Rachel Ann Cross
Short Bio 2023
16Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County https://www.creativemoco.com[email protected](301) 565-3805
801 Ellsworth Dr
Silver Spring, MD 20910
United States
Thomas W. Pyle Middle School is a Montgomery County Public School and serves grades 6-8 in Bethesda, Maryland. More specifically, the choral program has 210 students enrolled.
An accomplished artist, Dr. Subha Maruvada has a unique distinction of celebrated excellence in two classical dance techniques of South India - Kuchipudi under Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam and Bharatnatyam under Mrs. Kamala Narayana (Laxman). Her dance is distinguished for its superb abhinaya (mime), sound rhythm, and impeccable grace. Subha is the founder and artistic director of Pranava Natyam. Her dance is marked by fluidity and grace.
Susanna Mendlow is a versatile performer, arranger, and educator who enjoys playing a variety of musical styles. She captivates audiences with original two-cello arrangements of classical, popular, and world music as one half of the semi-improvisational duo Cello, World. She also regularly premieres works in the classical sextet Kassia Music and served as the cellist for QuinTango for several years. As both a soloist and chamber musician, Susanna has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South America, and Central Asia.
Christine Kharazian is a concert violinist whose artistry bridges classical, traditional, and jazz music. Based in Silver Spring, MD, she began violin studies at a young age in Armenia and trained at the Tchaikovsky Advanced School of Music and the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan. Early in her career, she performed as a first violinist with the Armenian National Opera Symphony and as a featured soloist with the Sharakan Ensemble of Ancient and Medieval Music of Armenian TV and Radio.
Marcia Daft is a professional musician and arts educator. She works fluently in Spanish and English. She is the Founder of "Moving Through Math" and "Teaching the Music of Language." Marcia’s unique teaching methods have been energizing classrooms, performing arts centers, and school districts across the United States for over twenty-five years. Locally, Marcia's work is presented at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington Performing Arts Society, and the Wolftrap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts.
Smita is a lover of movement and enjoys sharing with others her passion for dance.
She began learning and performing Indian folk dance at the age of 5. Smita teaches Indian folk dance (Bhangra, Garba, and Dandiya Raas), Bollywood dance, Creative Dance for Kids, and Nia (a holistic cardio-dance movement class that combines modern dance arts, martial arts and healing arts).
As a Multidisciplinary Artist and single mom, time has had to become fluid for me in order to create. My latest works consist of images capturing moments in my life along with prose concerning homelessness, The Patriarchy, living as a gender-fluid person in the 80s and 90s in DC and Baltimore, and the characters that come along with that life. I am actively seeking publishers interested in such works, and galleries and pop-ups that may be interested in said subject matter. Corporate sponsorships are also, of course, welcomed and appreciated.
What makes Creative Outlets Arts Center unique is our focus on Wellness. We believe that art and artmaking is an integral part of our mental health and we aim to teach the community how to use it! It is our goal to engage the community in art making and display by not only providing classes and resources, but an exhibition space as well. We want our community to see value in art making as well as the reality that they, themselves can be a practicing, exhibited artist in our community