berkeley Heights).

Margaret Persing

Margaret Persing holds a Master of Music degree in Classroom Music from the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford and a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from St. Olaf College. Former NJ Director and Teacher of MARY ANN HALL’S MUSIC FOR CHILDREN & Beyond™ for 12 years, she currently teaches OUT OF THE BOX MUSIC™, a new branch of MUSIC FOR CHILDREN.

Persing grew up in a musical family, studying violin and piano from an early age. She fell in love with choral singing while in high school choir under the baton of Dr. James Jordan, now of Westminster Choir College. While at St. Olaf College, Persing spent three years performing and touring with the St. Olaf Choir. She also played violin in the St. Olaf Chamber Orchestra. She has sung with the Pro Arte Chamber Singers of Connecticut and the Harmonium Choral Society of Morristown, NJ. She is currently a violin soloist and part-singer/soloist at Garden State Church where she also conducts the children’s choir.

Persing believes that music is essential to the well-being of the whole child, that every child is born with musical intelligence, and that the child is the most important instrument through which music flows and grows.

Emma Peterson

Emma Peterson holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education with a Voice Concentration from the College of New Jersey. She is currently teaching elementary music at Central Jersey College Prep Charter School. She served as a teaching artist at the Paterson Music Project and has taught in the Madison, New Providence, and Basking Ridge Public Schools. In college, she spent a semester in the Disney College Program at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. As a performer, Peterson has appeared with New Jersey Youth Theater (A Christmas Carol) Stony Hill Players (Pirates of Penzance), Trilogy Repertory Company in Basking Ridge (Children’s Participatory Theater, Mary Poppins, Midsummer Night’s Dream), Light Opera of New Jersey (The Gondoliers, HMS Pinafore), and at TCNJ (Pirates of Penzance, Orfeo and Euridice). As a choral singer, she has performed with the Freelance Ensemble of New Jersey Orchestra, in the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center with the TCNJ Chorale, at Carnegie Hall, and in the onstage choir for The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Paper Mill Playhouse with the Continuo Arts Foundation.

Diane Michaels

Diane Michaels has served as the principal harpist with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea since 1993, has played on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and with the Queens Symphony, Metro Lyric Opera, the New York Verismo Opera Company, RTG Productions, the Garden State Philharmonic, and the Monmouth Symphony. She has also performed with Tony Bennett at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City and was a member of the All American College Orchestra at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Michaels has played aboard the QE2 and the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator, currently performs for tea at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, and has performed at New York’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants, including the Plaza Hotel, the Rainbow Room, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Hilton at Short Hills.

Michaels is on the roster of Music for all Seasons, a non-profit organization through which she performs at numerous facilities including hospitals and shelters for victims of domestic abuse. She has toured with the New York Harp Ensemble in the United States and Italy and with the Paulson Harp Ensemble in New Jersey and Ireland. Ms. Michaels was a Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation Young Artist Recitalist and a four-time gold medallist in the harp division of the United Irish Counties of New York, Inc. Feis. As a winner of this competition, she appeared in the winners’ concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. She served as the President of the North Jersey Chapter of the American Harp Society 2008-2012, following four years as the Chapter secretary. In addition to maintaining a private teaching studio, Michaels is on the faculty of the Wharton’s Performing Arts School in Berkeley Heights. She also has published arrangements for harp ensemble and a book for beginning harp students.

Michaels received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where she studied harp with Alice Chalifoux. She attended Interlochen Arts Academy, where she was a student of Joan Holland, and National Music Camp, both in Interlochen, Michigan, the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

Craig Graham

Craig Graham has become one of the most versatile guitarists in the tri-state area. Comfortable performing many styles of music, including jazz, classical, bluegrass, Latin, blues, jam band, rock and pop music, Graham performs intimate solo gigs and with orchestras and bands in all types of venues. He has toured in Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, and the U.S.

In addition to performances with his own band, Graham has also performed and recorded with Jeff Andrews, Vince DelGato, Joe Deninzon, Craig Handy, Molly Holm, Carol Lawrence, Donny McCaslin, Danny Paradise, Bill Rogers, Bobby Ridle, Ben Vereen, and Rural Free Delivery. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and workshops with great musicians such as Dave Creamer, Pat Matheny, and Michael Brecker.

Rob Heinink

Rob Heinink began playing guitar at the age of eleven and as a teenager he played in local rock bands in Hackensack, New Jersey and with the bands Jona’s Ark, The Yorkshire Pudding, as an opening act for artists Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and Gary U.S. Bonds.

