OUR TEAM - iStage Academy

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Everyone within the iStage has a real passion for education, and ensuring parents and students receive the highest possible care and attention to learning, development and of course, fun! Many of our courses are designed and taught by world class musicians, composers, actors, dancers and specialists in musical theatre, concert, and professional performance.

Karina Bes works as a director, coach and performer in Musical Theatre. She is proud to be currently working as the Director of Performing Arts at iStage Academy, Shanghai!

After graduating in Psychology and Criminology (Leiden University; MSc & BLaw), Karina decided to pursue a career in Musical Theatre. She graduated as Musical Theatre Performer at De Kunsthumaniora (Antwerp). Shortly after, she was accepted at the Professional School of the Arts (Utrecht) and obtained a MFA in Creative Development, specialising in Musical Theatre. She also graduated in Theatre and Education at Utrecht School of Performing Arts (BFA in Theatre, with Honours). She was selected, as one of the upcoming directors, for the 2007 Directors Lab (Lincoln Center Theater, New York), for which she received a stipendium from the VandenEnde foundation. She is a co-founder of The Internationalists, a worldwide director's collective. She is also a co-founder of F*K Theater, with succesful performances in The Netherlands, New York and Sydney.

Besides directing and performing in many successful national and international performances, she is a passionate teacher with over 15 years of experience with all age groups, both professional and amateur. Many of her students have found their ways into the professional world of (Musical) Theatre.

Mrs. Karina Director of Academics and Performing Arts
Edgar Cardoso is a pianist/musical theatre performer/enthusiastic and passionate teacher from Porto, Portugal. He studied classical music in Germany, Portugal, UK and USA (BMus, MEd, MMus, ArtDip) and became a world-touring concert pianist with 50 prizes in international competitions. His solo album Nuances was released in 2015 under Spanish label KNS Classical.

Eventually he shifted his focus towards musical theatre and has been an active music director and performer in the UK and all over USA, Favorite credits: Million Dollar Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cinderella, Title of Show, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie, Music Man, Hair, Sweeney Todd, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Silence of the Lambs.

He has worked at Trinity Laban Conservatoire (London) and Azusa Pacific University (Los Angeles) as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist in both Opera and Musical Theatre programs. He first came to Shanghai in 2019, working in projects in several international schools, and has been a member of iStage Academy faculty since 2021.

Mr. Edgar Musical Specialist
Ms. Zoe holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Queensland. She focuses on developing of early years' performing arts curriculum, teaching, and performance directing. After receiving her Music Teacher Certificate in 2014, Zoe began teaching students from pre-school to primary school, also engaged with the choir program's rehearsal and vocal coach as part of the Queensland Music Festival in Australia.

Ms. Zoe has many years of curriculum research and developing experience, including Early Childhood Music Learning Curriculum Investigation (University of Queensland, Brisbane), Educational Dialogue Analysis T-SEDA (University of Cambridge, MOOC), Drama-based pedagogy in pupils’ motivation on the second language learning ( University of Michigan). Her research outputs have been published in several qualified international plateforms, including the 12^th Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research; Annual Conference of Chinese Education Research (2021), 18th Annual Kaleidoscope Conference, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, International Journal of Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research.

Zoe’s vocal projects cover multiple styles of original folk, classical, and musical theatre. Her performing projects include recording and performing with her vocal group, in cooperation with the Chinese local government. She won awards at the Hong Kong International Vocal Competition in 2016 and the TVB Global Chinese Rookie Singing Contest (Brisbane Selection) in 2017. She served as an Alto for the University of Queensland Choral Programs, Musical Theatre Choir Programs, performed with the University of Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Queensland Performing Arts Center (QPAC), Municipal Art Museum, Municipal Church, and Shanghai Culture square. She was also involved in the sound design and operation of the “Stop Kiss” theatre program.

Ms. Zoe Musical Specialist
Graduated from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a double Master in Opera and Music Performance. Marina is a seasoned opera singer and musical performer with productions for the the Magic Flute, Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Phantom of the Opera and Cats to name a few. Awarded“Excellent Singer”title twice in the National Peacock Cup Singing Competition.

Rewards and Experience:

- “Ni Fan” and “Doctor LIN” in musical “Flower For Alglrnon”Chinese version.

- “Yutong Chan” in Chinese Musical “Come Home 1949”.

- “Yanbin Lee” in Chinese Musical “Daddy’s Letter”.

- Special guest in Shanghai Cultural Square 8th Anniversary Event.

- Martini “The Very Moment” Theatre Training Workshop.

- The Finalist of Shanghai International Musical Arts Festival.

Ms. Marina Musical Specialist
Gihanna graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a degree in Musical Theatre, Member of China Popular Musicians Association, She is a professional musical Actress, Director. She has nearly 7 years of musical teaching experience, teaching the age of young performers 、Pre- art college to adults, has a wealth of experience in both musical performance and musical teaching career.

She has performed as leading actress and leading dancer in many famous musicals such as "Grease", "Kiss Me, Kate", "Les Miserables", "Bastille Lovers French Musical Concert, Madame Long", "Tang Xianzu", "Napoleon Strange Dream Rhapsody" etc.

The musical she directed including "Hairspray", "Les Miserables", "Annie", "The Lion King", "Matilda", "The Sound of Music" etc.

- The 2nd Belt and Road China-Europe International Arts Festival 2018 Solo Second Prize

- Outstanding Instructor Award of China Central Conservatory of Music National Youth Art Exhibition (Shanghai) in 2017 and 2018.

As a musical theatre educator, she has directed and choreographed many different style musicals, also as acting 、vocal coach and choreographer. She’s good at Broadway jazz, Hip-Hop, New jazz and other styles , multiple musical singing technique. her class is full of energy passion , her experienced musical teaching career makes her good at stimulating students' creativity and cultivating students' self-confidence.

Ms. Gihanna Musical Specialist