Hall is the New Director of Arts Program
- Charles Reams
- Feb 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 15
Antoinette Hall has hit the ground running.
Executive Director, Randy Jackson hired Antoinette Hall in December of 2024 as the director of the Young Artist Program at the Phillis Wheatley Community Center.
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Since landing on her feet like a cat, Hall has been formulating the many moving parts of her new job.
Soon, she will be aggressively looking for very young students of the arts, spanning multiple genres, including dance, voice, theater, playwriting, and work behind the scenes.
Not only is Hall young, energetic, very talented, and intelligent, but she is also charitable. She loves to help others improve their skills and grow.
That is a recipe for success.
Hall comes with a lot of relevant and intense experience in the arts packed in a few years. She’s 33 years old, but don’t let that fool you.
Hall’s more than ten years of experience ranges from marching bands to woodwind instruments, theater, voice, production, scene design and management, playwriting, teaching all phases of music from reading it, arranging music, composing and performing it.
Hall wants to expose very young community children to the performing arts years before the public school system traditionally gets around to it.
Hall’s teachers include Vaughn Newman, Jeff Norman, Jim Kilgus, the late Jeff Norman, Christopher Rose, Karen Hill, and Clark E. Nesbitt — all legends of the arts.
Hall has studied her craft at Brevard College in North Carolina and what is now called Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina, after the name change in 2021.
In fact, it was Nesbitt who told Randy Jackson about Hall. So, when Jackson called Hall in for an interview, he already knew about her extensive background and the measure of her immense talent.
In addition to all the other things already mentioned about her, Hall is also a clarinet savant, the love of her life.
After accepting the job at the center, Hall asked if the name of the program could be changed to the Young Artists Program at Phillis Wheatley Community Center.
Wisely, Jackson is more concerned about community impact, than mere program names, though important. Besides, the new name has a certain ring.
Hall offers private lessons for progressive students.
She lived in Germany for a year, quickly learning the language so she could discuss her beloved music and other forms of the performing arts with her peers and others.
Hall has developed a passion for working behind the scenes, building sets, directing lights, and otherwise running things from there.
Hall has plenty of ideas and is poised to innovate. She says, “we need to tell our own stories. No one can tell them better than we can. We don’t need to be on hire for limited venues.”
