FOUNDER
Arlene Shrut
Founder & Artistic Director
Arlene Shrut, is a collaborative pianist with a visionary bent: combining tradition with transformation. Arlene is Founder and Artistic Director of New Triad for Collaborative Arts, a 501C3 non-profit educational and arts service organization dedicated to providing classical musicians with innovative performance skills that lead to more accessible concerts. New Triad’s interdisciplinary training helps artists dramatically increase both the expressiveness and visual impact of their performances.
Dr. Shrut is a Senior Coach on the Vocal Arts Faculty of The Juilliard School as well as a Vocal-Piano Recital Faculty Coach at the Manhattan School of Music. An admired keyboard performer hailed as a “strong and sensitive pianist” by The New York Times , Arlene has performed in major venues in America, Canada and Europe, and recorded for Dorian, Albany, Summit, Centaur and Orion labels. Arlene also launched The National Association of Accompanists and Coaches and served on the faculties of Syracuse University, Mannes College and, for fourteen summers, The Aspen Music School. In the summer of 2009, her teaching and performing was featured at Vancouver International Song Institute, Operafest on Martha’s Vineyard and Resonanz Festival. In the summer of 2010, she also joins the Atlantic Music Festival faculty. Arlene was honored in 2003 as inaugural “Coach of the Year” by Classical Singer Magazine .
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Arlene Shrut, President, is the Founder and Artistic Director of New Triad for Collaborative Arts and serves on the Faculties of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music.
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Dr. Kate Nesbit, Vice President, is a professional singer and former manager of a mystery bookstore in New York City as well as her own raw pet food delivery service in New York City.
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Susan Lochner, Secretary, is a classical singer and teacher of English As A Second Language in the Hawthorne School District, Hawthorne, New Jersey.
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Liu Jay Lam, CPA, Treasurer,is Manager of Financial Reporting at Equinox. Prior to joining Equinox, Liu-Jay was an Accounting Manager at Nexcen Brands, Inc.
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Michael B. Cox is a Senior Managing Director and founding partner of the Seabury Group, LLC, a boutique investment bank and consultancy firm specializing in the aviation industry. Prior to Seabury, Mr. Cox was a Director at Price Waterhouse and Vice President and Treasurer of Continental Airlines.
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Jamil French, Esq. is a Managing Director for Talent, Branding and Communications at Credit Suisse. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Jamil was Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Sandell Asset Management Corp.
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ADVISORY BOARD
Richard Adams, VP Emeritus Manhattan School of Music
David Bennett, Executive Director, Gotham Chamber Opera, NYC
Steven Blier, Co-Founder and Co-Director New York Festival of Song
William Bolcom, International Composer, premieres include Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera
Eric Booth, Teaching artist and national consultant on arts learning and arts organization leadership and former Artistic Director of Mentoring at The Juilliard School
Katherine Ciesinski, International Opera and Recital Singer, Head of Voice Studies, Moores School of Music , University of Houston
Denise Coleman, non-profit consultant
James Dunlop, Esq. formerly an associate at King & Spalding in the Intellectual Property group and specializes in trademark counseling.
Mary Barker Evans has extensive experience both in the business world and as a performing artist. She also was the founder of Houston Opera Theater, and has served in management positions of multiple Houston charities.
John Forconi, Chairman of the Accompanying Department, Manhattan School of Music
Margo Garrett, Collaborative Piano Faculty, The Juilliard School and U of MN
Steven Gross, International opera and musical theater conductor. Former Music Director, Theater des Westens, Berlin
Bert Harclerode, Executive Director, Chamber Music Sedona
Dimitri Hvorostovsky, International Opera and Recital Singer
Mark Kaczmarczyk, Director of Opera & Musical Theater of Ithaca College and Founder, Detroit Oratorio Society
Karin Laine McMillen, is an opera singer who has worked in arts non profit organizations including Interlochen Center for the Arts and New England Conservatory.
Derek Mithaug, Executive Director Suburban Community Music Center (NJ)and President, Mithaug Artists. Former Director of Career Development and Co-Director of the Mentoring Program,The Juilliard School
Joan Morris, Cabaret artist and faculty member, University of Michigan
Peter Oundjian, Conductor and Artistic Director, The Caramoor Festival
Mark Riggleman, Director of Education, Chicago Lyric Opera
Paul Sperry, Director of Joy in Singing and Faculty member Manhattan School of Music
Arnold Steinhardt, First Violinist Guarneri String Quartet
Jennifer White is a professional choral and opera singer and has ten years of experience in Executive Search for the Alternative Investment community.
