I'm Alex Haunty and I love Art. When I was nine, I met Cathy Ostrom, at her former studio, “The Art Room" in Middleton WI. I spent Saturdays there making pottery with Cathy and her family and having lots of fun.
When I started middle school "The Art Room" closed and I was sad, but I soon fell in love with playing piano and singing and musicals, especially Phantom of the Opera. In high school my voice teacher Wendy Rowe thought I could do a senior recital and of course I wanted to. My mom said she didn’t think I could do one but she let me go for it because Wendy and I talked her into it.
Cathy Ostrom came to my music soireé and said to my mom " I think Alex could do something like this with art. I would like to work with him to do an art show. " My mom said "Well, I’m not sure he can paint but he can have fun learning, just don't say anything to him about an art show!”
That next September Cathy invited me to her home and I started painting. She put flowers on her table and showed me a book with Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and I looked at this and painted my first painting that I call Flowerworks. I gave it to my mom. The next week Cathy brought out a print of Van Gogh's Starry Night. I had seen this before because my sister had a poster of it in her living room at college. Cathy put an easel on her deck overlooking Lake Mendota and I started to paint my Sailing on a Breeze. I gave this painting to my sister Melissa.
Cathy brought my first three paintings to The Prairie Café in Middleton, WI and they said they would host an art show with my paintings!! Now we just had to get my mom to agree! Thank you Cathy for seeing me and my love of art and working with me the past year and a half to put this art show together. Thank you Prairie Café for hosting my art show! I am so excited to share my art with you all.
Now I hope to use my art show to share my love of theater with my friends. In 2011, I received an " I See You" Award from the Zieman Corporation of WI because of my involvement with Best Buddies at Middleton High School. Best Buddies is an organization dedicated to one-on-one friendships with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With the award money I created the "Alex Haunty's Theatre & Arts Fund” so my classmates with special needs could have access to the arts like I have had. The article from the Middleton Times newspaper shows last year's event when I took my friends to Beauty and The Beast. Learn more about Alex Haunty's Theatre & Arts Fund
I hope you enjoy my art and it inspires you!
Alex Haunty
ArtWorking
ArtWorking provides career-oriented support for artists with developmental disabilities. Artists are supported in ArtWorking's professional studio workspace, in addition to community and private settings. This may include an artist’s personal studio, public events, workshops, and sales opportunities. ArtWorking maintains its own Supported Self Employment Program, which offers a wide range of business specific supports to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. As a result, we are able to provide a seamless transition from fostering artistic growth to developing a small business. ArtWorking actively seeks opportunities for artists and business owners to compete with their non-disabled peers in local and regional markets, as active participants in the mainstream art and business communities. ArtWorking currently works with over thirty individual artists and small businesses. ArtWorking’s staff has extensive experience in fine art, small business management, product development, benefits management, and human services.
BENI Daiko
Hello! We are the Madison Japanese Taiko Group "Beni Daiko," Madison's premiere mainland taiko drumming group.
Our taiko group was founded in November 2012. "Beni" means "deep red" in Japanese, representing Madison, and "Taiko" means drum.
Our goal is to teach, preserve, and perform the ancient art of Taiko drumming, a form of traditional Japanese musical expression that combines mental discipline and physical demand.
Our mission is to introduce a facet of Japanese culture through teaching and performing for people of all ages.
Everyone is welcome to join--no experience or auditions necessary!
Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith (EHS Class ‘01) has been designing lighting and special effects for a variety of projects in his 24 years of experience. A designer for television, film, theatre, live events and public art installations, he has worked in performing arts centers and concert halls across the United States, and in Europe and Canada. His most notable design work includes studio lighting for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and designing special effects for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Now calling Madison his home, Ben is thrilled to illuminate the halls of EHS, and share his experience as an artist.
“I love design, and am confident in my abilities to make anything possible. If you can dream it, I can find a way to build it” – Benjamin Smith
Dan Collins
My name is Dan Collins, I'm a 29-year-old musician living in Madison, WI. I write & record songs and co-own & operate HDpiano.com- the internet's leading piano tutorial provider. I used to be in a band called Nonpronto, but I left Chicago and am back making music eponymously.
I grew up studying piano from age 6 and made a bunch of music with a bunch of talented cats through high school. I got a jazz degree from UW-La Crosse in 2012 then moved to Chicago. In Chicago I made music with Nonpronto and myriad other creatives. In 2017 I moved back to Madison to hone my role as "band dad" for my director wife and establish myself as a songwriter and producer in this humble music scene. My latest album, “Every Move Is Like a Breakup” is streaming everywhere. Things I call myself: pianist, singer-songwriter, producer, educator.Thanks for checking out my music.
