About our Artists

Afro-Brazilian Dance and Music

Clyde Alafiju Morgan, a native of Cincinnati, OH, is an associate professor at SUNY Brockport. He is also artistic director of the university' s Sankofa African Drum and Dance Ensemble. Sankofa has raised the standard for international relations and inter ...

Alisse Sikes

Alisse Sikes is an actor and teaching artist. She has studied and performed theatre since the age of 12. Her high-school theatre department in Lubbock, Texas regularly took honors in the University Interscholastic League, the largest theatre festival in t ...

Andy Parker- Weather Machine

Andy Parker is an AMS Sealed Meteorologist who has worked in television for more than 15 years, with both WKBW-TV Ch.7 (ABC) and WGRZ-TV Ch.2 (NBC). His compelling live reports along with a clear and consistently accurate presentation have allowed him to ...

Annette Daniels-Taylor

Annette Daniels-Taylor is a playwright, poet, actor, teacher, singer and costumer. In 2009, Daniels-Taylor won the Artie' s Emanuel Fried Award for New Play, A Little Bit of Paradise, which premiered at Road Less Traveled Productions in 2008. She has wo ...

Babik

generational and stylistic lines to create a fan base that is as diverse as their musical influences, which also include Brazilian and Latin sounds, as well as original compositions. The group' s ability to connect is evident in the way audiences clamber ...

Bart and Kevin

Bart & Kevin have been professional songwriters and performers for over 20 years. They perform over 250 shows annually in schools, libraries, festivals and private events. They have received numerous awards for their individual and combined efforts includ ...

Bart and Kevin

Benched Players

Melissa Kate Miller is a songwriter, stage and voice actress, writer and poet. She is also the program director of the Benched Players. As the US Managing Director for Artfully AWARE, and leader of the cabaret blues act, The Melissa Kate Project, she draw ...

Blue Eagle String Band

James Mumm and Tom Naples, both musicians, are the founding members of the Blue Eagle String Band. Naples, as the project director, researched the music of the Great Depression at the Library of Congress and at the Smithsonian. In addition to his research ...

Buffalo Buzzards

Paul Preston and the late Jim Koteras formed the Buffalo Buzzards (adult code name: Bar-room Buzzards) in 1966. The quartet has performed at jazz festivals in New Orleans, San Diego, Savannah, Indianapolis, and Columbus, as well as at numerous concerts an ...

Candace Wolf

Candace Wolf is a Master Storyteller who has worked in collaboration with the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, and is an innovative teacher and oral historian. Wolf has traveled the globe collecting folklore, legends, wisdom, humor, and oral hist ...

Celes Tisdales

Dr. Celes Tisdale is Professor Emeritus (English) at SUNY Buffalo and a recipient of a SUNY Chancellor' s Award for Teaching Excellence. He also received the Buffalo "Man of the Year" Award, and Buffalo and Erie County Arts Council Artist of the Year. He ...

Chinese Theatre Works

Chinese Theatre Works is a non-profit theatre company whose mission is to preserve and promote the traditional Chinese performing arts (including opera, shadow theatre, puppetry, dance and music); to create new works that bridge Eastern and Western aesthe ...

Cindy Hanna

Cindy Hanna is a dancer and educator. She holds a B.A. in Dance from SUNY Buffalo, and an M.S. in Special Education from Buffalo State College, as well as completing the criteria in Physical Education & Health. She is also a Licensed Practical Nurse. She ...

Cindy Hanna

Configuration Dance Theatre

Established in 2000, Configuration Dance Theatre is a contemporary ballet company with dynamic and diverse programs, now based in Buffalo. The ensemble combines classical ballet' s formal traditions with modern dance' s dynamic expressiveness to create dr ...

Cubanana

Carrie Lavender and Jesús Alvarez Bulté form the nucleus of Cubanana. They met in Cuba in 1997. They perform in diverse venues, incorporating two to six additional musicians. As a duo, they present their school program across the northeastern U.S. Cubanan ...

