Arts Every Day

Morag Bradford

Morag Bradford is the Arts Integration Specialist at Creative City Public Charter School and the Arts Integration coach for their partnership with Arts Every Day.  An arts educator with a passion for fostering students’ artistic growth, Morag has taught in Europe, Asia and North America. Morag co-created and implemented ‘Worldview: An arts integration program with a focus on tolerance’ to integrate tolerance and multicultural education into arts education, winning an ING Unsung Heroes Award in 2008. A member of the Creative City team since the school opened in 2013, Morag co-ordinates partnerships with cultural agencies, coaches and team teaches arts integration units, develops curriculum, and delivers visual art instruction.

Morag designs place-based arts integrated units to create connections between the classroom and the community and curates Creative City’s annual arts integration show ‘We Create’ that showcases work by every student. at Her students’ work has won multiple contests, been included in juried shows and been published in state and national publications. 

Morag has presented at local and national conventions on arts education and tolerance, arts integration, place-based arts education and Representation as Inspiration: Designing Curriculum Focused on Contemporary Artists of Color. Morag has been published on the Kennedy Center’s arts integration website ‘Artsedge’, named Middle School Master Teacher of the Year for Baltimore City by Maryland Art Education Association in 2009,  Outstanding Teacher of the Year by Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School in 2011 and was a Beacon of Light award recipient in 2019.

Cori Dioquino

Cori Dioquino is a Filipino American actor based in NYC and Baltimore.  Her credits include Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil, CBS’s FBI and New Amsterdam on NBC. She began training as a competitive pianist before switching her focus to theatre while in college. Cori earned her Associate’s degree in Music Performance from Howard Community College and her Bachelor’s in Theatre Studies from Towson University. Cori worked as a stage actor throughout Maryland and DC after receiving her undergrad, but soon grew a love for television and film production. She booked several commercials as well as independent film and web series roles before booking her first major television appearance on the third season of Marvel/Netflix’s hit series Daredevil as the crime lord Sophia Carter. Cori was most recently seen on the Season 2 Fall Finale of New Amsterdam as Nurse Eddie. She continues to enjoy performing both on the screen and stage. Cori is a passionate and outspoken advocate for stronger Filipinx and Asian Pacific Indigenous (API) representation in American arts and entertainment. In 2018, she co-founded the Asian Pasifika Arts Collective (APAC). The arts organization’s mission is to use “art of all platforms to ensure that the stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Indigenous Americans are seen, heard and valued”. In 2020, Cori helped launch the national campaign Unapologetically Asian. The campaign, which was a collaboration between APAC and the creative team of Racism Is A Virus, was created as a response to the growing discrimination towards Asians as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It aims to empower Asian and Asian American communities to change the conversation about belonging in America. When Cori isn’t acting or producing, she can be found in the classroom as an arts integration educator, using the arts to engage students as they learn core curriculum and empowering them to excel in the classroom and throughout their daily lives. Cori is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and an Equity Member Candidate.

Michelle Faulkner-Forson

Chicago native Michelle Faulkner-Forson is a Community Arts, Performer, Comedic Writer, and arts administrator. Her professional experiences have centered around bringing the arts to communities of color nationally and internationally. She received her B.A. in Photography with a minor in Art from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and her MA/MFA in Community Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Michelle is always in search of tools to add her creative toolbox. In her search, she was granted multiple scholarships from the Baltimore Improv Theater’s Diverse Voices fund and has completed the improv education curriculum and is currently the acting Managing Director at BIG. Michelle regularly performs on the Baltimore Improv Group theater’s mainstage with improv teams: Big Monsters, Baltimore Tastemakers, Sneakerwave, and Cakewalk. She is also a writer and actor in The Greatest Sketch Show in America. Michelle is skilled in video production and has produced and directed several videos with partnering organizations and colleagues.

Alyssa Fenix

Alyssa Fenix (she/her/hers) is passionate about her mission of widespread inclusive practices surrounding LGBTQ+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, and their families. As a Transition Coordinator and certified educator in Maryland, she is committed to the empowerment of students to be self-advocates, lifelong learners, and change makers, while supporting families, community stakeholders, and schools in the important work of helping students thrive in the world and create sustainable change. She is also founder of the “If I Knew Then Letters” and Chair of the LGBTQ+ Task Force for Sheppard Pratt Schools. Her degrees in Psychology, Special Education, and LGBTQ+ Studies, as well as her own experiences as a queer artist of color with a learning disability are at the center of her work as she deconstructs barriers to inclusion in educational, healthcare, community, and workplace settings.

