KAREN NISENSON, M.M., M.A., MT-BC
FOUNDER/DIRECTOR

Karen Nisenson holds a M.M. in Piano Performance from the Julliard School and an M.A. in Music Therapy from New York University. She is a certified music therapist and an adjunct faculty member in Music Therapy at NYU where she has taught since 1978. She is also affiliated with the Nordoff-Robbins Center at NYU and has worked in the field of creative arts therapy for 25 years. As a mother of five, composer and musician, Karen brings a wealth of experience to her work.

BILLY AYRES
MUSICAL THEATER WORKSHOP COORDINATOR

Billy Ayres specializes in improvisational musical theater with special needs children and adults. He has extensive experience in his approach that integrates many methods and forms of expression in theater arts: writing original plays and songs, improvisational acting and performances, movement, comedy, and mime. He is an artist-in-residence who has created, directed and performed more than fifty original musicals with special needs children and adults, at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, The Greenwich Youth Stage, Northern Westchester Boces, Norwest, and for Ability Beyond Disability, a rehabilitation facility where his work with traumatic brain injury victims received high praise by the New York Times. He conducts his workshops in a broad array of settings, from the theater, to the classroom, to community homeless shelters. His has received high acclaim in the Journal News for his work at the Westchester Arts Council, and has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Billy is a published songwriter who has sung many national commercials for T.V. and radio, performing with Ben Vereen and Michael Bolton. He is developing a series of children’s books for special needs children and adults entitled “The Tiger and the Butterfly,” and has published “How to Conduct a Residency” for the Westchester Arts Council. He is a trained percussionist and a self-taught pianist and guitarist. He has created numerous cartoon voices for Fox 5’s children’s television show “Vanpires” both nationally and internationally. He is currently a staff writer for The Songs of Love foundation, donating original songs for children with terminal illness. He has been the host and emcee of ”Very Special Arts,” a showcase of special needs talent held at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts.

Billy Ayres holds Masters in Special Education and a B.S. in psychology, is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Aftra.