Artists of the Season: Summer 2003

 Amytza Maskati
Edison High School Student
Amyzta Maskati is honored to be chosen as an Edison Arts Society Artist of the Season because she has always had a strong passion for the Arts. She will be entering her junior year at Edison High School, where she is an honors student. She has participated in all of her school productions since elementary school including attending theater programs like the Edison Arts Society Theatre Players, Nina Hand's Theatre Players, the Edison Arts Society's "Night of One Acts", the Middle School of the Arts, and Kids in the Park. Amytza has also had dance instruction for the last ten years at Metuchen Dance Centre, which involved her participation in a teen dance company performing in local theaters and Disney World. Vocally, Amytza has been in St. Matthew's church choir and involved with the Rutgers Children's Choir for five years. Presently, she is a member of the Award-Winning A Cappella Chorus, Chamber Singers ensemble, and Treble Choir at Edison High School. Amytza has also grown as a musician through middle school instrumental programs and private piano lessons.

Amytza loves to share her talents with other members of the community. She has participated as a volunteer helper and an assistant choreographer in the Kids in the Park program for the last four years. She has worked as an assistant choreographer with Nina Hand's Theatre Players as well. This past fall, she gladly shared her artistic talent with local youth by teaching dance and musical theater for the Edison Arts Society Theatre Players. She constantly encourages others to have confidence and strive to achieve their goals.

Amytza enjoys the Arts because it is such an intense and meaningful way to express emotions. The Arts bring joy and excitement into her life, one main reason she remains so dedicated. Amytza longs for people to appreciate the gift of music and the Arts and wishes to connect with them when she performs. In teaching, she wants others to realize how much the Arts are advancing, spreading, and touching peoples lives. Even through the challenging times, Amytza has stayed committed to the Arts. She truly feels her experience with the Arts so far has been absolutely worth it because she has learned many life lessons and knows there are many more to come. Amytza is ambitious and fulfilling her dreams, eager that the Arts will live on always.

Ruotao Mao
Edison Symphony Orchestra Concert Master

About our Concert Master.....

Violinist Ruotao Mao, a native of Beijing, China, started learning the violin at the age of six under the guidance of his father and gave his first public performance at the age of nine in Shanghai. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with the "Distinction in Performance" award. He earned his Master Degree in Music from the Mason Gross School of the Arts where he studied under violinist Arnold Sternhardt. He also studied with Dorothy Delay, Paul Kantor and Masuko Ushioda. As a chamber musician, he is one of the founding members of the former Beijing Piano Quartet, winner of "Artist International Chamber Music Series" with appearances in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center.

As a soloist, Ruotao appeared with the Jupiter Symphony, NEC Symphony, Corelliard Chamber Orchestra, Brunswick Symphony Orchestra and will be a featured soloist at the Edison Symphony Orchestra's Season Premiere Concert this October. Mr. Mao has had performance tours in Korea and Columbia, South America, and he has performed on WNYC broadcasts. He is currently a recording artist for the DRI and Beijing Broadcast Labels and also serves as Concert Master of the Delaware Valley Symphony and the Riverside Symphonia.

Mr. Mao was recently appointed to the violin and viola faculty at The College of New Jersey.
                                                          
 

Linda Trella

Graphic Artist Linda Trella is the official graphic designer for the Edison Arts Society. During the past year, she has provided the Society with a professional visual identity through the print media she creates for the many events the Society sponsors - from the design of the Edison Symphony Orchestra logo and Allegro, the concert program, to the publicity pieces for special events such as "Gardens of the Garden State" and the Edison Art Society Gallery exhibitions.

Linda is also a fine artist and a natural science illustrator. She studied in the botanical illustration certificate program at the New York Botanical Garden, where she mastered traditional art techniques including pencil, pen & ink, ink wash, metalpoint, drybrush watercolor, colored pencil and scratchboard. Believing in passing on what one has learned, she teaches botanical drawing classes at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, NJ, and is the curator for the Annual Student Botanical Drawing Exhibition.

Linda is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, and the Philadelphia Society of Botanical Illustrators as well as a founding member of the Edison Arts Society.

Her participation in recent exhibitions include the following venues: the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA: the Jackson Hole (Wyoming) Conservation Alliance Annual Art & Antique Auction; the Nabisco Corporation in East Hanover, NJ; the Skulski Art Gallery in Clark, NJ; the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, NJ; and Stark & Stark in Lawrenceville, NJ.