Emily Fleming

Emily Fleming is the founder of Yoga In Classrooms And Schools Consulting (YCSC). YCSC works with schools, school districts, and other educational organizations to develop tailor-made, impactful, and long-term yoga and mindfulness programming for students, staff, and families through a model of long-term coaching and support, cross-curricular integration and the creation of culturally relevant programming aligned to the needs, values, and goals of the school community.

Emily is both a certified educator with a decade of classroom teaching experience, and a certified yoga instructor (RYT500, RCYT). After two years teaching on the West side of Chicago as a Teach for America Corps Member and an additional year teaching on the South Side, Emily has spent the last 7 years of her teaching career teaching yoga and mindfulness as a daily enrichment class at a middle school in Baltimore, MD. After developing a 3-year curriculum focused on using yoga and mindfulness as a means of exploring SEL competencies and incorporating Project Based Learning and Arts Integration into the curriculum, Emily founded Yoga In Classrooms and Schools Consulting in early 2022. 

Diamond Gray

Diamond Gray was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. She has participated in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Assets 4 Artists residency and the Studio Museum in Harlem's Museum Education Practicum. As an artist and art educator, both roles inform her art and pedagogical practices. She is passionate about BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ youth and encourages her students to focus on process, research, experimentation, and produce works that mirror their lives. In her artwork, she uses clothing, hair, India ink, paper, collage, drawing, video, sculpture, and audio to tell the narratives of her maternal family's history. Encapsulating moments of triumph, displacement, otherness, and trauma surrounding race, class, and gender, Diamond's story-telling and documentation challenge and reclaim sites in the United States to create a space for healing for Black womxn.

Mariale Hardiman

Mariale M. Hardiman, EdD is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. She co-founded and directs the Neuro-Education Initiative, a cross-disciplinary program that brings to educators relevant research from the learning sciences through the Johns Hopkins Mind, Brain, and Teaching masters and doctoral courses and professional development programs. Hardiman’s research includes IES-funded randomized control trials investigating the effects of arts integration on long-term retention of academic content. She also investigates how knowledge of the learning sciences influences teaching practices and efficacy beliefs. 

Hardiman also served as Vice Dean and twice as Interim Dean of the JHU School of Education. A former school principal, Hardiman developed a teaching framework, the Brain-Targeted Teaching® Model that promotes arts integration and creative problem-solving. Hardiman presents her work nationally and internationally on topics related to the intersection of research in the learning sciences with effective teaching, including integration of the arts. Her work has been disseminated in journals, book chapters, webinars, and podcasts. Her 2019 research study on the effect of arts integration on memory for science content has been featured in various popular news outlets including the New York Times, Forbes, Psychology Today, Pacific Standard and Southern Living.

Ron Heneghan

Ron Heneghan is an actor, director, and educator. 

Since 2014 with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Ron has overseen the curriculum for in-school residencies and Studio classes, all student matinee operations, and intern programs. CSC student matinee performances have served over 50,000 public, private, and homeschool students who’ve experienced live, professional, and classical theatre – many for the first time.

Ron spearheaded CSC classes specifically for U.S. military veterans, in partnership with local health/wellness organizations. CSC now has a resident ensemble of U.S. military veterans creating performances that explore classical texts, Olive Branch Laurel Crown. Ron has developed theatre events through partnerships with the Walters Art Museum, Morgan State University, Baltimore Book Fair, and B’nai Israel Synagogue.

Ron has taught and directed for secondary through graduate-level institutions, including Loyola University- Baltimore, Northeastern University, Brown University/Trinity Rep. Conservatory, University of Washington, Regis College, Muhlenberg College, and PCPA Conservatory. Ron assisted in establishing the curriculum for Stevenson University’s Theatre and Media Performance major.

As an actor, Ron has been seen at: Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Spooky Action, Chesapeake Shakespeare, and toured to the Prague Fringe Festival as part of the international premiere of Vanyek Unleashed with the Alliance of New Music Theatre. He was a company member at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for seven seasons, at PCPA Theatrefest for three years, and has performed on the Tony award-winning stages of Seattle Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Huntington Theatre Company. 

