Teachers
Ballet
Sharon Donohue Tolczyk, Artistic Director and Co-founder of Crozet Arts, previously taught ballet on the faculties of the Boston Ballet School, Walnut Hill School for the arts (Natick, MA), Boston Ballet’s Children’s Summer Dance Workshop, Amherst Ballet Centre (MA), Schwarz School of Dance (Dayton, OH), Wright State University’s PRODANCE (Dayton, OH), Albemarle Ballet Theatre, and at the Greenwood Community Center. At Walnut Hill School, she was a member of the dance department’s ballet faculty, and Director of the Dance Extension Division and Summer Dance Workshop. Prior to her teaching career, Sharon danced with the Dayton Ballet Company and Peridance, a contemporary ballet company in New York City. While in Dayton, she also served as Ballet Mistress for the company and apprentice company, Dayton Ballet II. More Info…
Art
John A. Hancock has over 30 years’ experience teaching a broad range of painting, watercolor, drawing, and design to adults, college students, and teens. As an artist, he has exhibited his work in competitive exhibitions and solo shows around the country and in England. Seeing the here and now as layered realities—past/present, personal/natural history—my work is a complex and imperfect poesis. It is always a bit unstable and idiosyncratic, but ultimately it strives to be essential and intrinsically humane. To see his art and read more, please visit his website: Johnahancock.com.
Catherine Konvalinka is from Virginia, went to highschool and college in Washington, D.C. and has lived in Charlottesville since 2017. She has been passionate about creative self-expression from a young age. She has developed her skills through many courses and workshops offered at Edmund Burke School, The Art League of Alexandria, and The Smithsonian. Catherine interned at The National Gallery of Art and taught art classes to elementary students. She received a B.A. in Elementary Education from American University and a Masters of Education from The University of Virginia. She is certified to teach Pre-K through 12th grade. Catherine is also a mixed media artist who layers paint, photographs, found images, and objects on paper. Her goal as an art teacher is to encourage creative exploration and artistic risk-taking so students can grow, learn, and engage in a process that produces joy.
Lexy McCallum earned her BA in psychology and art history at UC Santa Barbara and studied art at San Francisco Art Institute. She received her Visual Arts Teaching Credential at St. Mary’s College of California. Lexy moved to Charlottesville with her family in 2016 and was previously an art teacher in the Albemarle County Public Schools. She comes to Crozet Arts with over 15 years of teaching experience to various age groups, from kindergarten to high school. Her goal as an art educator is to help students keep their innate connection to creativity and develop the skills they need to participate in the complex thinking process that goes into making works of art.
Past Art Teachers at Crozet Arts:
Laura Allen
Jessie Coles
Charlene Cross
Kacie-Linn Engle
Elizabeth Herlevsen
Nym Pedersen
Madeleine Rhondeau
Noaa Spiekermann
Theater
Boomie Pedersen was born and raised in NYC. She has lived, taught, performed and studied in NY; Tokyo, Japan; Los Angeles, CA and now in Virginia. She was a scholarship dance student with the Joffrey Ballet but gave up ballet to go to college. Boomie holds a BA in English and Theater/Dance from Princeton University, and recently completed her MFA in Pedagogy and Performance at VCU. She is Artistic Director of the Hamner Theater, which she co-founded in 2005; she runs the Hamner Improv Troupe and has taught Improv extensively to all ages as well as to businesses, caregivers and in other areas where Applied Improv is applicable. She does Playback Theater, has acted, directed and produced in theaters in Charlottesville as well as Richmond. She also founded the Central Virginia Theater Alliance and is active in the GCCA (Greater Crozet Arts Alliance). Boomie is the Theater Advisor for Crozet Arts where she also teaches theater classes for children and adults and looks forward to introducing the Crozet Theater Workshop at Crozet Arts to the community. Click here to read more about Boomie at the Hamner Theater website.
Music
Group Toot Flute: Award-winning flutist, Elizabeth Brightbill, performs in the Crozet-based duo Terra Voce. Prior to moving to Crozet, she held the position of Principal Flute with the Tulsa Philharmonic and Opera orchestras for ten years. She holds the D.M. degree from Indiana University. Elizabeth currently teaches at Longwood University and in her home studio in Crozet. Contact Elizabeth at info@terravoce.com TerraVoce.com
Guitar & Ukulele:
American performer, composer and recording artist Greg C. Brown has released over 25 CDs either under his own name or in various other projects. He has performed across the US, Canada, and Europe including St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. He has taught guitar professionally for over 25 years, including Mary Baldwin University and other private institutions. He is currently teaching privately in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Greg is a graduate of the Music, Video and Business program at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, has a Bachelor’s in Business from City University in Bellevue, Washington with a specialty in Music Industry. completed his Master’s in Music Composition at the Vermont College for Fine Arts in 2022. Brown is a member of the Guitar Foundation of America, the Charlottesville Classical Guitar Society, the College Music Society, Chamber Music America, and the Society of Composers, Inc.
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Chamber Strings: Cellist Andrew Gabbert performs in the Crozet‐based chamber duo Terra Voce with his wife, flutist Elizabeth Brightbill. In addition to their numerous performances on college campuses, Terra Voce has appeared on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, in the Christ Chapel Chamber Series at New York City’s Riverside Church, and as finalists in the National Flute Association’s 2008 Chamber Music Competition in Kansas City. Prior to moving to Crozet, Mr. Gabbert held titled full-‐time positions with the Tulsa Philharmonic and Opera orchestras for eleven years and regularly presented educational concerts as a member of the Tulsa Philharmonic String Quartet/Quintet. He graduated with high distinction from Indiana University’s School of Music, and also has a M.M. from Louisiana State University. He has taught as a Visiting Instructor at the University of Oklahoma, and as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State University. He currently teaches at Randolph College and Lynchburg College and maintains a private studio in Crozet, VA. TerraVoce.com
Suzuki Cello at Crozet Arts:
Dr. Elizabeth Cantrell, “Dr. Beth,” is a Resident Artist at Crozet Arts. She teaches cellists of all ages throughout the US and the UK. She is very active with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, which reaches from Alaska to Patagonia, as a Registered Teacher Trainer, and as former Chair of its governing board. She has taught children and adults at Suzuki Institutes and workshops throughout the United States and abroad for over 30 years.
Locally, Dr. Beth maintains an active private studio at Crozet Arts. She performs as principal cellist of the Waynesboro Symphony, is a member of the Afton String Quartet, and plays regularly with groups throughout the region. She was, for many years, principal cellist for the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and was on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and Mary Baldwin University.
Dr. Cantrell earned degrees in cello performance and music history from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Florida State University, and the University of Georgia. Prior to moving to Virginia with her family in 2001, she was principal cellist for the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and was on the faculty of Kennesaw State University. She was active in the Atlanta area for 18 years as a teacher, chamber and orchestral performer, adjudicator, and recording studio musician.
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Some of our other longtime previous teachers at Crozet Arts:
Tracy Diamond Allen, Children’s Drama
Daniel McCarthy, Guitar
Scott Neisser, Yoga
Madhavi Reddi, Indian Classical Dance