Adrian Gonzalez: Adrian Gonzalez has been CoSA’s Technical Theatre Director since 2003. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Texas, El Paso, and has worked in professional theatre as an actor, director, designer, stage manager, production manager and technical director for more than 20 years in Texas, Florida and California. A visual artist as well as technical theatre expert, he was the production manager for the California Ballet Company before joining CoSA.
Lace Flores King: Lace King is a CoSA graduate who now works as the Lighting Designer for CoSA’s many performances. Lace’s lighting design talents have been honed in venues including the San Diego Repertory Company, Lamb’s Players, Asian American Reperatory Company, Starlight Opera, and The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park.
Valerie Henderson: Henderson has consulted as Costume Designer for many of CoSA’s recent Musical Theatre productions. She earned her M.F.A. in Costume Design and Technology from San Diego State University, after receiving a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa. In 2009, she was costume designer for the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, and has also designed several modern dance works in San Diego with companies including Joe Alter Dance Group, Malashock Dance Company, and Little Known Dance Company.
In addition to her work at CoSA, Henderson consults for the North Coast Repertory Theatre, Moxie Theatre, and Diversionary Theatre, and San Diego State University’s theatre department.
Cara Tougas: Tougas, a M.F.A. degree candidate in Scenic Design at San Diego State University, has consulted on recent CoSA Musical Theatre productions. She was scenic designer for SDSU’s Theatre Department’s productions of Symphony of Clouds (2011) and The Boyfriend (2011), and scenic assistant for The Magic Flute (2011), produced by SDSU’s Department of Music and Dance. Tougas spent a month in Moscow, Russia studying Scenic Design at the Moscow Art Theatre School in 2010.
Betzi Roe: Betzi Roe apprenticed with the San Francisco Ballet and then joined the Hartford Ballet Company in 1969. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Dance (contemporary dance and world dance forms) from University of California, Los Angeles, she co-founded San Diego’s highly visible dance company, 3’s Co. & Dancers. From 1987 – 2002, she toured a one-woman concert of works by regional and national artists, and choreographed pieces for the California Ballet, San Diego Dance Theatre, Mojalet Dance Collective and others.
Roe’s honors and awards include: U.S. Information Agency Cultural Specialist in both Russia and China; U.S. representative at the first Bi-National Encounter of Contemporary Dance in Mexico (1993), California Dance Educators Association Dance Educator of the Year (1993); San Diego Dance Alliance “Honoree” for her work in public education (1997); CAHPERD (California Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) Dance Educator of the Year (2002) and Surdna Foundation Grantee (2005). She has been with CoSA since its beginning, and is now Chair of the Classical & Contemporary Dance Department, while simultaneously serving as Artistic Director for Nations of San Diego International Dance Festival, now in its 18th year.
Gina Bolles Sorensen: Sorensen is an artist and educator who delights in the body’s potential for movement, the mind’s capacity for imagination, and the possibilities that transpire at the intersection of the two. As the co-Artistic Director of somebodies dance theater, her choreography has been produced in festivals and concert programs throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently, she was awarded the 2012 San Diego Young choreographer Prize for her dance “left Field” in collaboration with husband and co-Artistic Director Kyle Sorensen and violinist Kristopher Apple.
After graduating with a B.A. in Mass Media Communication Studies and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, Sorensen obtained a M.F.A. in Dance from University of Oregon in 2008, and was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship for three years. In 2007, Sorensen was awarded a Gary E. Smith Summer Research Grant and a Center for Study of Women in Society Research Grant to study the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam in Bangalore, India; an excerpt of her thesis was published in the Journal of Dance Education in Spring 2009. Sorensen also teaches Dance at San Diego City College and yoga around San Diego county.
Matt Carney: A native of St. Louis, Matt Carney received his B.F.A. in Dance Performance from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He began dancing professionally with the Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) and was a company member with two Kansas City-based companies: Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company and the Owen/Cox Dance Group.
A resident of San Diego since 2008, Matt is currently a member of San Diego Dance Theatre and the San Diego Ballet, and is working on obtaining a Master in Public Administration from San Diego State University. Matt is inspired by Maya Angelou’s quote “Pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”
Tiffany Bagg: Bagg has been a dance educator and choreographer at CoSA since 2006. Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bagg graduated from the University of Amherst (Massachusetts) with a B.A. in Dance (and Journalism) and is currently completing her Master of Arts in Dance at California State University, Long Beach.
Bagg has garnered several awards while at CoSA, including being nominated by the National Youth Arts Awards for Outstanding Choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie (2011-12), and the San Diego County Regional Occupational Program (ROP) Distinguished Teacher Award (2011, 2009, 2008).
Sadie Weinberg: Dancer and choreographer Sadie Weinberg graduated with a B.F.A. from SUNY Purchase and earned her M.F.A. in Dance from UC Irvine. Weinberg, who has danced the works of Doug Varone, Brenda Way, and Kevin Winn, has also choreographed and produced her own concerts and had the honor of representing the United States in the Solo Dance Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. Locally she has been a performer for the McCaleb Dance, Malashock Dance and San Diego Dance Theatre. In addition to teaching at CoSA, she is on the adjunct faculties of Mira Costa College and Palomar College and UCSD.