His original plays include Below the Bard: Shakespeare’s Second Fiddles, and Tolerance Through Theatre, both of which toured to high schools in Eastern Pennsylvania. He is a member of Actors Equity Association and received his BS from University of Maryland and MFA from the University of Washington, Professional Actors Training Program. 

Quynn L. Johnson

Quynn L. Johnson Ed.M. a graduate of Harvard University, undergraduate degree from Howard University, is a native of Flint, Michigan. Quynn is a social entrepreneur, performing artist, international arts-based educator, and children’s author. She was most recently awarded the 2020 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project as well as the 2014, 2017, 2020 Individual Artist Award for Dance Choreography by the Maryland State Arts Council. Ms. Johnson co-founded the Washington, DC based percussive dance company SOLE Defined (co-created with Ryan Johnson), a multidisciplinary company whose mission is to use dance as a tool to address social issues directly affecting the Black community while creating interactive arts-integrated programs in schools. Quynn’s performance highlights include, soloist in the tour of the Tony Award Winning Production, After Midnight, Jacobs Pillow: Inside Out Concert, Lincoln Center, Dance Encore Festival, Fall for Dance, and Great Gatsby by the Washington Ballet.

A Nationally Credentialed Teaching Artist, Quynn’s programming has reached over 10,000+ students, teachers, and school administrators in several school districts across the Mid-Atlantic. In 2011 Quynn became a self-published author with her children’s book, Lucky’s Tap Dancing Feet, an exciting story about a horse that wants to tap dance.

Angela Marroy Boerger

Angela is the Director of School Programs and Learning at Arts Every Day, where she oversees arts integration implementation at the organization's 42 partner schools. Prior to her work at Arts Every Day, she was Education Manager at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where she directed the education curriculum for the Met’s HD Live in Schools, an opera education and access program in 38 states across the country for over 16,000 students each year. Prior to her work at the Met, she was the Director of Education at Westport Country Playhouse, an acclaimed non-profit regional theater in southwest Connecticut, where she created programming for students, educators, children and families. Angela has also worked as a Writer for McGraw Hill Education, contributing to an adaptive classical music curriculum for digital platforms; and as Managing Editor of Bare Opera, a women-run alternative opera company. Angela’s educational background and scholarly interests are in musicology; she pursued PhD studies in music history at Yale University, writing on Viennese opera at the end of the eighteenth century. Her unfinished dissertation is entitled Ariost auf der Reise nach Wien: Haydn’s Orlando paladino and the Viennese Reception of Ariosto, ca. 1777 - 1809. She holds M.A. and M.Phil degrees from Yale in music history, and also has master and bachelor degrees from Rice University in musicology and medieval studies. She is an active performer on modern and Baroque violin. Angela recently moved to Maryland from Connecticut, along with her husband Tim and children Sophie Magdalena and Thaddaeus James, who are aspiring graphic novelists and paleodracologists, respectively.

Kevin Martin 

A musician, a steel pan builder, and a traveling teaching artist. Kevin performs as a singer, guitarist, and steel pan player with his group The Geckos and as a solo songwriter for the past 30 years.  Based out of the Annapolis area, The Geckos have released three albums of original music blending folk, Americana and stories….. with songs about The Chesapeake, Annapolis, interesting characters, and about paintings…… and the big sky.

Kevin began building steel pans while a student at Cornell University in 1989 and his company Rockcreek Steel Drums has produced thousands of instruments….. shipped to over 30 countries and all around the US.  As a teaching artist working to expand the reach of the Trinidad’s steel pan art form, Kevin has taught in over 400 schools, community groups and at events and festivals……  turning groups of up to 100 at a time into a steel band…. Over 100,000 people have learned to play steel pan with these programs and artist in Residence visits.

Learn about The Geckos at www.thegeckos.com and find out about his instruments and teaching artist programs at www.rockcreeksteeldrums.com

Jordan Moore

Jordan Moore is a euphoniumist, ocarinist, hornist, arranger, educator, and online content creator native to Columbia, Maryland. In 2019, Jordan graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a degree in euphonium performance and music education, and he currently teaches middle school orchestra and guitar at Perry Hall Middle School in Baltimore County. Best known for his one-person wind ensemble arrangement of Lugia’s Song, Jordan also produces YouTube videos of his own arrangements and performances of mostly classical, anime, and video game music. Jordan began playing euphonium at age 10, but quickly became interested in learning other instruments. A couple years later, Jordan began making YouTube videos utilizing many of the instruments he was learning. With his YouTube channel, Jordan currently strives to show that underrated instruments such as ocarina and euphonium can play beautiful and serious music.

