Barbara Abercrombie has taught for sixteen years in the Writer’s Program at UCLA Extension where she has won the outstanding teacher award. The author of two novels, books for children (including the prize winning book, Charlie Anderson), memoir, and numerous personal essays and articles, her latest book is a writing guide, Courage & Craft: Writing Your Life Into Story. She also conducts workshops at the Wellness Community for people whose lives have been touched by cancer, and writes a weekly blog offering advice and inspiration to writers. website

Traci Bautista is creative director and owner of treiC Designs. She has a BS from Woodbury University, with a major in Graphic Design and Marketing. Prior to becoming a full-time artist, she held jobs as a graphic designer, event planner, marketing director, professional cheerleader, elementary art history teacher, fashion designer, Web designer, and tradeshow manager – just to name a few. Experiences that she gained in these positions, coupled with her innate drive to explore and create without boundaries, are what contribute to her growing success as a collage and mixed media artist. Traci travels widely to offer workshops on handmade books, art journals, mixed media collage, and surface design. Her artwork has been featured in Somerset Studio, Cloth.Paper.Scissors, Creative Techniques, and Belle Armoire magazines and various books. Traci is author of Collage Unleashed, and writes a regular column in Somerset Studio Magazine. www.treicdesigns.com.

Joe Baker, of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, is an artist, educator and curator. Baker currently is director for community engagement in the Arizona State University Herberger College of the Arts and has a distinguished career of arts advocacy. As the former Lloyd Kiva New Curator of Contemporary Art at the Heard Museum, he pioneered opportunities for emerging and under-represented artists through a series of one-person exhibitions including Artspeak: New Voices in Contemporary Expression and the controversial Remix: New Modernities in a Post Indian World. He is the recipient of the Virginia Piper Charitable Trust 2005 Fellows Award, recognizing outstanding leaders in nonprofit communities, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s Contemporary Catalyst Award for 2007. In 2003, he was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for painting. An active artist and teacher, Baker serves as visiting faculty and advisory boards for several institutions. Baker holds both the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Tulsa and completed post-graduate study at Harvard University’s Management Development Program, Graduate School of Education.

Janet Catherine Berlo (Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester, where from 1997-2002 she was the Susan B. Anthony Professor of Gender Studies) is a scholar of Native American art and women’s textile arts, as well as a quilter and creative writer. She received her Ph.D. at Yale University, and has published numerous books and articles on Native American art, and more recently, on quilting. A visiting professor at Harvard during fall semester 2002 in the Department of History of Art/ Program in Ethnic Studies, she was a founding board member of the International Quilt Study Center (1998-2001, 2007-).

Ken Bova is a studio jeweler living in the old Montana smelter town of Anaconda with his wife, four cats and a doberman. He has taught jewelry and metalsmithing in schools around the country including Haystack, Penland, Split Rock, and The John Campbell Folk School among others. For nearly 20 years he taught jewelry and metalsmithing as an adjunct assistant professor in Montana State University’s School of Art in Bozeman. He is a founding partner in the Bear Canyon School of Art and Craft, a private art school/studio outside of Bozeman Montana. Bova served on the board of directors for the Society of North American Goldsmiths and was president from 2003 to 2005.His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is found in the permanent collections the Smithsonian National Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery and the Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, among others. He is a recipient of a Montana Arts Council Fellowship and his work has been published in American Craft, Metalsmith, and Ornament magazines. He is represented by Goldesberry Gallery, Houston, TX, Facere Jewelry Arts in Seattle, WA and Artworks Gallery in Bozeman, MT.

Deborah Brockus, Jazz and Musical Theater Instructor: BFA in dance education and performance from the University of California at Irvine. She has been a television and movie performer and danced with numerous contemporary companies including Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theater. She is on faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy, Huntington Academy and California Conservatory of the Arts. Ms. Brockus is the artistic director of the Brockus Project, a modern-jazz dance company. She is the producer for a concert series in Los Angeles called Spectrum. Her choreographies have been on national television and in films. She has been a guest teacher in France and Italy. This is her fourth season as a faculty member of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program.

Richard Burkett is a Professor of Art at San Diego State University where he teaches all levels of ceramics. He has done soda and salt-glaze firing for over 35 years. His work in clay regularly includes both functional pottery and sculpture. He is the author of HyperGlaze software for ceramists, and co-author of Ceramics: a Potter’s Handbook, 6th edition. He recently curated the work of the 40 artists included in a new Lark Books publication: Porcelain Masters: Major Works by Leading Ceramists. With co-researchers Prof. Joe Molinaro and Nan Coffin, he is documenting the work of indigenous potters in the Amazon basin of Ecuador, including a documentary video on Kichwa potter Estela Dagua.
website

John Campbell, bassoon: Performed professionally for over 30 years. Principal bassoon with Calgary Philharmonic, 1969-1974. Currently free lance player in Southern California and principal bassoon with the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, the Bakersfield Symphony, the West Los Angeles Symphony and the Burbank Chamber Orchestra. Formerly principal bassoon with Glendale Symphony under Carmen Dragon. Currently on the faculties of Chapman University, Pepperdine University, Cal State Universities, Los Angeles and Dominguez Hills, and Biola College.

Nick Capaci is an exhibiting artist as well as founder and director of Bluestone Editions (fine art printmaking atelier) in Orange County, CA. He has presented numerous workshops and lectures in various printmaking, painting and book arts media throughout the USA. He received his MA in painting and drawing from California College of the Arts, Oakland. Exhibitions include Smithsonian Institute (World Print), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, as well as numerous private and corporate collections. His work is in the collection of the Library of Congress and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Gerald Clarke: is a Cahuilla Indian who spent his early childhood on the Cahuilla Reservation near Idyllwild, California. He went to college in Arkansas before moving to Texas where he earned both an MA and MFA. He has lectured on contemporary Native American Art and exhibited widely in the Southwest, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Among his teaching appointments is his current position as Adjunct Instructor at Idyllwild Arts Academy. He currently lives on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation.
Personal web-site
Gallery of work in Parks Exhibition Center

Nephi Craig, Navajo and White Mountain Apache, is a classically trained chef. He is the Chef Founder/Developer of the Native American Culinary Association (NACA), an organization dedicated to researching, developing and preserving Native American Cuisine as well as serving as a network for other working professional chefs and new emerging culinary talent. He founded NACA to remedy the fact there is little or no authentic representation of Native Americans in the world of professional cookery and to bring American Indian flavors, techniques, philosophies and ingredients to the world palette. He has been a professional chef for over a decade, teaches and lectures widely and has sevred as Head Chef at events around the world from Japan and Brazil to England and Germany.

Estela Dagua along with her family, runs her own pottery studio in Puyo, Ecuador. She has taught pottery making at workshops in Ecuador, Kentucky, and California. In 2006 she was one of the international artists invited to participate in a month-long residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana.

Brian Dehn, tenor coach: St. Simon and Jude Catholic Church, Orange County Catholic Chorale, Huntington Beach, CA.

