More Biographies:

Administrative Staff | Music Faculty (G - K) | Music Faculty (L - Z) | Dance Faculty | Drama & Visual Arts Faculty

Elma Adams (Voice, Staff Accompanist) a graduate from the Juilliard School of Music in Piano Performance, she also received a B.A. and M.A. from KeanUniversity where she is presently an adjunct piano faculty since 2003.  She is also an adjunct piano faculty with the WestminsterChoirCollege.

Linda Battle (Voice and Piano) B.A. Jersey City State College. Since 1998, Ms. Battle has taught grades K-8 in vocal music and directs the chorus for the Paterson Board of Education. Previous to that, she taught vocal music and directed chorus for K-8 for the Irvington Board of Education. From 1989 to 1995 she played principal roles in films, soap operas, commercials and corporate videos. From 1973 to 1989 she taught music and directed chorus for the Newark Board of Education.

Svetlana Brill (Piano) Ms. Brill (piano) M.A., Khazkov Music Conservatory and B.A. from Donetsk Music College.  Ms. Brill is the Founder and Owner of Music Expression Piano Studio in Englewood, NJ.  She has 30 years of experience in classical and contemporary music with many of her piano students winning piano competitions.   She was a staff member and piano accompanist for Ballet Hispanico, and piano accompanist for Alvin Dance School, Montclair College Ballet Division and White Plains Ballet School in Connecticut.  From 1967 to 1967 she was on the faculty the Music College for Professional Study of Piano-Ukraine.

Karina Bruk (Piano Department Chair) BM, MM- Manhattan School of Music, DMA Rutgers University.  Dr. Bruk has performed solo and chamber music recitals, as well as presented Master Classes and Workshops on performing and auditioning throughout the local area. In 2005 Karina Bruk co-founded the Bruk-Rivkin Duo (a classical trumpet/piano ensemble) with her husband Gregory Rivkin. She has also performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Her Doctoral Treatise entitled “Twentieth-Century Well-Tempered Clavier: Preludes and Fugues, opus 87, of Dmitry Shostakovich” was presented at the International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Bruk has been a recipient of numerous awards; among them the Genia Robinor Award for Teaching Excellence presented by the Piano Teachers Society of America.  She has a private piano studio in South Orange, New Jersey, and is on the Faculties of Newark School of the Arts (since 2002) and Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (since 2003). 

Philip Cokorinos (Voice) Currently in his seventeenth season with the Metropolitan Opera, bass-baritone Philip Cokorinos has performed there in over 50 productions. More notable performances include Masetto in a "Live from the MET" telecast of Don Giovanni, the World Premiere of John Corigliano's highly successful The Ghosts of Versailles, as well as the MET premieres of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, War & Peace, The Gambler, and Sly. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Leporello in Don Giovanni, he has performed the role with Opera Pacific, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Calgary Opera, Berkshire Opera, Utah Symphony & Opera, among many others. He has also made frequent appearances in the roles of Don Magifico in La Cenerentola, Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mustafa in L'Italiana in Algeri, Frere Laurent in Romeo et Juliette, the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mephistopheles in Faust, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan Tutte, Banquo in Macbeth, Daland in The Flying Dutchman, Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Zaccaria in Nabucco, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto with such companies as Florida Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, Utah Symphony & Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, the Coro Lirico, Opera Grand Rapids, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Chautauqua Opera, Edmonton Opera, and Syracuse Opera. His discography includes two works of Hector Berlioz with the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit, as well as Herod in L'Enfance du Christ and Wagner in Huit Scenes de Faust both released on Decca.

Eddy Contreras (Piano) B.A. in Music, specializing in classical piano from the Superior Conservatory of the Arts. Mr. Contreras, born in Cuba studied with Russian instructors. He was invited by the Austrian Embassy in Venezuela to perform a series of concerts to benefit children at-risk. He is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships. Among them he holds the best interpretation of the Cuban Music in the Amadeo Roldan Competition in Cuba. In the US he has been performing with numerous orchestras as a soloist and has been playing recitals in different halls and universities. He studies piano at the Harbor Conservatory under Professor Martin Sodenberg.

Michael Costantino (Piano, Jazz piano) pianist, show director, conductor, arranger. He performs regularly at Cortinas Restaurant in Paterson, New Jersey. Mr. Costantino has toured the Orient, worked as pianist for the John Rowlen, Don Ho shows and played in the orchestra for the off-Broadway musicals, "Oh Calcutta" and "Hair". He was the recipient of two consecutive "DOWN BEAT" magazine scholarships to Berkelee College of Music.

Daryl Covington (Percussion) Drum instructor Daryl Covington has been studying drums for over 15 years. He attended Berkelee College of Music in Boston, Drummers Collective in New York, and Sam Ash Music Institute. Experienced in all styles of music, he currently works in the tri-state area professionally as a freelance musician.

Anna Duckovny, ( Piano)has a B.A. in piano performance and accompaniment  from State Music College, Ukraine and a M.A. from St. Petersburg Academy of Culture,, Russia.  She has twenty-five years experience in teaching piano in public and private music schools in the Ukraine, Russia, Israel and New Jersey, instructing children and adults.  She uses classical and modern methods in developing interpretation, technical proficiency, sight reading and ear training.

Eugene Feigin (Piano) M.M. in piano solo, ensemble and accompaniment. Mr. Feigin was a founding member of the Rachmaninoff Trio and the Feigin Duo. He performed extensively in his native Russia, Israel, Europe and the United States. He recorded with Centour Records and Moscow Radio. He has 40 years of teaching experience and was a former faculty member of the Gnessin Institute of Music and Ippolitov-Ivanov College of Music in Moscow. For the last 22 years he has been a piano and ensemble teacher (last 10 years as director of the music school) at the Music School of Mid-Westchester AY= in Westchester, New York.

Suzanne Forsberg (Theory, Music History, Piano) B.M. Music, University of Utah; A.M., Harvard University; Ph.D., New York University. Dr. Forsberg is currently an associate professor of fine arts at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, New York. She has published articles in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Current Musicology. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, and Haiti-Observer. A specialist in the early symphony, she was co-editor of a volume in the series- The Symphony 1720 B 1840, published by Garland. She participated in piano master classes at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and also spent a year in Munich as the recipient of a German Academic Exchange Fellowship.

More Biographies:

Administrative Staff | Music Faculty (G - K) | Music Faculty (L - Z) | Dance Faculty | Drama & Visual Arts Faculty

Return to top of page