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SEMINAR LEADERS
Michael Batshaw, Psychology of Partnership
Michael Batshaw is a board-certified psychotherapist who holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Formerly, Mr. Batshaw served as Clinical Director of a non-profit AIDS organization, serving artists with AIDS in NYC. He currently maintains a full-time private practice in New York City, where he works with both musicians and business leaders Mr. Batshaw is also a professional opera singer and trained with teachers from The Julliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Academy of Vocal Arts. In 2003, Mr. Batshaw made his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist in the Berlioz Requiem. Mr. Batshaw’s solo engagements have included Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony”, Mozart’s “Requiem” and Rossini’s “Stabat Mater”. Mr. Batshaw performs in the New York area and beyond in concerts and recitals, as his schedule permits. Michael Batshaw can be reached at contact@michaelbatshaw.com or directly through his website: michaelbatshaw.com.
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Jennifer Beattie, Creating Theme Recitals( singers-vocal collaborative pianists)
Hailed by Opera News Online for her "exuberant voice and personality," soprano Jennifer Beattie is a versatile and dynamic performer in styles ranging from opera to chamber music and musical theater to cabaret. Ms. Beattie is an active recitalist dedicated to the performance of art song, appearing most recently in NYC at The National Arts Club, The Juilliard School, The Donnell Library, and Riverside Church. Ms. Beattie is also an avid performer of new and innovative works, having premiered pieces in both the opera and recital genres. In opera, Ms. Beattie has appeared in Die Fledermaus in Carnegie Hall, as Sacerdotessa in Aida with One World Symphony, and in Peer Gynt with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. She has also been featured in Classical Singer magazine and as a guest of Houston’s National Public Radio.
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Alyssa Dodson, Body Awareness & Stage Deportment
As a professional dancer, Alyssa Dodson has performed with many distinguished dance companies. They include the Martha Graham Dance Company, Pilobolus, The Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, The Mark Morris Dance Group, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Ms. Dodson has worked as an assistant choreographer for Pilobolus’s version of the Nutcracker commissioned by the Ballet du Rhin of Mulhouse, France. Ms. Dodson has been on the staff of Tanglewood since 1999 teaching yoga, movement and placement to singers, instrumentalists and conductors. In December of 2002, Ms. Dodson taught the singers of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist program. As a dance teacher, Ms. Dodson has taught the Martha Graham Technique at NYU Dance Education Department, Cap 21, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and participated in numerous master classes worldwide.
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Vickie Karp, Poetic Text Analysis
Vickie Karp’s first book, A Taxi to the Flame, was published in 1999 . She has written literary documentaries for PBS, A & E, and Bravo. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for her poetry and an Emmy nomination for her televised poetry special, New Yorkers Remember September 11th. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Italy’s Storie magazine, David Lehman’s Best Poetry anthology series, and Bascove’s Where Books Fall Open and Sustenance and Desire. The first in her series of “poetry theater” plays – “Driving to the Interior,” on Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop -- was recently staged at The Cherry Lane Theatre. Her new “poetry theater” play – “Venus Will Now Say A Few Words,” on W. H. Auden and Carson McCullers -- will premiere in 2007/2008.
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Praised as an "excellent pianist" with "titanic force" (New York Times), Adam Marks combines a commitment to contemporary music with innovative programming designed to reach new audiences of all types. In 2008, Mr. Marks made history as the first American laureate of the prestigious Orleans Competition for music composed since 1900 in Orleans, France. A frequent recitalist, Adam has performed extensively throughout the United States, as well as Europe. As a soloist, Adam has appeared with the Manchester Symphony Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Brandeis-Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. Other notable venues include the Salle Cortot in Paris, Zankel and Weill Halls at Carnegie, Miller Theatre in New York, the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Chicago Cultural Center, Montalvo Arts in California, and the New World Symphony Stage. As a teacher, Marks has presented lectures and masterclasses at Yale, Juilliard, Mannes, University of Northern Iowa, Carthage College, and Manchester College.
Collaboration is a crucial element in Marks’ career. As the pianist and Director of Artistic Programming for Chicago’s Fifth House Ensemble, he designs and presents programs for concert stages, cultural institutions, and educational facilities alike. Other endeavors include performances with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Beattie, performance artist Connie Beckley, video artist Jenny Perlin, and many others.
Mr. Marks currently serves on the faculty of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He holds degrees from Brandeis University and the Manhattan School of Music. He is currently a candidate for the Ph.D at New York University. His teachers include Anthony De Mare, Sara Davis Buechner, Donn-Alexandre Feder, Evan Hirsch, and Lois Banke. Adam Marks is a Yamaha Artist.
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Jocelyn Rasmussen,
Individuality in Performance
Soprano, composer and teacher, Jocelyn Rasmussen is the founder and CEO of MORE THAN SINGING, LLC, a company focused on creating tools and coaching options for singers as well as MORE THAN SPEAKING, LLC, a company committed to sharing resources and skills to facilitate speakers and professionals in all aspects of oral communication. Years of working with therapists and healing practitioners augmented by studying the works of medical intuitives, music therapists and researchers have all contributed to her integrated approach to the voice. A Master of Music with degrees in vocal performance and composition, Ms. Rasmussen began her professional career with performances of popular and jazz repertoire, including her own compositions, and composed and arranged for other ensembles including theater and dance companies. Her performance with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra won the Canadian Broadcasting award for best variety show of the year. As an operatic soprano she has performed leading roles in regional companies in Canada and the United States and has been a soloist with orchestras performing both oratorio and popular repertoire. JUST LOVE AWAY, an album of her own compositions, features Grammy Award Winning pianist Lee Musiker. Ms. Rasmussen was selected to perform two of her own compositions at the Time for Peace Awards honoring Robin Williams and Jewel, and continues to perform and teach from her base in Manhattan.