Michael de Meng is an assemblage artist whose work is heavily influenced by Latin American art forms such as retablos, ex votos, and milagros. Born in Southern California, he now works and resides in Missoula, Montana. As an artist he has participated in numerous exhibits that promote awareness of such issues as AIDS, breast cancer, environmental and other social issues. DeMeng is co-founder of Missoula’s Festival of the Dead, an annual event based on the Latin Dia de los Muertos designed to celebrate life, death and the arts, through education, performance, and visual arts. As an educator, he offers a variety of mixed media workshops throughout the country and over the years has been actively involved with VSA Montana. Through these activities, as well as his artwork, deMeng fosters community awareness, and offers creative methods to explore the human experience.
web-site

Charles DeRamus, bass: The third generation bassist in his family, Charles is currently a member of Sweden's national orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Previously he has served as principal bass of the Norrlands Operan (Sweden), been a member of the New World Symphony, and worked extensively with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. His Studies include degrees from Indiana University, Rice University, and participation in numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Pacific Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, and National Orchestral Institute. Charles is currently a faculty member of the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop, has served on the faculties of the All-State at Interlochen and University of Michigan Summer Arts Institute, and has given guest masterclasses in England at the Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Linda Doll aws, nws, is a painter, digital photographer, graphic artist, instructor and juror. A teacher of workshops and seminars throughout the US, Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland and Bali, she is a Past-President and Life Member of the National Watercolor Society, has been a Board Member and Juror for the American Watercolor Society, and has been a Board Member of Watercolor West. Linda is a Life Honorary Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and an Elected Life Member of the San Diego Watercolor Society. Her paintings and drawings are included in many books and have been used by several magazines for their covers. www.lindadoll.com.

Barbara Drake is a member of the Ti’at (canoe) Society of the Gabrielino (Tongva) tribe and has served as secretary of the Tribal Council. She is a member of Mother Earth Clan, a group of Native American women educators who give cultural presentations on Southern California Indians in schools, museums and other venues throughout the region. She teaches Native Californian Lifeways at UC Riverside Extension. Barbara is a consultant to museums, nature centers and libraries and is involved in setting up cultural exhibits and living histories that reflect early California Indian lifestyles.

Barri Evins spent six years as President of Debra Hill Productions (The Fog, Halloween, The Fisher King), where she set up projects at Warners, Universal, Disney, Nickelodeon, New Line and HBO. Evins worked her way up through the development ranks starting with writer/producers Bruce Evans and Ray Gideon, and launching the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). Through her recently formed company, Be Movies, Evins now produces feature films and cable films,including The Stetson Kennedy Project, with Tobey Maguire attached to star. Barri has taught in the UCLA Graduate Producer Program and at the American Film Institute, and is a judge for the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowships.

David Evans, conductor: Graduate of San Diego State University, Music Performance Degree with Distinction; and California State University, Northridge, Masters Degree, Music Performance and elected member of Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. Mr. Evans is a professor of music at California State University, Long Beach. He has studied conducting with Dr. Frederick Fennel and has been guest clinician for the Southern California School Band Association and guest conductor for several honor bands throughout Southern California. As a trumpet performer he has studied with James Stamp, Uan Rasey, Claude Gordon and Thomas Stevens.

Jonna Faulker has been working with metal clay since 1999. She is certified to teach in both Art Clay Silver and Precious Metal Clay. She is a contributing artist to Art Clay Silver and Gold by Jackie Truty. She has team-taught bracelet projects with noted beadworker Marcie Stone in France and in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jonna also teaches at several venues in California. Her work has been sold through Gallery Eight in La Jolla, CA, as well as at a number of fine craft shows


Joe Forte is a graduate of NYU Film School and is the writer and creator of Firewall starring Harrison Ford and Paul Bettany. His career has spanned work for both major studios and independent producers alike, including Warner Brothers, Sony, Fox, New Line, Paramount and actresses/producers Jodie Foster and Charlize Theron. He is currently adapting the novel Out by Natsuo Kirino for New Line Pictures with Hideo Nakata (Ringu, The Ring 2) directing.

Connie Fox has been making jewelry since 1996. Her “former life” was spent as a psychotherapist in private practice. Once she encountered the enticing world of jewelry making she gradually transitioned into a full time jewelry career. Connie’s introduction to jewelry was focused on wire working and later she expanded her horizons by studying metalsmithing. She teaches wire work, cold connections, and metalsmithing techniques in her studio in San Diego, California. Connie is a frequent contributor to jewelry related books and magazines, and she is a contributing editor to Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine.

Richard Garcia's books of poetry include The Flying Garcias, Rancho Notorious and new in 2006, The Persistence of Objects. A chapbook of his prose poems, Chickenhead, was published by Foothills Press. His awards include a Pushcart Prize and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the Cohen Award from Ploughshares. He teaches in the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA Program and lives on James Island, South Carolina.

DJ Garrity is an award-winning sculptor and painter. He serves as the Sculptor-in-Residence of Mount Rushmore National Monument and teaches workshops at the University of New Mexico, the Black Hills State University and the College of Santa Fe. DJ lives/works in Oregon, New Mexico, and on Achill Island, off the coast of Ireland. He is currently working on a collaboration with Irish artists involving an acrolith, the ancient Egyptian methodology of sculpture, combining the mediums of wood and marble.

Richard Gianguilio, brass specialist: degrees from Curtis Institute and Juilliard; First Prize from Paris Conservatory, studied with Maurice Andre while on a Fulbright grant; First Medal winner, Geneva international Trumpet Competition. 1967; soloist with the Dallas Symphony. Philadelphia Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Orchestra; concerts and recordings in Israel with Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta, and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence, Italy; principal trumpet, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, from 1969-93, and presently co-principal trumpet.

Yehuda Gilad, clarinet: Educated in Israel and at the University of Southern California School of Music. Associate Professor of Music, USC, and Master Teacher, R.D. Colburn School of Performing Arts. Recipient of many awards including the Israel-America Cultural Foundation Scholarship and the Robert Simon Award in Music. Conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony, 1982-88. As a clarinetist, he has performed with the Marlboro Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the San Francisco Chamber Music Festival and the Israel Philharmonic.

William Goldenberg, piano: MM, The Juilliard School of Music, Doctorate, Indiana University. Advanced studies include chamber music with Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Felix Galamir and Josef Gingold. Over 500 concerts throughout the US as soloist and chamber musician including Tanglewood and Grand Teton Festivals, and Chicago’s Myra Hess Series. Has performed regular service as accompanist for studios of violinists Ivan Galamian and Josef Gingold, and cellist Raya Garbousova. Professor of Piano and director of the piano chamber music program at Northern Illinois University.

Sean Greene, Modern Instructor: Mr. Greene has choreographed for Kuala Lumpur Dance Theater, Laban Theatre in London, Village Theater, Irvin Barclay Theatre, Walman Theater, and Modular Theater. He has worked in various capacities for such groups as Transitions Dance Company in London, Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, Orange Coast College, Phoenix Dance Company, University of New Mexico, University of California, Irvine, and the California State Summer School for the Arts. He has lectured at the University of California, Irvine, University of New Mexico, Idyllwild Arts Academy, California State University Summer Arts Program, Loyola Marymount University and the California Institute of the Arts. He was a company member, principal dancer and master teacher for the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. Currently he teaches for the California Conservatory of the Arts and is a lectures at Chapman University.

Igor Gruppman, violin. Igor Gruppman enjoys a career as a violin soloist, conductor, concertmaster and chamber musician and has appeared in the great European capitals and in the major cities of North America, Israel, and New Zealand. Currantly the concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Artistic Leader and Conductor of the Concerto Rotterdam chamber orchestra and Principal conductor of the Orchestra at Temple Square he has been a frequent guest with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic, and has worked with conductors Sir Georg Solti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, and Bernard Haitink.