Deliberate Vibration
Do you live in dread of being attacked by a feral orchestra? If you've been seeking music free from terrifying trumpets, pernicious piccolos, and snarling saxophones, look no further than Madison Wisconsin's Deliberate Vibration! Formed in 2012, the members of D.V. will be happy to share instrument-free music, from oldies to modern music! Jon Baxter, Colin Gagnon, Ravi Manghnani, Eric Pantano, and Matthew Porcelli, all of us here can confidently say that nobody has ever been eaten by a tuba at our shows, whether at coffee shops, open mics, farmers' markets, or just singing in the streets. Enjoy the safety that only acapella music can bring, and look for Deliberate Vibration!
Enda Breadon
Enda teaches comedy and improv for teens, creative drama for elementary school students, in-school workshops and playwriting residencies with CTM’s Young Playwrights program. For over 20 years he has worked in professional theatre and comedy while also teaching. He has been a performer, director, playwright, clown, puppeteer, movement coach, and all-around nice guy. His theatre adventures include prominent companies like Honolulu Theatre for Youth, San Diego’s Old Globe, Trinity College Dublin, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Georgia Ensemble Theatre and many more. Enda has four incomplete master’s degrees and a semi-prominent award for the worst play he ever directed.
Forward! Marching Band
We believe in using music to help fuel social change, have fun and build community. Forward! Marching Band is an ever-changing group of musicians of all skill levels. We play tunes from the catalogs of folk, rock, klezmer, polka, labor, Balkan, New Orleans and Romany music. Our band consists of a diverse range of ages, musicianship and abilities. Instruments featured in Forward! run the gamut from traditional band instruments such as snare drums and trumpets to home-brewed xylophones and washboards. We love costumes, silly hats and spectacle! We share the duties of researching and arranging musical selections, directing and shaping rehearsals, costuming, and scheduling the band. Forward! Marching Band brings lively tunes to political protests, marches and rallies, parades, and community events.
Four Seasons Theatre
Four Seasons Theatre continues its Best of Broadway outreach series with a program called My Favorite Things. Great local singers will share songs and stories about their favorite tunes, and we'll ask our audience to share stories of their favorites, too. Music connects us in the very best way—to our memories, and to each other—and this program is a celebration of those connections. Audiences will enjoy hearing Broadway classics and lesser-known songs performed by fantastic local singers.
Our Mission
Using musical theatre as a means of engagement, Four Seasons Theatre strives to create a strong organization which provides a consistent, high quality experience for everyone involved onstage, backstage, in the audience, and in the community.
What do we do?
At Four Seasons Theatre, we…
produce high-quality musical theatre performances including full orchestrations
employ local artists, performers, technicians, and designers
partner with other arts organizations to pool resources, expand our reach, and develop imaginative productions
provide mentoring, internships, and other educational opportunities to grow the next generation of local theatre artists
bring live musical theatre out into the community through outreach programming
How do we do it?
We believe in the power of working together. We know that we would not be here today without the valuable partnerships we’ve forged with other local organizations. Collaborative partners have included:
UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music
University Theatre/UW-Madison Theatre and Drama Department
Wisconsin Union Theater
Madison Opera
Children’s Theater of Madison
Theatre LILA
In addition, we’ve worked with a number of organizations to enhance the overall experience of our cast and audience members including the Wisconsin Veterans Museum for Miss Saigon and South Pacific and the Wisconsin Historical Society for Little Women and A Little Night Music.
And, of course, the most important partnership we forge is our partnership with you, the audience. We at FST cannot do this—the work of creating musical theatre entertainment—without your help. Please consider supporting Four Seasons Theatre today.
Freaque: The Story of a Broken Spine
Freaque is for the derelicts, the heretics, the tree stumps, and those who live on the fringes of society. A tattered voice, made of strung out words, hung to dry over broken chords on his mother’s piano. “Decompose" was created in his childhood dining room, on the piano he played for 11 years before a spinal cord injury took away his hands. In a wooden womb of darkness, he took what he had and rose above a society that constantly tells us we are not enough, that we’re only worth the possessions we own, the money in our bank accounts, and our body's abilities. We do not have to conform to societal standards to be valued as human beings. That is why he creates music and art.
Handphibians
In the summer of 1997, Madisonian and Handphibians’ founder, Robert Schoville, took a trip with a few friends to Brazil.
After traveling the country for about a month, taking classes and acquiring instruments, Schoville invited UW-Madison music students and community members to join him in playing what he learned during his travels.
