Lee Joiner

Lee Joiner has been a professor of violin at Wheaton College Conservatory since 1983. Prior to this he was artist/ teacher at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and violinist in the Blair String Quartet. Professor Joiner holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree form Eastman School of Music, where he worked with Sylvia Rosenberg. His Bachelors and Masters degrees are from Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Dorothy Delay.  While in doctoral studies at Eastman, he recorded with Musica Nova.

In Chicago, he has performed with Ars Viva, Fulcrum Point, the Lyric Opera, Chicago Jazz Orchestra and with the Contemporary Chamber Players, working with Ralph Shapey and Shulamit Ran. He has been a guest artist with the Rembrandt Chamber Players and the Orion Chamber Ensemble. Recently, he has performed with a string quartet accompanying singer/songwriter, Fernando Ortega. Dr. Joiner has also taught at the Masterworks Festival, Credo, Rocky Ridge Music Center, and The JVL Summer School for Music in North Bay, Ontario. One of his recent passions has been improvised music. He is a member of the International Society of Improvised Music as well as a member of the improvising ensemble, Spontaneous Combustion. Dr. Joiner's interests beyond performance include visiting and learning from contemporary instrument and bow makers, reading theology, exercising his border collie and following the activities of his two sons which include opera, soccer, baseball and model trains.

Alyce Roeder

Alyce danced with the Nashville Ballet for three seasons before joining the Milwaukee Ballet in 1991. She trained with Classical Ballet of Memphis with her mother Pat Gillispie, and was awarded scholarships for the San Francisco Ballet, National Academy of the Arts and the National Association of Regional Ballet Choreograghers Conference in California. In the summer of 1995 Mrs. Roeder completed the Advanced Examination of the Royal Academy of Dancing and was one of two dancers in the United States to be awarded the coveted Solo Seal of the Academy. She retired from the Milwaukee Ballet in 2002 and resides in Milwaukee with her husband and three children.

Alyce is currently the director of Dance El Elyon at Elmbrook Church, Brookfield Wisconsin. A national and international movement minister, Alyce finds her great joy in teaching others worship thru her ballet school “Steps of Grace”.

Steven Koehler

Steven Koehler is a working professional actor and a member of Actor’s Equity Association. Recent stage productions include: “Stew” in The Bachelors and “Lloyd” in Guys on Ice with the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre/American Folklore Theatre, and most recently “Caleb” in The Spitfire Grill with the Skylight Opera Theatre. Guys on Ice is slated to return this winter to the Milwaukee Rep; with a multi-state tour to follow in January/February of 2009. On Camera, Steve’s credits include “The Wanderer” in the recently released independent film Six Bullets. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from U.W.-Madison and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from U.W.-Milwaukee’s Professional Theatre Training Program—where he trained with Louyong Wong, Peter Hackett, Jared Sakren, and Michael Johnson-Chase. The P.T.T.P. also gave him a chance to train and perform internationally in such venues as Krakow, Poland; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Sydney, Australia. Steve has been directing shows and teaching physics and acting at Milwaukee High School of the Arts for the past 15 years where he has been twice recognized by the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association as an “Outstanding Director” for his one-act adaptations of Shakespeare. Steve sees theatre as primarily a collaborative discipline and his teaching emphasizes the ensemble over the individual, choices and actions over emotional expressions. He and his wife Julie have been blessed with two boys: Alexander Steven (13), and Austin Max(10).

Helene Pickett

Vocal Music (Mezzo Soprano), has been a soloist with over 30 orchestras and opera companies including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Charlotte Philharmonic. Her most recent engagements include soloist with the Concord Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Vivaldi’s “Gloria, RV 589” and as “Eboli” in “Don Carlo” with the Chicago concert opera company Da Corneto Opera. She returned for the third time as featured soloist in May 2005 on Chicago’s WFMT broadcast “Live from Studio One” and has appeared on the Sherman Skolnik Show, “Chicago Access.” She has appeared in “Hansel & Gretel” with Chicago Opera Theatre and in “One Night in Venice” with Chicago Light Opera Works. Other highlights include solo engagements with Des Moines Metro Opera, Florentine Opera Company and Skylight Opera. Ms. Pickett has sung original works by Chicago composers Philip Seward and Mae Cohen; and is a member of the opera quartet “Chicago Connection.” As well, Ms Pickett is an associate pastor and conductor of the Eastbrook Church Orchestra. However her most important role is that of the mother of her three adopted children, Joey age 9, Freddie age 8, and Yolanda Queen age 6.

Alan Atwood

BFA in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, graduate of The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He has logged hundreds of performances at churches, conferences and camps across the country with his one-man plays on biblical stories, including performances at Moody Bible Institute’s Founder’s Week. He is currently the Pastor of Drama at Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee, WI where he writes, directs and produces three full-length productions with Eastbrook Drama each year. He was a founder of Acacia Theatre Company, a Christian theatre and has performed numerous roles with that company. He and his wife Mary Ellen have performed professionally with the Atwood Players, a professional children’s theatre since 1980.

Patricia Hickman

Patricia Hickman, M.F.A., is a Christian communicator and an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction whose work has been praised by critics and readers alike. Patty first studied creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and then went on to do graduate studies in writing at Queens University. She writes for major publishers and is currently at work on her sixteenth book for Random House. Painted Dresses is set to release Fall of 2007. She has served as an adjunct writing professor at UNCC. Her husband serves as senior pastor of Family Christian Center in Huntersville, NC. The Hickmans have founded two churches and Patty is the Chairperson and Founder of the Secret Angels Project, benefiting families with HIV/AIDS. Her fiction is branded as “Storytelling Divine!”

Michael Landers

Michael received his training under the guidance of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, Eric Morris (Master Instructor- method acting), Bob Hawkinson (Master Fencer), as well as Fight and Stunt Coordinators and last but not least God and His Word. Michael has done some 3,000 performances in Stunt work including, The Warner Brothers' Western Stunt Show and The Buffalo Bill Show. His work also includes TV commercials and Industrial Films. He has been blessed to work beside some recognizable names like Paul Newman, Noble Willingham, Tommy Lee Jones, Harrison Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Randy Travis and Eric Roberts. He also teaches acting, stage combat, fencing and stunts. He recently started the theatre company, Narrow Path Productions. Michael's greatest work to date has been donning the hat of father to his two children, Kate and Jacob.

Evan Atwood

Evan Atwood directed and wrote the Independent Film, Solitaire, which has earned entry into The National Film Festival for Talented Youth and The Beloit International Film Festival, and has been screened at the Times Theater in Milwaukee. Evan does event videography for Old Monk Productions, a company which he and two friends began in 2005. Their film, Impersonator II, won the Milwaukee High School Film Festival in 2005. He is currently a film student (' 09) at Columbia College, Chicago.