Critically acclaimed for the richness and beauty of tone, elegant phrasing, drive, passion and virtuosity, Igor Gruppman is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich, followed by studies with Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles and has collaborated with artists Sviatoslav Richter, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan, Jaime Laredo, and Lynn Harrell.

An accomplished recording artist, his work includes Sinfonia Concertante by Miklós Rózsa on Koch International Classics and Berlioz’s Reverie and Caprice on Naxos. He has also recorded the Rózsa Violin Concerto for Koch, which marked the first release of the concerto since the recording by Heifetz for whom this piece was written. In addition, Mr. Gruppman has led the principal members of the Academy of St. Martin-in the Fields in the world premiere recording of the original version of Brahms’s Quintet in F Minor.2007 marks the new DVD release of Tchaikowski and Rachmaninoff Piano Trios for VAI Intrnational as well as world wide broadcast of the Brahms Double Concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Valery Gergiev..

He and his wife, Vesna Stefanovich Gruppman, a renowned violinist and violist in her own right, have been heralded for their recording of Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, which won its producer a Grammy award in 1994.

In 2003 the Gruppmans founded the Gruppman International Violin Institute, created specifically to teach highly gifted violin students from all over the world using the latest videoconferencing technology.

Vesna Gruppman, violin. Her career started early as a six-time winner of Yugoslavia’s National Violin Competition, before going on to study at Moscow’s legendary Central Special Musical School and the Moscow Conservatory. Today, she is active as a violin and viola soloist, having appeared with the Prague Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Ukraine Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, and London’s Beethoven Philharmonic, and in recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and St. John’s Smith Square, Kiev Philharmonic Hall and Mozart’s Bemtraka in Prague. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with the Tokyo String Quartet, the principal players of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Pinchas Zucherman, Itzak Perlman, Jamie Laredo, and Lynn Harrell. Currently, Ms. Gruppman serves as professor of violin/viola at Brigham Young University.

Jonathan Haas is an anthropological archaeologist, with over 30 years of field experience in both North and South America. His interests include the origins of war, the archaeology of the Southwest and Peru, the evolution of complex society and museum anthropology. His research has included the study of the evolution of political systems with a focus on the archaeology of the southwestern United States. Haas has been Curator of the Americas at Chicago’s Field Museum for 13 years and has been involved with development of numerous temporary and permanent exhibits, and is currently the lead curator for the Ancient Americas exhibit. Haas received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University.

Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (Carnegie Mellon University Contemporary Classics, 2005 and Tia Chucha Press, 1999). His honors include a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Eloise Klein Healy, Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita and founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles, is the author of six books of poetry; the most recent is The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho. Healy’s work has been anthologized in such ground-breaking volumes as The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave. She is cofounder of ECO- ARTS and originator of the Red Hen Press imprint, Arktoi Books.

David Hoover, horn: Has served on the faculties of California State University, Northridge, Glendale Community College, the Los Angeles City Schools, Los Angeles Pierce College, Moorpark College, and the University of Southern California, having also earned the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts at USC. For thirty years, he has appeared in the U.S. and Europe as a performer and conductor with numerous orchestras and ensembles, as a recitalist, on recordings and film soundtracks, and on radio broadcasts. Dr. Hoover is also a composer, arranger, and writer on music. He regularly performs his own compositions and has written a modern horn method. His articles on the horn and other musical topics have appeared in the Instrumentalist magazine and elsewhere, and he has authored various other publications such as a booklet for public school music teachers on how to develop a horn section. As a specialist in early horn performance, he has written A Modern Horn Player’s Introduction to the Natural Horn, as well as his own compositions for the ancient instrument.

Marie Howe is the author of three volumes of poetry, The Good Thief (1998), What the Living Do (1997), and The Kingdom Of Ordinary Time, forthcoming from WW Norton in 2008. She is also the co-editor of a volume of essays, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. She is a recipient of NEA and Guggenheim fellowships and currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia, and New York University.

Shirley Irek, piano: was born in Croatia and was educated at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the California Institute of the Arts and the Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelors' and Masters' Degrees in performance. She was a student of Irwin Freundlich and Martin Canin, and studied accompanying with Samuel Sanders. Ms. Irek performed as a two-piano team member for over 15 years. During that time she toured Japan, Africa, France, Portugal and the United States. Highlighting these engagements were the performances of a two-piano concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Michael Colgrass with the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. As a member of the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, she performed two critically acclaimed recitals at Carnegie Hall. They have recorded two CD's for MMC Records. She was also the first recipient of the Van Cliburn Award in memory of Rosina Lhevinne. She has taught piano for over 20 years. She served as professor of piano at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and as visiting professor of piano at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Ms. Irek is a sought-after accompanist in the southeast United States. In 2002 she accompanied the National Winner in the MTNA Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2004, she performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #3 with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and in March '05, performed the Piano Concerto by Werner Torkanowsky.

David Jackson, trombone: Professor of Trombone at the University of Michigan, is a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician who has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra and the Spoleto, Italy Festival Orchestra. He is an advocate of new music and has commissioned and performed the premieres of eight works for trombone. His chamber music experience includes performances with the Canadian Brass, the American Brass Quintet, Nexus Percussion Ensemble and the Galliard Brass Ensemble. His summers are spent teaching and performing at the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Interlochen Arts Camp All-State Division.

Deborah E. Love Jemmott has shared her love for metal by teaching jewelry making and metalsmithing to others since 1978. She teaches through the San Diego Community College District and Saddleback Community College in addition to teaching many workshops and private lessons in a wide range of topics. Deb’s work has been featured in American Style, American Craft, Metalsmith, San Diego Home and Garden and Redbook magazines as well as the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper. It has also appeared in Art Clay Silver and Gold by Jackie Truty, The Goodfellow Catalog of Wonderful Things III, Jewelry Making: A Guide for Beginners by Thomas P. Foote, and 20 Years in Metal. She has exhibited widely and currently has work in galleries across the country.web-site

Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa) is an accomplished Hopi artist (silversmith, painter, poet) from Second Mesa, Arizona on the Hopi Reservation. In 2003, he was named an Arizona Indian Living Treasure. He is a founding member of Artist Hopid, a group of Hopi artists experimenting in fresh interpretations of traditional Hopi art forms. Michael is committed to education in the cultural and aesthetic values of the Hopi people. He is author of Migration Tears: Poems about Transitions and he has lectured across the country, in Europe and New Zealand. His work is represented in many major museums and collections, and is featured in fine Native American art galleries around the world
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Eric Kao is in his tenure at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for an MFA in Ceramics. He received a BFA from California State University, Fullerton and has studied at California State University, Long Beach and Tainan National University for the Arts in Taiwan. He has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Oceania visiting ceramic artists and studying cultures and how clay is used traditionally and as expression. His current body of work is ceramic sculpture. The sculptures rely on tacit qualities of surface and scale to reveal societal norms and conditions of our modern world. Eric is well informed on hand building, throwing and various firing techniques and this will be his 10th year at Idyllwild Arts.

Greg Kennedy: BS, Biology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. National Science Foundation Award for botany and geology studies in the Spring Mountain Range of Clark County Nevada. After graduating with honors in 1972, Greg turned his attention toward ceramics. Since that time, he has been a studio potter and ceramics teacher. His focus and inspiration is mountain topography and is continually charmed by nature. Respectful of traditional pottery, he enjoys meeting with indigenous potters and learning from them during his global travels. This will be Greg’s 24th year of teaching for Idyllwild Arts. His home and studio are located in the coast range of Oregon, where he practices quietness, authenticity, harmony and sustainability.