For over ten years, Schoville hosted educational drumming sessions with these students and locals, teaching them the instruments and specific rhythms and parts associated with the various regional traditions.
The Handphibians emerged from this process and the Madison Escola de Samba, or Samba School, was born.
Hunt Quartet
The Hunt Quartet is composed of outstanding graduate music students at UW-Madison: violinists Chang-En Lu (Taiwan) and Ava Shadmani (Iran), violist Fabio Saggin (Brazil), and cellist Alex Chambers-Ozasky (Minnesota). The Hunt Quartet is funded through a partnership between the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music with major funding provided by Dr. Kato Perlman, and the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Through the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Up Close & Musical® program, the Quartet makes regular visits to Dane County elementary schools, introducing K-3 students to the basic elements of music. The Hunt Quartet also prepares multiple performances per year for the Mead Witter School of Music. The members are privately instructed by David Perry, Sally Chisholm, and Uri Vardi. Professor Vardi serves as the group’s primary mentors.
Kerosene Kites
Beth Kille is a 22-time Madison Area Music Association (MAMA) award winning artist from Madison, WI who has been cranking out Americana Rock tunes since 2000. From the intimacy of house concerts and coffee houses, to rockin’ out with her band at summer festivals, her love for the stage and genuine passion for performance shine through in all settings. Her stage prowess was recognized in 2011 when she received Artist of the Year honors at the Madison Area Music Awards – a rare accomplishment for a solo artist. She has also been honored twice with the MAMA for Female Vocalist of the Year (’06, ’10) and was nominated for Singer-Songwriter of the Year in 2014 by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI).
In addition to solo acoustic shows, duo shows with guitarist Michael Tully and full-band shows with the Beth Kille Band, Kille performs with two other groups. Her acoustic-pop trio with Shawndell Marks and Jen Farley, Gin, Chocolate & Bottle Rockets was awarded the MAMA for Ensemble Vocalists of the Year in 2015 and was runner-up for Madison’s Favorite Rock Band in the 2016 Isthmus poll. Her duo project with Erik Kjelland of The Mascot Theory, Kerosene Kites has released two Christmas records (2014, 2016), as well as one non-holiday album (2017) and won Unique Album and Unique Song of the year at 2017 MAMA Awards.
In addition to being an award-winning performing songwriter, Kille also works as an audio engineer/producer, songwriting instructor, the Executive Producer of the Madison Area Music Association Awards, the host of Madison’s Sing It Sister Showcase, the Music Director for Girls & Ladies Rock Camp Madison and most importantly as a mom. Her mission in life is to inspire all to embrace their creativity.
Lexus Carter
My name is Lexus Annette, I am 22 years old and have been playing violin for 13 years. I started her training with the non-profit organization “Madison Music Makers." and my violin teacher Bonnie Greene. Although classically trained, I describe myself as an “urban instrumentalist.” I have a passion for listening to my favorite songs, learning them by ear, and playing them on the violin. This passion for music has landed me solo gigs from weddings to corporate events in many different states. No matter what the stage it is, I just love sharing my passion for music with others. I am currently taking classes at MATC in hopes of transferring to a 4-year university to study music education. Although I love performing and being on stage, I have an even stronger passion for sharing my gift with younger kids in hopes that music can change their lives in the best way like it did for me
LunART Collective
Celebrating works created by women:
from past to present,
from revered to forgotten,
from rap to rhapsody!
Melharmony
Melharmony is a paradigm-changing approach that explores chords and counterpoints based on melodic progression. This contrasts with the conventional Western approach centered on harmonic progression. Melharmony explores new chords & harmonies anchored on the rules and aesthetics of evolved melodic systems. It has won acclaim as an attractive performance art-form that captures the essential spirit and aesthetics of the vastly diverse approaches of harmony-centric systems like Western Classical, Jazz & Rock and melody-centric systems such as Indian Classical to new heights. However, its principles can be applied to any 12-tone system in the world. Since Melharmony showcases similarities between diverse systems while embracing and colourfully projecting the distinctions between them, Melharmonic Symphonies bring together musically talented and socially conscious artists from diverse genres as one voice on Social Issues.
Mr. Chair
Mr. Chair looks like a jazz quartet, sounds sometimes like a rock group, but in actuality, is contemporary classical music in the guise of a modern band. Classically-trained musicians, well versed in jazz, Mr. Chair creates a new sound using both acoustic and electric instruments.
