Chris Credit, Saxophone, Flute, and Clarinet, moved from Anchorage, Alaska to Seattle to attend Cornish College of the Arts where he received a Bachelor’s of Music degree in jazz performance in 1998. There he studied with Julian Priester, Hadley Caliman, Chuck Deardorf and Jim Knapp among others. After a short stint traveling around the world performing music aboard cruise ships, Credit returned to Seattle to focus on new projects and teaching. He can be found performing regularly in the Seattle area as a member of Reptet, Motel 5, Orchestra L’Pow and is founder of c2 music.
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Keith Curtis, Guitar, Trumpet, Recorder, received his Bachelor’s degree in music and teaching credentials from the University of Washington. Keith gained much of his experience conducting bands at Eastside Catholic High School from 1993 to 2002. There he also developed nationally shared curriculum standards and assessment materials. In addition, Keith has privately taught guitar, trumpet, recorder and saxophone. A Washington native, Keith has performed and recorded with diverse local groups for over 20 years, ranging from marching bands and orchestras, to soul and classic rock. Keith has been featured on VH1’s “Rock across America” and one of his songs was included in the soundtrack for a local film.
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Jen Heller, Fine Art, is a Fine artist and Art teacher. A recent transplant from New York she is now living in Seattle. She received her AA in art studies from Nassau Community College, BFA in Fine Art and Education from New York Institute of Technology and a MA in Fine Art from CW Post Long Island University. She has been teaching as a full time art teacher for the Everett Public School District and has taught for the New York public school system. Jen has been showing her art work at galleries in both New York and Seattle.
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Larry Jones, Drum, Percussion, received his Bachelor’s degree in Music from Rutgers University. Larry has toured the world several times over as a professional musician. He performed on four continents with the popular R&B group, The Platters. A resident of Seattle since 1990, he is a current mainstay in leading clubs and festivals. Known for his spirited, propulsive drumming, Larry is also a talented composer, arranger and bandleader. As co-producer of the Earshot Living Spirit Concerts at Jazz Alley and leader of the Living Spirit Band, he is increasingly sought out for his thoughtful musical commentary and advocacy. Larry brings to Arts in Motion 15 years of teaching and curriculum development for drum and percussion for all levels.
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Tiffany Lin, Piano, Composition, an accomplished pianist of both classical and new music repertoire, Tiffany Lin has always found appeal in combining the music of the past with the new. Tiffany’s interest in music that explores the potential of unconventional piano playing has recently earned her a Washington Artist Trust GAP Grant and a fellowship by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Roy O. Disney Performance Hall, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Mannes College Concert Hall. Ms. Lin received her Bachelor’s of Music degree from Cornish College of the Arts and has been teaching private piano and music theory in the greater Seattle area.
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Denise Mimura, Piano, Recorder, French Horn, Theory, Voice, Choir, Musikgarten, studied piano and French horn performance at the University of Washington where she also gained her experience in teaching special needs children through her work at the U of W’s Child Development and Research Center. Her experiences with preschool and elementary age children led her to develop the music curriculum, Exploring Music, which she taught in area preschools & private schools for 15 years. Her 20 years experience in teaching piano, French horn, theory and general music education through her own music school, Music Discovery and the public and private schools, laid the foundation to her developing the non-profit community school, Arts in Motion in 2004. In addition, she has been a church musician for many years and is a member of the Seattle Music Teachers Association.
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Viktoriya Otto, Piano, received her Bachelor’s degree in piano teaching and a Master's in piano teaching, chamber ensemble solo and accompaniment from Donetsk Musical College in Ukraine. She started teaching piano performance at Donetsk Childrens' Music School #6 upon completion of her studies and was named head of the piano department. She also worked as an accompanist for violinists, chamber ensembles, vocalists, and other solo musicians. After coming to the United States, she accepted a teaching position at Music Discovery School and had taught there for almost five years before the school turned into Arts in Motion. Currently Viktoriya is a church musician at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Everett and teaches at her own private studio in Lynnwood. Viktoriya has over 37 years of professional teaching experience and is a member of the Seattle Music Teachers Association.
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Arie Pytel, Guitar, has been playing music since he was four years old, when he began studying flute at the Seattle Suzuki School, then making the switch to guitar at age thirteen. He has studied Jazz, African, Latin, and Turkish music at the University of Washington’s Department of Ethnomusicology, and recently returned from Spain where he studied flamenco guitar. He performs and records regularly in the Seattle area.