Nancy Ambrose King, oboe: is the first-prize winner of the Third New York International Competition for Solo Oboists, held in 1995. She has appeared as soloist throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances with the St. Petersburg, Russia, Philharmonic, the Janacek Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, and the Festival Internacional de Musica Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has recorded three CDs for Boston Records, the solo recordings Nancy Ambrose King: The Winning Program and Évocations; and a recording of flute and oboe music with flutist Amy Porter entitled Porter-Ambrose King. She has taught and performed in the Sarasota and Bowdoin Music Festivals, and has appeared as a recitalist throughout the world, including the American Academy of Music in Rome and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm. Currently Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Michigan and First Vice-President of the International Double Reed Society, she was previously Associate Professor and University Scholar at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has also served on the music faculties of Indiana University, Ithaca College, University of Northern Colorado, and Duquesne University Schools of Music.

Sandra Kipp, flute: M.M. and B.M. in flute performance from California State University Northridge. Orchestra experience includes Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Glendale Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Long Beach Symphony and Moscow Ballet Orchestra. Director of Sterling and Strings Chamber Music ensemble and member of The Nuance Ensemble. Teaching experience includes current positions at Moorpark College, CSU Northridge, and Pepperdine University in addition to private studio instruction. Freelance recording studio artist.

Karen Koblitz has been working in ceramics for over 30 years. Her ceramics have been exhibited nationally, and in Russia, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Italy and Australia. Her Ceramic Still Lifes are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The US Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan has her works in their permanent collection. Her work is featured in the traveling exhibition; “Craft In America.” She is on the faculty in the Roski School of Fine Arts at USC where she is Head of Ceramics.
website

Ted Kooser is a two-time United States Poet Laureate (2004-2006), Nebraskan poet Ted Kooser was the first poet from the Great Plains to hold the position. He is the author of eleven full-length collections of poetry as well as The Poetry Home Repair Manual, published by University of Nebraska Press in January 2005. He has received two NEA fellowships in poetry, the Pushcart Prize, the Stanley Kunitz Prize, The James Boatwright Prize, and is the winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his book Delights & Shadows. Born in Ames, Iowa, in 1939, Kooser now lives near the town of Garland, Nebraska, with his wife, Kathleen Rutledge.

Dariusz Korcz, viola: studied at the Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland; Principal/Solo viola with National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Academy of Music, Katowice. Former Principal/Solo viola with Polish Chamber Philharmonic and Icelandic Symphony. First Prize winner, Rakowski Viola Competition, 1985. Has premiered compositions by Shostakovich, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Gorecki and Messiaen. Coaches and teaches for International Youth Orchestras in Germany and USA. Extensive solo & chamber music experience throughout the world including many recordings for European and American labels, most recently John Donald Robb’s Viola Concerto for Opus One. Maker of fine violins.

Connie Kupka, violin; has participated in many summer chamber music festivals, including those in Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon, the Bach Festival in Oregon, the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, and the Ojai Music Festival. She has served as principal violinist in the Pasadena Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Music Festival. She has appeared as a soloist with the South Bay Symphony and the Colorado Chamber Orchestra. Connie has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for ten seasons. She augments her Los Angeles orchestra activities with frequent chamber music performances, on such series as Pacific Serenades, the South Bay Chamber Music series, and Monday Evening Concerts. She is also active in the motion picture studio orchestras.

Donna Largo began to make baskets in 1970. Taught the use of fibers and medicinal plants by her grandmother, a basket maker from Santa Rosa Reservation, and Elizabeth Mojado, one of the last basket makers on the Soboba Reservation, Donna has been working hard to produce baskets of the quality made by the older basket makers. She has curated basket exhibits at the Museum of Man in San Diego and her baskets are in museum collections including the Autry Museum. Donna has been pivotal in establishing the new Southern California Basket Weaver’s Association which is actively working to preserve the art of traditional basketweaving

Desirée LaVertu. M.M. Choral Conducting/vocal Performance, University of Nevada, Reno. Director of Women’s Glee Club, California Institute of Technology. Soprano soloist and voice teacher; member of the professional female vocal quartet Diva Complex.

Eduardo Lazo is a professional potter/sculptor who brings 28 years of experience to his classes at Idyllwild. He has taught in private studios, community centers, community colleges, and universities. Eduardo holds an MFA from California State University in Los Angeles. He has an international reputation as an expert in contemporary low fire ceramic techniques.
www.eduardolazo.com

Doris Lederer, viola: has performed extensively with the Marlboro Music Festival and toured with Music From Marlboro. She has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Albuquerque Chamber Orchestra, among others. As a member of the Audobon Quartet since 1976, Ms. Lederer has given viola and chamber music master classes at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastmann School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Shanghai and Beijing Conservatories, Yale School of Music, Chatauqua Institute, as well as the Audubon Quartet’s annual String Quartet Seminar. She has been on the faculties of The International Festival of Round Top, Texas, The AppleCenter and is currently on faculty at Kniesel Hall in Blue Hill, Maine.

Scott Lee, viola: At twenty-three he has established himself as one of the most exciting violists to emerge in recent years. Winner of a Nathan Wedeen Management Award at the 1996 Concert Artists Guild Competition, Scott Lee is the youngest artist in the 48-year history of the Concert Artists Guild Competition to have performed as a finalist. In 1995, he won Third Prize of the William Primrose International Viola Competition. The 2000-2001 concert season included two performances for New York City’s Bargemusic with Paul Neubauer, Ani Kavafian, Fred Sherry and Gil Shaham, as well as a concerto appearance with the American Youth Symphony.

Meg LeFauve, producer of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, and founding partner of 1-Eyed Dog Productions, is currently producing both studio films and independent films. She also has turned to screenwriting and was recently accepted into the Sundance screenwriting lab with her partner John Morgan for their script The Cavanaughs. As an executive, Meg was President of Egg Pictures, Jodie Foster’s film production company. Meg continues to work with Jodie as a producer, including a film based on the life of Leni Reifenstahl in which Foster will star. She also teaches and served as co-chair of the UCLA graduate-level Producer’s Program.

Jane Levy, viola: taught music at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Pasadena City Schools and Los Angeles High School of the Arts; performs regularly with Pasadena Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Music Center Opera and Musica Angelica; has performed at Oregon Bach and Strawberry Creek Festivals and San Luis Obispo Mozart Orchestra; active private teacher, chamber music coach and freelance musician in the Los Angeles area.

Ingrid Lilligren is the Coordinator for “HOT CLAY, 2008”. She is a professor in Art and Design at Iowa State University where she teaches ceramics. In 2007 she was artist in residence at the State Academy of Art in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her work was the subject of a recent solo survey exhibit at the Dubuque Museum of Art and is exhibited and collected nationally. Her MFA degree comes from The Claremont Graduate University. website

Val Link, Artist, Educator and Craftsman received his BFA Degree from the University of Texas, Austin, and MFA Degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. After teaching three years at the Interlochen Center of the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, he was hired in 1970 to establish the Jewelry and Metalsmithing Program at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. He has held this position for 37 years until his retirement September 2007. In 1986 he was awarded the Humanities and Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award. His work is in numerous private collections as well as national and international museum collections such as The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, The Wustum Museum of Art, Racine, Wisconsin, The Cranbrook Academy of Art Gallery, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England. He has been an active member in The Society of North American Goldsmiths since 1969 and a charter member in The Society of American Silversmiths.

