MICHAEL BOWIE is an accomplished bassist who won a National Endowment for the Arts award in jazz. He has music degrees from the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, and has been an instructor at the FAME International Classical and Jazz Camp. Mr. Bowie has performed and recorded with Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter and Natalie Cole, among others, and currently performs with the Manhattan Transfer.

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Music

Bowie letter to parents

Nucentury Entertainment LLC

Music Consultant & Composer

202-558-9171 http://nucenturyentertainment.com

www.michaelanthonybowie.com

BONITA CACHO has a professional career in acting, singing, and dancing began in Theatre West of Dayton, Ohio touring mainly throughout the Midwest region, Boston, New York, and Washington, DC where she established her career. Bonita studied classical ballet from Lynn Welter, Edna Long, Harriet Williams, Jane Bonbright, Natalie Smith, Lynn Wenning, Sarah Slifer, Diane Xenopoulous, Miya Hisaka, and Vladimir Angelov; modern dance from Maida Withers and Mel Manco; jazz dance from Tyrone Murray, Charles Quintyne, Sekouba Sylla, Sekouba Camara, and Mohamed Camara Sis Alalade.

Bonita is currently an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University's Theater and Dance Department teaching African Dance. She has taught African Dance at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, McGogney Elementary, and Birney Elementary. She has taught both drumming and dancing at Roots Public Charter School and various recreation and community centers in Southeast and Ward 8, such as the DC Therapeutic Recreation Center, Children of Mine Community Center, and the Greater Washington's Boys and Girls Club. In addition, she has been a resident instructor and choreographer for Andrew Cacho African Drummers and Dancers.

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Dance

Cacho letter to parents

CHRYSTALL CARMEN is

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Drama

Carmen letter to parents

JONATHAN COLTON is an AU graduate; teaches Physical Education at Key and Stoddert Elementary; played four years of soccer; coaches soccer in the Bethesda Soccer Club.

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physical education

PATRICK CROWLEY is an award winning playwright, director, and educator.  He is a recipient of the first annual Creative Communities Fund Grant, given by the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, to develop his play, A Nation of Immigrants.  This past March he received the Mayor's Art Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist in the District of Columbia.  Playwriting highlights include, The Other River, with Karen Zacarias, at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and American Rice, at the Lincoln Theater.  Directing credits include world premiers of Hip Hop Anansi, at Imagination Stage, and 'Capers, at the Mead Theatre Lab, as well as a DC Area Premier of Orange Flower Water, with Didactic Theatre Company.  Renowned for his commitment to developing a new generation of theatre artists through arts education and for engaging communities in meaningful and creative ways with professional theatrical productions, he has become a pillar of the DC arts community.

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Drama

ALISON CROCKETT is a Brooklyn based vocalist, pianist and songwriter whose style is 'steeped' in a deep Soul tradition, with generous helpings of Jazz and Blues. Taking her cue from divas of the past and present such as Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Donna Summer, Diana Ross and Sarah Vaughn,this singer/songwriter and pianist is destined for greatness.

Alison honed her vocal skills at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and then a masters degree at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. As she says, "I set out to be a craftsman; someone who could mold and shape music like a sculpture." Throughout her school years, Alison continued to build her reputation and gain a loyal following by performing regularly with notable local and national artists in and around her Washington, DC home as well as in Philadelphia and New York.

"Alison has spent much of the last decade working with a number of progressive soul and jazz artists such as Us3 and King Britt (of Digible Planets). She hooked up with King Britt in Philadelphia and sang on the underground hit "Season's Change" for Ovum/Sony Music. This led to an invitation to serve as the lead singer for the influential UK acid-jazz group Us3, with whom she cut the 1994 hit "Get Out." Crockett continued to write and perform on the side during her period with Us3, and cut an EP in 2001 under the name Diva Blue. It took two more years before she would begin to work on her first full album, 2004's On Becoming A Woman.

On Becoming A Woman is a nice showcase of Alison Crockett's talents, and moves seamlessly from 70s grooves to smooth jazz to neo soul.

In 2007, Crockett released her second full studio album, Bare, to solid reviews."