Their compositions are long-form journeys, telling stories through sound by using and exploring the three pillars of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Think cinematic, orchestral, surreal, romantic, emotional, gripping, and always equal parts dissonant and consonant. Their influences are far-reaching, from classical, blues, and rock, to soul, funk, jazz, and beyond. They perform from a library of original works, as well as their own arrangements of iconic pieces from Stravinsky to Bach.
Pat Hall
Pat Hall has been doing Ukrainian-style wax-resist egg art for over 30 years. She had experimented with oil painting, watercolors, stained glass, and calligraphy, but found her home with egg art. Pat is a retired floral designer, loves gardening and periodically acts in community theater productions. She has self-published five award-winning children's books and will have a sixth early in 2020.
Sabra Michelle
Sabra has performed on tours nationally and internationally in such exotic places as Bahrain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. For 10 years, she resided in the heart of New York’s theatre district, where she had the opportunity to perform in several Off-Broadway venues, work with many Broadway stars, and study with some of the finest coaches in the city (including Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon's dance assistant Mimi Quillen, Richard Sabellico of Gypsy and OBC Annie, Doug Oberhamer of Swing!
Audiences fondly remember her playing the principal roles of Morticia in The Addams Family, Ellie in two separate productions of Showboat, Tessie Tura in Gypsy, and on the national tour of The Pajama Game where she got to sing and dance Steam Heat. She can be seen on the Bear in the Big Blue House LIVE! DVD (released by Jim Henson/Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment) with whom she toured world-wide for three seasons. Many of her regional D.C. musical theatre productions were nominated for Helen Hayes Awards where she played Cassandra in Cats, Graziella in West Side Story, Sister Mary Leo in Nunsense, and Jean in Brigadoon. She also performed at President Clinton’s last Inaugural in George Faison’s KING! A Musical Testimony with Maya Angelou and spent six months cruising the Hawaiian Islands on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America.
Shauncey Ali and Starr Moss
Shauncey Ali (fiddle) is an award-winning performer, educator and composer. A fiddler and violist with a musical fluency across genres, his playing has been described as, “precise, thoughtful and unexpected.” He tours internationally with the Katie McNally Trio (Portland, ME) and directs MadFiddle, a premiere youth fiddle ensemble in Madison. Starr Moss (guitar) has been playing bluegrass, Celtic and old-time music for over a decade. He spent four years on the road with Chicago-based bluegrass band The Henhouse Prowlers, touring across the U.S and Europe. Together, Shauncey and Starr will present an acoustic sampling of folk styles from around the world.
Stuart Stotts
Stuart Stotts is an author, storyteller, educator, and songwriter. He’s sung with and performed for kids and families in schools, libraries, and community settings around the world since 1984. Stuart is a Kennedy Center teaching artist and a frequent presenter at educational events, keynoting conferences and leading workshops for early childhood and elementary school teachers, librarians, and social service professionals around the country.
His keynote presentations are funny, practical, engaging, and based in everyday practice and experience. Although the topics may vary, Stuart always emphasizes the importance of story, relationship, brain-based research, and on-going learning in striving for improvement and success.
Stuart offers school assemblies, family concerts and student writing workshops. Stuart gives over 200 concerts every year and has released several recordings.He’s also the author of six books for children. When he’s not traveling, he lives in Deforest, Wisconsin with his wife, Heather Terrill Stotts, and various assortments of offspring, depending on the day and season.
Synergy Dance
Synergy Dance Academy opened in the fall of 2012, under the direction of Kari Fisher, an EHS Alumni. At Synergy Dance we believe in the great Joe Tremaine's philosophy that Dance Training is Life Training. And with the help of our incredibly talented staff, we put that to practice by providing unique and valuable experiences for our dancers every time they step on our dance floors. Our top-notch training, experienced teachers, and friendly atmosphere have established us as the go-to place in Madison for all areas of dance. We want our dancers to feel known, recognized, and capable, which is why we keep our class sizes small and offer nothing short of the highest quality, up to date technique training from instructors who are required to do continued education in their area of expertise. Most importantly, we won’t let our dancers leave feeling any less than encouraged and confident.
Today we will be showcasing some of our Competitive Dance Team numbers as well as one of our Performance Dance Team numbers. Many of the dancers you see today are current EHS students.
Todd Hammes
Among the world’s percussionists, Todd Hammes of Madison, Wisconsin is a singular individual. Through his music – a fascinating, eclectic blend of classical, world and improvisational styles – Todd presents to the world his own unique inner vision of sound and music. Enraptured audiences, fellow musicians and participants in his engaging workshops experience a special connection to the raw energy and sensitivity that Todd possesses.
Percussion and its relationship to the individual is my passion. My goal is to share with others my great love of music, and to show them how fun and accessible music can be…for all of us!”