Kyle Sorensen: Kyle Sorensen graduated with a B.A. in Dance from the University of Oregon, where he was honored with the Dance Achievement Award in Recognition of Undergraduate Excellence as a Developing Artist. He earned his M.F. A. in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, where he was awarded the Achievement Award in Teaching.
Sorensen has danced professionally in Los Angeles, Oregon, Washington and San Diego, as well as performed in works by Tere O’Connor, Susan Marshall, Jean Isaacs, and Gabe Masson. Sorensen has taught full courses in contemporary dance and hip hop at UC San Diego and San Diego City College, and master classes at Sam Houston State University (Texas), Winthrop University and Johnson C. Smith University (South Carolina) and Southwestern Community College.
Anna Woerman: Anna is an alumna of Coronado School of the Arts, 1998. In 2002, she graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Art with Emphasis in Painting and Printmaking. She also minored in Italian and studied abroad for a year at the Scuola Libera del Nudo all’Accademia di Belle Arti Di Firenze, in Florence Italy. Now in her fifth year teaching CoSA’s Digital Media Visual Communications strand, she also teaches Graphic Design and Yearbook at Coronado High School.
Anna is also a professional artist, photographer and graphic designer, specializing in portrait and landscape painting, wedding photography and creating branding and marketing materials including logos, brochures and invitations. You can view her work at www.annawoerman.com.
Angie Tierman: Tierman, Head of CoSA’s Filmmaking and Broadcast strand, graduated with a B.A. in Rhetoric, emphasis in Electronic Media and Film from Eastern Washington University. While at Eastern Washington, she earned the Scholar-Athlete of the Year (volleyball) and the Edward J. Yarwood Communication Studies Student of the Year awards. She obtained her Career Technical Education (CTE) credential in Arts, Media and Entertainment and is a Curriculum Writer for the CTE Institute. In addition to teaching, Tieman produces the Coronado Schools Foundation Connect-a-Thon, which raises over $185,000 annually for Coronado schools, and the Create The State Arts Conference (2012).
In the summer of 2011, Tieman took two of her Filmmaking students to Ghana, where they interviewed and filmed young Ghanans who move to the city from their villages to earn money for their education. The CoSA students’ film, “Trip to the Market: The Story of the Cayayo” is one of five finalists in the 6th annual Red Rock International Film Festival, to be held in Zion, Utah and Nevada in November 2012.
Riana Bucceri: Bucceri, CoSA’s Digital Media Department Chair and head of the Animation strand, confesses that she still loves to watch cartoons on Saturday morning. Bucceri graduated with a B.F.A. in Animation and Digital Media from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. The Michigan native moved to Southern California and began her teaching career at the San Pasqual Academy, a Court and Community School for foster teenagers, where she started a new technology program for the school. Bucceri joined CoSA in 2003 and has been instrumental in developing CoSA’s Digital Media program, which is now one of CoSA’s fastest growing conservatories.
Matt Heinecke: Third-generation Coronado resident and CoSA alum Matt Heinecke continued his music education with a B.M. in Music Industry and a M.A. in Music Education, both from the University of Southern California. Heinecke has been teaching at CoSA since 2007, except for a brief stint in Colorado, and now serves as CoSA’s Instrumental Music Director. In addition to building award winning concert bands at CHS and jazz ensembles in CoSA, Heinecke has been a professional guitarist, vocalist, sideman, songwriter and session player in Los Angeles and Nashville. He currently performs with a variety of entertainment companies around San Diego and is a member of the San Diego Master Chorale, Southern California Band and Orchestra Association and California Music Educators Association.
Kathyrn Hatmaker: “Classical music is much more than just music. It’s a record of the way people have thought about their lives. And in this music we can learn such powerful lessons about humanity and inspiration.”* Thus begins Hatmaker’s instruction to her students. Hatmaker has been a violinist with the San Diego Symphony since 2006, in addition to being the co-founder and Artistic Director for Art of Elan (www.artofelan.org), a San Diego-based chamber music organization committed to bringing classical music to diverse audiences.
After receiving undergraduate training at both the University of Iowa and the Sorbonne University in Paris, Hatmaker completed her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University. She has played with a variety of orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the Pittsburgh “Live Chamber Orchestra,” where she helped to attract younger audiences to classical music. She has been an instructor at CoSA since 2007.
*Michel Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and the New World Symphony
April Leslie: San Diego native Leslie attended CoSA in its first year, and returned as its woodwind coach in 2010. After graduating with a Masters in Music with an emphasis in Clarinet Performance from Azusa Pacific University, Leslie was an original cast member and featured clarinet soloist for Blast II, touring the U.S., Japan and England. She has also toured with Michael Bolton, playing tenor sax and singing background vocals.
In addition to teaching at CoSA, Leslie is also a free-lance musician for the San Diego Symphony, Orchestra Nova and the California Chamber Orchestra, Principal Clarinetist with the San Diego Classics Philharmonic and member of the JAMB bass clarinet quartet.