Larry Livingston is a distinguished conductor, educator, and administrator, and a highly respected motivational speaker. The founding Music Director of the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Livingston has appeared with the Houston Symphony and in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series. Mr. Livingston has led the American Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, the USC Thornton Chamber and Symphony Orchestras in Los Angeles and the USC Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble in Berlin.

Mr. Livingston frequently appears with professional, festival, collegiate, and all-state wind ensembles, bands and orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. From 1983 to 2002, he served as a conductor in the University of Michigan All-State Program at Interlochen, and has been the Conductor of the Festival Orchestra at Idyllwild Arts since 1989.

During the 2004-2005 season, Mr. Livingston will appear with the George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, tour Germany with the famed Landes Jugend Orchester, serve as clinician and guest conductor at the 50th Anniversary College Band Directors National Conference in Carnegie Hall, lead the New Mexico All-State Orchestra, and return to conduct the USC Thornton School Symphony Orchestra.

Holding Baccalaureate and Master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, Mr. Livingston completed Ph.D. coursework in theoretical studies at the University of California, San Diego. From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Livingston served as Vice President and Music Director of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Subsequently, he became Dean of the Shepherd School of Music and Elma Schneider Professor of Music (Conducting) at Rice University in Houston. From 1986 until 2002, Mr. Livingston served as Dean of the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music, where he is currently Professor of Conducting.

Deborah E. Love Jemmott has shared her love for metal by teaching jewelry making and metalsmithing to others since 1978. She teaches through the San Diego Community College District and Saddleback Community College in addition to teaching many workshops and private lessons in a wide range of topics. Deb’s work has been featured in American Style, American Craft, Metalsmith, San Diego Home and Garden and Redbook magazines as well as the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper. It has also appeared in Art Clay Silver and Gold by Jackie Truty, The Goodfellow Catalog of Wonderful Things III, Jewelry Making: A Guide for Beginners by Thomas P. Foote, and 20 Years in Metal. She has exhibited widely and currently has work in galleries across the country.
www.debjemmott.com

John D. Maguire is President Emeritus of Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and a Senior Fellow of CGU's Institute for Democratic Renewal, a national joint racial and social justice venture. A colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he is a life director of the King Center and served in its initial year as chair of its board. Creator, with the donor, of the Kingsley Tufts and Kate Tufts awards for poetry, Maguire serves on the boards of Union Theological Seminary and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is a founder emeritus of the Tom á s Rivera Policy Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a senior advisor to the new Claremont Museum of Art.

Kim Marcus is one of the foremost Serrano and Cahuilla Indian Arrow and Quiver makers. He is a member of the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians and is a Traditional Cahuilla Bird Singer and Ceremonial Singer. Kim Marcus received his Ph.D. degree in the field of Addiction Specialist, B.A. in Business Administration from Sherwood University, and Addictions Counseling from the University of California, Riverside. He is a School Counselor and the Culture Department Head at a Native American Middle/High School in Southern California. His family practices the use of native plants and foods. He is dedicated to the preservation and continuance of Native American culture.

Doug Masek, saxophone: BM, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; MM, Ohio State University; DMA, USC. With extensive concert touring in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, he was a recent soloist at the 2003 Ventura Chamber Music Festival and was invited guest performer at the 2002 Aspen Music Festival. Solo appearances include the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Idyllwild Arts. Additional performances include the Bolshoi, Moscow, San Francisco, and American Ballet theaters as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, New West Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Los Angeles Opera Co., Long Beach Opera and the Santa Barbara Grand Opera. He has released three critically acclaimed CDs, Distant Memories, Windwood, and Recrudescence. He continues to perform on motion picture soundtracks, television and radio broadcasts. He is currently a Selmer saxophone clinician and a Vandoren Artist, performing and lecturing nationwide at schools, colleges and universities.

Peter Middleton, flute: Professor of Music, Northern Illinois University where he teaches flute, recording techniques and acoustics. He has a patent on an electronic tuning device and has compiled an extensive flute discography.

Joseph Modica, bass coach: Mater Dei High School, Santa Ana, CA.

Kenneth Munday, Principal bassoonist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has performed on most of the orchestra’s recordings and has collaborated with all the orchestra’s music directors as soloist. In 2003, Munday performed the world premier of John Steinmetz’s Bassoon Concerto and the West Coast premier of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XII for solo bassoon, which he recorded for NAXOS records in January 2004. Munday has performed on baroque and classical bassoons with ensembles throughout the country, most recently at the Cascade Head Music Festival and with Santa Fe Pro Musica. Munday is an active recording musician, having performed on hundreds of film.

Roger Myers, viola: enjoys an impressive record of performing and teaching on three continents including Austria, Norway, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico as well as the US. He has been associated with such music festivals as Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Maine and the International Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas. He also served as the youngest ever Artistic Director and Host Chairman of the XXV Silver Anniversary Viola congress. He has served on the faculty at the International School for Musical Arts in Canada, performed at the Festival de Musique on the island of St. Barthelemy and is an artist at the Sunflower Festival in Topeka, Kansas. Chamber music performances include such artists as Lynn Harrell, Donald McInnes, Jean Barr, Steve Doane, Sidney Harth, Yehonatan Berick, Norman Fischer, Jorja Fleezanis, Ronald Leonard, Martin Lovett, Kurt Nikkanen, James Parker, Zvi Zeitlin, the Cavani String Quartet and the Dorian Wind Quintet. He has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, as principal violist with the Santa Fe Pro Musica and recently with the New West Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles as principal viola on tour with Andrea Bocelli. Recent chamber performances include the Camerata Pacifica in California and the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival in Canada. In June of 2004 Roger had the honor of being invited to play on the 100th birthday tribute to the great William Primrose at the XXXII International Viola Congress in Minneapolis. During the year he serves as Head of Strings and Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jacobo Angeles Ojeda: The dynamic animal and magical figures carved and painted by Jacobo and his wife Maria have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Arizona, New Mexico, and California and are included in collections worldwide. Jacobo has demonstrated at the Southwest Museum and the Sam Maloof Museum, and has taught Elderhostel in Oaxaca and school children in Pennsylvania. The carvings have been featured in books including Mexican Folk Art from Oaxacan Artist Families, and in publications such as Wood Carving Illustrated. web-site

Laurel Ollstein: MFA, UCLA; has been involved in new play development as an actress and playwright for the past fifteen years. She has worked with the Eureka Theatre, One Act Theatre, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, Marin Playwrights Festival and Theatre Rhinosorous. In Minneapolis she has worked at the Minneapolis Playwrights Center and the Guthrie Theatre among others. Her one-woman show, Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye, based on the life of Dorothy Parker, has been produced around the coun try and at the Burbage Theatre in Los Angeles. She has also worked with the critically acclaimed theatre company The Actor’s Gang for the past ten years. Her other plays that have been produced around the country are: Prenupt, Pot Roast, Storage Room, Insomniac and Cheese. Laurel currently teaches Playwriting in Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University and UCLA Extension.

