Welcome New Faculty

The following people have joined the College faculty since last fall.

Baritone Darrell Babidge (Voice) graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in the U.K., received his master’s from Brigham Young University—where he was also on the voice faculty (2006–19)—and received his professional degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music. While still a student, he performed the title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as an operatic and concert soloist throughout Europe, the U.S., and Asia at prestigious venues and with leading conductors. Babidge keeps a private studio and teaches the Utah Opera Resident Artists and Arizona Opera Studio Artists programs, and in the summer, he’s a vocal coach with Dolora Zajick at the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices.

Dwight Bacquie (Drama) is an actor and voice and speech teacher who is Jamaican by birth and has lived in Canada and the U.S. His formal training took place at Concordia University in Montreal and the Yale School of Drama. In addition to having extensive stage, television, and, lately, audiobook credits, Bacquie has served as the artistic director of Black Theatre Workshop in Quebec. He was also the head of voice and speech at New School of Drama in Toronto, and he led the speech program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) for six years, the culmination of two decades teaching there. He has also taught at many other schools and studios in the U.S. and Canada and has worked as a production coach and a private voice and speech coach.

Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop (Voice) arrives in the midst of a long performing career. She recorded with San Francisco Opera and Atlanta Symphony and was in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 Grammy-winning performance of the Ring cycle. Before coming to Juilliard for her master’s, which she received in 1991, Bishop received a bachelor’s from Furman University, where she majored in music and political science. She also won the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was an Adler fellow with the San Francisco Opera. As a teacher and master class clinician, Bishop has specialized in advanced training that caters to emerging singers outside the traditional pathway to a career, which helped propel her to create and direct the Potomac Vocal Institute.

Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer are co-teaching a dance composition elective with Yara Travieso (see below) that incorporates technology, new media, and inter-arts exploration. Bridgman and Packer have collaborated as performers and choreographers since 1978 and are known for their innovative work integrating live performance and video technology. The co-artistic directors of Bridgman Packer Dance, they count among the many awards and grants they have received over the years a Bessie, a Guggenheim Fellowship (the first given to two individuals for collaborative work), 11 National Endowment of the Arts grants, and four National Performance Network Creation Fund awards. Bridgman Packer Dance has toured to theaters and festivals all over the world.

Antonio Brown (BFA ’07, dance) is teaching duets from Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane repertory to third- and fourth-year dancers. He began his dance training at the Cleveland School of the Arts before Juilliard and has worked with Malcolm Low/Formal Structure, Stephen Pier, Nilas Martins Dance Company, Sidra Bell Dance New York, and Camille A. Brown and Dancers. Brown also performs with Gregory Dolbashian’s Dash Ensemble and choreographed for multiple companies, schools, and intensives around the country. His company, Antonio Brown Dance, has shown work at Juilliard, the Center for Performance Research, NYC Summer Stage, Riverside Church, and Hunter College, among other venues. Brown is also a founder of the Elephant Room theater artist collective.

Ronald K. Brown, who is teaching Contemporary African fusion to second-year dancers, is an artistic director, choreographer, and dancer who grew up in Brooklyn. In his studies, he learned a variety of techniques including Graham, ballet, hip-hop, dancehall, traditional West African dance, and Brazilian capoeira, all of which appear in his high-energy choreography. He founded his company, Evidence, when he was 19 and has worked performing, choreographing, and giving master classes for a variety of countries in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Among the many themes he addresses in his work—with an international who’s who of collaborators—include exploring how individuals are the products of their own ancestry, AIDS issues, and issues of particular concern to Black gay men.

Soprano Amy Burton (Voice) has sung with major opera companies and orchestras as well as on recital and cabaret stages around the world. A frequent interpreter of 20th- and 21stcentury music, she has premiered work by many contemporary composers; she also specializes in French vocal music of the 1920s and ’30s. Burton’s most recent recording, a Great American Songbook collection, is Got a Little Rhythm (Bridge Records). She teaches privately, is a professor at Mannes and the CUNY Graduate Center doctoral program, and is on the SongFest faculty at Colburn Conservatory; she has also taught at the Manhattan School of Music, given master classes and residencies throughout the U.S. and in Paris, and served as an advisor for Glimmerglass, New York Festival of Song, and Opera America.

In a career that has spanned more than two decades, jazz vocalist, songwriter, and educator Carla Cook (Jazz) has been recording, teaching, and performing in concert halls, theaters, nightclubs, and jazz festivals all over the world. Born in Detroit, she studied voice and piano and played string bass in the orchestra at Cass Technical High School before earning a bachelor’s in speech communication from Northeastern. Cook has been influenced by the jazz vocal masters as well as spirituals, gospel, Motown, country, and European classical music. She has performed and recorded widely; she has also taught jazz voice, ensembles, and master classes at colleges and jazz camps including the Freiburg Jazz und Rock Schule (Germany), Pratt Institute (Brooklyn), the New School, and Temple University. At Juilliard, she is teaching the jazz voice seminar and a jazz vocalist studio class seminar.