Todd’s work includes performances both domestically and abroad, extensive musical composition, teaching and outreach programs to groups large and small. He has trained with some of the world’s leading percussionists and is a life-long student of the percussive arts.
Seeing Master Percussionist Todd Hammes perform live. Listening to his recorded compositions. Working with him one-on-one or in an uplifting group experience. Each such opportunity brings us closer to the inner pulse that animates our beings and makes us more whole.
Tundra Line
Next time you're at Lambeau Field, make sure you check out The Tundra Line, the official drumline of the Green Bay Packers. This group of professional musical performers entertains fans at every Packers home game. On gamedays, you can see them performing for tailgaters before the game, in the concourse at halftime and on the field during the game.
The twenty-five member musical ensemble combines modern rudimental drumming with a lively and energetic performance style. The Tundra Line entertains football fans of all ages and backgrounds and adds an exciting live music performance element to the Lambeau Field experience.
The Tundra Line recently celebrated its 10th anniversary season. The group was formed in the spring of 2007 and was originally composed of 15 members. The Tundra Line has performed at sporting events, pep rallies, parades, and other special events across Wisconsin, has been featured on The Weather Channel, The Today Show, and as guest performers at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The group has also collaborated with Heid Music and various local school districts to host educational clinics in Madison, Appleton, and Green Bay.
Tundra Line performers are skilled and experienced professional musicians who hail from across the state of Wisconsin. Current and former members have included veterans of marching bands and drum corps, including the U.W. Marching Band, U.W. Whitewater Warhawk Marching Band, Colts, Kilties, Madison Scouts, Cadets, and Phantom Regiment.
Wisconsin Brass Quintet
The Wisconsin Brass Quintet
Regarded as one of the “superb brass ensembles in the USA” (Musicweb International) and praised for “remarkable musicianship and versatility” (International Trumpet Guild Journal), the widely acclaimed Wisconsin Brass Quintet (WBQ) has maintained a position at the forefront of brass chamber music since the group’s founding in 1972. In addition to its regular concert series on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Quintet performs extensively throughout the Midwest and nationally, including appearances in New York at Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall. Its players have been members of the American Brass Quintet, Empire Brass Quintet, and Meridian Arts Ensemble.
The WBQ’s commitment to commissioning and performing new music has attracted the attention of many renowned composers, including Verne Reynolds, Jan Bach, Karel Husa, John Harbison, and Daron Hagen. The Quintet’s premiere recordings of works by these composers and others can be found on the Summit, Mark, and Crystal record labels. American Record Guide reviewer Barry Kilpatrick writes: “The WBQ is a remarkable ensemble that plays with more reckless abandon, warmth, stylistic variety and interpretive interest than almost any quintet in memory.”
In demand for its engaging educational programs and master classes, the WBQ has presented clinics and residencies at such prestigious institutions as The Juilliard School, the Yale School of Music, the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. Since 2014, the WBQ has hosted Brass Fest, an annual festival featuring concerts, master classes, and seminars held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Guest artists have included the Western Brass Quintet, Axiom Brass Quintet, tubist Øystein Baadsvik, trumpeter Adam Rapa, and composer Anthony Plog.
Wisconsin Film Festival
DO IT FOR DOZER
A story of loss turns into a season of triumph when the Cambridge High football players head to the championships in this touching documentary of a community's efforts to heal after the death of a close friend and teammate, Dustin "Dozer" Zuelsdorf.
HOAN ALONE: PERSONAL STORIES FROM THE BRIDGE
Stories of witnessing, responding to, and attempting suicide are interwoven into a conversation that explores Milwaukee's Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge in this unique animated short.
LAURA
The contents of a medicine cabinet tell a heartbreaking tale of friendship and loss in this remarkably original and eloquent short from high school student, Maya Castronovo.
MEET UNCLE PAUL
This intimate, moving documentary short paints a vivid portrait not only of Paul, a 62-year-old with Down syndrome and early stage dementia, but also of his loving caregivers: Paul's sister Susie and her husband, Lee.
Screens for Teens: Film Outreach brings the Wisconsin Film Festival experience directly to middle and high school students in their own environment. Educational materials and an opportunity to speak with filmmakers and University of Wisconsin–Madison experts enriches the experience and fosters conversations about compelling topics and the art of filmmaking. Each program provides an online Study Guide for use before and after the visit along with a post-screening discussion hosted by a Wisconsin Film Festival representative.
Funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Wisconsin Humanities Council supports and creates programs that use history, culture, and discussion to strengthen community life for everyone in Wisconsin.