After spending two years at St. Petersburg Junior College in Florida, Heinink attended Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied guitar with Bill Leavitt, Pat Metheny, and John Damien. As a freeleance musician, Heinink has worked with The Drifters, Del Shannon, The Marvelettes, Chuck Berry, The Crystals, Leslie Gore, and–believe it or not–Tiny Tim.

He has appeared in recordings, Off Broadway shows, as well as the European tour of the musical Hair and productions of Tommy, Big River, Fiddler on the Roof, and Grease. He also writes and collaborates with others making original music. From 1994 to 2000, Heinink was the guitarist for The Royal Scam, a Steely Dan tribute band, and during that time Heinink was hired by Hal Leonard Music Corporation to write a guitar transcription book called The Best of Steely Dan. He composed and recorded a national radio jingle called P-TOUCH, with Corey Glover from the rock band Livng Colour, for Brother International Corporation.

Presently Heinink divides his time between teaching, which he enjoys as much as performing, and playing guitar for the jazz quartet …and All That Jazz, whose 2005 CD “Reflections” was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Heinink in his home-based 24-track recording studio. He is also involved in the mandolin/classical guitar project Music Of The Ages.

Andrew Nitkin

Andrew Nitkin is the original Founder and Director of the American Institute of Guitar in New York City, established over three decades ago. There he developed a specific curriculum geared towards the teaching of all styles of guitar playing as well as an international concert series that featured many of today’s great performers on the instrument.

Nitkin’s education includes having attended The College of New Jersey, Hunter College, and Mannes College of Music in New York City. His private studies included Howard Fraidkin, Leonid Bolotine, Ariadna Mikeshina, Mario Escudero, and Tiberio Nascimento.

Nitkin has performed in a variety of venues and settings over the years having performed chamber music with Juan Carlos Rybin of the Quartetto Amati, most recently The Sacred Hymns and Carols Choir of New Jersey, and on the Community Concert Series at the New Providence Memorial Public Library both as a soloist and ensemble player. Having been classically trained, his performing style is a mix of classical, Spanish, and Brazilian guitar.

Since having left the American Institute of Guitar in 2004, Nitkin joined the staff of Wharton’s Performing Arts School in Berkeley Heights in 2005 as a faculty member and an administrator. He believes that the study of music helps to enrich and make for a better quality of life for every person who chooses to pursue it. That is his life’s passion and mission.

Joe DeVico, Recording Studio and Engineering Techniques

Joe DeVico grew up in Chatham and Madison, NJ, where he began playing both percussion and piano at a young age. He also became heavily interested in recording and opened his first studio to the public when he was 13 years old, recording local artists at no charge on his prized Tascam 388 8-track reel-to-reel recorder. After graduating from Madison High School, DeVico went on to study Jazz and Percussion Performance at Indiana University. After graduating, he moved back to New Jersey and began a successful performing and teaching career, working with area percussion and piano students and performing throughout the tri-state area, focused mainly on Big Band and small group jazz. As a drummer, DeVico has performed and toured with James Moody, Freddie Hubbard, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and many others. He was the drummer with Cecil’s Big Band featured on ABC’s Nightline. He is currently the drummer with The Jazz Lobsters and Asbury Fever and plays percussion with multiple artists and cabaret performances at New York clubs including Birdland and 54 Below.

DeVico never stopped recording, and shortly after finishing at Indiana University, he opened a commercial facility to allow jazz artists an affordable space to record their projects. During that time he began composing works for radio and TV. As a musician, recording engineer and composer, his original music can be heard on TBS, TLC, TeenNICK and We Networks and in national spots for clients including Coca-Cola and GE Capital. DeVico has spent the last eight years as an assistant to Grammy and Tony-winning arranger Don Sebesky, including multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including Come Fly Away, Baby It’s You, Honeymoon In Vegas and An American in Paris.

Kevin Brown, Music Theory

Kevin Brown is adjunct professor of Double Bass and Music Theory/Aural Skills at Montclair State University and served as adjunct professor of Double Bass at Georgian Court College from 2003-2009. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies and Master of Music degree in Double Bass from the University of North Texas. Performances and recordings include the Staten Island Symphony, Metro Lyric Opera, Orchestra of St. Peter-by-the-Sea, New Jersey Pops, New Jersey Ballet, and the Richardson, Sherman and Wichita Falls Symphonies. He has appeared with Marvin Hamlisch, Regis Philbin, Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, the Drifters, as well as frequent productions at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse.

