Grafton – Apple Tree Arts has hired two teachers to support growth in the nonprofit community school of the arts’ private music and voice student enrollment. Alaina Calloway Bolton is teaching piano and voice students while Russ Arnold is directing ensembles for the Grafton-based music and theatre arts school.
Calloway Bolton has five years’ experience teaching children and adult private voice and piano students. She has taught voice and piano at Music 101 Studios in Melrose, worked as a consulting classical voice coach with MMVS of Fairfield, Conn., and taught voice at Newton Music Academy in Needham. Calloway Bolton is the choir director at First Congregational Church of Oxford. When her schedule permits, she performs contemporary classical music voice recitals.
Calloway Bolton has a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Cambridge, and a bachelor’s degree from New England Conservatory of Music.
Russ Arnold joins Apple Tree Arts to create new ensemble opportunities after a varied and extensive career teaching music to elementary, middle and high school students as well as directing middle and high school bands.
“I am looking forward to working on ensembles at Apple Tree Arts. I really enjoy teaching music, especially to young children. It’s something I have missed since retiring,” Arnold said.
He will collaborate with Apple Tree Arts’ students and teachers to develop small ensembles which may include a mix of instruments such as saxophone, flute and clarinet.
Arnold led Blackstone-Millville Regional School District High School’s marching, jazz and concert bands and chorus for many years. He also taught woodwind chamber music and directed theatrical productions in the school district. During his tenure at the school, the district’s marching, jazz and concert bands and chorus received numerous accolades.
An accomplished vocalist and musician in woodwind instruments including saxophone, clarinet, flute and double reeds, Arnold graduated from Berklee School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in music education and a Master of Arts in Teaching with a minor in woodwind performance from Rhode Island College.
For more information, visit www.appletreearts.org.