Chelsea Ainsworth, originally from North Carolina is a dance alum from the Juilliard School. Her dance training began at the age of 8 at Pierrette Sadler Dancers where she studied Jazz, Ballet, Tap, and Modern dance for competition dancing. After many competitions she was accepted into the North Carolina School of the Arts in high school as a ballet major. She participated in Youth America Grand Prix in the 2003-2004 and 2005 years and won first place in the contemporary category. As a student she performed works by Adam Hougland, David Parker, Johannes Wieland, Twyla Tharp, and Jose Limon. She teaches creative movement lessons and works with some local non-profit organizations, ASTEP (Artist Striving to End Poverty), CLIMB, (Combining Literacy in Musical Beginnings) and TOC Music (Ten O'clock Classics). Through successful arts immersion projects in the communities of Florida, New Orleans, Bronxville, North Carolina, California, New York City, The Philippines, and New Jersey she has provided free, accessible arts education and free, public performances. This awareness has led her to dedicate herself to founding the seeds of art in communities where arts education is not well-established, as well as starting her own LLC MOSAIC (Merging Our Specific Arts & Inspiring Collaboration) that focuses on interdisciplinary performance as well as educational outreach. In the upcoming years she hopes to continue her work with MOSAIC and is excited to be joining a dance company next year under the direction of Johannes Wieland in Kassel, Germany.
G. Brandon Epting holds a Bachelor of Music degree in saxophone performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he performed as a soloist and with saxophone quartet in collaboration with the NCSA schools of Dance, Drama, and Visual Arts. Brandon has collaborated with choreographer Gudbjörg Arnalds and with the Via Dance Collaborative, and has presented performances in New York City at the Joyce SoHo theater, the Clark Studio Theater for Lincoln Center Institute, and during the RAW Dance Festival for Dancenow|NYC, and the Bach Vespers series at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, among many others.
Brandon’s current work focuses on extending and refining his abilities as a solo and chamber ensemble performer. He is exploring opportunities to create unique, distinctive performances in collaboration with artists and in other media, connecting with new and diverse audiences who seek to experience, rather than simply watch.
As an educator, Brandon has continued the legacy of his teachers James Kalyn, Taimur Sullivan, and Stephen Pollock, working with young artists who are developing an interest in music and in the saxophone. In his work with children he seeks to create an environment that allows full artistic expression, helps the students find deeper meaning in the music, and that helps them make connections between their own talent and experience, their heritage, and the traditions and literatures of their art-forms.
