As part of its education and community engagement program, Fontana will continue it's ensemble-in-residence fellowship program, the Artist-Citizen Fellowship Program in collaboration with the WMU School of Music and its new-music ensemble, Birds on a Wire. Six students have been selected for the inaugural fellowship class; the six students also comprise the ensemble and its core instrumentation of flute, violin, clarinet, cello, piano, and percussion.  Artist-Citizens will heighten their performance skills on the stage as well as in outreach activities throughout the community. The program will allow the young artists to develop communication skills and produce events that facilitate social, educational and cultural impact on the community. In addition, each artist-citizen will work a rotation in operations, development, marketing and education in the Fontana office, where they will be exposed to the administration of a fully professional arts organization, and assist with concert performances to gain an understanding of the many details associated with event and concert production as well as the day-to-day administration of a nonprofit arts organization.  Students will observe and absorb real world experiences that cannot be learned in the classroom, and will have access to the world-class artists who perform as part of the Fontana Chamber Arts series.  The artist-citizens will produce a Fontana concert in Spring 2012, in partnership with WMU and Birds on a Wire. The fellowship members will be responsible for helping to shape the concert program as well as selecting guest performers, composers, and making other artistic decisions.  The Artist-Citizen Fellowship Program Class of 2012 includes:

Originally from Plainwell, MI, Will Alderman is a senior percussion performance major.

Violinist Abderrahman Anzaldua, a graduate student in violin performance who hails from Chihuahua, Mexico.

Cellist Zachary Boyt of Traverse City, Michigan, currently pursuing graduate studies in contemporary performance techniques.

Skye Hookham, a junior is studying Percussion Performance and Music Therapy.

Clarinetist Erik Johnson, a senior from Ferndale, Michigan with a double major in clarinet performance and composition.

Pianist Cassandra Kaczor, a junior from Cleveland, Ohio, double-majoring in piano performance and music composition.

Jory King, from Westland, MI is a junior flute performance major.

Andrew Maxbauer, a sophomore,  is a percussionist majoring in Music Composition and Performance.