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Mark Sampson, Piano, Keyboard: Jazz, Gospel, holds a Bachelor’s of Music degree from Cornish College of the Arts. He is currently a church musician at Ebenezer AME Zion Church and performs regularly in the Seattle area.
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Begin Scarseth, violin, has been an active musician in the Northwest for many years. In her early years she participated in the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, summer music festivals including the Master Works Festival in New York and Marrowstone Music Festival in Port Townsend and Bellingham, WA. She received her Bachelor’s of Musical Arts degree in 2004 from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, where her focus was on researching the early music of Heinrich Biber. Ms. Scarseth has played with many groups in the Northwest but is currently a member of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and a string quartet she founded called Serendipity Strings. For the last three years, she has maintained teaching studios in Issaquah and Lynnwood.
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Amanda Soto, Flute, Clarinet, and Saxophone, received her bachelor’s in music education from the University of North Texas. During her years at North Texas she played and performed around the Denton/Dallas area, teaching private lessons and group instrumental music to children and seniors. She is certified to teach music K-12 and was the assistant band director at Berta Cabaza Middle School, Texas. Her studies include classical music at the University of Keele, England and a summer in Ghana to study the musical culture of the Ewe people. She has completed a Masters in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and is currently finishing up her Doctorate in Music Education at U.W. where she is involved in a university-community partnership in the Yakima Valley.
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Felicia (Sunday) Strange, Musikgarten, Creative Dance, comes to Arts in Motion with a desire to share her love for the arts and to inspire the children she works with to become more expressive in the arts. This passion was cultivated, she is sure, by her “musical family” and early exposure and experience of such venues as opera, symphony and ballet. One such opportunity, through the Seattle Public Schools, landed her an eight-year scholarship to attend Cornish College of the Arts Preparatory Dance Program. This experience led her to continue her study of dance in early adulthood at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center in New York before returning to finish her B.A. in Communication with a concentration in drama at Northwest College. In return, Felicia wants to cultivate in other children (including her own) the ability to be expressive and creative.
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Olivia Tsao, violin, is a professional musician with over 20 years experience teaching and playing violin with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, she settled in the Seattle area where she has continued teaching private students. Ms. Tsao received her music education at Hochschule für Musik Würzburg West-Germany (under a DAAD full Scholarship). During her career with the Orchestra, she has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia playing to many enthusiastic sellout audiences and has had the pleasure to have accompanied many of the world’s best soloists including: Yo-Yo Ma, Domingo, Pavarotti, Hilary Hahn, Jimmy Lin, Bobby McFerrin, and many others. The Orchestra’s recordings have won critical acclaim under the BIS label. In addition, Ms. Tsao has participated in the Fukuoka and Osaka music festivals among others, founded two string ensembles, gave classes in different schools to students of all age groups, appointed as violin lecturer in LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts and gave private lessons to many gifted students. All of her students have achieved various levels of certification through the Associated Board of Royal School of Music (ABRSM-The world's leading music exam board); some have gone on to pursue professional careers in music.
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Blake Whitaker, Watercolor Painting, Drawing, Cartooning & Illustration, , is an artist and musician that has lived in the Seattle area most of his life. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington’s School of Art in 2006. Blake has been active in art since a young child and is very passionate about it today. Along with drawing, painting and printmaking, Blake is also a studio engineer and music producer.
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Oscar Williams, Trumpet, Trombone, Jazz Combo/Band, Jazz Vocal, Jazz Improvisation & Community Band, received his BS in music education from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His mentors were Alvin Batiste and Ludwig Freeman, both music directors at the university. Graduate work was done at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. He has taught for 38 years in public and private schools. In the beginning of his teaching career he taught marching band, jazz, music theory, choir, and orchestra. He was instrumental music director at Seattle private school, University Prep Academy for 8 years and started the jazz band and photography programs there. He is a sought-after jazz trumpet player who worked with the late Ray Charles, James Brown, Whitney Houston, P-Diddy, Dr. Dre, Barbra Streisand, and most recently, Sting. "My goal as a teacher at Arts in Motion is to expose my students to all types of musical styles, and incorporate them into their vocabulary." Oscar is also an award-winning photographer with photos on display in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. and has been published in over 500 magazines and textbooks including Good Housekeeping, Smithsonian, National Geo, Time, Newsweek, Travel and Leisure, and numerous parenting and senior citizen lifestyle publications.
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