The Missouri Fine Arts Academy provides a unique program of artistic, extracurricular, and social opportunities to Missouri's talented high school students, and has done so since 1996. Click here to learn more about MFAA...
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Faculty
Ruth
Barnes
Ruth Barnes (interdisciplinary and dance faculty) is an internationally known performer, choreographer and dance educator. Ms. Barnes taught at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York before moving to France in the mid-1980s - and then back to the US in 2000. The first American choreographer to benefit from a Fulbright Fellowship to work in the United Kingdom (1974-1975), she has toured worldwide as a soloist, and has created works for professional companies and with independent performers in the US and in Europe, with whom she continues to work on transatlantic projects. Ms. Barnes spent the summer of 2008 in Edinburgh, where, thanks to a Summer Faculty Fellowship and an extended residency at Dance Base, Edinburgh, she developed the mixed-media work Homing/In, a duet for dancers and live-feed video that was performed as part of Dance Base's Edinburgh Festival Fringe activities. Her interest in mixed-media work (live dance and video) has been seen in Springfield in two projects: Solace (2007), and Remember the Ladies, a collaboration with media artist, Professor of Art and Design, Vonda Yarberry first presented in Coger Theatre in 2006, and then at the Gillioz Theater on the Encore! Black Tie gala. Most recently, Barnes, Yarberry and CIS Professor Sheryl Brahnam were awarded a Provost's Futures grant for their 3-year project, Exploring Artificial Intelligence in Artistic Process. Ms. Barnes currently teaches Modern Dance, Dance Improvisation and Composition, Introduction to the Dance, and Dance on Camera at Missouri State University.
Raymond
Castrey
Raymond Castrey (interdisciplinary and music faculty) Raymond Castrey is a musician, educator, and facilitator dedicated to bringing people together to explore relationships and create community through music. With more than 30 years of experience teaching music and facilitating interdisciplinary arts, arts integration, drum circles, and recreational music making activities, he has conducted programs and workshops for education, health care, arts, and community organizations throughout the Midwest and beyond. He is also active as a performer, and has created music for more than 70 theatre, dance, and multimedia productions.
Raymond is presently a faculty member of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, and is an emeritus member of the Theatre and Dance Department at Missouri State University.
Richard
Cline
Richard Cline (interdisciplinary and visual art faculty) spent two years after high school working for Sperry Rail Service, traveling throughout North America. He was inspired by his travels to embrace his calling in art, so he quit his job and enrolled at St. Charles Community College, which he attended from 1991 to 1993. Mr. Cline spent the summer of 1992 in Spain studying art and experiencing the birthplaces of many great artists. He was a co-founder of Zebra studios in St. Peters, Missouri, a non-profit venue available to local artists and students to show their work. During this time, Mr. Cline participated in various art shows, including a solo exhibition at the college in St. Charles in 1996. He transferred to The School of The Art Institute Chicago in 1994 where he focused on sculpture and ceramics. He participated in several small group shows there including the "Coyote Art Festival" in Wicker Park, IL and was featured on the cover of the 1998 course catalog for the Oxbow School of Art in Saugatauk, Michigan. Mr. Cline received his B.F.A. in 1997 from the School of The Art Institute Chicago. He also received a master's degree in Education Administration in 2004 from Lindenwood University. He currently teaches at Hope High School in O'Fallon, Missouri, a school designed specifically for at-risk youth.
Robert
Esler
Robert Esler (interdisciplinary and music faculty) holds degrees from the University of California - San Diego, Yale University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He currently teaches at Scottsdale Community College as well as teaching other courses in music history and technology in the Phoenix area. Dr. Esler is a trained percussionist and has been a member of several chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout the world. He performs regularly with the Phoenix ensemble, Crossing 32nd Street, which has been hailed as one of Phoenix's best new classical music ensembles. He has performed on several albums for the Canteloupe, CIEM, Rochester University Press and Tzadik labels. Dr. Esler is also one of a few percussionists ever to be featured in a full length documentary to be released in the next year. The film documents one of Dr. Esler's renegade performances in the Alaskan tundra. Dr. Esler has written articles for the ICMA (Int. Computer Music Assoc.) and is currently producing an article for a book to be released next year. Currently, Dr. Esler is also part-time faculty at Arizona State University, Polytechnic.