Sean Hack, Music Theory

Sean Hack graduated in 2016 with a double major in Music Composition and Trumpet Performance from Illinois State University. He started trumpet lessons while attending Maplewood Middle School and, at the urging of a classmate who played in the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS), joined NJYS’s annual Orchestral Camp after the summer of sixth grade. He went on to participate in three NJYS ensembles—Philharmonia, Youth Orchestra, and its top ensemble, Youth Symphony—and traveled to Europe as a member of the youth orchestra’s 2012 tour of Vienna and Salzburg. Hack became a coach for the Orchestral Camp in the summer of 2009 and began teaching trumpet at Wharton’s Performing Arts School in the fall of 2016.

Alice Hamlet, Music Theory

A prolific studio recording musician, Hamlet has recorded for over a hundred indie bands and singer songwriters and on the soundtrack for the 2013 Steven Soderbergh film Side Effects. She is the founder and director of NYC-based Ten Strings Music Studio and maintains a private teaching studio as well as serving on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arts School where she teaches cello and music theory.

Diane Michaels, Music Theory

Diane Michaels has served as both the principal harpist with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea since 1993, has played on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and with the Queens Symphony, Metro Lyric Opera, the New York Verismo Opera Company, RTG Productions, the Garden State Philharmonic, and the Monmouth Symphony. She has also performed with Tony Bennett at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City and was a member of the All American College Orchestra at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Michaels has played aboard the QE2 and the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator, currently performs for tea at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, and has performed at New York’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants, including the Plaza Hotel, the Rainbow Room, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Hilton at Short Hills.

Michaels is on the roster of Music for all Seasons, a non-profit organization through which she performs at numerous facilities including hospitals and shelters for victims of domestic abuse. She has toured with the New York Harp Ensemble in the United States and Italy and with the Paulson Harp Ensemble in New Jersey and Ireland. Michaels was a Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation Young Artist Recitalist and a four-time gold medalist in the harp division of the United Irish Counties of New York, Inc. Feis. As a winner of this competition, she appeared in the winners’ concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. She served as the President of the North Jersey Chapter of the American Harp Society 2008-2012, following four years as the Chapter secretary. In addition to maintaining a private teaching studio, Michaels is on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arts School in Berkeley Heights. She also has published arrangements for harp ensemble and a book for beginning harp students.

Michaels received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where she studied harp with Alice Chalifoux. She attended Interlochen Arts Academy, where she was a student of Joan Holland, and National Music Camp, both in Interlochen, Michigan, the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

Matthew Van Dongen, Music Theory

Matthew Van Dongen is the recipient of The Andrew Phillips Award for his solo violin composition, Three Nocturnes. He has been an educator in a variety of musical disciplines since 2004; past students include Chris Pennie (ex-Coheed and Cambria, ex-Dillinger Escape Plan, Fight Mannequins) and award-winning composer, Adam Kennaugh. Van Dongen’s students have gone on to become college music majors and educators themselves. Van Dongen is a select winner of the Vox Novus competition, “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.” His compositions have been performed in the New York Metropolitan area, including performances by Ruotao Mao, Yumi Suehiro, Shannon Roberts, Katie Lipow, Colton Martin, Michael McDonald, Eric Roper, Lucy Hole, Chloe Elszey, Ruth Ochs, and David A. Poli. Van Dongen has premiered his own works on classical guitar, and has made numerous recordings as an electric guitarist and session musician. Van Dongen’s 2015-2016 season as a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir culminated in performances of Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center which were recorded by Sony Music. Van Dongen holds a Master of Music degree with distinction in Composition from Westminster Choir College, a Bachelor of Music degree, Summa Cum Laude, in Classical Guitar Performance from Montclair State University, and an Associate of Arts degree, Summa Cum Laude, in Classical Guitar Performance from the County College of Morris. He has studied composition with Joel Phillips and Amparo Fabra-Crespo, keyboard harmony with Stefan Young, Schenkerian analysis with Anthony Kosar, post-tonal analysis with Ronald Hemmel, Medieval music and notation with Carolann Buff, and tonal music theory with Joel Phillips, Joseph Bilotti, and Richard Gradone. He is a self-taught electric guitarist.

Kristen Wuest, Music Theory

Kristen Wuest, a New Jersey Youth Symphony alumna who served as principal flute for two years, has been playing the flute since the age of nine. She performed with the New Jersey Youth Symphony in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in May 2003.

Wuest attended master classes with world renowned Julius Baker, Jan Vinci, Jeffrey Khaner, Bart Feller, and Paul Edmund Davies. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and a Master of Music in Flute Performance at The School of Music, Dance, and Theater at New Jersey City University where she studied under Katherine Fink.

