Beres                   Moore

Francesconi         Smith

Originally from Louisville, Ky., James Allbritten began his operatic career with Kentucky Opera. While a student in Louisville, he was invited to participate as one of the youngest artists in the San Antonio Arts Festival, where he was apprenticed to Boris Goldovsky. His conducting studies began at Indiana University under Jan Harrington, Robert Porco, and Thomas Dunn. While there he also worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera conductor Bryan Balkwill, and Met stage directors Fritz Busch and James Lucas.

Allbritten came to North Carolina in 1993 to join the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts where his duties now include artistic director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, for which he has conducted many performances including Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Donizetti’s Belisario. Composer Kirke Mechem was so pleased with Allbritten’s reading of his Tartuffe that he asked him to lead the first act of his new opera, Pride and Prejudice, in a workshop premiere.

As the artistic director and principal conductor for Piedmont Opera, Allbritten has led Verdi’s Aida and Un ballo in maschera, as well as Rossini’s La Cenerentola. He has also led performances for Opera Theater of the Rockies, Opera Carolina, and the Winston-Salem Symphony. Allbritten spent four seasons as music director for NCSA’s summer arts festival on the Outer Banks, and led the school’s Festival Orchestra at Côte Vermeille and for the Flâneries Musicales d’Ete de Reims in France. Recent projects include the Southeastern premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town, which was co-commissioned by the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute. Future projects include a return as principal conductor/voice teacher for Opera Theatre of the Rockies Vocal Arts Symposium at Colorado College.

Alumni comments: “Technically I studied with Jamie for three years during my undergrad, but it seems as though I am still learning from him! When preparing roles, teaching my own students, or simply dissecting a vocal ‘phenomenon,’ it is Jamie’s voice that guides me.”

* Karen Beres, School of Music

Karen Beres, keyboard instructor, holds a Bachelor of Science in music education (summa cum laude) from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and a Master of Music in piano performance from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. In the spring of 2003, she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance and pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma under the direction of Jane Magrath and Edward Gates. While at OU, she served as interim coordinator of Group Piano and Undergraduate Piano Pedagogy during the 2000-01 year and was awarded one of three campus-wide Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant awards. Beres has also served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University in the position of coordinator of Group Piano.

Active as a solo and collaborative artist, she has performed throughout the United States. In addition, she has spent five summers as a member of the accompanying staff of the Interlochen Arts Camp.

Faculty comments: “Karen’s use of technology, digital keyboards, and music theory software has made the entire classroom experience more enjoyable and educationally relevant to the students. She is a strict but fair teacher who demands excellence from her students.”

* Robert Francesconi, School of Drama

Robert Francesconi is assistant dean in the School of Drama, where he has taught acting, movement and masks since 1978. Before coming to NCSA, Robert Francesconi was director and teacher at Columbia College; and teacher and actor with the Menagerie Mime Theater, touring and teaching nationally with James Donlon. He is also a consultant and master teacher in creative drama, improvisation, mime, mask, and clowning. He was a guest teacher and artist at the International Mime Festival and Institute, 1974 and 1978. He was also a featured master teacher at the 1990 International Movement Symposium in Moscow.

Francesconi has served as a consultant in gifted and talented arts education programs for the South Carolina Arts Commission and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He has taught master classes in mask and movement at the Nemirovich-Danchenko School-Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre; Lunacharsky State University of Theatre Arts, Moscow; the Shchepkin Theatre School of Maly Dramatic Academy, Moscow;  the Institute del Teatre, Barcelona, Spain; and the Singapore American School, Singapore. He has also served on the Institute of International Education’s selection committee for Fulbright and foreign-sponsored scholarship awards. Francesconi received his B.A. and M.A. from Humboldt State University, Arcata, Calif.; where he trained with Yass Hakoshima, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Philip Mann and Richard Rothrock.

Student comments: “In class he creates the seemingly impossible with an environment that is as disciplined as it is creatively open-ended. In work on plays he directs with a sense of boldness and daring that most artists never have the guts to do. All this from a man who normally has very little to say. He is quite the enigma, and an absolute treasure to us all. We are so lucky to have one of the greatest living mask teachers in the world … .”

* Pamela Griffin, School of Design and Production (Visual Arts Program)

Pamela Griffin received her B.F.A. from Syracuse University and her M.F.A. from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. She served as full-time art and design instructor at Cazenovia College from 1978-82, and drawing instructor at Syracuse University from 1979-82.

Griffin has presented solo and group exhibitions at Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Salem College, High Point Theater Gallery, and Sawtooth Center (N.C.); Nassau College, Goods Gallery, Cazenovia College, and Syracuse University (N.Y.); and Tyler School of Art/Temple University Galleries (Pa.). Her work also involves projects in graphic design, photography, art direction for film, music video productions, theatrical design, interior design, murals, large construction, and sculpture. She teaches color and design, drawing, 3-D design, and design concepts in the Visual Arts Program of the School of Design and Production, where she has been on faculty since 1982.

Student comments: “From instructing new high school visual artists to college scene designers with years of experience, she successfully handles each of her classes with high expectations and brilliant results. Whether or not her students begin with a sense of artistic depth or authentic originality, she finds a way to motivate them individually and effectively until they produce works that both she and they can be proud of.”

* Linda Moore, High School Academic Program

Linda Moore has a B.A. from Wake Forest University and an M.A.Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She began her teaching career in 1973 in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. She taught at Carver High School and Wiley Middle School before joining the faculty of NCSA in 1984. At NCSA, she teaches biology but has also taught eighth-grade integrated science, an 11^th- and 12^th-grade science topics seminar, and occasionally, math. Her service to the NCSA community demonstrates a commitment to the mission and the improbable reality of NCSA in general, and to high school academics in particular. The NCSA High School Academic Program educates young artist-citizens in a strong liberal arts tradition; the program encourages critical thought with rich academic experiences, encourages good health physically and emotionally, and models high ethical standards and a sense of social responsibility.

Alumni comments: “Linda Moore is brilliant, passionate, funny, kind, caring and compassionate. She encouraged us to explore our world, be curious, question authority, stand up for what we believed in, and be respectful of our elders -- even if they’re wrong.”

* Frank Smith, School of Dance

Born in Hamlet, N.C., Frank Smith studied at NCSA from 1965-69. He was awarded a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet, where he studied with Andre Eglevsky, Alexandra Danilova and Stanley Williams. Smith joined American Ballet Theatre in 1970, dancing leading roles in ballets by de Mille, Tudor, Robbins, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, and Makarova. He was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1976 and remained with American Ballet Theatre until 1983. Smith has been acclaimed for performances of roles such as Pat Garrett in Eugene Loring’s “Billy the Kid” and as Hilarion in the American Ballet Theatre’s “Giselle.” Smith performed many principal character roles in the full-length classical ballets. He also appeared in the film THE TURNING POINT and has done numerous television specials. Smith joined the NCSA ballet faculty in 1983 and has served as the assistant dean of ballet.

Faculty comments: “His unassuming manner and gentle humor create a positive and relaxed work environment. His work on Nutcracker and Peter and the Wolf show a wonderful eye for detail and nuance. Frank is completely dedicated to the students and the department. His modesty makes him an unsung hero.”

The NCSA Teaching Awards were established in 1995 to recognize excellence in teaching.

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