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Music at Fillmore

Crockett letter to parents

www.alisoncrockett.com

RECORDINGS:

1. US3 - "An Ordinary Day In An Unusual Place" - Toshiba/EMI & Universal Records

2. King Britt - "When the Funk Hits the Fan" Ovum/Sony Music

3. Blue Six - Beautiful Day - Naked Music/Virgin

4. Alison Crockett - Nappy - Wah Wah Records UK

5. Landslide feat. Alison Crockett - It's Not Over(single) - Hospital Records

6. Oba Funke - Transatlantic Audio 2, Freedom - Dynamite Joint Records UK

7. Cafedge - Nappy - Handcuts Records Japan

8. Aphrodisiac - Alive - INFRACom Records Germany

9. Alison Crockett - Love Will Return(Single) - Decibal Records

10. C&M - Music For the People (single) - Step Ahead Records

11. Suburban Chi - Lonliness (single) - Northcott Records

KAREN DANIELS M.ED, Education Leadership, George Mason University, 2000 M.A., Arts Management,American University, 1988 B.F.A., Dance, Adelphi University, 1980 Dance Certificate, Duke Ellington School of the Arts,1976

Karen Daniels, a native of Washington, D.C., is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Workshops for Careers in the Arts. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Adelphi University, and a Masters in Arts Management from American University. She has the honor of having been awarded 2 Fulbright scholarships.

Her performing experience includes: Everyman Street Theatre Company, Adelphi Dance Theatre, Memory of African Culture, KanKouran Dance Company, Chuck Davis Dance Company in Nigeria, and with members of the National Ballet Diolliba of Guinea, West Africa. Ms. Daniels is co-founder and program director of Cosan Arts Institute, a non-profit arts organization providing services in video production, photography, and artstraining for youth. She has been a dance instructor at Fillmore since 1989, and she taught movement in the Theatre Department at Duke Ellington School of the Arts for fifteen years.

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Dance

Daniels letter to parents

LESLIE DELAINE

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Music

KIERON IRVINE

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Music

BRUCE JENKINS is

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CARMEN JENKINS-PARRIS

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visual art

GLENNA JOHNSON

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visual art

CHRISTINE KHARAZIAN is a concert violinist. A Cum Laude Graduate of the Komitas State Conservatory of Armenia, and the Tchaikovsky Advanced School of Music in Yerevan, she studied violin under the tutorship of Prof. Edward Dayan, a pupilof David Oystrakh. Ms. Kharazian performed with the Group of First Violins at the Armenian National Symphony Orchestra, and the Armenian National Operaís Chamber Orchestra. She was also the Solo Violinist at the ëSharakaní Ensemble of Ancient and Medieval Music of the Armenian TV and Radio.

Christine Kharazian has an active performing and teaching practice. As soloist, she has appeared with concerts at the Kennedy Center, the Strathmore Hall, the Armenian Embassy, the Dumbarton House, and the Gallery at The Ellipse, among others.

Ms Kharazian is the author and presenter of a series of interactive programs in music education, with emphasis on the social, emotional and aesthetic meaning of music, and its role as a form of human communication. In collaboration with CHIME (Community Help in Music Education), the DC Public Schools, the DC Public Library System, and the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, these programs have benefited schools, libraries and community centers across the City and many suburban neighborhoods. As teacher and consultant, Christine Kharazian is also affiliated with the Middle C Music Studio on WisconsinAve in Washington, DC.

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Music

KATHLEEN GONZALES

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KATHERINE LATTERNER, Director, brings over twenty years of arts education experience to Fillmore. She served for fourteen years as the music and creative writing teacher for the Fillmore program, coordinator of the Hearst/Fillmore program and director of Fillmore Summer Camp. For the last five years, Katherine has served as the Director of Education for the Musical Theater Center, a private non-profit arts school, where she oversaw a dance, music and theater arts education program for over 1,500 students and established a community outreach program in MCPS schools.

Katherine has an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from George Mason and has taken additional certificate programs in the arts and education. She is a pianist and singer and currently plays in a handbell choir.

She is extremely proud of the expertise of the Fillmore staff, the accomplishments of its young artist students and the support of the community and looks forward to an excellent year.