While at Rutgers University, Wuest studied under Kaoru Hinata and was a member of the Grammy-nominated Rutgers Wind Ensemble. She aspires to teach flute at the college level and has built a busy career in freelance performance.

Timothy Cole, Director of Musical Theater Arts

Working with students of all ages, Cole treats every student as an individual.  She believes that the fundamental techniques of voice: breath, support, posture, resonance, and diction, can and should be applied to all types of singing and theater performance. Her specialization in pedagogy gives her a great technical understanding of the voice, and she enjoys preparing singers for auditions, competitions, productions, and performances of all types.

Kendall Klas

Kendall Klas is a graduate of James Madison University where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a minor in Dance. Additionally, Kendall holds a Master of Science degree in Social Work from Fordham University and is a licensed clinical social worker. Klas danced competitively with Summit School of Dance and began choreography work in 2009. She has worked with Porch Light Productions in Glen Rock, NJ and choreographed multiple musicals in the Glen Rock and Millburn school districts. In 2012, Klas was nominated for Best Choreography for the Metropolitan High School Theater Awards for her work in Grease at Glen Rock High School. As a dance educator and choreographer, Klas believes in fostering confidence, improving self-esteem, and increasing understanding of movement and music through dance technique.

Allison Mion

Originally from Summit, soprano Allison Mion made her 2015 debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was a finalist and semi-finalist in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Lyric, Classical Singer, and National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions. Operatic roles include Don Giovanni, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Albert Herring, Cosi fan tutte, The Magic Flute, Die Fledermaus, and The Crucible. Most recently, Mion appeared with the Opera Theatre Montclair in The Magic Flute and with the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey in La Boheme.

David Seamon, Musical Theatre Arts Instrumental Ensemble Director

Pianist, singer, and composer David Seamon, a graduate of Rutgers University, has worked on stage and behind the scenes for community theater, regional theater, and Off Broadway. He is a Teaching Artist at the George Street Playhouse, where he has composed music for original plays written by New Brunswick public school students, as well as composed and arranged for a mainstage event, Our Town Now (2014). In the Spring of 2015, Seamon composed four original musicals about the Industrial Revolution which were performed at the George Street Playhouse. At The Workshop Theater in Manhattan, Seamon worked one-on-one with a songwriter to arrange and transcribe a full length musical, The Kingdom of Vincent Grapelli (2015). He composed the award-winning score to the short film Melody, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, receiving the Silver Tripod Award, Campus Moviefest. Seamon is a certified cantor, voice and piano teacher, and avid songwriter and performer.

Michael Winnicki

Percussionist Michael Winnicki is a versatile performer and educator specializing in drum set and classical percussion instruments. He has performed with the Plainfield Symphony, Princeton Brass Band, and as a dance accompanist for the Mason Gross Dance Department. He has performed with Eddie Plamieri, Randy Brecker, Frank Lancy, Michael Mossman, and Craig Handy as part of the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble. He has performed at the Blue Note and recorded live at WBGO studios.

Christine Ciuffreda

Sung-Hae Jung

She was awarded for a Lehman College Foundation Scholarship, Emile Anders Choir Award, Alice Minnie Hertz Heniger Award, merit scholarship for four college years, a college top-graduate award.  Her teachers include Namsook Kim, late Dr. Hadassah Sahr (20th century music specialist), Bert Konowitz (Jazz), Dr. Benjamin Allen Loeb (Chamber & Accompanying), Ada Kopetz-Korf and Jose Ramos-Santana (Romantic Music Virtuoso).

Jung is currently a piano faculty at Wharton’s Performing Arts School, Oak Knoll School in Summit, and her private piano studio in Summit, NJ.  She is also a music director for Trinity Reformed Church in North Plainfield, NJ.

Diana Lin

Born and raised in New Jersey, Lin began her studies at age 5. Her principal piano and chamber teachers include David Dubal, Laurie Carney, Jon Klibonoff, Raymond Beegle, Alexander Rees, Stella Xu, and Grace Kuo. She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Classical Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Phillip Kawin as a recipient of the President’s Award and MSM Scholarship.

Florence Lombardo

She has performed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and various musicals including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She was the featured harpist for the wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, performed on the red carpet for P. Diddy’s birthday bash, and has played for kings, governors and celebrities in the U.S. and abroad. Her main passion is sharing her music and she finds the greatest pleasure in teaching and watching her students grow.

