Carla Wesby

Co-Founder

Carla maintains a busy schedule as a soloist and choral singer in New York City. She has been a soloist with New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, and Staten Island Symphony, to name a few. She has sung in the Chorus at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and Bard Summerscape, as well as numerous other performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She has toured in the chorus with Mark Morris Dance Group, and has collaborated with Paul McCartney and Song Zuying. Carla has performed at BAM and Barclays Center, in memorized and staged performances of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and live performances of Danny Elfman’s “Nightmare Before Christmas”. In the last few years, she created and performed a cabaret called “The Almost, Not Quite, In-Between Girl”, which she performed at The Duplex, Don’t Tell Mama’s, and The Townhouse.

Currently, she is a cantor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and a member of the 12-voice ensemble, The Salvatones. In Fall of 2023, Carla spent 2 weeks in Shanghai with the New York Philharmonic Chorus, recording and performing the world premiere of “Èmigrè”, which will be performed at the NY Philharmonic in late February/early March of 2024.

Maggie Gavin

Co-Founder

Maggie teaches yoga and dance in New York City. She holds a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MSW from Fordham University's Graduate School of Social Service. During her time at NYU, Maggie studied yoga under TaraMarie Perri. She became licensed as a yoga teacher with The Perri Institute for Mind and Body, a teaching community dedicated to education and research in the arts and mind-body studies.

While at Fordham, Maggie deepened her understanding of the mind-body connection through research into traumatic experiences and their effect on health outcomes. Throughout her career as a professional dancer and teacher, Maggie has focused on increasing mental health and wellness through movement.

Since the birth of her first son in 2017, Maggie has studied developmental movement patterns from infancy to adulthood. Her classes emphasize agency and choice to develop confident movers of all ages.

Chantal Clarke

Chantal Clarke is a writer and editor, who taught folklore for three years at IU Bloomington and creative writing at NYU, from which she received an MFA in Fiction in 2015. She worked for seven years as an editor at Harper's Magazine and at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and has copyedited for numerous magazines and book publishers. Her writing has appeared on the websites of n+1, Conjunctions, The Towner, and Harper's. After thirteen years in Sunnyside, she moved to Woodside this fall!

Heather Lang

HEATHER LANG is a multifaceted artist originally from Chicago. She is a mom, actor, dancer, and performance-maker who has resided in NYC for 21 years. Before shutdown, she performed in Jagged Little Pill on Broadway. Film: I Am Legend, Across the Universe, Smurfs, Frances Ha, The Great Observer. TV: “Fosse/Verdon,” “Smash,” “Rescue Me,” “Gossip Girl,” VH1 “Fashion Rocks,” David Letterman, Seth Meyers, Paul McCartney’s “Who Cares”. Broadway: An American In Paris (Chris Wheeldon), Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Julie Taymor). Opera: Faust, Damnation of Faust, Grendel. Off-Broadway: Seeing You (Randy Weiner & Ryan Heffington), Gregorian (Matthew Greene), Happy We’ll Be and Freddie Falls in Love (Al Blackstone). Dance: Radio City Rockettes, New Work for the Desert and Catacomb (Beth Gill), Remains(John Jasperse). Fashion week: Mara Hoffman, Laura Siegel, BMW, GreyAnt, Heatherette, MoonSpoonSaloon. BFA NYUTisch Dance. Faculty member of The Protege Movement and The Bridge.

Julie Schwartz Webb

Though a resident of Woodside herself, Julie spends much of her time in Westchester County, where she directs K-8th graders in children’s theater productions year-round for the Random Farms Kids’ Theater.  Julie has been with Random Farms since 2010, where in addition to directing shows, she also leads acting classes, private lessons, and a performance troupe that visits nursing homes, children’s hospitals, and family shelters.  She has worked with hundreds of kids in the tri-state area to help foster their love of the performing arts and achieve their performance goals – whether that be trying out a new activity, getting over a case of stage fright, or booking a Broadway show. 

Julie received her B.A. in Musical Theatre Performance from Wagner College, graduating suma cum laude. She then went on to work as a director and performer for Missoula Children's Theatre, touring domestically and internationally to work with thousands of children around the globe to put on musical theatre performances within their own communities.  She has also created and run after school acting clubs at different schools and community centers in NYC through New York Cares, in hopes of exposing kids to the performing arts who may not otherwise get the opportunity to take an acting class.  Julie is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.