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FRED LEE rejoins the Fillmore staff after a brief stint four years ago. Mr. Lee, a freelance director in the Washington area, has been associated with the Washington Theater Club directors, John and Hazel Wentworth and Davey Marlin-Jones. At the Theater Club he became involved in youth programming as director of teen and adult/teen programs as well as New Play programs.  Mr. Lee founded the OFF THE CIRCLE THEATER COMPANY, the first on-going Cabaret Theater in Washington, and was also the Artistic Director for the Back Alley Theater Company for seven years. His directing in Washington includes New Playwright’s, Source, Studio Theater, The Kennedy Center, George Washington University, George Mason, Howard University, The In-Series, and The National Theater.

Mr. Lee was on the faculty of Duke Ellington School of the Arts for fifteen years, and was production manager of the Smithsonian’s African Diaspora Program. His work in musical theater as well as alternative theater is well documented. He is currently work with youth programs and is a consultant with The DC Department of Parks and Recreation’s Cultural Arts Division. Mr. Lee has produced over fifty salutes and concerts celebrating the American Song, featuring artists from Debra Tidwellto Carolyn Sotir-Black. His productions of Steve Wilmer’s Scenes From Soweto and Streamers were taken from DC to be presented by theStat’s Theater in Stockholm and Orebru Sweden. He was chosen to premiertwo works of the late Miguel Pinero after working with the author on his celebrated Short Eyes. He is currently working on works by Sondheim and the Gershwin’s.

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Drama

S. DMITRI LIPCZENKO is a graphic designer and illustrator, having received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, with additional studies at Corcoran College of Art and Design. Ms. Lipczenko works in traditional and digital media, and has won several awards, including an EdPress Award for the children’s book The Kissing Hand. This is her first year teaching at Fillmore Arts Center.

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visual art

MARGARET MEENEHAN B.S. in dance education, is a certified Dance Specialist knowledgeable inCreative Dance, Folk, Ballet, Modern, Jazz, and International Dancing. She is critically acclaimed as a performer and choreographer and has a BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Ms. Meenehan is active as a speaker for children's dance, children's issues with dance, and the Child International (UNESCO). She has served as to the editor of "Spotlight on Dance, " the National Dance Association newsletter. She is on the board of the Burleith Citizens Association. She is director of the Chevy Chase Community Center "Avenue of Enrichment" summer program.

Ms. Meenehan has been teaching dance at Fillmore since 1980. In her teaching, Ms. Meenehan strives to expose the children to many types of movement activities. Moving and learning come naturally to children and are essential to a total education. She believes that dance benefits a child not only physically, but intellectually, culturally, and socially.

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Dance

PATRICIA MORRISON has taught visual art at Fillmore since 2001, and has experience teaching pre-kindergarten through seventh grades. She has a BFA in Communication Arts and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University, and has also studied at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, Montgomery College, and the University of the District of Columbia. Prior to teaching at Fillmore, she worked as a freelance illustrator for 20 years.

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visual art

PAMELA TIIK POLLET received her BFA in Photography from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, where she also studied digital arts and web design. Her photographic art is frequently on exhibition. She has been teaching digital art at the Fillmore since 1999, specializing in drawing, video and web animation.

Ms. Pollet is also an award winning musician who has received two grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has a long and colorful career as a performing musician.

Ms Pollet is also the Fillmore webmaster, graphic designer and Apple computer technican.

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music

visual art

digital art

www.tiik.com

tiik@aol.com

MARJA PONKKA-CARPENTER holds certification in Social Work and a Bachelor of Art Education degree from the University of DC. As part of her degree program, she interned at Fillmore with Harriet Lesser, and then joined the Fillmore staff in Fall 1992.

As a sculptor and mixed media artist, Ms. Ponkka-Carpenter exhibits frequently in the Baltimore/Washington area. Her work has been seen at the National Museumof Women in the Arts, Gallery 10, and at U.D.C.

Ms. Ponkka-Carpenter loves to work with children, watching freedom of expression come

through their work. She encourages them to develop and keep the freshness, and to find a rich and colorful world inside and around them. She wants all children to feel good about themselves and their art works.

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visual art

ALEXANDRA POWER is primarily a painter and studied painting with the late Leon Berkowitz at the Corcoran College of Art + Design(1983-85). She has lived and worked in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan as well as in theU.K. and U.S., and has exhibited and sold her paintings in London.