Bob Krakower (Drama) is a graduate of Tufts University who began teaching at the American Conservatory Theater under William Ball and Allen Fletcher. Krakower has also taught at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Brown, New York University, Harvard, and Yale. His clients have been nominated for Academy, Emmy, and Tony awards, and he works with studios, networks, theater companies, producers, and actors. Krakower teaches in New York and Los Angeles while also coaching film and television projects around the world.

Born in Seoul, Pre-College alumna Clara Minhye Kim (Cello) has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, and been a guest performer and faculty member at many international festivals. She received her bachelor’s from the New England Conservatory, her master’s from Yale, and her doctor of education in college teaching from Columbia. Kim founded and heads the cello section of the New York Music Competition, and she conducts master classes and adjudicates globally. She has recorded for CRI, SNK, and Albany and her book on cello method was published by the Korea Economic Daily and Business Publications, Inc. In addition to being on the Juilliard college and Pre-College faculties, she is also on the Columbia faculty.

Ellie Kusner, who is teaching Pilates mat class to first-year dancers, had professional training at the Boston Ballet School for many years before switching gears and getting her bachelor’s degree from Barnard. She then performed and taught for a few years before going to London to pursue her master’s in dance science from Trinity Laban. Back in New York City, she continued to perform and to teach Pilates, modern dance, and ballet. Kusner is also a co-founder and co-host of DanceWell Podcast, which provides health and wellness content for dancers.

Wendy Perron, who is teaching dance history to second-years, is the author of Through the Eyes of a Dancer and had a 30-year career as a dancer/ choreographer. She studied at the School of American Ballet, the Joffrey School, and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She earned her BA from Bennington and her MA from SUNY Empire State College, danced with the Trisha Brown Company in the 1970s, and was associate director of Jacob’s Pillow in the 1990s. Perron has taught various aspects of dance at Bennington, Princeton, NYU, City College, and Rutgers and, an authority on Judson Dance Theater and postmodern dance, she has lectured worldwide. The longtime editor in chief of Dance Magazine (now editor at large), she has written for many other outlets as well.

Paul Singh is teaching basic partnering to first-year dancers, contact improvisation to third-years, and floor work to second- and third-years. He earned his BFA in dance from the University of Illinois and has danced for numerous choreographers and companies. Singh has had his own work presented at venues including the Kennedy Center, Judson Church, New York Live Arts, Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La MaMa E.T.C., the Center for Performance and Research, and Dock 11 (Berlin). He has taught contact improvisation around the world, and he currently teaches for Movement Research and Sarah Lawrence. He also continues dancing and choreographing for his own company, Singh & Dance.

Dawn Akemi Saito (Drama) is an actor, writer, movement artist, and director who was born in Chicago and received her bachelor’s from Sarah Lawrence. She has performed—and had her own work performed—in companies all over the world, and she has worked with a range of international artists. An artist in residence in the theater program at Fordham, she guest teaches at the National Theater Institute, Princeton, and the Graduate Acting Program at NYU. Saito also co-founded and co-directs the Bard Summer Theater Intensive in Berlin and has been a recipient of the International Theater Institute’s Uchimura Prize, given to an individual or group outside Japan for a project that relates to Japanese theater, and a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to study butoh in Japan.

Yara Travieso (BFA ’09, dance) is coteaching a dance competition elective with Art Bridgeman and Myrna Packer (see above). She is a Latin American Brooklyn-based writer, director, filmmaker, and choreographer. After graduating from New World School of the Arts High School, she received a YoungArts award and, after Juilliard, danced for the Metropolitan Opera for five years. Her original productions have been featured in numerous New York City and other venues; her films have been featured at Film at Lincoln Center, the Miami Film Festival, SXSW, and the Museum of the Moving Image; and she co-founded the Borscht Film Festival.

Vocalist, arranger, educator, and composer Charenée Wade (Jazz) has performed at major venues and festivals worldwide. Her latest CD, Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson, features artists including Lonnie Plaxico, Marcus Miller, Stefon Harris, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and alumnus Christian McBride. Wade graduated from LaGuardia High School, got her BM and MM at Manhattan School of Music, and was in Dianne Reeves’ Young Artist Workshop at Carnegie Hall as well as Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Program. She has taught master classes and private lessons at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Peabody Institute, and University of Texas as well as many clinics and jazz camps. Wade received the 2017 Jazz at Lincoln Center Millennial Swing Award and was first runner-up in the 2010 Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition. At Juilliard, she’s teaching private jazz voice lessons.