FACULTY & Guest Speakers
Susanna Loewy
Program Director and Lead Teaching Artist, Project 440
Flutist and music entrepreneur Susanna Loewy received a BM and MM from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a DMA from Rutgers University. Her principal teachers were Jeffrey Khaner, Joshua Smith, Bart Feller, and Philip Dunigan.
Susanna is a Teaching Artist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, is Program Director and Lead Teaching Artist for Project 440, and is Flute Faculty at Kutztown University. In 2012, Susanna founded the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival in Jamaica, VT, a 2-week summer festival emphasizing music and visual art.
CIGUS VANNI
INSTRUMENTS FOR SUCCESS COLLEGE SPECIALIST, Project 440
Cigus, AKA “Cigus the College Fairy”, knows stuff. Lots of stuff, particularly about the college application process. He has forty-two years of experience in college search and selection, and has worked as a college admissions counselor, and school counselor and a school psychologist, among other things. The first member of his family to attend college, he earned his BA from Swarthmore College and certification in school psychology with course work in Education and Child Development from Bryn Mawr College. Cigus “refuses to add to the stress of college search and selection.” He will NOT “get your kid into Harvard” – he will help your kid figure out what the right fit is for her.
Michael O’Bryan
Director of learning, the village of arts and humanities
Michael O’Bryan is an expert practitioner and researcher in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and human wellbeing who has spent more than a decade working directly with resilient yet underserved populations —including veterans, adults in recovery, returning citizens, and families experiencing homelessness. Since 2015, he has served as the Director of Learning at The Village of Arts and Humanities, a nonprofit headquartered in North Philadelphia.
ALEXA SMITH
Chief of Staff, Manhattan School of Music
Alexa Smith is Chief of Staff at Manhattan School of Music. In her role, she oversees special projects for the Office of the President and leads the Cultural Inclusion Initiative as part of MSM’s Strategic Plan. She is the liaison to the Board of Trustees and serves as a staff advisor to MSM’s Black Student Union. Prior to joining Manhattan School of Music she was Director of Marketing at New York City Opera.
There, she created events for the Pride Series (Brokeback Mountain and Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s World Premiere of Stonewall) and Opéra en Español. She created partnerships with The LGBT Community Center, The Mexican Consulate, The Mexican Cultural Institute NY, The Stonewall at 50 Consortium, and Ucross Foundation. As a soprano, she has sung with the Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, New York City Opera, Dell’Arte Opera, and received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, The Giulio Gari Foundation, and Harlem Opera Theatre. Ms. Smith holds a BM in voice performance from the Music Conservatory at Roosevelt Chicago College of Performing Arts, a MM fromthe Manhattan School of Music, and is currently an MBA candidate at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.
Drew Forde
Violist, ThatViolaKid
Violist Drew Alexander Forde, known online as ThatViolaKid, has a reputation not only as an accomplished performer but also as one of classical music’s most recognizable online brands. Profiled in outlets like Thrillist, WNYC, the Detroit Free Press, and Strings Magazine, he was named “one of the titans of Classical Music Instagram” by National Sawdust Log and was called “the future of our field” by Sphinx Organization president Afa Dworkin.
An acclaimed expert in classical music’s social media and brand building, Forde believes in the power of documentation, building his Instagram following of over 120,000 in part by generating large scale online movements, including #PlayHomiePlay and #JourneytoJuilliard. For his efforts, he has been invited as a paid speaker to a wealth of educational institutions and conferences, including the Haag Conservatory in Holland, Carnegie Hall’s Studio 57, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Columbia University, The Juilliard School, Mercer University, International Music Sessions in the Hamptons, Project 440, the International Viola Congress, and Sphinx Connect.
Mark Rabideau
Associate Dean for Academic and FAculty Affairs, University of Colorado Denver
Mark Rabideau is a cultural entrepreneur, busy re-imagining how we must prepare musicians to thrive within the shifting marketplace and cultural landscape of the contemporary moment.Mark's own entrepreneurial spirit has generated projects ranging from producing and hosting Live from Smoke (a radio show from NYC's upper-westside), founding and serving as Executive and Artistic Director for Artists Now (a not-for-profit arts organization), producing Worlds End (an original work with the American Repertory Ballet), and founding Art in Unlikely Places (a project fueled by the belief that art’s transformative powers must be made accessible to the underserved).Mark regards his bravest moments as a performer as those spent playing with “The World’s Most Dangerous Orchestra” (Juárez, Mexico) and those most cherished while commissioning, performing, and recording new chamber music with his quartet, CTQ.