Benjamin Michael

A native of New Jersey, Benjamin Michael began his piano studies at age six, with his first solo recital taking place at age eleven. In subsequent years, he performed extensively in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. Past teachers include Julian Martin, Ilya Itin, and Oxana Yablonskaya. He has been a featured guest in the Skaneatles Music Festival and the Classic Chamber Concerts series in Naples, Florida. Other performances include solo recitals at
the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts in Newnan, Georgia and the Texas State International Piano Festival in San Marcos, Texas. Benjamin had received scholarships to attend the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada and PianoFest in the Hamptons, where he performed in master classes as well as in public concerts. In addition to solo recitals, Benjamin also enjoys collaborating with other musicians. He has performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble
of Northwestern University and has participated in the ChamberFest! music festival at the Juilliard School. Benjamin was also part of the Gluck Community Service Fellowship Program,
where he performed at healthcare institutions throughout New York City. He graduated with a
Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School and a Master of Music degree from Northwestern
University.

Eric Olsen

Olsen recently collaborated with Kevin Maynor and former New Jersey Poet Laureate Amiri Baraka on his multimedia work Sisyphus Syndrome, and on a performance of Dorothy Rudd Moore’s opera Frederick Douglas. As an accompanist, Olson has worked with the internationally renowned vocal studios of Betty Allen, Klara Barlow, Walter Cassel, Giorgio Tozzi, and Virginia Zeani. Olsen has performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and the Knitting Factory in New York and in India and New Zealand. Olsen has been a featured soloist with the Livingston Symphony, the Central Jersey Symphony, and the Orchard Park Symphony and a featured jazz performer at the AT&T, Berk’s, and Asbury Park Jazz Festivals.

He has given numerous classical and jazz piano recitals in the NY Metropolitan area. Currently Director of Music and Organist at the Union Congregational Church in Montclair, he has conducted Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bush’s Christmas Cantata, Flagello’s The Passion of Martin Luther King, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Part I, and Pärt’s Berlin Mass with members of the New Jersey Symphony. He has performed the first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre on piano and selections from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on organ with his wife, Pamela Olsen, an accomplished soprano. In addition to serving on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arst School, Olsen is an Adjunct Faculty member at Montclair State University. He holds two Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Jazz Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of MUsic degree with High Distinction in Piano and Organ Performance from Syracuse University.

Margarita Sturman

Upon graduation, Sturman received her Master of Music degree as a soloist, accompanist, and music educator.  She began teaching piano and fell in love with a profession she would perfect over the next three decades. In 1992, her family moved from the Ukraine to the United States where she spent 14 years teaching piano studnets of all ages at the Brooklyn Music School and Shostakovich Music School.

In 2006, Sturman moved to New Jersey and began teaching at Wharton’s Performing Arts School. Today Sturman brings her love of music along with a broad knowledge of piano technique and classical music for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students through contemporary musical methods of teaching. She brings over thirty years of experience as a piano teacher and accompanist. A nominee and winner of numerous awards, including a rare Ministry of Culture honorary award for achievements in excellence in teaching, and the development of understanding and appreciation of music in children.

Luba Vasilyeva

Vasilyeva is an active concert pianist and chamber musician. She has appeared in solo performance at the Millburn Library, Hinman Hall (West Caldwell), Montclair Women’s Club, Watchung Arts Center, Montclair Congregational Church, The Unitarian Church in Summit, Steinway Hall (NYC), and Wharton’s Library Concert Series.

Anna Vozhik

Vozhik earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Modest Mussorgsky in St. Petersburg, Russia. She earned her Master of Arts degree from the East Ukrainian State University. As Choral Director at East Ukrainian State University, she directed an eighty-member chorus for nearly a decade. Vozhik’s other roles included piano and music instruction at The School of Music in Lugansk, Ukraine, Chair of Voice and Audition at Calderon School of Music, and Adjunct Professor of Piano at Kean University.

Vozhik has compiled several pedagogical publications including Piano Lessons in Elementary School (Ukraine, 1986) and Enjoy Your Music Lessons: Great Music for Small Hands (Ukraine, 1991). She is a member of the Music Educators Association, the Golden Circle of Teachers, and the Berkshire Choral Festival. Vozhik holds a National Pedagogy Certification from the National Music Certificate Program.