Ephraim Nehemiah

Ephraim Nehemiah’s poetry uses rhythmic call and response, evocative narratives and accessible subject matter to create a transformative experience for listeners across the nation. The work embraces vulnerability to share personal experiences that create necessary dialogue around race, class and gender. Ephraim is currently a teaching artist for Dewmore Baltimore. A finalist performer in several regional and national competitions such as 2018 Individual World Poetry Slam and 2019 Rustbelt Poetry Slam and in 2021 took the National Slam title with Baltimore's poetry team Slammageddon. Ephraim has also performed in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, The Cleveland Foundation, TEDx Talks, Button Poetry, The Saul William's World tour and others.

Amanda Pellerin

Amanda is a Baltimore creative that focuses on practice and fun! Her favorite saying is “The more you practice the better you get”. She has been working with all ages of learners for over 20 years. Amanda has a background in pottery, ceramics and tile murals.  Her new passions are paper folding and rug tufting. She has developed multiple professional development for teachers with an interest in arts integration. Amanda taught with Baltimore Clayworks (where she was a resident artist for 8 years), Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Towson University, and Chesapeake College. She holds a BFA from Maine College of Art and her MFA from Towson University.

Ada Pinkston

Ada Pinkston is a multimedia artist, educator, and cultural organizer. Her art explores the intersection of imagined histories and sociopolitical realities on our bodies, using monoprint, performance, video, and collage. Inter-subjective exchanges are the primary substrate of her work. Over the years, her work has been featured at a variety of spaces, including The Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, The Walters Art Museum, The Peale Museum, Transmodern Performance Festival, P.S.1, The New Museum, Light City Baltimore, and the streets of Berlin. She is a Halcyon Arts Lab Fellow (2018), Baker Artist award semifinalist (2016); a recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Grit Fund Grant in Visual Arts, administered by The Contemporary (2017); and a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby’s Project Grant in Visual Arts in (2017). In addition to her studio practice, she is a co-founder of the LabBodies Performance Art Laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland. She is currently a lecturer in Art Education at Towson University.

Unique Robinson

Unique Mical Robinson is a writer/MC, performer, professor, educator, host, & proud Baltimore native. She began performing at 14 on Baltimore's open mic & slam circuit, and has had the fortune of connecting and performing with various communities throughout the US, and Havana, Cuba in her youth. In addition to her artistry, she has worked passionately as a Community Organizer and Youth Mentor in Baltimore, Western Massachusetts, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Oakland. She received her MFA in English & Poetry from Mills College in 2014, and her BA in Creative Writing & Black Studies from Hampshire College in 2009. Upon returning home, she became a Teaching Artist & Program Director/Operations Manager for DewMore Baltimore, and received the Emerging Teaching Artist award in 2017 from Arts Every Day. That same year, she co-founded blkottonkandy, an arts, music, & wellness initiative, which received the 2019 Grit Fund Grant. 

She debuted her first chapbook, flicked/forgotten/FREED, in 2014, and recently released her full-length poetic memoir, Four Wings & A Prayer: A Charm City Churn, to rave reviews. She is currently Faculty in Humanistic Studies at Maryland Institute College of Art, and continues to teach Theater and Poetry workshops with K-12 students in City Schools.

Angela Rodgers-Koukoui

Angela Koukoui is the Outreach Engagement Librarian at RLB Library and Archives at the University of Baltimore. Angela received an MLIS from the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies and a BA in Integrated Arts from the University of Baltimore. After a career in communications finance, she founded her own community arts program to teach dance to Baltimore youth. Her choreography work has been showcased at the African American Festival (AFRAM), ArtScape, Baltimore Light City, and the Baltimore City Book Fair. Angela is co-director of the Community Archives Program for Inheritance Baltimore, which collaborates with Johns Hopkins University to preserve African American art and culture. She worked on the Preserve the Baltimore Uprising project at the Maryland Historical Society and curated the Baltimore Cultural Arts Program, 1964-1993 photography exhibit at UB in 2016. An updated version of The Baltimore Cultural Arts Program, 1964-1993, was featured as a digital exhibit in 2020. Currently, her curatorial work is part of an exhibition called, “All the Arts for All the people, The History of the Cultural Arts Program”, at the Eubie Blake National Jazz and Cultural Center. 