Todd
Graber
Todd Graber (interdisciplinary and music faculty), a native Ohioan, is currently an Assistant Professor at the State University of NY-Oswego where he teaches private voice, music theory, conducts the Musical Theatre productions and performs actively as recitalist. His students have achieved success on and off Broadway and with numerous national touring shows; on the operatic stage; and have begun their own teaching careers. Dr. Graber has performed professionally with numerous American Opera companies and made his European debut in Biel, Switzerland, singing the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte. His latest appearance in Don Giovanni prompted Britain's Opera magazine to proclaim him "...a clear, even, unforced tenor singing as if Mozart sat at his right hand." Recent solo engagements include the Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio and an appearance with the Anonymous Four in Voices of Light. Dr. Graber is a founding member of the vocal ensemble SATB. Currently in its sixteenth year, the group records and performs vocal chamber music in various recitals throughout the US - most recently in famed Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music and in Cleveland's Severance Hall.
Natalia
Jaeger
Natalia Jaeger (interdisciplinary and visual art faculty) is a Venezuelan experimental artist working with multimedia performance installations and video art. A large portion of her creative research involves interdisciplinary collaboration; she has worked with composers, choreographers, playwrights, and sound artists. Ms. Jaeger received her B.A in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance from Arizona State University West, and she is currently pursuing her M.F.A in Intermedia Art at Arizona State University. Her recent works have been featured at the Arizona State University Art Museum, The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, Espacios Nelso Garrido in Caracas, Trinidad Gallerias in Merida, Mexico, and in Phoenix's galleries such as The Ice House, Modified Arts, and The Paper Heart.
Adam
Joyce
Adam Joyce (interdisciplinary and theatre faculty) is an actor/director/writer, and educator who has worked in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. He has served in several professional casting capacities at Beth Melsky Casting in NYC. As a Chicago actor he has appeared on stage at Steppenwolf, Strawdog, Shattered Globe, and Factory Theatre among other companies. His television work includes roles on Early Edition (CBS), and T.U.R.K.S (CBS), as well as various film and commercial roles (member Screen Actors Guild). He has written/directed several plays and films, most recently a short (MayDay) that premiered at the IFC Film Center in NYC. Adam holds a B.S. in Acting from Illinois State University, and an MFA in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University in New York. He currently teaches acting, playwriting, script analysis, screenplay adaptation, and genre writing at Missouri State University while continuing to write screenplays for a boutique development company in NYC where his most recent scripts "The Don" and "W.A.S.P." are being developed.
Stacy
Parker
Joyce
Stacy Parker Joyce (interdisciplinary and theatre faculty) is an Assistant Professor at Missouri State University where she teaches Voice and Movement, Acting, and Shakespeare. She recently directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for Springfield Shakespeare Company. At Missouri State she directed The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines by Don Nigro and Marivaux's The Triumph of Love. She has worked professionally as an actress with numerous companies and collectives including her Jeff Award-winning work with Famous Door Theatre, Profiles Theatre and Strawdog Theatre in Chicago and her work with Obie award-winning Target Margin, Electric Pearl, and PL 115 in New York City. She has an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied with Kristin Linklater, Anne Bogart, and Andrei Serban. She is a member of AEA and VASTA.
Andrea
Land
Andrea Land (interdisciplinary and visual art faculty): continues to cultivate her passion for the visual arts. She is a 2009 semi-finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition , National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and will be published in the Portfolio Showcase, Volume 2 through the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO (Photo-Eye Award). Ms. Land is represented by the Photo-Eye Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC. Her artwork has been and continues to be exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad and has won numerous awards (including the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA; Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA; Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA; The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Irvine Contemporary, Washington, DC; Square Inch Gallery, New York, NY; and, Acte 2 Galerie, Paris, France). Reviews and publications have included: The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Gazette, PDN PhotoAnnual (Photo District News), Shots99, The Photo Review (Honorable Mention), Small Magazine and Photographer's Forum. Ms. Land holds a Master of Fine Arts in photography (2008, San Francisco Art Institute), a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography, a Bachelor of Arts in French, and a minor in art history (2005, Missouri State University, Cum Laude). She was a recipient of the 2006-2008 San Francisco Art Institute MFA Fellowship Award and studied with renowned artists Doug Hall, Trisha Donnelly, John Priola, Reagan Louie, and Henry Wessel. Ms. Land highly enjoys teaching at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, Missouri State University, the University of California at Berkeley (Academic Study Associates), and the San Francisco Art Institute (Fall 2007/Spring 2008). Her affinity for the fine arts and French also led to work overseas. During the fall of 2005, Ms. Land taught English in Paris, France and also successfully completed an intensive French study at the Universite Paul Valery III, Montpellier, France (2000-2001). Opportunity also allowed for attendance at ParisPhoto 2007/2005 and the International Photography Festival 2003, in addition to research at the European House of Photography (Paris, France 2005-2006). To learn more about her work, you may visit her website www.andrea-land.com.