Andrzej Winnicki

Pianist Andrzej Winnicki, a native of Poland, has performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Polish Consulate General, and St. Peter’s Church. He can frequently be heard in jazz clubs throughout the Tri-State area and has played with Jeremy Pelt, Mark Egan, Ralph Alessi, Scott Colley, Rodney Holmes, Nasheet Waits, Joel Grey, and Bernadette Peters.  After releasing the album In the Bush in 2001 for J-Bird Records, with Electric Breakwater and featuring Pat Metheny’s bassist Mark Egan and Santana’s drummer Rodney Holmes, Winnicki and saxophonist Krzysztof Medyna formed the all-acoustic Komeda Project in 2004, paying homage to the often imagistic compositional strengths of the legendary Polish film composer-jazz pianist Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969). As a part of this project, Winnicki released two critically acclaimed albums on MW Records label: Crazy Girl in 2007 and Requiem in 2010. Winnicki has been an active member of ASCAP since 1997 and local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians in New York City since 1989.

Kevin Brown, Double Bass

Kevin Brown is adjunct professor of Double Bass and Music Theory/Aural Skills at Montclair State University and served as adjunct professor of Double Bass at Georgian Court College from 2003-2009. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies and Master of Music degree in Double Bass from the University of North Texas. Performances and recordings include the Staten Island Symphony, Metro Lyric Opera, Orchestra of St. Peter-by-the-Sea, New Jersey Pops, New Jersey Ballet, and the Richardson, Sherman and Wichita Falls Symphonies. He has appeared with Marvin Hamlisch, Regis Philbin, Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, the Drifters, as well as frequent productions at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse.

Alice Hamlet, Cello

A prolific studio recording musician, Hamlet has recorded for over a hundred indie bands and singer songwriters and on the soundtrack for the 2013 Steven Soderbergh film Side Effects. She is the founder and director of NYC-based Ten Strings Music Studio and maintains a private teaching studio as well as serving on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arts School where she teaches cello and music theory.

James Keene

Violinist James Keene is a versatile soloist, chamber musician, and music pedagogue. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, he received his Bachelor of Music degree from Rutgers University and continued his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory. Keene has performed for audiences throughout China, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the United States. Currently, as founder of Classical Revolution NJ, Keene schedules chamber music performances throughout New Jersey and travels frequently between the east and west coast for performances in the Bay Area. As a faculty member of Newark School of the Arts, he instructs their Carollo Scholarship violin students. Most recently, Keene was awarded first place in the Russel Johnson String Competition in Philadelphia and performed at Carnegie Hall with Dionne Warwick. Keene teaches violin and viola at the Wharton’s Performing Arts School.

Mikhail Kuchuk, Violin

He performs regularly in the tri-state area and throughout the Unites States. Since 2004, Kuchuk has been a member of Tito Castro Tango Quartet and has participated in concerts with Anna Saeki in New York, Hawaii, Korea, and Japan. Kuchuk appeared as solo violinist on Broadway in the production of Forever Tango and has appeared as a soloist with the Manhattan Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Westchester Chamber Orchestra, St Peter’s by the Sea Symphony Orchestra, and the Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra. Presently he is a concertmaster of the New Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra and St. Peters by the Sea Symphony Orchestra, as well as a member of Adelphi University Orchestra, Edison Symphony, Princeton Symphony and Garden State Philharmonic. As an educator, Kuchuk teaches violin at Wharton’s Performing Arts School and maintains a large private studio.

Brittney Leghorn, Cello and Violin

When Leghorn is not teaching she enjoys freelancing throughout the tri-state area. Recent projects include collaborations with the Joe Gattuso Band and recording with singer-song writer Ian Flanigan. Leghorn aspires to continue her education and earn a Master of Music degree in Education.

Halina Listopad, Violin

Listopad received a Fulbright Music Research Grant to study in India and acted as music critic for the Hindustan Times. Listopad is currently transcribing and collaborating in the English translation of Raga Rahasya (Secret of Ragas) by renowned Hindustani vocalist and musicologist, Sulochana Brahaspati.

As well as teaching at Wharton’s Performing Arts School, Listopad is a faculty member at the Lucy Moses School, Integral Yoga Institute, Bloomingdale Music School, and Harlem School of the Arts.

Aurora Mendez, Violin

Born and raised in New York City, Aurora Mendez began her violin studies at the age of four. After relocating to South America, she became an active member of the national youth orchestra movement of Chile and began her formal musical studies at the University of Chile. While in Santiago, Mendez won numerous scholarships and principal orchestral positions including the Concertmaster position of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, principal second violin of the Chilean Municipal Theater Chamber Orchestra, and the National Talent Award. Mendez has traveled the world to perform with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile. She has performed in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, and most recently, China. Mendez has performed in master classes for Ida Kavafian, Martin Chalifour, Rachel Barton-Pine, Paavo Järvi, Ray Chen, Markus Stockhausen, and the Latin American Quartet.