Dance China, NY

Dance China NY (formerly known as the Chinese Folk Dance Company) is America's premier traditional Chinese dance company. The Manhattan-based Dance China NY is in residence at the New York Chinese Cultural Center in New York's Chinatown, founded in 1973. ...

Dave Ruch

Dave Ruch is extensively involved in the arts-in-education field, using music to teach core curriculum and inspire young learners. He is based in the Buffalo area, and travels widely throughout the school year. Ruch has played music for almost 30 years, a ...

Diaspora Drumming

Diaspora Drumming Ensemble - Ringo Brill, Tiffany Nicely, and Gabriel Gutierrez - takes the audience on a trip through time and across oceans, tracing the path of instruments and rhythms from Western Africa to North and South America and the Caribbean. ...

Differential Flavor Crew

Differential Flavor Crew (DFC) has been Buffalo’s premiere B-boy (hip-hop dance) crew for the past 10 years, bringing style and originality to the urban dance scene. Shane “B-boy Depree” Fry saw the positive effects that B-boying can have in the lives of ...

Doug Rougeux

Doug Rougeux has been an entertainer since 1984. He is a graduate of Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey's Clown College, Venice, FL and has a BA from the University of Buffalo. During two national tours with Ringling Bros. Circus, he appeared in front of ...

Doug Yeomans

Doug Yeomans is an acoustic and electric guitarist, a vocalist, songwriter, performer, teaching artist and clinician. Yeomans actively writes, records and performs original American roots music. In June 2001, he won the North American Rock Guitar Competit ...

Dramatic Solutions and the Wondermakers, LLC

The Wondermakers, now in their 25th season, perform interactive story theatre and have given over 3,000 performances throughout New York, Florida, and Ohio in schools, libraries, theatres, festivals, and museums. Gail Golden, founder and Artistic Director ...

Dylaina Young

Dylaina Young is a musician and dancer who was born and raised in Allegany, New York. Her dance experience includes: ballet, modern, improvisational African, and Middle Eastern. She has choreographed and performed at Dance Arts in Olean, NY, and at Bard C ...

Edreys aka Billy Drease Williams

Edreys Wajed' s first name can be translated to "one who writes or masters the pen." He lives his life according to that definition. Wajed, who also is known by the stage name Billy Drease Williams, embraced his creative spirit and diverse talents early ...

Edreys Wajed

Elizabeth Clark Dance Ensemble

Elizabeth Bickel Clark holds a BFA in Dance, and was the principal dancer in the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. Additionally, she did post-graduate work at Columbia University and the Laban Institute for Movement Studies. She has served on the dance faculties ...

Empire Shakespeare Co.

Roger Keicher has worked as an actor in the Buffalo theatre community for 15 years. Theatre of Youth productions he has performed in include "The Snow Queen," "Beauty and the Beast," "Number the Stars" , and "The Hobbit." Keicher has also performed in ...

Eric Crittenden

Eric Crittenden is an award-winning saxophonist, keyboardist, and vocalist. He' s played thousands of shows across thousands of miles. Crittenden is also a renowned entertainer and radio show host. His musical resume is varied. He has worked with many wel ...

Erie Saxophone Quartet

The Erie Saxophone Quartet was formed in 2006 by four Western New York musicians. They met while at SUNY Fredonia. Following the vision of the instrument' s inventor, Adolphe Sax (1814-1894), the Erie Quartet strives to utilize the many tonal colors and t ...

Fiddlesticks

Fiddlesticks was formed almost twenty years ago by Carol and Tony Monaco. They are both graduates of SUNY Fredonia, with teaching degrees in music, and they have both taught in public schools. In 1973, Tony founded Monaco' s Violin Shop and Music Centre, ...

Folkloric Productions

Cathy Skora is the founder, artistic and executive director of Folkloric Productions Dance Co., Inc., a not-for-profit organization that has provided artistic services to the WNY area for over ten years, including ongoing classes for children and adults, ...