Melinda
Lein
Melinda Lein (interdisciplinary and music faculty), M.M., soprano, is presently an instructor at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. She has taught previously at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has performed as a soloist with regional organizations such as the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, the Columbia chorale, and the Kansas City Ballet. Solo appearances include numerous recitals and concert performances including such works as Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's St. Paul oratorio, Brahms's Ein Deutsche Requiem, and Rutter's Magnificat. Some of her operatic roles have included Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Yum Yum (The Mikado), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), and Lauretta (Gianna Schicchi). Ms. Lein is a frequent adjudicator for high school music festivals in Kansas and maintains memberships with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the College Music Society, and Sigma Alpha Iota, a professional music fraternity for women. She is in the process of completing her doctorate in voice and Master's in musicology at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, where she recently received the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Superior Graduate Assistant award. Ms. Lein maintains a private voice studio and also serves as choral director at King of Kings Lutheran Church in her hometown of Kansas City.
Josie
Mai
Josie Mai (interdisciplinary and visual art faculty) is an artist and teacher from Kansas City. She received her undergraduate degree and certificate in art education from the University of Kansas. She then taught art to urban and suburban high school students in the Kansas City area's public schools and not-for-profit organizations such as Studio 150 and Chameleon, Inc. During the summers she takes groups of volunteer artists, teachers, and therapists to the poorest neighborhoods of Nairobi, Kenya to do community art projects as well as attempt to meet the basic needs of orphaned African children. Ms. Mai received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Parsons School of Design in New York City in order to explore new territory, develop as an artist, and earn a degree to enable her to teach at the college level. Ms. Mai is currently an Assistant Professor of Art and Art Education at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri where she continues to teach, develop her art work, curate, and exhibit. She is also a founder and the Executive Director of Soulfari Kenya Inc. Please visit www.josiemai.com and www.soulfarikenya.com.
David
McTier
David McTier (interdisciplinary and theatre faculty) is Associate Professor of Theatre at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where he teaches theatre history, dramatic theory and criticism, and experimental theatre. Raised on a cattle farm in rural Georgia, he holds a Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the University of Texas. During the past eighteen years, he has taught on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, the University of Vermont, Agnes Scott College, and Rockhurst University. Dr. McTier has been an active participant in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), and, in 2004, he won the Kennedy Center's Faculty Fellowship in Criticism and attended the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Named multiple times to Who's Who Among America's Teachers, he has spent seventeen summers teaching gifted and talented high school students at the Governor's programs in Virginia, Georgia, and Missouri. Check out his website at www.davidmctier.info.
David
Ollington
David Ollington (interdisciplinary and dance faculty) is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance at Kansas State University and is thrilled to return for his fourth summer at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, he holds a BA in Theatre from Kansas State and an MFA in Dance from Texas Christian University. Mr. Ollington choreographed Seussical for the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City and the Seattle Children's Theatre. He is a two-time recipient of commendations from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his musical theatre choreography. He has set dances for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The American Heartland Theatre, the Heartland Men's Chorus, aha! dance theatre, Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, City in Motion Dance Theater, ARC Dance Productions of Seattle, and for the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida. He has performed at the Unicorn Theatre where he played Gregory in Love! Valour! Compassion, Starlight Theatre, the New Theatre Restaurant where he also served as Dance Captain, at the Great Plains Theatre Festival where he has also directed, and for the Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music. He's taught Dance at the Ballet Academy of Cedar Rapids, the University of Missouri/Kansas City, Avila College, and Kansas City Kansas Community College. The Kansas City Press Club presented Mr. Ollington with two awards in 2003, First Place for Best Entertainment Writing and the President's Award for Outstanding Work, for his Theatre and Dance column in EKC Magazine.
Thomas
Polett
Thomas Polett (interdisciplinary and music faculty) is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, where he is the Director of Low-Brass/Jazz Studies and Chair of the Division of Fine Arts. He has held similar positions at Georgia College, Limestone College, and North Greenville College (SC). Dr. Polett earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Mansfield University of PA in 1986, a Master of Music Performance from Arizona State University in 1988, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance from The University of Georgia in 1997. He has studied trombone with Philip Jameson, Gail Wilson, Stephen McEuen, Scott Hartman, and Joeseph Alessi. Dr. Polett has performed with numerous professional symphony orchestras, including the Charleston Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the Arizona Ballet Orchestra. He is a former member of the South Carolina-based Aurora Brass Quintet, which twice toured Italy, was the 1995 American representative to the Verona International Brass Festival, and served as the Resident Brass Quintet for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Dr. Polett has made recent solo appearances at the Eastern Trombone Workshop, College Music Society, and Missouri Music Educators Association Conference. Dr. Polett was a member of the Cramer Trombone Choir at the 1999 International Trombone Festival in Potsdam, NY, and performed for the 2000 New York Brass Conference as a member of the Missouri Brass Consortium. Dr. Polett is married and has three young children. In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball and racquetball and remodeling his 100+ year-old Victorian home.