Christine Sherlock

Christine Sherlock is originally from Florida and began playing the viola at the age of 8 as part of her public school music program. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance in 2010 from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with renowned teachers Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey, and is now pursuing her Artist Diploma at Montclair State University as a student of Honggang Li, violist of the Shanghai Quartet. She also studied with Caroline Coade at the University of Michigan, where she also became an avid performer of new music. Other teachers have included Stanley Konopka, Kirsten Doctor, and Sara Cote.

Before moving to New Jersey in 2017, Sherlock was a viola section member of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, and has also played with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, the  Youngstown Symphony as Assistant Principal, The Warren Philharmonic, the Ohio Valley Symphony, Cleveland Opera Theatre, and Opera Circle. She has participated in many festivals and competitions, including the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition (2017), Mimir Chamber Music Festival, LAMP (Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance), and the Mendelssohn Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

Sherlock taught extensively in the Cleveland area for many years before moving to New Jersey, and was also chosen to teach at Interlochen School of the Arts as part of the fellowship quartet in 2017. Many of her students have gone on to pursue music further in conservatories, as well as participate in many elite festivals. She enjoys helping her students discover their love for music and reach their ultimate potential.

Elizbieta Winnicki, Violin

She has attended several teaching workshops and seminars at the Hartt School of Music, Juilliard School of Music, the Starling-DeLay Symposium, and the American String Teachers Association Conference.

Her professional engagements include concerts as a soloist and chamber musician at Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts, the Kosciuszko Foundation, and the Polish Cultural Foundation. Her orchestral experiences include Riverside Symphonia, New Jersey Philharmonic,  St. Peters by the Sea Orchestra, Montclair Chamber Orchestra, Szczecin Symphony Orchestra in Poland, among others. She has performed in major concert halls in New York and New Jersey including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and NJPAC. She has toured Italy, Germany, and South Korea and has performed at the Spoleto Festival in Italy as well as the Bedford Spring Festival in Pennsylvania.

Timothy Maureen Cole

Working with students of all ages, Cole treats every student as an individual. She believes that the fundamental techniques of voice: breath, support, posture, resonance, and diction, can and should be applied to all types of singing and theater performance. Her specialization in pedagogy gives her a great technical understanding of the voice, and she enjoys preparing singers for auditions, competitions, productions, and performances of all types.

Jamie Baer Peterson

Peterson holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from the University of Minnesota and a Performers Certificate of Opera and Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music.

A dedicated music educator, she maintains a private voice studio in New Providence as well as serving on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arts School. Ms. Peterson is also an adjunct professor at Monmouth University.

Ema Mitrović

Ema Mitrović, is an awardwinning and critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano receiving praise including, “…I found Ema Mitrovic as the Monitress to be the standout” (Opera Manhattan, Suor Angelica ‘12) and “…her rich mezzo is pure pleasure” (Hudson Opera Theatre, Lucia di Lammermoor ‘18).  She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and in the title role of Carmen at the the International House Philadelphia. She has also performed in New York City’s jazz venues including Birdland, The Kitano, and Smalls.

Mitrović holds a B.M. in Voice Performance from New Jersey City University where she studied with Metropolitan Opera stars Anthony Laciura and Sondra Kelly, along with Grammy nominated jazz artists Roseanna Vitro, Allen Farnham, and Tim Horner.  She continued education with Dr. Donna Zapola-Connolly and Adria Firestone, with whom she expanded upon dramatic coaching and vocal pedagogy. Mitrović is a winner of both 1^st and 2^nd place prizes for NJ NATS.

Credits include Title and Mercédès (Carmen), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Mrs. McLean (Susannah), Hansel (Hansel & Gretel), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Siébel (Faust), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Martine (Le Médecin malgre lui), Abbess and Monitor (Suor Angelica), Prince Charming (Cendrillon), third lady (Die Zauberflöte), first witch (Dido Aeneas), Mrs.Gobineau (TheMedium), mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Marta (Company), Jack’s Mother (Into the Woods).

She is an ongoing member of Guided Imagery Opera, an ensemble focused on sound healing. In June 2018, Mitrović debuted with The Central Jersey Choral Society as the alto soloist in Antonin Dvořák’s Requiem. Along with being an active performer and teacher, Mitrović continues to privately study and coach with top New York City professionals to keep a fresh perspective on her craft and passes along this knowledge to her current studio.

Kathleen Ditmer, French Horn

Following graduation, Ditmer began a fruitful freelance career in New York City where she has played with such respected groups as American Ballet Theater, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She can be heard on numerous TV and movie soundtracks, as well as Broadway shows including Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.

