EVENTS for 2025 (include summer camp, therapy clinic, festival event)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FOUNDER
(pictured) (left) Patrice Bivins, founder of Valley Arts and Entertainment, Inc. and Yvette Jones-Smedley, (previous) Performing Arts Program Manager Alabama State Council on the Arts
ABOUT DIRECTOR
BOARD MEMBERS
Patrice Bivins, Executive Director
J. McDonald, Board Chairman
Xanthia Elmore, Board Secretary
Crystal Jackson, Board
Piano Instruction
YEAR OF SERVICE: (current) 2025-
Current Instructor
Kathryn is a senior, young professional growing in teaching and musicianship. She will received Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance and Music Technology. She is a member of Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Chapter; she served as a staff accompanist and coach for Lab87 a pre-professional program for dedicated theater students ages 13-19.
Piano Instruction AND GUITAR
YEAR OF SERVICE: 2023-2024
Naomi Buse, Current Instructor
"I taught private guitar lessons to college-aged students during the winter of 2023. These lessons prioritized a strong basis of music theory as well as practical skills such as memorizing chord shapes,
moving along the fretboard, and other skills such as learning to read tablature, lead sheet notation, and
basic chord charts." Multiple years experience with music theory, piano pedagogy, and guitar pedagogy. Freshman music major at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
Alabama Women in Jazz Program
Lynnece Henry, a Miami, Florida native has been serving the community with music experience for 17+ years professionally on the violin. She is fluent in the genres of Classical, Gospel, and Jazz. Lynnece has played in many productions to include 'How to succeed in business' showcased at UAH and Jazz album Faith, Hope, Love, Passion, and Pain by John Onder. Lynnece has performed in several different orchestras such as, the Riverview Symphony in New York, the Madison County Community Orchestra in Huntsville. Lynnece debuted the Alabama Women in Jazz Festival in September, 2022.
Piano Instruction
YEAR OF SERVICE: 2023-2024
Jonah Drach
My name is Jonah Drach. I am a freshman at UAH double majoring in piano performance and music education. I have played piano for the past 10 years mainly under the direction of Dr. Robert Holm, head of the music department at University of South Alabama. In 2022, I was invited to play in Carnegie Hall and in 2023, I got the amazing opportunity to play Rhapsody in Blue with my high school's wind ensemble. I enjoy playing classical, jazz, and modern music but mainly relish in classical. Besides music, I enjoy cooking, baking, and crocheting.
Alabama of Women in Jazz Program
Yuressa Shonta, is a Tenor and alto saxophonist Yuressa Shonta is a native of Rochester, NY who has resided in Huntsville, AL since 1997. She has shared the stage with musicians such as Don Diego, Jasmin Ghent, J.D. Blair and Christopher Hopper Band She has performed at Panoply and The Joshua Revolution in and at many clubs, concerts and private functions in several cities within the US. Her first two original songs "Tired" a song inspired by the world wide vibe of 2020 and Butterfly Soul as a tribute to her late sister Katrina Hubbard debuted the Alabama Women in Jazz Festival in September, 2021.
Piano Instruction
YEAR OF SERVICE: 2022
Andrew Bullard, Instructor
As a student who has focused on the arts at UAH. He was a pianist from Auburn, Alabama. "He started playing at the age of 13, in a piano class offered at Auburn Junior High School. Alongside piano he developed an interest in writing music and placed nationally in MTNA's collegiate division for music composition while a student at Auburn University. He has also achieved an honorable mention in MTNA's solo piano collegiate division, as well as winning AMTA's collegiate piano concerto competition with Prokofiev 2. He loves Russian and Impressionist music, which is reflected in his own writing."