Instructors
All Academy instructors are considered professionals in their field and have strong performance or educational expertise. Most faculty hold a bachelor's degree, with many having graduate degrees. All instructors are Christians and adhere to the Mission and Vision of First Baptist Church of Melbourne. Additionally, a criminal background check has been completed on all faculty members.
Art
Pablo Remonsellez was born and raised in Santiago, the capital city of Chile. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Graphic Design from Mayor University of Santiago. Mr. Remonsellez has extensive training in the area of Visual Arts working as an assistant professor at his alma mater and also working as a curriculum coordinator and consultant for five years at the Santiago Metropolitan Park.
After moving to the United States in 2003, Mr. Remonsellez has worked as the art teacher at Community Christian School in Melbourne, FL. Several students under his guidance have received important awards at county level, including many first and second places and two Best of Show awards. Since his arrival, he has also worked freelance doing commissioned art, such as murals and illustrations.
Bassoon/Flute
Lynnda Floyd is a native to Melbourne FL. She holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Florida State University. As a secondary instrumental teacher, her primary performance instrument was bassoon and she teaches flute and bassoon at Gateway Academy. She was on the first music faculty at Bayside High School in Palm Bay, FL where she led the orchestra and three choral ensembles. She taught in Brevard County Schools for nine years before deciding to stay home and be a mom. Lynnda has grown up at FBC Melbourne and is currently the Music & Worship Assistant to our Academy Director in the church’s music ministry.
Cello
Dr. