Performer's Edge Faculty
Sharon North Jones - President & Executive Director
SNJ Studio of Music
M.M.(Voice and Opera Performance), Northwestern University B.M.E., University of Nebraska at Omaha
President and Executive Director of SNJ Studio of Music, Sharon North Jones holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is cofounder and Executive Director of Performer's Edge Academy of Performing Arts and owner of Diva Productions, a music production company in Chicago, IL and Omaha. Sharon has served as the Director of Contests and for the Society of American Musicians and as a scholarship adjudicator for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
An accomplished opera, concert and music theater singer, Sharon has performed throughout the United States in such roles as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Mrs. Nordstrom in Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Sharon has appeared with the Alabama Symphony, Opera di Cornetto, the Chicago Composer's Consortium, Opera Ensemble of Chicago and many others. She also presents concerts of opera scenes for such corporate clients as the Easter Seals Foundation, the Steinway Society, Insignia, ESG, and Harting, Inc. in Hamburg, Germany.
As a music educator, adjudicator and clinician, Sharon brings over 20 years of experience to students of all ages. In addition to teaching privately she has designed several programs for children and adults. Sharon also conducts vocal master classes and audition preparation clinics as well as producing and directing music theater and opera scenes workshops and children's theater productions.
Joel Johnston - Performers Edge Academy of Performing Arts Director of Ensembles/Voice Instructor - SNJ Studio of Music
M.M., University of Nebraska at Lincoln, B.M.E., University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Joel Johnston is a free-lance conductor, presenter, choreographer and adjudicator, with 23 years of experience in music education. He has conducted more than 40 choral clinics and festivals in the Midwest. Joel is currently conductor of the Southwest Iowa Men's Chorus, as well as the SNJ Studio Singers, a select high school a cappella ensemble, and Center Stage, a middle school show choir. SNJ Singers and Center Stage rehearse at the Sharon North Jones Studio of Music in Omaha, where Joel also teaches 40 voice students.
Joel is co-founder of Performer's Edge, a performing arts academy designed to help students from Pre-K to grade 12 develop their skills as singers, actors, and dancers. In just two years, more than 400 students have participated in Performer's Edge academies, ensembles, and camps.
Joel is on staff at the Buena Vista Show Choir Camp in Storm Lake, Iowa, and ihas served on the faculty of Show Choir Omaha!, a three-day show choir camp at the Omaha Community Playhouse, as well as the Butler Community College Show Choir Showcase.
Joel served as President of the Nebraska Choral Directors Association, as well as Chair of Choral Affairs for the Nebraska Music Educators Association. He was named NMEA's Outstanding Music Educator of the Year in 2003. He served as Facilities Chairperson for the 2006 Regional American Choral Directors Convention in Omaha.
Linda Meuret - Marketing Director
Performer's Edge Academy of Performing Arts
A former bank executive, corporate trainer and executive recruiter, Linda's spare time has always been spent performing or volunteering in music and theater. During her banking days she participated in community theater playing roles as Zeitle in "Fiddler on the Roof" and Rizzo in "Grease." She even met her husband playing husband and wife in the English farce "June Groom!"
After her third child she gave up corporate life and created a nonprofit community children's theater in west Omaha. She spent 5 years producing and directing children's productions including "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Honk, Jr." and others until joining up with Sharon North Jones and Joel Johnston as a partner in Performer's Edge.
In addition to her role as Marketing Director for Performer's Edge and Office Manager for SNJ Studio of Music, Linda and her husband, Jeff, spend many hours volunteering for Millard West show choirs. Linda also coordinates costumes for Millard West High School's musical each year where her youngest daughter, Connor is a junior. Her eldest daughter, Jenna is currently a Vocal Music Education Major at Nebraska Wesleyan University and her son Tyler, is a Vocal Music Education Major at Hastings College.
Debbie Massey - Dance Instructor
Debbie Massey is a well known dance teacher/choreographer and theatre performer in Omaha. She spent 15 years teaching and managing the former Brownstone Dance Studio where she and her students won numerous local and national awards. A former competitive dancer herself, she has studied and performed coast to coast including a cruise ship in the Bahamas and is currently on the teaching staff at the Omaha Community Playhouse.
