Watch Gina on Sesame Street's January 4th Episode, "The All of Our Senses Club." Check your local listings for times.
Gina has been performing and teaching music around NYC since her arrival in 2002. A native Ohioan, she grew up in the local theaters, singing and dancing around Central Ohio. After graduating with a degree in Music and a short stint living and performing in Cleveland, OH, she spent nearly a year traveling around the world to such places as Germany, Japan, Thailand, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Upon her return to the States, she began teaching elementary music in Central Ohio and soon had an after school 3rd grade "Orffestra" and African Drumming group organized and performing at area schools. It wasn't long, however, before she felt the need to finally venture out East to the city that stole her heart when she was 16.
Since Gina has moved to New York she has performed with VOICETheatre, The Soon-To-Be-World-Famous Female Clown Troupe, The Main Squeeze Orchestra and in numerous other short films and theatrical productions. She wrote a song for the short film, "The Creation," which won the San Francisco Short Film Festival Award for Direction and has created and arranged music for Red Mailbox, an experimental theater company based in Brooklyn. Her latest project has been working with the Maestrosities, a comedy and music troupe who have performed as far away as Shanghai, China, and as close to NYC as, well, right here in NYC. The group has done everything, from writing, producing and hosting their own variety nights, to creating a radio show for The Antique Phonograph Music Program, to creating a viral ad for iPhone App creator, Smule. Most recently, they rocked the Brooklyn Museum with the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra in a hilarious rendition of Peter and the Wolf and The William Tell Overture, for the Museum's most successful family program in 12 years.
While performing is her passion, teaching is her joy. She continues to study the Orff-Schulwerk Approach, a multifaceted approach to music and movement education that focuses on improvisation through speech, movement and percussion instruments and has directed The Brooklyn Conservatory Children's Chorus. She has lead her own sing-a-longs and music and movement classes,at various locations in Brooklyn. Currently, Musical Stew, her music and movement program for children up to 5 years old, is being run on the Lower East Side in Manhattan and in Beacon, NY, her new home and occasionally will make a visit back to Brooklyn to run a drop in class. She was selected as a Time Out NY Kids' Top Choice for her sing-a-long birthday parties and was a Nickelodeon Parents' Pick Finalist for Party Performers in NYC as well.
Her Parents' Choice Approved album, "Together," perfectly combines her 3 loves: performing, travel and teaching. Backed by a stellar group of musicians from the indie and jazz worlds, and former student choristers, Gina takes you on a journey around the world, from Puerto Rico to Liberia to the playground in your own backyard. Spontaneous and lively, you can't help but move to the intricate rhythms of the drums, bass, flute, fiddle, accordion and guitar.