Ms. Power feels honored and privileged to have joined the Fillmore Faculty as a Visual Arts teacher in September 1994; prior to which she taught in the U.K. as well as in Ankara, Turkey. She believes that visual arts activities play a unique and essential role in helping students learn to express themselves and to explore their own individuality, inner feeling, and creativity. She has a son and a daughter, and believes strongly in the importance of a broad arts education for all children.

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visual art

DENNA PURDIE - studied cello with Ronald Feldman (Boston Symphony) and Sieva Lezhnev. She was the first black female to join the US Marine Band, "The President's Own". She taught for D.C. Youth Orchestra Program and is a member of the Soulful Symphony. She has been teaching at Fillmore since 1999.

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Music

ADAM ROBINSON

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visual art

1975 Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Dance, Theatre and MusicDepartments, 1984 to present, Washington, D.C. Fillmore Arts Center, Dance Classes in several dance styles and Ceramics (Sculpture, Slab and HandbuildingTechniques), 1995-present D.C. Public School Substance Abuse Prevention Program, (Dance Classes in Modern, Jazz and Art), Summer 1998, Washington, D.C

PETER ROMERO received his early training from Hungarian expatriate Magda Corbett and earned his B.A. Art & Humanities from the University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Mr. Romero was awarded several dance scholarships from the Maryland Youth Ballet, American Ballet Center, and American Ballet Theatre School. Mr. Romero has worked with companies such as the National Ballet of Santo Domingo (in the Dominican Republic), National Ballet of Panama, Buffalo Inner City Ballet, Chicago Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and Washington Opera. He was Ballet Master for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Dance department, dance teacher and choreographer for the Duke Ellington Show Choir, dance teacher for the Fillmore Arts Center, and stage director for the Opera Camerata ofWashington. Mr. Romero currently teaches Ceramics (Sculpture, Slab and HandbuildingTechniques) at Fillmore Arts Center, and has been a visual artist/teacher for 17 years, as well as a flower designer and a costume designer for 10 years.

Mr. Romero has performed the classical and contemporary repertoire nationally as well as internationally -roles like pas de trois in Swan Lake and Peasant pas de deux in Giselle, to parts in Birgit Cullberg's Miss Julie, to Agnes de Mille's Rodeo.

1975 Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Dance, Theatre and MusicDepartments, 1984 to present, Washington, D.C. Fillmore Arts Center, Dance Classes in several dance styles and Ceramics (Sculpture, Slab and HandbuildingTechniques), 1995-present D.C. Public School Substance Abuse Prevention Program, (Dance Classes in Modern, Jazz and Art), Summer 1998, Washington, D.C.

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visual art

MELISSA SAINT AMOUR is a modern dance choreographer, and a recent recipient of the Young Emerging Artist Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been performed at the Jack Guidone Theater, Joe’s Movement Emporium, and Theater on the Run. She received rave reviews for her choreography in Arts United of Washington’s production of Phedre. Bob Anthony of the Foggy Bottom News said, "Melissa Saint Amour’s choreography deserves a fine kudo."(February 9, 2004).

"The lack of room does not seem to have compromised Saint Amour’s expressive, even athletic, choreography," said Michael Toscano of the Washington Post (February 12, 2004).

Mrs Saint Amour holds an MFA degree in choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is the co-founder and dance director for the newly formed non-profit company, Arts United of Washington. The company combines theatre, dance, and live music in professional performances, and provides educational training for students in grades 6-12, including a summer intensive program. www.artsuniteddc.com

As an educator, Mrs Saint Amour has a unique background in both the public schools, and at colleges and universities. She was the dance director at East Forsyth High School in North Carolina, for which she built a program of over 200 students. Her dance students represented the state at the annual NCAAHPERD (Dance Educators) state conference in 2000. She also presented her scholarly dance writing at the conference in 1999. In the spring of 2003, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at East Carolina University, where she taught advanced modern, dance history, beginning ballet, and choreographed new work for students. Saint Amour has been on the faculty at George Mason University, Montgomery College, and DC Dance Collective. She has been teaching dance at Fillmore Arts Center since 2001.

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Dance

ELENA STRUNK

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visual art

CATHERINE TAISTER

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Dance

CARLENE THOMPSON

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RAIN YOUNG

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visual art

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VISITING ARTISTS:

ANDRE RICHARDSON

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Music

YOLANDA ACKLES

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MARY TIMONY

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Music