Edith Orloff: piano: has performed extensively to great acclaim throughout the U.S. and in Europe. She has concertized with equal success as recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra. Currently the concert coordinator of the Summer Chamber Music Program at Idyllwild Arts, where she has served on the faculty since 1976. In 1980 she became a member of the Los Angeles based Pacific Trio, which serves as trio-in-residence for Idyllwild Arts and annually tours the U.S. and Europe. She maintains a private teaching studio in Houston and has performed frequently as guest artist with the Shepherd School and the Houston Symphony Chamber Players. For many years she was a regular guest artist with the Ensemble Con Brio of Bruchsal, Germany. Ms. Orloff obtained a Masters Degree from CALARTS where she studied with Earle Voorhies and Cesare Pascarella and has also worked with Jerome Lowenthal, Reginald Stewart and Rosina Lhevinne. Recently, she has appeared as guest pianist with Camerata Pacifica of Southern California, with the Rainier Quartet in Seattle, and also helped to successfully launch the ongoing Santa Barbara Chamber Music Festival, a series featuring works by American composers. She has recorded on the Brio Classic and Resort Classics labels. The 04-05 season saw the release of a new CD, recorded with her husband, David Peck, featuring modern American works for clarinet and piano; and a European tour in March 05 with the Pacific Trio.

Barbara Teller Ornelas is best known for her “tapestry” weavings (95-108 weft threads per inch). She has set several records with her weavings: she is the only weaver in history to win Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market – which she did twice; she established a new record in 1987 by selling a weaving for $60,000 that she and her sister made; and she has woven the largest tapestry style Navajo weaving on record. Barbara is a fourth generation weaver who was raised near Two Grey Hills on the Navajo Reservation where her father was a trader. She has been featured in National Geographic, Business Week, Americana and Native Peoples Magazines, as well as numerous books. She has won dozens of awards, and has demonstrated and lectured at museums and institutions across the country.web-site

David Peck, clarinet: principal clarinetist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and formerly principal clarinetist of the San Diego Symphony. Along with thirty years as an orchestra principal, Mr. Peck's other musical endeavors include a variety of chamber music and solo activities. A number of recordings with the Houston Symphony Chamber Players as well as a new album of contemporary works with his wife, pianist Edith Orloff, make up a varied discography. Mr. Peck has had a long association with the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival as well as summer appearances with the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Summerfest and Idyllwild Arts Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Peck has taught clarinet at the University of Houston and at Rice University Shepherd School for many years. In May 05, he was featured as a soloist with the Houston Symphony in a premier of The Clarinet Concerto by Richard LaVenda.

Olga Perez has a background in vocal performance, music education and theater performance. She began performing in New Orleans as a child in musical theater and went on to pursue music professionally. Her move to Arizona led her to the Arizona Opera where her career has begun to emerge. Ms. Perez received California State University LA’s Roger Wagner music award in the summer of 2003. She also won second place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing in 1997.

Lynda Teller Pete began weaving at age 6 and won her first major award at age 12 at the Gallup Ceremonial. She has gone on to win numerous awards for her weaving including two Blue Ribbons from the Santa Fe Indian Market. Lynda collaborates with museums, schools and other art venues in Colorado and around the country to teach the public about Navajo weaving. She is also known as an accomplished beadwork artist and has won many awards for this work as well. web-site

Stephen P. Piazza, conductor: Chair of the Music Department, Los Angeles Pierce College. Currently bass clarinet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Regular performer with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, and Los Angeles Pops Orchestra; commercial recordings with Warner Brothers, Columbia and Fox studios.

Pamela Pierce: MA Screenwriting, Stanford University, BA Creative Writing/Film, San Francisco State University. Executive Director and Co-Founder (with NBC Executive Dona Cooper) of CineStory in1995; Director of the prestigious competition, the CineStory Screenwriting Awards; Conference/Competition Program Director, first Austin Heart of Film Festival conference and competition; and a writer for the Oscar-winning feature documentary, Broken Rainbow. A former Nicholl Fellowship winner, Pam has been a professor and mentor to screenwriters for 20 years, serving as faculty at Northwestern University, University of Chicago’s Graham School, and Columbia College Chicago, and conducting her own workshops across the country. Over her years in the film/television business, Pam has worked in the industry as feature and television writer, documentary producer, development executive, business affairs associate, and literary manager and consultant.

Ron Pokrasso has been an exhibiting mixed-media artist and printmaker for more than 25 years. He received his MFA degree from Pratt Institute in 1975 and has had over 40 solo exhibitions and more than 150 group shows. His work is in public, private, and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and abroad as well as being featured in several books. For eleven years Pokrasso has owned and directed Graphics Workshop (gifted to the College of Santa Fe in 1993). He is originator of the printmaking event “Monothon” and has been an ardent supporter of arts programs for youth. His teaching experience includes universities, museums, public schools and private workshops, as well as Artist Residencies in the US, Scotland, Ireland and Italy. In 2000, Ron Pokrasso received the Mayor’s Recognition Award for Visual Arts citing his artistic and educational contribution to the city of Santa Fe . In addition to numerous galleries nationwide, he is represented by Denise Roberge Gallery in Palm Desert . You can view Ron’s work at: www.deloneynewkirk.com, www.lynnefineart.com, and www.arts-exclusive.com.

Thomas Porwol, Festival Manager, was born in Rybnik, Poland, and has lived in Germany since 1988. He completed his violin studies with Valery Klimov and Liviu Casleanu. His violin and chamber music education led him to Eduard Brunner, Thomas Kakuska (Alban-Berg-Quartet), and the Kronos Quartet. As a soloist and founder of the Milan Ensemble he performs regularly at festivals such as the Ludwig van Bethoven Festival Glogau, Scarampella Festival Brescia, and Music of the XX & XXI century. The Milan Ensemble has recorded for German, Italian and Polish radio and television and is known for its unconventional repertoire and performances. An important part of his activities is his work with his sister, pianist Alexandra Porwol. As a duo, they have won prizes in international competitions in Europe. Since 2000, he has been the director of the Easter Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and is responsible for the organization of several important cultural projects from Classic to Jazz in Europe.

Nicholas Quezada is Juan Quezada’s brother and one of the major figures among the Mata Ortiz potters. He was the first sibling Juan taught to pot while he was learning the craft himself. Nicolas played a key role in problem solving in the late 1970’s when they were still developing new clay sources, tempers for the clay and new polishing techniques and styles. Always adapting, Nicolas was one of the first potters to use a secador to suck water out of drying clay solution. He has an unending enthusiasm for working with the clay, and his inventiveness and innovation are unparalleled. He has exhibited and taught throughout the US. His pots are in museum and private collections and have been included in many exhibitions.

Lori Marie Rios, soprano coach: La Canada High School, La Canada, CA.

Amy Salko Robertson, is an independent film producer, whose most recent credits include: The Oh In Ohio (Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Mischa Barton, Danny De Vito); When Do We Eat? (Michael Lerner, Lesley Ann Warren, Jack Klugman) and the upcoming Emily Goodbody, scheduled to begin filming,with actor David Morse directing, Liv Tyler to star. Amy recently co-founded M2M Studios with independent producer, Paul Rosenberg, and they are currently working on commercial projects of various budget ranges and genres. Amy has served as a mentor for the AFI Kodak Connect, IFP/Film Independent – Project Involve, and a judge for The Angelus Film Festival, The Cinestory Screenwriting Awards, and the Montage Diversity in Screenwriting Competition. Prior to producing, she was an agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) where she helped build the careers of Jamie Foxx, Val Kilmer, Woody Harrelson, Harry Connick Jr., Cheech Marin, Thomas Haden Church, Benjamin Bratt, Elisabeth Shue, Virginia Madsen and Ethan Hawke

Terry Rothrock: Since 1973, Terry has worked as a potter in factories, for other potters, and as a self-employed artist and teacher. His fascination for working at the potter’s wheel is still the driving force in making pottery. He has explored a wide variety of forms, techniques, and surface decoration and enjoys sharing these with others. Currently, he teaches at Idyllwild Arts Academy and makes pottery with his wife, Chinlee Chang.

