KATHLEEN PIERSON, Resident Musician, uses percussion, piano, voice, and guitar to accompany ballet, contemporary, and improvisational dance. She has been accompanying and composing for dance for over thirty years, and has enjoyed long-running affiliations with the dance programs of Goucher College (where she also earned her B.A. in Music), University of Arkansas (as a graduate assistant studying electronic composition and choreography), Towson University (earning her M.M. in Composition), and four professional companies (Surge, The Moving Company, Towson Ensemble Dancers, and Performing Arts Collective). She has been an invited accompanist at nine American College Dance Festivals. Her compositions for theater and dance have been heard in Europe, Asia, New York, and Los Angeles. Kathleen has also appeared in folk festivals and other venues as singer/songwriter. She has taught Music for Dance, Women in Music, Music History, Fundamentals and Composition at the college level, receiving a Dean's Award for her teaching in the Towson University Music Department.