Galliard Brass Quintet

The Galliard Brass Quintet was founded in 1978 in order to bring brass chamber music to the people of Western New York. The group performs throughout the area for young and old alike. The Quintet has been in residence at Artpark and is affiliated with the ...

Gayle Danley

Gayle Danley was born in New York City, and grew up in Atlanta. She studied broadcast journalism at Howard University' s School of Communications. Danley worked as an editor for the National Rifle Association, then left to study radio, television and fi ...

Genevieve Turner-Hapeman

Genevieve Turner-Hapeman is a local artist who specialized in photography for over 23 years. She has formal education in photography and painting from a number of institutions, including UB and Buffalo State College. She decided to get back to an earlier ...

Gerald Mead

Gerald Mead is an award-winning artist whose artwork is in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the International Museum of Photography and Film, among others. He holds an MFA in visual studies from the University at Buffalo, and a BS in d ...

Glenn Colton

Buffalo Music Hall of Fame inductee Glenn Colton has performed over 6,000 high-energy educational shows since 1992. His concerts include songs, smiles and surprises. Students are engaged as they laugh, sing and celebrate character-building traits that wi ...

Gretchen Sepik

Gretchen Murray Sepik was born in Mercer, PA. Her father worked in a mill and told stories about the Pennsylvania coal mines and railroads. Her mother was a singer, and encouraged Sepik to learn nursery rhymes and to dress up in her old clothes. Sepik ma ...

Hill Brothers

The Hill Brothers, individually known as Jerry Raven, Judd Sunshine, Dave Ruch and Susan Rozler, began performing for children and families in 1977 for Young Audiences of Western New York. Two or more of them provide the programs for Young Audiences at a ...

In Jest with Nels Cremean

Nels Cremean's gravity-defying arts-in-education programs promote character education, wellness, math, science, reading, and fun! Cremean ("Kre-MEEN") provides several popular performances that blend physical theater, variety arts, humor, music, and a t ...

Ingrid Reymers

Ingrid Reymers is a dancer and performing artist. She has trained extensively in classical ballet and modern dance, with an emphasis on creative movement and improvisational dance. Reymers is originally from central New York, and studied dance and creativ ...

J.P. Somersaulter

J.P. Somersaulter is a writer, filmmaker, artist, actor, musician and composer, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. With his filmmaking partner, writer/artist/filmmaker Lillian Somersaulter Moats, he has made over 20 award-winning short films, most of ...

Jeanne Vuich

Jeanne Vuich grew up in Cheektowaga, one of six girls. She attended Maryvale High School, and was president of the Drama Club. Vuich holds a BS in Acting from Syracuse University, and also studied theatre in New York City and London. Vuich recently direct ...

Jen Russo

Jen Russo is a certified New York State art teacher and artist who has been teaching in public and after school settings since 1998. She has worked with those with developmental disabilities and young people at Heritage Centers, emphasizing inner peace, b ...

Jerry Raven

Jerry Raven, singer, guitarist, songwriter and recording artist, is a Western New York native. He has been performing both as a soloist and in groups since the 1960s. His powerful yet playful singing voice, and enthusiastic stage presence endear him to au ...

John & Mary

John Lombardo and Mary Ramsey, known as John and Mary, have recorded and toured since the 1980s, both on their own, as a folk-pop duo, and as members of 10,000 Maniacs. Lombardo is a songwriter, guitarist, singer; Ramsey sings, and plays the violin and ...

Jon Pearson

Jon Pearson, winner of the 2001 Professional Artists in Schools award, is an internationally known speaker, learning skills consultant and author. He has performed on stage, television, and in schools for over twenty years, and has worked with over a mill ...

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy sang before he could talk, and began entertaining at the age of three. He started writing songs in middle school. Performing to over 1,000 friends and peers at his high school talent show made him realize he loved performing, as well. With ...

Kip Ralabate

Kip Ralabate is the owner and director of the Kiptom Dance Center in Cheektowaga, NY. During her competitive ballroom dance career with her brother Tom, they were United States and North American Latin Ballroom Dance Champions. They also represented Ameri ...

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