Modern Dance

Jazz Dance

Ask about our special programs for homeschoolers and cyberschoolers!

Director: Carol Pharo
Call: (814) 238-2361
E-mail: cap274@psu.edu
www.academyperformingarts.com

...for months you have been searching...

...for the ultimate Arts Academy...

...now, at last, it is in sight...

...DON'T MISS IT!

The Academy of the Performing Arts is a school devoted to the artistic development of the young child to adult. You are invited to become a part of this special program, in which individual attention and the very best instruction combine to maximize the potential of every aspiring artist.

APA Faculty

Carol Pharo, director
-Classical ballet
-Creative movement
-Historical dance
-Drama
-Musical theater
-Choir
-Voice
-Piano

Vicky McQuaide
-Classical ballet
-Pointe
-Men's technique and strength training
-Contemporary dance:  jazz, modern, lyrical
-Pilates
-African dance

Suzanna Rothgeb
-Classical ballet
-Creative movement

Hyun Ju Curtin
-Piano

Jason Hunt
-Guitar: classical, rock, folk, jazz

Tuition

Registration fee:  $25 per family for a first-time registration.
Discount for multiple classes:  full price for the first class and 10% off the total of the second and subsequent classes.

Ballet/Drama
30 min:  $8/class
45 min:  $9/class
60 min:  $10/class
75 min:  $11/class
90 min:  $12/class

Choir(s)
90 min:  $5/class
45 min:  $5/class

Students already registered for private or group lessons with APA may attend choir for free.

Guitar Class Instruction
90 min:  $25/class

Tuition is billed per semester according to the number of weeks the class will meet between September and the December break (Fall semester) and January and the June break (Winter/Spring semester).  Newcomers are permitted two try-out lessons (at cost per lesson) afterwhich a bill will be sent for the remaining tuition for that semester.

Tuition is not refunded for illness, parties, vacations, etc., but students are encouraged to make up their lessons in other sections.  N.B. tuition (for unattended classes) will be refunded in the case of three year-olds who are not yet ready for a classroom/group environment.

Private music instruction
30 min:  $19/lesson
45 min:  $28.50/lesson
60 min:  $38/lesson

Schedule: 2009-2010

Summer Programs

Details coming soon...

Ongoing Programs

Introducing the Academy of the Performing Arts choirs:

The Academy of the Performing Arts Children's Choir welcomes new members between the ages of eight and eighteen!  Our choir promotes an ambitious repertoire,  including music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods to Musical Theater.  Many songs are performed in the original European languages, and performances are often in combination with APA dancers and professional instrumentalists.  Vocal training and sight-singing are included in this modestly-priced program.

The Little Choir is for children in Kindergarten to third grade who love to sing.  Our repertoire is mostly "light," including songs from "The Sound of Music, Disney favorites, and more.  Dance and dramatic movement are encouraged, and many pieces are choreographed.  Vocal training, solfege and sight-singing are included: and, most of all, everyone has loads of fun!

In December 2008, both choirs performed with dancers and instrumentalists in "A Medieval Christmas Celebration" held at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in State College. This program included A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten.

Concerts in 2009 have been held at Eisenhower auditorium, local churches (United Baptist and Brethren, Houserville U.M., and Trinity Lutheran), the State College Friends School, and the Arts Festival.

School Philosophy

At the Academy of the performing Arts, we aim to foster self-worth in every child while promoting the highest standards of technical training.  Children are encouraged to appreciate the progress of each other in class and to be aware of artistic trends across a number of disciplines.  Music, drama and dance are intermingled at most performances; and, when possible, students from different programs are combined as collaborators in multi-disciplinary events.

Thank you for choosing instruction at the Academy of the Performing Arts. I promise to do my very best for your children. Each has unique talents, and I am looking forward to creating learning and performing situations that will allow each one to shine!

– Carol Pharo

Teacher Carol Pharo

Carol Pharo, founder/director of the Academy of the Performing Arts has recently returned to the State College area after living in Europe for eighteen years. 

She holds degrees/diplomas from Penn State, New England Conservatory, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and The Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Her teachers have included Earl Wild and Lamar Crowson, piano; Stanley Hoogland, fortepiano, John Gibbons, harpsichord; and Julia Sutton and Margaret Daniels, renaissance and baroque dance.

Ms. Pharo has taught in England, South Africa, The Netherlands and the United States. She has over thirty years of experience as a piano teacher and thirteen years of experience teaching children's ballet (including the British Royal Academy of Dance syllabus), creative movement, drama and group music programs.

Ms. Pharo brings a unique background to her work, including music history, early music performance, historical dance, and the gyrotonic/gyrokinesis movement disciplines.

The Academy of the Performing Arts
...where dreams come true!

Hyun Ju Curtin

Korean-born pianist Hyun Ju Curtin earned her Artist Diploma in Piano Performance (also fulfilling the coursework and recital requirements for a D.M.A.) from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff. She earned her Master of Music in Piano Performance at the University of Wyoming School of Music (where she won first prize in the MTNA competition) and her Bachelor of Music degree from Changwon National University in Korea.

Hyun Ju has performed concerti, chamber music, and solo recitals throughout the United States and in Korea, where she has performed with the Mockpo Symphony, the Masan Symphony, and twice with the Changwon Philharmonic. An avid chamber musician, she was a founding member of the Escalante Piano Trio, and has performed in the Grandin Festival in Cincinnati and on the Carnegie Concert Series in Michigan with violinist Christopher Takeda.

Hyun Ju has served on the piano faculty of Soonchun National University, Changwon National University, Pusan Performing Arts School, Brigham Young University, and Utah State University. She is also a frequent lecturer at piano teachers' associations in Korea and in the U.S. Hyun Ju recently made her Pennsylvania orchestral debut with the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5.

Hyun Ju and her husband, David Curtin, are both Steinway artists, and they have given solo and duet recitals throughout the U.S., including Steinway Hall in New York City.

Jason Hunt

Jason comes to the Academy of Performing Arts with more than 10 years of guitar teaching experience, after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in Guitar Performance, specializing in classical guitar.

He later attended Master Classes at
Northwestern (1996-1999), with and was a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Jason subsequently taught guitar to approx. fifty students per week for three years as an instructor at the Guitar Works, Ltd. to students from 6-65 years of age.

Styles: Classical, Beginning Jazz, Blues, Rock and Folk