Erik Spangler

Erik Spangler (DJ Dubble8) is a composer and electronic musician living in Baltimore, Maryland. Engaged equally with ensemble improvisation, live electronics, studio production, and notated music, Spangler aims to dissolve cultural boundaries while drawing all corners of inspiration into evocative soundscapes. His compositions have been performed across the United States and internationally by ensembles including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Rhymes With Opera, and International Contemporary Ensemble. Founder of The Vigil all-night music festival at Maryland Institute College of Art (2010-present), he is also co-founder of Mobtown Modern music series (2008-12) and Baltimore Boom Bap Society live improvised hip hop collective/music series (2011-present). Spangler holds degrees from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (B.M., Music Composition, 1999) and Harvard University (Ph.D., Music Composition, 2004). He has taught sound art, music production, live electronic music, and composition at Maryland Institute College of Art, Towson University, Ithaca College, and K-12 schools in Baltimore, with additional work as a musical accompanist for modern dance classes at Towson University, Goucher College, Baltimore School For The Arts, and University of Maryland.

Kyle Swann

It is difficult to describe Kyle Matthew Swann of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe in just a few words, mostly due to his ambition and aspirations in life; to start, he was born and raised in Southern Maryland, graduating from Maurice J. McDonough High School and the College of Southern Maryland in Charles County. Being an enrolled citizen, tri-core family member, and the son of Chief Jesse James Swann Jr. of the Piscataway Conoy, directly descending from Wannas, Chief of the Piscataway during the first contact with colonists, Kyle has always felt a deep connection to his ancestors’ land, dreaming of the greatness it once was before. That being said, Kyle’s goals have always been centered on the betterment of the world around him, especially once he came to the age of consciously acknowledging the disparity that his family and fellow tribal members have experienced for generations.  

Kyle hopes to become a leading advocate for the Piscataway people. Having such involvement, Kyle has become a mentor to the tribal youth in the Piscataway Conoy Community- mentoring the newly-hired at Through Piscataway Eyes, Inc., answering questions regarding the history and culture of the tribe, extending invitations to events, supporting their endeavors, and ensuring their prosperity and opportunity in life. Kyle has become involved in a variety movements while advocating and contributing to the infrastructure of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe: restoring the Rights enshrined to the Piscataway people in the 1666 Articles of Peace and Amity, obtaining historical documents and information, providing proper Piscataway representation, educating others on native culture, working tribal COVID-19 vaccination clinics, promoting free education for Piscataway citizens, advocating for discriminatory terms such as Indian Head Highway to be stricken from public society and be renamed in proper acknowledgment of the Piscataway Community, supporting no land taxes for Piscataway Citizens on their ancestral lands, securing land for a cultural museum/homebase, and reestablishing the cultural identity lost in the assimilation into colonial society. 

Judith Sweet

Judith Sweet is pianist, clarinetist, dancer, and visual artist, and has worked with students of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities in a wide variety of classroom and community settings. Her commitment to teaching has been continuously renewed and strengthened seeing music work as a social tool to grow confidence and community, drive and discipline, purpose, expression, and joy. While specializing in early childhood education at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, she studied the Kodaly method, Music Learning Theory, and was trained to guide children in composition and creative listening. She recently received her M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts Infusion at Towson University, and is also an alumna of the Global Leaders Program for social entrepreneurship and educational leadership in the arts. Judy currently serves as the Early Childhood Education Manger with the Baltimore Symphony OrchKids program.

Khaleshia Thorpe-Price

Khaleshia Thorpe-Price is the Owner and Master Teaching Artist of Dramatic-Play. She has worked in the field of arts education for over 20 years. She is a versatile creator and educator. She aims to dazzle participants with the love of play and creative exploration.  Khaleshia is the Maryland Director  for Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic (TAMA), a network that advocates for, empowers, and supports Teaching Artists throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.  She has a BA in Theater Arts from Morgan State University and an MA in Arts Management from the University of Central Florida.