Susan
Rieger
Susan Rieger (interdisciplinary and dance faculty), is now in her second year as Artistic Director of the 940 Dance Company and has been a visible force in modern dance in the Midwest since 1987, when she presented her first piece of choreography. In the last 21 years, she has toured throughout the Midwest teaching and performing for all ages; training professional dancers; and developing and presenting innovative choreography. She was one of the founders of aha! dance theatre, which had a 14 year history in Kansas City. Rieger was the Artistic Director from 2002-2007. During that time, she produced concerts at the Folly Theater, in galleries, museums and outdoor spaces, as well as developed dance programs for grade school, high school and adult audiences. Rieger has choreographed over 40 unique works, many of which have received critical acclaim. In 2004, she was honored with a Kennedy Center Award for Achievement in Choreography (ACTF Region V for the original play "Lost" at Rockhurst University). Rieger's choreography has been selected to be a part of the Mid-America Dance Network showcase numerous times. Her work has also been reviewed in Dance Magazine, the KC Star and e-KC, an on-line journal. Collaboration has been a hallmark of Rieger's work and some of her most successful collaborations have been with lighting designer/technical director John "Moose" Kimball, costume designer Atif Rome, photographer Deanna Dikeman, playwright Frankie Krainz and musicians from newEar Contemporary Music Ensemble. Rieger holds a Bachelors of Art in Dance from the University of Iowa and a Masters of Social Welfare from the University of Kansas. She currently teaches dance as well as directing the 940 Dance Company, at the Lawrence Arts Center. She is a movement coach for the Speech and Forensics Team at the Kansas State School for the Blind and teaches interdisciplinary arts at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy in the summer. She has been a resident teacher/choreographer at various universities.
Eric
Schultz
Eric Schultz (interdisciplinary and music faculty), a Phoenix native, is an extremely active composer and performer of contemporary and experimental music. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe. Mr. Schultz's musical aesthetic tends toward the abstract, as he seeks to free his music from the dictatorship of directed meaning. He is a founding member of the Phoenix-based contemporary music ensemble Crossing 32nd Street, recently honored as "Best New Classical Music Group" by the Arizona Republic for its aggressive commitment to performing contemporary music at the highest level. Mr. Schultz has held teaching positions at Arizona State University West, Phoenix College, Paradise Valley Community College and Glendale Community College, where he has taught music composition, theory, orchestration, electronic music, and selected topics in music history. Additionally, Mr. Schultz has been a featured pre-concert lecturer at the renowned La Jolla SummerFest classical music.
Emily
Squires
Emily Squires (interdisciplinary and visual art faculty), a native of St. Louis, received a BFA in Printmaking and a BA in Community & the Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After living, teaching, and creating for a year in South Africa, Ms. Squires relocated to Philadelphia, PA. She currently teaches and works for the Mural Arts Program, a non-profit organization committed to free access to art education for young people and urban transformation through the creative process. Ms. Squires has been associated with the Missouri Fine Arts Academy for several years as a student, resident assistant, and now as a faculty member. (MFAA Alum, 1999).
Natalia
Zubko
Natalia Zubko (interdisciplinary and visual arts faculty) is a sculpture/installation artist from California who currently lives and works in New York City. She has BA's in Anthropology and Art History from Brandeis University as well as a post-baccalaureate certificate (Brandeis) and MFA (Parsons) in Fine Arts, Sculpture. Outside of her own creative endeavors, Ms. Zubko is part-pime faculty for the Foundations Department at Parsons The New School for Design where she teaches 3D- Studio courses. In addition, she has facilitated in-depth workshops about linear materials & design and lighting concepts. Ms. Zubko is also the studio manager and artist assistant for two more established New York artists. Ms. Zubko's own work has ranged from small, intimate light sculptures built out of everyday materials to large, outdoor installations. She has worked on numerous interdisciplinary, multi-media, collaborative commissions and projects around NYC from envisioning and building an installation to house photos and interviews from the "FishBird" project (exploring the experience of being multi-racial) to designing and constructing props for an experimental theater piece. Ms. Zubko just completed a large, public, weather-interactive, sculpture/installation, "Luminous Accumulation," for the Art Lot, Brooklyn. www.nataliazubko.com