Sibyl Rubottom holds her MFA from Yale University in Painting and her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Sibyl is co-proprietor of Bay Park Press, a small fine arts press specializing in limited edition Artists Books and fine intaglio prints. Sibyl’s books are in the special collections of universities and libraries throughout the country (Library of Congress, John Hay Library at Brown University; Sterling Library at Yale University; and many others). She is an Artist-in-Residence at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla, California and she teaches Book Arts at its School of the Arts and at the University of California San Diego Extension. Sibyl conducts creativity workshops and regularly leads tours to Mexico in which book arts are a focus of the trip.

Griselda Saufkie: Griselda lives on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, where she began making baskets upon initiation, when she was about 12 years old. She has the distinction of being named an Arizona Indian Living Treasure. Griselda has received many awards for her basketry, and is included in books such as the new Art of the Hopi: Contemporary Journeys on Ancient Pathways, by Lois and Jerry Jacka.

Lawrence Saufkie: is from Shungopovi village on Second Mesa on the Hopi reservation, and is a member of the Bear Clan. He has been a silversmith since he was eleven years old, and learned the craft from his late father, Paul Saufkie, who along with Fred Kabotie, is recognized as the leader who created the Hopi overlay style known today as the “traditional” Hopi style. Lawrence travels and exhibits throughout the U.S. His award winning jewelry has been featured in numerous books on Hopi art and jewelry. In 1962, he was the first Hopi to attend the Santa Fe Indian Market. In 1998 he was named an Arizona Indian Living Treasure.

Bill Schlitt, percussion: Percussion instructor Azusa Pacific University, California State Polytechnic University, Concordia University, University of Redlands, Vanguard University, Chaffey Community College; timpanist with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, principal percussionist with Music Theater of Southern California, freelance performer and recording artist, including appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; author, clinician and private instructor.

Esther Shimazu was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and she currently resides in Kailua. She attended the University of Hawaii/Manoa and the University of Massachusetts/Amherst where she received her BFA and an MFA in ceramics. Esther is a studio artist and teaches at Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Hawaii Potters Guild. She has also taught workshops at the Holualoa Foundation, Hui No’eau (HI); Emily Carr Institute (BC); San Francisco State (CA); Sierra Nevada College (NV); and Penland School of Crafts (NC), among others. She is represented by John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, CA. Website

Lorene Sisquoc is a descendent of the Mountain Cahuilla and a member of the Fort Sill Apache tribe. She is co-founder of Mother Earth Clan and gives cultural presentations throughout the region. Lorene is the curator of the Sherman Indian Museum in Riverside, California. She is on the board of directors of the California Indian Basket Weavers Association, as well as Natachee (a non-profit organizatiuon dedicated to the continuance of American Indian culture and spirituality). In 1997, the city of Riverside honored her with the Dr. Maritin Luther King, Jr. Visionary Award for community cultural awareness. As a traditional artist and crafts person, she is dedicated to the preservation and continuance of Native American culture, and to insuring that the public is accurately educated about Native American history.

Ernest H. Siva is a musician and teacher. He currently directs the Pass Chorale, the community chorus serving the San Gorgonio Pass. He is the cultural advisor and tribal historian for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Siva formerly taught public school music in Palm Springs and Los Angeles before teaching courses in American Indian music at UCLA for 12 years. He and his wife June are Idyllwild Arts alumni and its ardent supporters. His flute book, Ten Little Indian Tunes and More, was produced specifically for the Idyllwild Arts Native American Flute Workshop. He is president of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.

Ed Skoog's first book, Mister Skylight, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2009. His work has appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, and publications in Venezuela and the U.K. He won the Poetry Society of America’s Lyric Poetry Award in 2007. He has taught at Tulane and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and is chair of creative writing for Idyllwild Arts Academy.

David Speltz, cello: MA in Mathematics, University of California. Founding member of the Arriaga Quartet, winners of the Coleman Competition, and former member of the Gregor Piatigorsky Master Class at USC. As a member of the ensemble, Musical Offering, he performed at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center and throughout the USA and Canada. He participates regularly in several Los Angeles chamber music series including Pacific Serenades, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bing Concerts, the South Bay Chamber Music Society and the IMA concerts.

Kathleen Spivack is the author of Moments of Past Happiness (Earthwinds Editions 2007), The Beds We Lie In  (Scarecrow 1986); The Honeymoon  (Graywolf 1986); Swimmer in the Spreading Dawn (Applewood 1981); The Jane Poems  (Doubleday 1973); and Flying Inland (Doubleday 1971). Since 1990, she has been Visiting Professor of American Literature/Creative Writing at various universities in France, where she spends a part of each year. She also writes song cycles, which have been performed worldwide.

David St. John has been honored with many of the country’s most significant prizes for poets, including fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as The Rome Prize in Literature and an Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.  He currently teaches at the USC. St. John is the author of nine collections of poetry, most recently The Face: A Novella in Verse.

Carl Stanley is an award winning jewelry artist from Santa Barbara, CA with 35 years of jewelry making experience. He teaches classes and workshops at the Santa Barbara Adult Ed. Jewelry Center, for Farrin O’Connor Design Studio in Pasadena, CA and various other locations. He has written technical articles, developed innovative techniques, and his work has been published in several magazines and specialty books. www.carlstanleyjewelryarts.com

Arigon Starr is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. She grew up on the road as part of a military family. Her parents, Ken and Ruth Wahpecome (Creek-Cherokee-Seneca) supported her artistic expressions, encouraging her to learn as much as possible about music, composition, art, and drama. Starr relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked behind the scenes at entertainment companies like Viacom Productions and Showtime Networks. In 1996, she left her corporate job behind and became a full-time musician. For more information about Arigon, see http://www.arigonstarr.com/

Mark Tahbo is known as one of the finest Hopi potters today. Born and raised on the Hopi Reservation, First Mesa, Mark learned the art from his great grandmother Grace Chapella, Nampeyo’s neighbor and a principle pottery “revival” artist decades ago. His distinctive pots have been exhibited worldwide in museums and galleries. Among the many top awards he has earned at the Santa Fe Indian Market is the prestigious Helen Naha Memorial Award for Excellence in Hopi Pottery which he earned for 3 consecutive years. Mark has been profiled in various publications including Native Peoples Magazine, and is included in numerous books and articles on Pueblo pottery. He served as Summer Program faculty at Idyllwild Arts from 1991-2000.

Marie Thibeault is a Professor of Art at California State University in Long Beach, where she teaches her much sought-after color course for painters. This seminal course is highly effective for all levels of painters from beginners to graduate students. She received her BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in painting from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied with the notable painters Elmer Bischoff and Joan Brown. She has shown internationally and extensively on the west coast and has been included in several notable traveling exhibitions. Her large abstract paintings are arenas of action, informed by the contemporary landscape in transition and utilize symbolic color as an expressive force.

Louise Thomas, D.M.A., is director of the Collaborative Arts program at Chapman University. Her responsibilities include coaching vocalists and instrumentalists as well as playing for the nationally-acclaimed Chapman University Choir and Singers and coaching within the opera program.

