Wayne Peabody, who currently teaches at the Denmark Arts Center, began playing the guitar at the age of eight. After studying with Ross Whittier for seven years, he formed his own band and began playing professionally around New England while continuing his classical guitar studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. After a period of military service, Wayne studied with the famous guitarist and composer John Knowles from Nashville. Studying with Knowles, who sets the model for the Chet Atkins style and jazz improvisation, broadened Wayne's background in fingerstyle guitar. He also studied under John Sutherland and David Brandon, both former students of Segovia. Finally, he studied with the eminent virtuoso and world famous master of the classical guitar, Christopher Parkening, and was accepted into his Master Class.
Wayne's musical career also includes other instruments,such as the five string banjo, drums, horn and cello. Wayne places much emphasis on teaching his students all that he has been exposed to. He has taught at Haverhill Music Centre, Acoustic Outfitter's Music, and and was on the music faculty at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, MA from 1974 to 1986. He also maintained a studio at his residence in Newbury, MA for thirty-two years where he taught many banjo and guitar students. Wayne was a contributing writer to the Chrisopher Parkening Classical Guitar Method Book II. At present, he continues to play and teach while developing a growing interest in writing and arranging pieces for the classical guitar.
Michael Dana,an artist-in-residence at the Denmark Arts Center, is a Fryeburg resident and video-cinematographer with both documentary and independent film experience. Mike was part of a major collaborative project with visual artist and educator Tim Rollins from New York City in the spring of 2006 at the Denmark Arts Center. The Partners in Arts and Learning project gave a group of Molly Ockett Middle School and Fryeburg Academy students an opportunity to work with professional artists Tim, Mike and photographer Sean Harris. Mike and his students created a film documenting the creative process and interviewing students about the experience. "We're interested in the thought process that goes into making art; how that process becomes artistic expression is at the heart of filmmaking," says Michael.
Michael has directed four short films that have won many Best Director and Audience Choice awards at film festivals around the US. As director of photography, he has filmed many other short films and several features. He has had outdoor screenings of his work projected on buildings in NYC, as well as in Lincoln Center, and The Julliard School of Music. He has also worked on major motion pictures from Once Upon A Time in America to Requiem For a Dream.
Michael also worked as a 2nd unit camera operator during the first season of the hit HBO show, The Sopranos.
As Creative Director of the Rivertown Film Society in Nyack, NY, Michael produced and directed a popular series of short films about 16 residents from town. That project sparked Michael’s ongoing interest in the concept of building social capital in communities by using creative video production and screening techniques. As Artist in Residence at the Denmark Arts Center in Maine, he has utilized a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to help explore this work. Other grant proposals are currently being prepared to help fund this important project on a larger scale. Michael has also worked on numerous music videos at the beginning of his career including artists such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. Having an eye for capturing emotional moving images for the big screen, Michael has also begun exhibiting many of his still photographs for galleries in New York and Maine. Michael attended the BFA Film Program at SUNY College at Purchase in New York. To see Michael's work, visit www.mikedanastudio.com |