Dr. Courtney Miller is Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Iowa. Prior to her position at the University of Iowa, Dr. Miller served on faculty at Boston College and Ashland University.

Dr. Courtney Miller made her solo debut with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra at age 17, and continues to be a devoted performer traveling throughout the United States and abroad as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician.

Dr. Miller’s recently released a solo album “Modern Fairy Tales” on Centaur Records. Fanfare Magazine hails Courtney Miller as “a performer of considerable skill, with an unfailingly lovely sound, abundant technical ability, and a special gift for turning notes into poetry.” In addition to her solo pursuits, Dr. Miller is a core member of the prestigious international chamber ensemble, Virtuoso Soloists of New York. Boston Music Intelligencer describes her performance as showing “dedication to the piece’s emotional journey, and mind-boggling control over the virtuosic ornaments and runs. “

As an orchestral musician, Dr. Miller currently serves as the English hornist with the Quad City Symphony. She has performed frequently with numerous orchestras including the Portland Symphony (ME), the Jacksonville Symphony (FL), the Atlantic Symphony (MA), the Akron Symphony (OH), the Canton Symphony (OH), the Toledo Symphony (OH), the Erie Philharmonic (PA), the Cleveland Opera (OH), the Cleveland Pops (OH), the Wheeling Symphony (WV), the Youngstown Symphony (OH), and the Tallahassee Symphony (FL),

Dr. Courtney Miller has a Bachelor of Music from Florida State University, a Master of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University. Her primary teachers include John Ferrillo, John Mack and Eric Ohlsson.

Link to Courtney's website

Kristin Marrs has performed classical and contemporary roles as a company member of Columbus Dance Theatre, Arova Contemporary Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, Paradise Ballet Theatre, Ballet Quad Cities, Opera Columbus, and Images (London). She has worked with choreographers Kennet Oberly, Tim Veach, Stella Kane, Kristina Isabelle, Maria Glimscher, Alun Jones, Kim Robards, Lynn Bowman, Simone Ferro, Johanne Jakhelln, Penny Askew, and Peggy Mead-Finizio, and has performed ballets of Petipa, Balanchine, and Frederick Ashton. Marrs trained at SUNY Purchase and London Studio Centre, and holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa, where she is currently a Lecturer in Ballet. She has also taught ballet technique at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Columbus Dance Theatre Intensive Training Program, University of Iowa Youth Ballet, and as a guest artist at Ohio Wesleyan University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Shenyang Conservatory of Music (China). She is a certified instructor of vinyasa and yin yoga, and an Alexander Technique teacher trainee holding an associate membership with the American Society for the Alexander Technique.

Kristin’s choreography focuses on the evolution of ballet technique and narrative forms, and she has presented her work at concert and site-specific venues around the United States. Works include: Out of the Depths, set to Berg’s Lyric Suite and selected for performance in the 2012 American College Dance Association Gala concert, and A Poet’s Love, featuring a live performance of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. This spring, Kristin restaged Petipa’s classic ballet Paquita for the University of Iowa Youth Ballet.

Link to Kristin's website

Peggy is an active lighting designer, technical theatre instructor, choreographer, dance instructor and arts administrator. She holds an MFA in Theatre Arts and an MFA in Choreography from the University of Iowa. Peggy is currently an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Department at Saginaw Valley State University where she designs lighting for the four or five yearly, main stage productions as well as mentors student designers and technicians. She is also the technical consultant for the Retical Hall at the Flint School of Performing Arts.

Her most recent lighting design was for SVSU's prodution of the Cripple of Inishmaan. She enjoys lighting for dance and recently did the designs for the Hollins University MFA Dance Program’s Summer Dance Events in Roanoke, VA and she served as the Assistant to Lighting Designer Ted Sullivan for the May Dance Concerts at Juilliard. She has also designed for The Washington Ballet @THEARC’s Summer Dance Intensive Showcase in Washington DC and Coe College’s production of Tartuffe in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

She has taught dance in every place she has lived. To keep her “toe in the door” of the dance world, Peggy also teaches the Musical Theatre dance classes at SVSU and dance classes for the Flint School of Performing Arts.

Link to Peggy's website