William Caballero: Caballero graduated from Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle with a B.F.A. in Jazz Performance. He was an Army bandsman for seven years playing around the world from Texas to Korea. His world travels continued as Lead Trumpet on Carnival Cruise Line, and on tours with groups including The Temptations, Natalie Cole, Martha Reeves and the Vandelas and many more.
In addition to coaching jazz at CoSA, Caballero is leader of the Orquesta Bi-Nacional de Mambo and the Quinteto Caballero in San Diego. He is a member of various jazz bands and bands around San Diego, including the San Diego Chargers band. When he is not recording music with Frankie Layne, Jack Costanzo and others, he is busy booking and managing Latin Jazz Festivals throughout southern California.
John Flood: In 2009, Flood received the Multi Cultural Teacher of the Year Award from the California Music Educators Association, in recognition of more than two decades of work, study and performance in Ghana, the Czech Republic, Indonesia and La Jolla. Among his many fascinating and varied activities, Flood did extensive field work in the traditional village drumming in Ghana, studied the gamelan music of Java and Bali and performed as a soloist with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra. Flood was also principle percussionist of the La Jolla Civic Orchestra, featured soloist with the San Diego Symphony, toured with the John Malashock Dance Company, and many others.
At San Diego State University, he was the Director of Percussion at the School of Music and Dance, where he lectured on World Music, History of Pop Music and the history of Rock and Roll. He has also taught at University of California, San Diego, Southwestern and Mira Mesa community colleges and is a Visual and Performing Artist in Residence in conjunction with the House of Blues Foundation in K-12 schools in San Diego.
Barbara Wolf, Ph.D.: Dr. Wolf serves as Chair of CoSA’s award-winning Musical Theatre & Drama department. Wolf earned her doctorate in Directing and Staging from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and has been on CoSA’s faculty since 1996. The National Youth Arts has honored several of Wolf’s past CoSA musicals with its “Best Ensemble” and “Best Production” awards.
Shane Simmons: Simmons is CoSA’s Vocal Music Director. He has performed nationally and internationally with numerous companies, including The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Entertainment, and Carnival Cruise Lines, and has served as Musical Director for Cygnet Theatre and for several San Diego productions.
Kim Strassburger: Strassburger, who teaches acting at CoSA and spearheads the ELT Shakespeare competition at CHS, most recently directed CoSA’s productions of Metamorphoses and The Laramie Project, receiving Bravissimo Awards in 2010 and 2011 from the San Diego Educational Theatre Association. In 2011, Strassburger received “Best Director” from San Diego City Beat for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performed at the Ion Theatre, where she is a Founding Company Member. This was followed in 2012 by a Craig Noel Award Nominee for Best Direction of a Musical (Gypsy). Strassburger has also directed and acted at Cygnet Theatre, Vox Nova Theatre Company, North Coast Repertory Theatre among others.
Tiffany Bagg: Bagg has been a dance educator and choreographer at CoSA since 2006. Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bagg graduated from the University of Amherst (Massachusetts) with a B.A. in Dance (and Journalism) and is currently completing her Master of Arts in Dance at California State University, Long Beach.
Bagg has garnered several awards while at CoSA, including being nominated by the National Youth Arts Awards for Outstanding Choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie (2011-12), and the San Diego County Regional Occupational Program (ROP) Distinguished Teacher Award (2011, 2009, 2008).
Gina Sorensen: Sorensen is an artist and educator who delights in the body’s potential for movement, the mind’s capacity for imagination, and the possibilities that transpire at the intersection of the two. As the co-Artistic Director of somebodies dance theater, her choreography has been produced in festivals and concert programs throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently, she was awarded the 2012 San Diego Young choreographer Prize for her dance “left Field” in collaboration with husband and co-Artistic Director Kyle Sorensen and violinist Kristopher Apple.
After graduating with a B.A. in Mass Media Communication Studies and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, Sorensen obtained a M.F.A. in Dance from University of Oregon in 2008, and was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship for three years. In 2007, Sorensen was awarded a Gary E. Smith Summer Research Grant and a Center for Study of Women in Society Research Grant to study the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam in Bangalore, India; an excerpt of her thesis was published in the Journal of Dance Education in Spring 2009. Sorensen also teaches Dance at San Diego City College and yoga around San Diego county.
Karrie Jackson: Ms. Jackson, a CoSA graduate, completed her undergraduate training at California College of the Arts, San Francisco and obtained a Masters of Education, Curriculum & Instruction - Integrated Teaching through the Arts, from Lesley University in San Diego. She has been a professional artist and art educator since 2003, and joined CoSA’s permanent staff in 2012.
In both the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego County, she has worked on community arts projects, including murals, large scale arts commissions, exhibitions and galleries. In addition to giving private art lessons, Jackson also volunteers her time at the Alzheimer Unit at Sharp Hospital Villa in Coronado.
She instills in her students this quote from William Dobell “A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put onto canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.”