Present and past faculty:

Phoebe Gelzer-Govatos holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, respectively. Her principal teachers include Igor Markstein, Alvaro Gomez, and Routa Kroumovitch.

She has a particular love of early music, and has received additional instruction in historical performance through festivals and workshops such as the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Oberlin College’s Baroque Performance Institute, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the Berwick Academy of the Oregon Bach Festival, including studies with Marilyn McDonald, Julie Andrijeski, and Marc Destrubé.

Emily Olson’s professional music career and personal artistic pursuits have revolved around mindful expression: performing, creating, teaching, advocating, coaching, fostering, and exploring.

Emily has enjoyed decades of experience as a classical flutist, performing regularly with the Ann Arbor, Flint, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Michigan Sinfonietta, and in musical theatre productions for the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre and Encore Musical Theatre Company. Summer music performances have brought Emily to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she has appeared with the Pine Mountain Music Festival and Strings on the Bay chamber music series. Read More

Deena Bryan was born and raised in Tecumseh, Michigan and began her dance training at the age of 3 at Tecumseh Dance Workshop. She was one of the first Caravan Kids to tour with Hoctors Dance Caravan in 1993, where she met and assisted hip hop great Devora Cooper Howard. She received a dance scholarship to Oakland University where she studied all forms of dance including kinesiology, choreography and dance history.

Katherine Banks McBride is a Midwest based actor and educator. Her work as an actor includes theatre, film, commercials, industrials, and voiceovers. Film/TV credits include No Sudden Move (HBO Max, dir. Stephen Soderbergh) and Mindhunter (Netflix, dir. David Fincher). In Chicago, Katherine appeared in the Jeff Award winning Men Should Weep with Griffin Theatre and in the sold-out production of She Kills Monsters at the Steppenwolf Garage.

Finnish-born cellist Katri Ervamaa, DMA, is a multifaceted performer with a special love for chamber music, new music and creative improvisation. She has performed and given master classes throughout North America, Europe and Taiwan. Her festival appearances include the Orlando, Kuhmo, Bowdoin, Lyckå and Norrtäjle Chamber Music Festivals (with the Finnish Owla String Quartet) as well as the Denison University Tutti! New Music Festival, Poison City Music Festival, Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival and Finnfest, among others.

A composer, performer, and scholar of creative improvisation, Mark’s pioneering live electric trumpet performances are internationally acclaimed. He is also the creative force behind the band E3Q (Block M Records), an eclectic jazz-influenced trio with his wife, cellist Katri Ervamaa, and percussionist Michael Gould. Most recently, he released the solo album This Electric Trumpet (Sonikmann Records); recorded with the Nashville-based electronica duo Sub-ID (BFF, 1320 Records); and appeared with pianist Thollem McDonas, bassist Henry Grimes, flutist Nicole Mitchell, cornetist Rob Mazurek’s Sao Paulo Underground, saxophonists Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe, and pianist Iiro Rantala of Trio Töykeät.

Joey is currently based out New York City, and is signed to the Daniel Hoff Talent Agency as an actor, specializing in Musical Theatre Dance. He is originally from Sterling Heights, MI, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre Performance from Oakland University in Rochester, MI, where he is now a choreographer for the university’s musical theatre program, and a guest professor of tap for the school’s dance department.