Selected Student Bios

• Marie Ortinau
  Marie Ortinau is an undergraduate student in the Music Education program at NYU Steinhardt focusing on vocal performance. Marie came from Chicago to NYU to become a choir teacher, and her experiences in the Music Ed program have her well on her way. She takes classes to attain proficiency in all the musical disciplines, from Choral Conducting to Woodwinds Practicum, and from Music Theory to the NYU Madrigal Singers. Outside of class,
  Marie is the founder and current president of the NYU Chapter of the American Choral Directors association and brings students with her to state-wide and national conferences to further their choral development as conductors. Next year, she will begin her elementary and secondary student teaching in the New York City public school system.
  
  Outside of the Music Education program, Marie connects herself with the NYU community as a Resident Assistant (RA) in the upperclassman residence hall Greenwich Hotel and serves as the Recruitment and Training co-supervisor for the Undergraduate Admissions Ambassador program. Through all of her experiences at NYU,  she looks forward towards a future as a high school chorus teacher and a career in higher education administration.
• John Atorino
  John Atorino hails from Ridgewood, New Jersey where he attended the public schools. At age seven he began studying piano, and at the age of eleven, discovered his passion for singing and acting on stage. Thus his education in choral/vocal music and theater commenced. Throughout high school, John sang with various choruses and choirs in New Jersey, composed music, performed in a dozen plays and musicals and directed various summer theater camps in Ridgewood.
  
  In 2002, John left the east coast to pursue music education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he studied conducting with Dr. Jerry Blackstone and voice with Carmen Pelton. Inspired by these professors, he searched for creative outlets beyond the walls of the classroom. He began by sound- scoring plays and composing music for various student projects, and serving as music director and arranger for Pippin, presented by the student theater group, MUSKET. He also became immersed in the Department of Student Affairs' Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, where for three years he created and implemented a men's activism program that organized workshops for men's groups on campus. After graduation, John worked as a paid summer intern under Peter McDowell, in the department of public music programs at the Chicago Cultural Center. During this time, he was the assistant director for a production of The Magic Flute, the curator of a photography exhibition for the Gay Games VII, and co- produced and managed the Sondheim in the Park event in Millennium Park.
  
  In 2006, John was hired as a conductor for the Chicago Children's Choir and was able to connect with students from all over the city of Chicago. After a year in this position, John became the music teacher at a Chicago’s Social Justice High School where, through grants, he purchased 28 electric keyboards and began a piano lab class in which he taught piano skills and music through the lens of community struggle and community action. During three years at Social Justice, John developed and initiated a choir program, an after-school drama club, a lights, sound, and theater tech club, a monthly student open mic series and the school’s inaugural day-long community arts festival showcasing its various arts programs and student work.
  
  Before moving back to the East Coast, John competed in the Chicago Triathlon and is now riding his bike around Brooklyn, NY. After completing his M.A. in Music Education from NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, John plans to return to teaching to promote holistic music education in an urban setting.
• Lauren Lexa
  Lauren Lexa is currently a junior in the undergraduate Music Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Originally from suburban Pennsylvania, Lauren chose NYU and music education because of the incredible college experience that New York City has to offer, the great connections to New York City public schools that the directors of the program provide as well as the phenomenal study abroad opportunities that NYU makes available. Last semester, Lauren was in Florence, Italy with the music program, performing in some of the best venues Italy has to offer and learning from the best instructors in the world. She performs with the Madrigal Singers and University Singers through the choral program and is the Vice President of the Steinhardt Music Educators of New York University and our Collegiate MENC Chapter. Through the greater university community, Lauren is a member of the Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority (Music chair) and an orientation leader for new students.
• Peter Douskalis
  Peter Douskalis is a Master’ s Candidate in Music Education in the department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at NYU Steinhardt. He is a guitarist from the Washington DC area now living in New York City and specializes in many aspects of the guitar such as jazz, classical, rock, and world.
  
  Peter graduated from the Conservatory of Shenandoah University with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies in 2009. He is on the faculty of The New York City and Queens Guitar Schools where he teaches classes and private lessons to students of all ages and abilities. During the summer he is also involved with the New York City Guitar School’ s Rock Camp program. Peter’ s ongoing teaching experience includes seven years of private instruction in various music schools as well as one academic school year as a Substitute Teacher in Fairfax County, VA where he taught music, theatre and arts classes.
  
  In late 2009 Peter Douskalis released his second album, The Dance of the Sea. The CD is a solo jazz guitar recording featured on independent record label, Shenandoah Records, and is Peter’s first as a solo artist. His CD has received national press with reviews by JazzChicago.net, JazzCDreviews.com, The Los Angeles Jazz Scene and was featured in The Astoria Times newspaper in Astoria, New York. He also released a CD independently in 2007 titled, Midnight Madrid with his guitar duo, Peter and Alex. The CD is an exploration
  of traditional Spanish, Greek, Latin, and American music’s for guitar duo.
  
  While in the Washington DC metropolitan area, Peter composed musical works for the theatre departments at both George Washington University and Westfield High School. He was also the guest guitarist for the Westfield High School’ s production of The Wiz, which was featured on ABC/Disney's The Making of a High School Musical.
  
  Since coming to NYU Steinhardt, Peter Douskalis has been involved with the local New York community music scene with appearances on the Different Voices and Minding Your Business television programs, which film at the Manhattan Network Neighborhood studios and air locally in New York City. He is a Gibson artist and holds product endorsements with GHS Strings, Rocktron, and Acoustic Image amplifiers.