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Melissa
DiGrazio (Owner/Director, Kindermusik®, keyboards & dance) - Miss Melissa
started dancing at the age of 5 and continued her training studying ballet, tap, and jazz at Kathleen Academy of Dance in
Hillsborough, N.J. There she was trained to teach the 3-6 year old program as well as tap and jazz classes for children and
adults. Other dance training includes classes at Broadway Dance Center in NYC and workshops throughout NJ, VA, and NY. Throughout
her childhood, she had particpiated in school choirs, dance performances, and musicals. Miss Melissa graduated from Piscataway
High School in 1993 with honors and was part of the award winning Concert Choir as well as lead roles of Peggy Sawyer in "42nd
Street" and Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." In July 1998 she received her Kindermusik certification and began
teaching the following fall. She graduated Cum Laude from Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J.in May 1999 with a B.A. in Music.
She has been working "for" children for the past 14 years with roles of camp counselor and director, after-school
teacher, dance teacher, pre-school music teacher, and substitute. She is a member of the Charlottesville Music Teachers Association
and the Blue Ridge Partnership for Kindermusik Educators and is currently the music teacher at Millstone of
Ivy Preschool, Bright Beginnings (all 3 locations), and Greene County Child Care Center. She continues her dance training
with classes including BalletTone and Hawaiian Hula. She continues her Kindermusik education yearly at the Kindermusik International
Conventions which are held throughout the US each fall. She is highly involved with "Camp Happy Times", a one-week
summer camp for children with cancer, and has been a counselor there since 1998. Miss Melissa and her daughter Meredith live
in Lake Monticello.
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Katrina Gosdin Kuhn (dance & theater) - Miss Katrina's
dance training began at Kathy's Arts Studio and the South Arkansas Ballet Academy in Magnolia, A.R. In high school, she was
an active member of the school's and the state's PRIDE teams. She was also the dance captain of the band's colorguard. Throughout
college, she performed and directed nemerous plays and musicals as well as directed for SAU's Summer Children's Theatre. She
also choreographed for the Academic Enrichment for the Gifted in the summer of 1998. Katrina opened Footlights Performing
Arts Studio in Camden, A.R. after graduation and taught dance, theater, and pageant prep classes. In the fall of 2002, Katrina
developed a dance program for the Hot Springs School District's 6th-12th grade Visual and Performing Arts Academy. All aspects
of dance were presented from history to performance. She also re-established the "T-Stepper" dance team at Hot Springs.
Miss Katrina and her husband Karl live in Charlottesville and work for UVA. Their son Kason was born in August 2007.
Loren Faruque (Keyboards, Intro to Piano)
- Miss Loren has been composing and playing since early childhood starting with the organ and has taken private lessons in
flute, violin, guitar, and piano. Piano became her primary instrument as she entered and graduated from Warren Wilson College
in Swannanoa N.C. Through the years she has performed in orchestras, choirs, and churches and currently plays piano for South
River Methodist Church. She also has taught piano for many years privately in New York, Indiana, and here in Charlottesville.
She is very involved in a home-school group where she co-leads students in reenacting historical events and other cultures
through the use of fine arts and music. Miss Loren has held the field of Music Theory close to her heart and fascinated by
it's therapeutic potential. She has extended her love of music to all her children, including her daughter who is currently
attending Berkley College of Music in Boston.
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