Doug Tornquist, tuba: Bachelor’s degree from USC; Master’s degree from Wichita State University; Doctorate from USC. He teaches at CSU Northridge, CSU Fullerton, Pasadena City College and the University of Southern California. A freelance player in Southern California and plays regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Hollywood Bowl, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival and others. He also records for the film and television industry. During the summer of 1997, Dr. Tornquist was a prizewinner in the International Tuba Solo Competition in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Natasha Trethewey, recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin 2006) and Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, is also the author of Bellocq’s Ophelia (Graywolf, 2002), and Domestic Work (Graywolf, 2000). She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. In the 2005-2006 academic year, she served as the Lehman Brady Joint Chair Professor of Documentary and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Richard Tsosie is a Navajo jeweler and sculptor from Flagstaff and the Wide Ruins area of the Navajo Reservation and is currently living in Scottsdale, Arizona. His work has been featured in American Indian Art Magazine, Arizona Highways Magazine, the video “Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution”, as well as several books including, Southwestern Indian Jewelry by Dexter Cirillo and Enduring Traditions, Art of the Navajo and Navajo Jewelry by Jerry Jacka. Richard’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums from New York to California.

Ernest Vallo, Sr., resident and former lieutenant governor of Acoma Pueblo, has been deeply involved in the traditional practices and histories of his people. A former educator, civil engineer, and air traffic controller, he has collaborated for years with archaeologists as one of the Pueblo’s consultants on issues regarding the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). He has served on Crow Canyon’s Native American advisory group and on its board of directors.

Amanda Walker, clarinet: MFA, UCLA; currently principal clarinet of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra where she performed Copland’s Clarinet Concerto on their 1999-2000 series. She has also performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, the Royal and Swedish Ballets, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for a recording of Ned Rorem’s works. She has appeared as one of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra’s Chamber Musicians and has also participated in the Bach Camerata of Santa Barbara, the Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music series and the Summer Music series at the Getty. She is active in recording for film, freelances and is also in demand as a teacher. Her training in England was at the Royal College of Music where she studied with Thea King. Recordings include Viklarbo’s recent CD release Songs and Romances which can be found on the Raptoria Caam label and the Mozart and Strauss Serenades with the California Philharmonic.

John Walz, cello: Hailed as one of the outstanding cellists of his generation, John Walz has excited audiences on three continents. Born in Southern California, he began his studies with Eleonore Schoenfeld. In 1966, he heard the great French cellist, Pierre Fournier, play the Dvorak Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, an event that he says, "changed my life". In 1973, he traveled to Switzerland to study with Fournier, becoming one of the French master’s finest pupils. He has made seventeen tours of Europe, playing recitals and concertos in such important musical centers as London, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, and Oslo. 1983 took him to Australia, where he played in Sydney Melbourne, and Adelaide. His solo engagements with more that 120 symphony orchestras throughout the world have included performances of 25 different concertos. In 1997, he performed the Dvorak Concerto in Prague at the Rudolfinum, Dvorak’s own hall. This performance was subsequently recorded and released on Carlton Classics, to great acclaim. Most recently he performed and recorded Bloch’s Schelomo and the Shostakovich Concerto #1 with JoAnn Falletta and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home in chamber music and orchestral playing, he is currently the principal cellist with the Los Angeles Opera, having previously held that position with the Long Beach Symphony for 20 years. As a chamber music artist, he has played with such luminaries as Leonard Pennario, Mona Golabek, Nathan Milstein, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Pierre Fournier. In 1979, John Walz was a founding member of the Pacific Trio. This renowned ensemble, which consists of violinist Roger Wilkie, and pianist and co-founder Edith Orloff, has played more than 900 concerts throughout North America and Europe. In addition, Mr. Walz is currently on the faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA. Future engagements include a debut with the Phillipine Philharmonic in Manila, and the release of a new cd by the Pacific Trio, featuring Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and "Archduke" Trio.

Melvin Warner, orchestra consultant: BM and MM degrees from the University of Southern California; Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at Northern Illinois University; has taught at San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego, Hartt Summer Youth Music Camp, and Birch Creek Music Center. Solo appearances with St. Louis Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Orchestra of Illinois, Chicago Sinfonietta and Illinois Chamber Symphony; formerly Associate Principal Clarinet, St. Louis Symphony; guest Principal, San Diego Symphony; currently Principal Clarinet, Chicago Sinfonietta and Illinois Chamber Symphony. Active chamber musician; co-founded Pacific Woodwind Quintet, founder of Quintetto da Camera.

Charles Harper Webb’s seventh book of poems, Amplified Dog, was published in 2006. Among his many awards are the Morse Poetry Prize, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Felix Pollak Prize, Benjamin Saltman Award, Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writer’s Award, and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. A former rock singer/guitarist and psychotherapist, he currently directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at CSULB.

Roger Wilkie, violin: Concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony, Mr. Wilkie has also held that position with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, and the Round Top Festival Orchestra of Texas. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has given solo recitals for the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Art/KUSC-FM broadcasts, Swiss National Radio, and National Public Radio’s Performance Today. His chamber music performances have included the Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Mainly Mozart Music Festivals, and the Camerata Pacifica of which he is the principal violinist. As a founding member of the Angeles String Quartet (1987-1993) he toured throughout North America including New York’s 92nd Street "Y" and recorded an interactive CD/video disc for the Voyager Company.

Cecilia Woloch: is the author of Sacrifice, a BookSense 76 selection in 2001; Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem; and Late, for which she was named Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry for 2004. Her chapbook, Narcissus, won the Snowbound Prize and was published by Tupelo Press in 2008, and a new collection of poems is forthcoming from BOA Editions in 2009. She serves on the faulty of the BA program in Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, as well as the MFA Program in Writing at Western Connecticut State University. She spends part of each year traveling and teaching in Europe.
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Christoph Wyneken, violin/viola: studied at the conservatories in Berlin, Detmold and Austin, Texas (U.S.A.). It is especially his work with Andor Toth (Galamian school) and George Neikrug (Dounis school) that had a decisively formative influence on him. His work as the concertmaster of the Berlin Radio-Orchestra was followed by further experience with the Berlin Philharmonic and the position of principal concertmaster of the NDR Radio-Orchestra in Hanover, Germany. In addition to his work in orchestras, his well-rounded performing career has included numerous recordings for radio broadcast, solo concerts and concert tours in Germany and abroad with the Berlin String Trio, the Waldstein Piano Trio and the Orfeo-Chamber Soloists. Wynekens’ experience combined with an extraordinary sensitivity for teaching, provides a significant opportunity for personal and musical growth for many young musicians who attend his master-classes. Many of Wyneken’s former students play in renowned orchestras or study at distinguished conservatories such as the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Musikakademie in Vienna. One of Christoph Wyneken’s goals is the instruction and support of extraordinarily gifted young musicians not yet at the conservatory or university level. The stage for his engagement in this area is provided by the State Youth Orchestra of Baden-Württemberg, of which Wyneken has been the artistic director since it’s founding over 30 years ago. Many of his students and the chamber music groups he has coached have received first prizes at the national level of the German youth music competition, Jugend Musiziert. Since 1991, Christoph Wyneken has been an instructor for chamber music at the conservatory in Freiburg and is now also a guest professor at the "Musachino" conservatory in Tokyo, Japan.

Marvin and Jonette Yazzie are from Lukachukai, a small town on the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners region of Arizona. Jonette assists Marvin in flute making, an art they learned from their relative Willard Coyote. Their flutes are carried in museum shops around the country, as well as Asia and Europe. Raven Longbow, Scott August and Michael Luetger have each recorded with a Yazzie flute. Marvin is listed in Flute Magic and Voices of the Flute. Yazzie flutes are used in the music programs of Tuscon and Klamath-Trinity school districts.