Miss Cynthia | Max Found Two Sticks

Cynthia Elek is a Phoenix-based performer and arts-integration specialist who moved to Arizona from Washington, D.C., in 2004. After earning master of music in opera performance at the Maryland Opera Studio, she performed as a company actress with Interact Story Theater (Maryland) and did commercials and voice-overs in the D.C. area. She joined the Levine School of Music (Virginia and D.C.) early childhood music faculty and, as a master teaching artist with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, helped pilot the stART smART music program. She continued her Wolf Trap work in Phoenix as an Arizona Wolf Trap teaching artist. Cynthia has taught early childhood music (Phoenix Conservatory of Music, Family Resource Center at Martin Luther King Jr. School, Desert Botanical Garden) and after-school classes (artSPACE, YES for SUCCESS), presented at conferences (Celebrate the Young Child, Afterschool Excellence), and written an article about her work with rhythmic text in the Arizona Reading Journal (Fall 2009). She has conducted arts-integration residencies and/or workshops for more than 12 Arizona school districts. In 2007, she became a Kennedy Center Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) teaching artist and workshop leader, offering two workshops nationally: The Power of Chant and Singing Science. Locally, Cynthia authored a workshop for high school teachers to support Arizona State University Gammage’s touring production of War Horse. She records a book show, kidsspace, for Sun Sounds (a division of KJZZ) and continues to perform. Her favorite roles include Heidi in Follies (TheaterWorks) and Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret (Theater Artists Studio). Before she moved to D.C., Cynthia ran arts festivals, taught university voice, and co-formed an ensemble for voice and instruments in Anchorage, Alaska. “When I walk into a classroom and 20 faces light up because they love my music and puppets and books, I know that I am giving these young learners something important.” — Cynthia Elek Actor and Opera Singer Wolf Trap Teaching Artist Cynthia Elek