Ditmer loves to share her knowledge, inspiration and passion for the horn in all genres of music. She started teaching as a camp counselor and went on to create free music programs in her community. She has taught for the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division and is presently on the faculty of Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, Wharton’s Performing Arts School, and the Ridgewood Conservatory. She teaches privately in her West Orange home and in after school programs in the public schools.

Alyssa DiNapoli, Flute

Alyssa DiNapoli is a graduate of Montclair State University where she earned two Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Flute Performance with a minor in dance. She also holds a Master of Music degree from Rutgers University (MLIS). DiNapoli combines her training in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern styles along with her education, performance, and library experience to present original programs focused on movement, music, and literacy in libraries and schools. She currently teaches 3rd-8th grade vocal and general music and performs in professional and community theater, dance, and music productions. DiNapoli is a long time volunteer with the Montclair State University Preparatory Center for the Arts and maintains a private flute studio.

Laura George, Flute

George has performed orchestrally with the St. Louis Symphony, St. Louis Municipal Opera Orchestra, New York Virtuosi, St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Broadway Pops Orchestra, Charles Ives Summer Symphony, Julius Grossman Orchestra, Queens Symphony, Queens Opera, Amor Artis, Westfield Symphony, Sacred Heart Cathedral Orchestra, Paper Mill Playhouse, New Jersey Pops, Wayne Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi de Camera, Rutgers Summerfest Orchestra, New Philharmonic of New Jersey, Ars Musica Chorale, Oratorio Society of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Choral Society.

George was a student of Julius Baker, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Gerardo Levy, Gerald Carey, Jacob Berg and Janet Scott. She holds a Certificat de Stage from L’Universite d’Ete in Nice, France. She holds a Master of Music degree in Music from Western Illinois University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she graduated magna cum laude. She has been awarded recognition in Outstanding Young Women of America.

George has taught at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and as Adjunct Flute instructor at Kean University. She is the director of Encore Ensembles. Her groups have been sponsored in formal concerts, children’s concerts, residencies and master classes by Concert Artists Guild,  New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council of the Arts, South Carolina Arts Agency, Missouri State Arts Council, New Jersey State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

George has recorded for Sine Qua Non. She and harpist Beth Robinson have released their debut CD, The Enchantment of Flute and Harp.

Sean Hack, Trumpet

Sean Hack graduated in 2016 with a double major in Music Composition and Trumpet Performance from Illinois State University. He started trumpet lessons while attending Maplewood Middle School and, at the urging of a classmate who played in the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS), joined NJYS’s annual Orchestral Camp after the summer of sixth grade. He went on to participate in three NJYS ensembles—Philharmonia, Youth Orchestra, and its top ensemble, Youth Symphony—and traveled to Europe as a member of the youth orchestra’s 2012 tour of Vienna and Salzburg. Hack became a coach for the Orchestral Camp in the summer of 2009 and began teaching trumpet at Wharton’s Performing Arts School in the fall of 2016.

Thomas Kamp, Trombone

Trombonist Thomas Kamp received his Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College and his Master of Music degree from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Kamp also pursued graduate studies at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music. In addition to serving on the faculty of Wharton’s Performing Arts School, Kamp teaches in the Berkeley Heights Public School District and the Caldwell-West School District, as well as serving as Adjunct Trombone Instructor at Caldwell College.

Dave Schumacher, Saxophone, Recorder, Clarinet, and Jazz Improv

Schumacher can be heard on nearly a dozen Columbia Records recordings with the Harry Connick, Jr. Orchestra and with such jazz greats as Lionel Hampton and Mel Torme. Schumacher received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jazz Performance from Rutgers University/Livingston College and a Master of Music degree in Jazz Performance from New Jersey City University.

Carlyn Smith, Clarinet and Saxophone

Carlyn Smith earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied clarinet with George Waln. She spent a year abroad studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria with clarinetist Alois Heine. Smith has been a featured soloist with the Mountain Lakes Symphony, Hanover Wind Symphony, and the Plainfield Symphony. She has taught instrumental music in the Morris School District and in local parochial schools. She has also performed numerous recitals, concerts, and as a piano accompanist. In addition to serving on Wharton’s Performing Arts School faculty, Smith maintains a private teaching studio.

Kristen Wuest, Flute

While at Rutgers University, Wuest studied under Kaoru Hinata and was a member of the Grammy-nominated Rutgers Wind Ensemble. She aspires to teach flute at the college level and has built a busy career in freelance performance.