Vol. XXVI No. 1
September 2010

New Faculty Join Music, Dance, and Drama

Michael G. Chin, who joins the Drama faculty as a stage combat teacher, is recognized as a fight master, fight director, and certified teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. A student of northern style Shaolin long fist kung fu, he has taught, choreographed, and consulted on Broadway productions and at various other venues in New York City, including the Mint Theater Company, Theater Works U.S.A., La MaMa E.T.C., Pan Asian Repertory Theater, National Asian American Theater Company, the Public Theater, the Vineyard Theater, New York University, Henry Street Settlement, the Drama League, the Classical Theater of Harlem, and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Nationally, he has worked at the Barter Theater, Celebration Barn Theater, University of Tulsa, Louisiana Tech University, Tennessee Repertory Theater, the University of Northern Colorado, and the Merrimack Repertory Theater, among numerous others. Currently, Mr. Chin is an adjunct faculty member at Pace University, Brooklyn College, and Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.           

Pianist Antonio Ciacca joined the Jazz faculty last season to teach Business of Jazz. The director of programming at Jazz at Lincoln Center since 2007, Mr. Ciacca began his career as a sideman for such acclaimed jazz artists as Art Farmer, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Jonny Griffin, Mark Murphy, Dave Liebman, and Steve Grossman. Born in Germany and raised in Italy, Mr. Ciacca co-founded and previously served as artistic director of C-Jam Music, a cultural organization and booking agency in Europe. He has worked with legendary musicians Steve Lacy, Benny Golson, and Wynton Marsalis, and has appeared at numerous festivals and venues across Europe and the United States, including Ronnie Scott’s, the National Theater in London, the New York Blue Note, the Village Vanguard, the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and the Rochester International Jazz Festival. A prolific recording artist, his latest CD, Lagos Blues, was released this year by Motéma and features Steve Grossman and Stacy Dillard on tenor sax, Kengo Nakamura on bass, and Ulysses Owens on drums.      

Sarah Cimino, who joined the Drama faculty last season as makeup supervisor in the Production Department, is a New York City-based makeup artist working in fashion, film, opera, and dance. She received a B.F.A. from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theater Wing and makeup certifications from MESS Studios and Make-Up Designory. Currently, she designs makeup for the dance/theater troupe Company XIV. Ms. Cimino’s print credits include work for BlackBook magazine, IMG Artists, the Public Theater, and Fermata Designs, and assistant work for Vogue and O, the Oprah Magazine. Her theatrical clients and credits include Disney’s Broadway musical Mary Poppins, National Black Theater/Take Wings and Soar Productions, the Santa Fe Opera, the Princeton Festival, the Lincoln Center Festival, Curtis Opera Theater, New York University, Manhattan School of Music, Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, and the New York City Ballet. 

Joining the Historical Performance faculty, Sarah Cunningham will teach viola da gamba. Ms. Cunningham, who co-founded the ensemble Sonnerie with Monica Huggett, artistic director of Historical Performance, has toured around the world with numerous ensembles, including Sonnerie, Fretwork, Phantasm, Sequentia, Camerata Kilkenny, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has performed as a soloist under such conductors as Simon Rattle, John Elliott Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, and Ton Koopman, and has recorded extensively on ASV, Virgin/EMI, Harmonia Mundi, and Warner. A former faculty member at Hochschule fuer Kuenst in Germany, the Guildhall School in London, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Ms. Cunningham has presented workshops and master classes in such locations as Sweden, Canada, London, Boston, New York, and San Francisco. In addition, she is the founder and first artistic director of the East Cork Early Music Festival in Ireland and is a founding member of Les Filles de Sainte Colombe.  

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