Debbie is a familiar face to local theatre stages and her credits are many. Most recently she starred in "Gypsy" at the Omaha Community Playhouse as Tessie Tura (TAG Best Featured Actress Nominee and OCP Clarence Teal Award Nominee). Other Playhouse credits include roles in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "The Cocoanuts" and she was a 2009 Omaha Entertainment Award Best Featured Dancer Nominee for her role as Sheila in Ralston Community Theatre's production of "A Chorus Line." Debbie free lances for several local high schools, theatres and special events. Her choreography credits include Bye Bye Birdie, Once Upon a Mattress, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, Beauty and the Beast, Crazy For You and most recently, Fat Girlfriend-The Musical at the Shelterbelt Theatre. Look for Debbie in Fall 2009 performing various roles in the Rose Theatre's production of "Annie."
Debbie is beginning her third season as a Performers Edge instructor. She is available for private and semi-private lessons and is committed to growing our dance program at Performers Edge to include a variety of class offerings. rivate and semi-private lessons and is committed to growing our dance program at Performers Edge to include a variety of class offerings.
Kim Clark Kaczmarek - Acting Instructor
PE Preschool Instructor
Kim Clark Kaczmarek possesses a B.S. Degree in Theatre and Education from Nebraska Wesleyan University and an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Nebraska Omaha with intensive study in Stratford with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Kim is a Registered Artist with Nebraska Arts Council and Artists in Schools programs, instructor for Nebraska Shakespeare Festival and Metro Community College/College for Kids. She works with several area theatres including: Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Nebraska Repertory Theatre, Omaha Community Playhouse, Omaha Theatre Company for Young People, Blue Barn and is the founding Artist Director for Living Picture Project.
Melanie Walters Dance/Acting Instructor -
Show Choir Dance Workshop Instructor
Melanie Walters is a freelance choreographer for award-winning high school show choirs located throughout Nebraska and Iowa, as well as a regular in the Omaha theatre scene. Favorite roles include Velma Kelly (Chicago), Aida (Aida – Theatre Arts Guild Best Actress Nominee), Eva Peron (Evita – TAG Best Actress Nominee), Cassie (A Chorus Line – TAG Best Actress Nominee), and Little Becky Two Shoes (Urinetown). She most recently played the role of Gloria in the Omaha Community Playhouse production of Thoroughly Modern Mille. Melanie finished fourth in the 2000 American Traditions National Vocal Competition in Savannah, GA, and is a past winner of the senior musical theatre division at regional NATS competitions.
Kelsey McDermott - Dance Instructor
Show Choir Dance Workshop Instructor
Kelsey is a free lance choreographer and former member of award winning Westside High School's ATSC. A show choir specialist, Kelsey can help you brush up on specific show choir dance and hip-hop dance styles. She is also trained in tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, and ball room (salsa, swing, ect.) She received the Best Female Performer Award, at a national show choir competition in 2007, and the All American Dancer Award in 2006. Kelsey has been dancing for 18 years, and performing in musicals and a female a capella group for the past four.
Michelle Staub
Acting Instructor/Summer Camp Director
Michelle has loved theater, music, and dance since age 3. She previously took voice lessons at SNJ studios and could not be happier to be teaching for them now. She graduated in May 2008 from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance. Michelle's specialities are musical theater dance, acting, show choir choreography, and youth musical directing.
Michelle spent 2009 in national tours with the Omaha Theater Company for Young People's production of "Horrible Harry" and "Miss Bindergarten's Kindergarten." Recent theater experience also includes Esther in "Meet Me in St. Louis," choreographing, performing and directing in the University of Kansas "Rock Chalk Revue," and choreographing, teaching and youth directing at The Rose Theater. She has also choreographed for high school show choirs in the Metro area and loves being a Performer's Edge teacher and working with such talented and engergetic students!
