Artists of the Season: Spring 2003

Yvonne Ambrosio
Yvonne Ambrosio is the Director/Owner of Yvonne's School of Dance located at 22 Vineyard Road in Edison. This September, the dance studio will be celebrating its 25th year in business, offering exceptional dance education for students of all ages. Yvonne also is the Director of the Edison Arts Society's annual Holiday Dance Extravaganza, which features performances by students from local dance schools on stage at J.P. Stevens High School. This show has been an enormous success for the past two years, featuring 140 students and selling to sold-out audiences.

Yvonne runs the dance studio with her niece Dawn Belle. They both continue their dance education throughout the year studying dance with famous choreographers so that the latest styles and techniques will always be available to their students.

When looking ahead to celebrating the school's 25th anniversary in September and measuring the success the studio has with its large enrollment and the staying power of the students, one would concede that it is because the students are like family. Many of them have been with the dance studio ten years or more.

Over the years, Yvonne's School of Dance has proven itself as a school for students who want to take class for fun, as well as for those who want to pursue a career in the performing arts. Past and present students have won scholarships to the Broadway Dance Center in New York as well as many top awards and honors in competitions. Some of her students have been in commercials for Coke, Pepsi and have performed in
soap operas.

Members of the studios' dance company "Starlighters" have traveled to Hawaii for study of Hawaiian and Tahitian dancing at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Additional travels include Europe, performing in Germany and Switzerland, as well as the Tomorrowland Stage at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Yvonne's students can be found each year performing for veterans in Edison as well as for the township. They appeared in the "March of the Wooden Soldiers" at the Edison Symphony Orchestra Holiday Concert in December 2002 and for Mayor George A. Spadoro and attendees at the Edison Arts Society Gala Ball in June 2002.
     
Frank John Gubernat
Education
Cert. Seton Hall University - Supv. of Art 
M.A. Montclair State Univ. - Mixed Media Printmaking
B.F.A. Rochester Institute of Tech. - Advertising Design

Membership and Affiliation
National Art Education Assoc.
Art Educators of New Jersey
AENJ Artist/Teacher Network
Printmaking Council of NJ
Linden Art Association
Edison Arts Society
Newark Museum
Smithsonian Institute
Museum of Natural History
Polish Cultural Foundation

Juried Exhibits
2001,99,98     West Essex Art Assoc.
1999  St. John of the Mountain Art Show
1999 Tewksbury Art Assoc. - Annual
1998,97,96  Louis Bay Gallery, Hawthorne Library
1997 Markheim Art Center - Rowan College
1997 Lake Powell, AZ - Scenic Southwest

Other
"Best of Show" 2003 EAS Gardens of Garden State
2000 Artist of the Month - Edison Arts Society
1996 Featured Artist - NJ Workshop of the Arts

Edison Arts Society Invitational
2002, 01 EAS Gallery, Sheraton Hotel - Raritan Ctr.
2001 Skulski Gallery - Polish Cultural Foundation
1998 Edison Job Corp. Center Gallery

AENJ Artist/Teacher Network Invitational 
Exhibits

Museums:
The Newark Museum, The Monmouth Museum
Corporations:
Morristown Court House Atrium; Johnson & Johnson World Hdq.
Chubb Group of Insurance; Nabisco Products - Gallery
Colleges:
Montclair State; Georgian Court College; Kean University;
Jersey City State; Gloucester County College
Galleries:
Ringwood Manor; Craftmasters Gallery; Skulski Gallery;
Peter's Valley; Island Heights Art Assoc. Gallery;
Nathan's Gallery; Louis Bay Gallery

Frank Gubernat's artwork is also in private collections
 in New Jersey, New York, California and Michigan.

Betty Zhou
Betty Zhou, 13, was born in New York, moving to Edison, NJ when she was one month old. Betty began her violin studies at age 4 at the Woodbridge Academy of Music. Her music director was Dr. Valery Shevchenko. In October 1995, when Betty was 5, she performed as a soloist at the Metuchen Fair. Betty won first place in the N.J.M.T.A. Young violinist competition three years in a row (6 year-old 1996, 7 year-old 1997, 8 year-old 1998). She also won high honors in the N.J.M.T.A. Young Artist competition in May 1998 and May 1999. When Betty was 8 years old, she had her first solo violin recital for the public at the Marriott Music Hall at Rutgers University.

In April 1999, the Juilliard School's famous violin director, the late Dorothy Delay, interviewed Betty and she passed the Juilliard School pre-college intro examination in May 1999. Betty studied violin with Ms. Delay and Ms. Nasko Tanaka. Betty had her solo violin recitals in Dec. 2000, Dec. 2001 and Feb. 2003 in the Juilliard School Paul Hall and Morse Hall.

Many honors were bestowed upon Betty in 2002 when she won the Philadelphia Orchestra's Strings International Music Festival Concerto Competition and the Pre-Teen America New Jersey's Talent competition in August. She performed with the Ocean City Pops Orchestra in July 2002, the Edison Symphony Orchestra's sold-out "Holiday Concert" in December 2002, and on "The Arts in Edison" cable television show in September 2002 and April 2003.

2003 continues a winning track for Betty as she won the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra violin Concerto Competiton in January. She performed with the pre-college Chamber Orchestra in March 2003 at the Juilliard Theater.

In addition to all these achievements, Betty also won high honors in the America Piano Teacher's Assoc. Youth Piano audition in June 2000, 2001 and 2002. She is currently a seventh grade "all A" honor student at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Edison and studies music with Naoko Tanaka at the Juilliard Pre-College.