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Ellen Rievman, Stage Presence
Ellen Rievman has a performing career spanning nearly three decades. For twenty-four years, as a member of the Metropolitan Opera ballet, she performed in over 100 productions alongside some of our greatest opera stars. Since leaving the Met in 1995, she has worked with singers to coach the drama, explore the text, and to incorporate these skills with gesture, movement, stagecraft, and physical eloquence.
A partial list of Ellen’s accomplishments include teaching Master Classes for Apprentice Artists of the Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, National Opera Company, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National and Regional Conventions, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Utah Festival Opera, UNC Greensboro, Lighthouse for the Blind, and New York Singing Teachers’ Association (NYSTA) National Symposium. She also sits on the board of NYSTA. Ellen functioned as a consultant and coach to the Richard Tucker Foundation, assisting participants in the Foundation’s annual competition. As a director, she has staged scenes, directed cabaret acts and recitals, produced and directed opera evenings of such contemporary composers as Seymour Barab, William Mayer and Philip Hagemann. She has also directed concerts for, among others, NYSTA and the Baroque Aria Ensemble at Manhattan School of Music. Ellen coaches privately and also presents ongoing classes and workshops in audition preparation, dramatic presentation, song/aria interpretation and performance. She is an Associate at TAI Resources, The Actors Institute, in New York City.
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Rachel Schwartz, S Developing Your Speaking Voice and Connecting Art, Artists and Audience
As a professional actor, Rachel Schwartz has performed with many notable theater companies, including The Diary of Anne Frank at the Paper Mill Playhouse and The Comedy of Errors and Antony and Cleopatra at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. She has appeared in plays at several downtown spaces, such as the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, chashama, and Manhattan Theatre Source. She received her M.F.A. in acting from Columbia University, where she studied with such teachers as Kristin Linklater, Andrei Serban, and Anne Bogart. While attending Brandies University for her B.A., she studied abroad in London at the Marymount London Drama Program under the instruction of Katherine Pogson, Charmian Hoare, Bill Homewood, and June Kemp. Ms. Schwartz has been a guest lecturer in acting at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Simmons College, as well as an acting and vocal coach in New York.
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Arlene Shrut, Musical Dynamics of Partnership
(Refer to Founder's Bio)
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Debra Wiley, Connecting to Your Music and Stageworthy Performance
Debra Wiley is a director, an internationally acclaimed acting teacher and coach, and a singing voice specialist. She has taught and directed performers at institutions that include The Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music, New York University, Marymount Manhattan College, Harlem School of the Arts, Henry Street Settlement, the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, and regularly teaches master classes in Europe. In her private studio in Manhattan, Debra teaches the techniques of singing and acting and specializes in integrating the two. Recent master classes include Chamber Music America, Audience Engagement pilot at Juilliard with New Triad, NYU Steinhardt, Disney Theatrical Productions and Mannes. As a performer, Debra has been featured with professional companies across several disciplines (opera, theater, musical theater, cabaret) and studied with many famous teachers and directors of our time, including Lee Strasberg, Ed Kovens, Herbert Berghof, Wesley Balk and August Everding. She earned her Masters from NYU in both Acting and Opera. She can be contacted by email: singeractorstudio@verizon.net.
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STAFF
Troy Finamore, Art Director
Troy Finamore is an award winning Art Director with over 20 years of experience producing high-profile business-to-business and business-to-consumer projects both on the agency and corporate side. He is skilled in many media, including: print, web, interactive, animation, sound design, illustration, photography and fine art. His work has been published in The AdAge Encyclopedia of Advertising and Lurzer’s Archive Magazine. In 2002, his work won two AdWeek Icon awards and two WebAwards. He currently runs his own design firm, Finamore Design, in Brooklyn, NY.
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Meryl Sher, Marketing Consultant
Miss Sher is a dramatic soprano and sings such roles as Brünnhilde, Turandot, Tosca, Abigaille, Leonora in Il Trovatore and Leonore in Fidelio, Aida, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, among others. She has worked for over 27 years as Executive Assistant to Presidents of many diverse companies including music publishing, corporate companies and investment banks. She was Chairman of Beauty Beyond Size, a non-profit company devoted to empowering women through seminars, workshops and special events. Meryl is a volunteer for New Triad as writer, editor and word processor for all marketing materials, letters, newsletter and website documents.
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Arlene Shrut, Artistic Director and Acting Executive Director
President, is the Founder and Artistic Director of New Triad for Collaborative Arts and serves on the Faculties of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music.