Noelle Tolbert

Noelle Tolbert:  A true engineer of movement. An esteemed cultivator of physical ingenuity developed by a deeply rooted connection to her community and the audience in which she engages. Leading a life of artistry, Noelle represents feminine power, ancestral guidance, intuition and strength through dance, choreography, performance art, teaching, and collaborations. Baltimore based artist, this city has become a sustaining platform, building a youth dance program at Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, servicing over 300 students, providing mentorship to PVA students through professional development training / choreography at Brooklyn Park Middle School, recently joining The Moving Company as Hip Hop choreographer, and a dance resident artist at LeMondo creating programming and performance opportunities for local artists. With growth and development, Noelle continues to seek opportunities that are both intellectually and artistically challenging, as she works to connect with Baltimore to bring dance and the arts to areas that need healing.

John Tyler

John Tyler is a 21-year-old artist, multi- instrumentalist, multi-genre producer, Founder of Love Groove Music Festival, and film scorer for Under Armour, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Visit Baltimore, and Maryland Public Television.  He has been featured in Charm TV, Hulu Advertisements, BET Instagram Promotions, Baltimore Magazine, Afro Newspaper, Baltimore Sun, B’more Art, Baltimore’s 92Q, & WTMD.    At 16, John released his first mixtape and has since released two more. In 2019, John’s debut album “The Good Side of Things” dropped, setting a high standard for Baltimore music.  This project highlights his abilities to merge multiple genres into one.

At 17, John started the Love Groove Music Festival to bring together young artists from different genres of art to showcase talent and to offer learning and networking opportunities.  This year marks his fifth showcase, partnering with Hot Sauce Artists Collective, Baltimore Center Stage,  to bring an ultimate music, arts, and education festival.

After two long years since John Tyler’s debut album, “The Good Side of Things”, he is finally back with his new EP and documentary entitled “ Free Spirit”. Free Spirit is a soulful, yet relaxing four-song collection highlighting his musicality and inspired by his desire to take a step back and appreciate life. John made this relaxing EP because he was overwhelmed with the fast forward nature of his life, the good and the bad.  He describes this EP as “from sunrise to sunset”.    It is his hope that this EP serves as a relaxing tool for those who are facing anxiety and constantly in motion.  Join John on his upcoming 2022 winter tour as he performs the full free spirit project!

Linda Whelihan

Linda Whelihan is an artist and educator who specializes in engaging individuals and building community through shared art experiences. Her background as a teacher, museum educator, and artist informs her practice and she excels at creating art-full experiences that make lasting impressions. In her studio, she employs a variety of media and art-making techniques including puppetry, creative bookmaking and recycling. She is a natural facilitator and thrives on creating connections through whimsical pieces that charm and delight. She has exhibited and conducted art-making workshops for teachers and students in the Baltimore/Washington area and in Vermont where she has lived since 2007.

Dan & Claudia Zanes

Grammy award winning children’s performer Dan Zanes and Haitian-American music therapist / jazz vocalist Claudia Zanes have been making music with each other since the day they met in the fall of 2016. The two decided while sitting at Dan’s kitchen table that afternoon that they would continue singing together and, in the spirit of progress and inclusion, would work with presenters to try and make all of their concerts sensory friendly.

Inspired by their artful modern-day all-ages folk music and their commitment to accessibility, the Kennedy Center commissioned Claudia and Dan to create a theater piece for young audiences. Their love of songs and communal music-making lead to a publishing deal with the Quarto Group USA and the result, an award winning songbook entitled Dan Zanes’ House Party: A Family Roots Music Treasury, was released in 2018.

In late 2019 the couple - now married! - moved from Brooklyn to Baltimore and what had been a full schedule of theater, school, and festival performances evaporated with the advent of the coronavirus. When a national state of emergency was declared in March, Dan and Claudia started their Social Isolation Song Series. For the next 200 days, in an effort to stay connected and uplift others, they performed a different song every day. This series of videos currently resides in the Library of Congress.

The two continue to adapt and reinvent and sing their way to new beginnings. In addition to music making, Claudia runs her flourishing handmade skin care business called CLEO Soaps and Dan continues his work with Constructive White Conversations, a white antiracist organization he co-founded in 2011.