Authors, Composer and Vocalist

Rebecca Castelli

Rebecca is a professional actress and singer, as well as an experienced voice teacher and dialect coach. Besides teaching out of her private voice studio in El Cerrito, she currently teaches musical theatre and voice at Berkeley Repertory School of Theatre.
She has also taught at California Shakespeare Summer Conservatory, and at the Willows Theatre. She holds a bachelor’s degree in voice and theatre along with her MFA in Performance and has studied voice for over fifteen years with teachers from Boston Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Oberlin College, Syracuse University, and Florida State University. For her performance as Mabel in the operetta The Pirates of Penzance, she received a Seattle Times Footlight Award for “great performance in a musical”.
She also had the honor of performing with Tony Award winning actress Judy Kaye in Gypsy at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle.

Rebecca is the author of a one-woman show, The Booby Trap, which she performed in the 1999 Seattle Fringe Festival.
She was a company member with the Marin based Porchlight Theatre Company from 2005 to 2012, and performed leads in several of their mainstage productions, including Three Sisters, An Ideal Husband, and Les Liaisions Dangereuses.
She has also played Sybil in Private Lives at Cinnabar Theatre, Sara Jane Moore in Assassins at Shotgun Players, and Megara in Just Desserts for Those Women Productions.
Rebecca has dialect coached with various local theatres including Shotgun Players, Virago Theatre Company, Theatre Rhinoceros, Ross Valley Players, Custom Made Theatre, and Mendocino Theatre Company.
She is a founding member of The Incidentalists, a long-form improvisational group based out of Oakland.

 Perry Castelli

Perry earned a doctorate of Philosophy degree in Education Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park. He also holds a Master of Education in Theoretical Foundations of Education and Music and a B.S. in Music Education, both from Kent State University. He was a classroom music teacher for students in elementary, middle and high school for over twenty years in Cleveland, Ohio and Baltimore, Maryland. At the middle and high school level he served as the choral teacher and choir director. Perry then moved to higher education and was a member of the Education faculty at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, the Dean of Education at Barton College (formerly Atlantic Christian College) in Wilson, North Carolina, and a professor in the Florida Southern College School of Education. He retired from teaching while holding the  Hazel Haley Endowed Chair in education (FSC). Perry and his and his wife Vivian have published four books, three textbooks in the field of education and the fourth a novella entitled Vitavius.  This book emanated from their cantata of the same name and is included in its entirety in this, their fifth book, Mosaics of the First Christmas!   

 Perry also has utilized his God given talent as a director of church choirs as well as church pianist/organist for over four decades in five different states. Among his strengths lies his skill to inspire people to sing in an inclusive choir that’s sole purpose is the uplifting of church services.

 Another talent that he shared with the church’s he served was writing music for both adult and children’s choirs. He has written numerous anthems and over the decades and has written nine original cantatas specifically for the Bethany Christian Church Chancel choir, including: Artaban’s Gift; The Innkeeper’s Gift; Joseph, The Man Closest to Christ; The Shepherds; Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Naomi, The Shepherdess; and Vitavius. The performances of the cantatas each year have been accompanied by musicians from throughout Polk County, Florida, including students of Florida Southern College and Harrison School of the Arts as well as Polk County School music teachers.

 Through the leadership of Dr. Castelli, the Music Program of Bethany Christian Church promoted a growing number of musicians for the church.  This was accomplished through the sponsoring of youth of the church to participate in music lessons for a variety of instruments utilizing the talents of music students at Florida Southern College and Harrison School for the Arts.

 Vivian Castelli

Vivian earned a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M. Ed. in Reading Education from Towson State University, Towson, Maryland.  She taught across all grade levels for thirty plus years. She began her teaching career serving nine years as an elementary and middle school teacher.  Vivian also spent seven years at the high school level in Troy, Alabama, as a developmental reading teacher.  In this capacity she was successfully involved in numerous grant writing activities and literally transformed her developmental reading classroom into a state-of-the-art computer teaching lab as part of a dropout prevention project.  Utilizing the Josten's WICAT Learning Lab, she was able to assist at-risk students with learning problems, and simultaneously the students earned Carnegie units toward graduation.  In addition, during this period, she was an adjunct professor for the Troy State University School of Education teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in Educational Technology.

In the spring of 1999 Vivian became an instructor for Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina teaching introductory technology courses in the Business Department. During this time she also served as a technology consultant for a local insurance business in eastern North Carolina.

In the fall of 2001 she took a position as a technology teacher trainer coordinating a half million dollar grant for Polk County Public Schools, Florida. In spring of 2003 she assumed a newly created resource teacher specialist position coordinating the alternative certification program.  Vivian also taught as an adjunct professor at Florida where she taught reading courses and served as a facilitator of pre-service field experiences.  She has served on the prestigious “Annual Editions” editorial review board for “Computers in Education.”  Her research spans several topics, including educational technology, Preparing Today's Teachers for Tomorrow's Schools, and grant writing.

 Vivian has been singing as part of the alto section in church choirs for most of her adult life. She works in cooperation with her husband Perry as the lyricist for the music compositions they have written.

 The Castelli’s have three daughters;  Juliann, Roxann, and Rebecca.  They also have four grandchildren Amanda, Charles, Perry and Leo.