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BRUCE SAMPSON– President and Executive Director Bruce hails from Southeastern Louisiana and has been involved in entertainment most of his life. At age 15, he was accepted to The American Musical Theater program and The Young Americans. At 17, he signed a recording contract with Rosemont Records in New Orleans and embarked on a summer concert tour, opening for such acts as Maynard Ferguson and Kool and The Gang. He went on to perform and direct with The Young Americans in Southern CA and Atlanta, GA for several years before breaking out and starting his own entertainment company which produced shows at Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and concert halls all over the West Coast. For 5 years, Bruce co-wrote and produced over 20 original shows for Tibbies Music Hall, an award-winning dinner theater in Newport Beach. Sampson has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism and English from Southern University at New Orleans as well as an FCC Broadcasters license. For 6 years, Bruce served as editorial coordinator for Yahoo! in Pasadena, CA. For 4 years, he directed the arts component of several summer youth camps in Louisiana for D.A.R.E. He has also shared the stage with Stevie Wonder and Buddy Ebsen among others. Sampson has been an advisor for arts organizations (developing arts education curriculum), received arts grants, choreographed for a number of Southern California show choirs and currently serves as Associate Director with The Young Americans for their International Music Outreach Tours. “I have been extremely blessed with caring mentors, teachers , directors and opportunities. Now, it’s my turn to give back a little.” |
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Mike Marvin—Acting and Performance Instructor Michael L. Marvin is a native of Tipp City, Ohio. His love for the stage began at age seven when (against everyone’s better judgment) he was allowed to accompany his father to rehearsals for “A Thurber Carnival.” In the ensuing 20-year chaos that has followed, Michael has played a panoply of diverse and generally effusive characters including Alfred B. Doolittle in My Fair Lady (Tipp City Theater) and Judge Thomas Danforth in The Crucible (Sinclair.) It was in college at Wright State University that Michael discovered his burgeoning love for improvisation, and subsequently spent six years travelling across the US and Europe teaching and performing.
Michael has served as technical director for The Young Americans, is a published short story writer, and currently works as stage manager at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He recently finished filming a pilot for VH1 in the Sumer of 2009. |
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Georgia Price—Arts Fusion Program Coordinator Georgia Rose Price was born in 1984 in Iowa and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She spent the majority of the first 15 years of her life playing guitar, singing and riding horses. Georgia was a performer/teacher with the Oscar Award-winning company, The Young Americans for 6 years, touring all over the world, including Japan, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Netherlands and all over the U.S. She then created her own chorus program in a Correctional Facility in Southern California and Associate Produced for TLC Television Network and Brand New Entertainment Company. “I have been blessed to work with tens of thousands of children of all ages and backgrounds and continue to be constantly inspired by music! I am always looking for the passion within myself and others and striving to find new ways of keeping music in education. All the goodness in my life has come to me through music! For that, I am eternally grateful, and intend to use music to share this joy with others.” |
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Nada Nasserdeen—Voice Instructor and Associate Director Nada Nasserdeen is a singer/songwriter from California who has spent her life around music. Nada's passion for music is complimented by her academic knowledge, with a Bachelors in Vocal Performance from Cal State Long Beach and a Masters in Ethnomusicology from San Diego State (thesis in progress).
The past eight years Nada has been a member of the Young Americans Group, an internationally known performing arts organization, and has toured the world performing in countries like Russia, Japan, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Gibraltar, England, etc.
Nada's love of the arts is ever more reflected as her down time off tour is spent as a music educator, coaching students from around the globe in both musical and dance performance. |
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Desiree Dennis-Dylan—Day Camp Coordinator & Performing Arts Instructor A California Native, Desi has grown up around music and performing. After high school, she joined the world renown performing group, The Young Americans, and with them has traveled all over the world.
Through "The International Music Outreach Tour", a program started by the Young Americans to help keep music programs in schools, Desi has taught and performed in countries such as Germany, England, Scotland, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Sweden, Poland, Japan, and all across America. She is very excited to be on board with this wonderful program! |
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Eileen Harman—Choreographer and Movement Instructor A native Nebraskan, Eileen Harman has spent the last two years training at the California Pacific College of Performing Arts while teaching, singing, and dancing with The Young Americans Musical Theater Outreach Program touring the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Japan, the East Coast, and performing in the annual Magic of Christmas holiday production in La Mirada, CA, and Overture Program with the Juvenile Justice Center in El Rio, CA.
Eileen’s dance training began at Cindy Evan’s Dance Studio and Dance Invasion in Omaha, NE, where she also was an assistant teacher and choreographer while attending high school and choreographing for her high school’s dance team. Her training with Nebraska Dance allowed her to compete at national dance conventions while learning from many renowned choreographers and performing as an Elite Dancer with West Coast Dance Explosion. Her theater experience includes dancing the role of Dream Laurie in Oklahoma in Blair, NE, and as an Icicle and China Doll in the Omaha Theater Ballet Company’s The Nutcracker. |
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Our Creative Team of instructors is comprised of extremely talented performers who share the desire to teach and touch lives. Each of our instructors has toured the United States, Europe and Asia performing and working with young people through music outreach. In addition to their training in the arts, they have all taken college courses in childhood development and education as a means of being fully equipped to impact the students they work with. We are extremely fortunate to have assembled a group of dynamic young entertainers who understand the big picture. Having had the performance arts positively affect their own lives and afford them certain opportunities; they are ready to “give back.” They all know that exposure to and involvement in the performing arts can have a profound and lasting effect on young people’s lives.
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