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Brightest Star Faculty
Elizabeth Vecchio
Elizabeth Vecchio has been an arts educator for many years, teaching in public and private schools. Having been a music fellow at Northwestern University and a Fulbright recipient, she has directed hundreds of dramatic and musical productions throughout the Tri-State area. Favorite musicals have included: Les Miserables, Pirates of Penzance, Gypsy, The Music Man, Godspell, and Cabaret. Beth has also directed choirs, presented public speaking seminars, and created curriculum for various organizations. A mother of four and a grandmother of three, Ms. Vecchio lists raising her children, teaching music and theatre, serving the community, and growing up in a fabulous family as the best parts of her life. She believes all children should experience the arts.
Danielle Meola Valencia
Danielle Meola Valencia Is an actress and music educator based in Northern New Jersey. She holds Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Theatre and Music Education from Westminster Choir College, where she choreographed the 2010, 2011, and 2013 Music Theater Summer Intensives. Danielle is a Dance Instructor at Dancesation Studios, LLC in Nutley, the studio she grew up with. She has been the director and choreographer of the Anthony Wayne Middle School Musical since 2012 and a movement instructor with Brightest Star since 2016. Credits include Performances in NYC at the NYNW Festival, Signature Theater, Carnegie Hall, and Avery Fischer Hall, in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center, and with NJ companies including NJYT, Pleasant Valley Productions, The Barn Theater, Bergen County Players, Cabaret for Life, MOC, and The People Garden Touring Company (1997-2000). Favorite roles include: Lucille (Parade), Susan (Tick, Tick...Boom!), Maggie (A Chorus Line), Sally Bowles (Cabaret), Brooke (Legally Blonde), Carla (Nine), Percy Talbot (The Spitfire Grill), Janet Van de Graff (Drowsy Chaperone), Princess Fiona (Shrek), Olive Ostrovsky (Spelling Bee), Marian Paroo (Music Man), and the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Outstanding Lead Actress 2013 Perry Award). Danielle comes from a music-loving family, including her lovely husband Gonzalo, and enjoys being able to share theater craft with the next generation of creators.
Katie Russell
Katie Russell began as a student at Brightest Star before becoming a member of the Brightest Star Staff. Since then, she has worked as costumer, acting teacher, and director. Katie has been involved in numerous theatrical productions over the years and enjoys all aspects of musical theatre. Her favorite roles include TiMoune (Once On This Island), Domina (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), and the Sour Kangaroo (Seussical). She feels privileged to be able to work with students to help them develop their skills and knowledge as well as their love of the performing arts. Katie graduated summa cum laude from Montclair State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics and a minor in Psychology.
Pam
Description Coming soon
Jim Keefe
Jim Keefe - is a musician and father of three beautiful daughters. He plays piano and organ, sings, composes, arranges, and record songs He loves jazz, rock, classical, Broadway, and church music.
Jim studied classical piano in his home state of Connecticut, and went on to perform successfully for two decades in the cabarets and piano bars of New York City, where for up to seven hours a night he'd sing, play, and accompany some of the best singers on earth. In between pandemics he plays in restaurants, nightclubs, and private parties throughout the tri-state area. By day he maintains a busy career as a church musician. Jim believes that uplifting the spirit is the supreme goal of all music, sacred or secular
Jim studied classical piano in his home state of Connecticut, and went on to perform successfully for two decades in the cabarets and piano bars of New York City, where for up to seven hours a night he'd sing, play, and accompany some of the best singers on earth. In between pandemics he plays in restaurants, nightclubs, and private parties throughout the tri-state area. By day he maintains a busy career as a church musician. Jim believes that uplifting the spirit is the supreme goal of all music, sacred or secular
Ruthann Lanni
Ruthann Lanni is a dance teacher and choreographer for Brightest Star, has studied dance as her life’s passion. She received her M.A. in Dance education from New York University and has taught ballet, tap, jazz and musical theater and brings years of teaching experience, curriculum development and performance to the dance program.
Nikkia Tyrie
Nikkia Tyrie received her BFA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Dance from Howard University and her MS in Education Administration from Kaplan University. Nikkia served as an instructor and choreographer at the Harlem School of the Arts and has taught dance and theatre in the Newark Public Schools for the past 10 years. Having choreographed the musicals of Saddle Brook High School, Nikkia was also an instructor and resident choreographer for the Rock Starz cheer gym, a senior company member in Alfred Gallman's Newark Dance Theatre, and a continual company member in the Umoja Dance Company.
She believes that God has bestowed the gift of dance upon her heart.
She believes that God has bestowed the gift of dance upon her heart.
Carissa Bellando
Carissa Bellando - a dancer, choreographer, professor, yoga instructor and Zumba teacher. She holds MFA in Contemporary Dance from Case Western Reserve University and a BA in Theater and Speech, Musical Theater concentration, from Wagner College. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Wagner College as well as a dance teach for local dance studios. Some favorite roles include Tumblebrutus in “Cats” and the Carpet in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”.
MR MATTHEW SWISS
MR MATTHEW SWISS is always excited to work with the Brightest Star School of Performing Arts! He serves Randolph High School and Middle School as a choir and theater music director. A graduate of Moravian University, he went on to earn his Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree from Messiah University. Mr. Swiss has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Voice at the County College of Morris where he provides music direction for the theater productions and as a music director in several churches and theaters, providing music direction for dozens of full-length musical productions over the years.
Olivia Scanzera
Description coming soon
Teresa Folan
Description coming soon
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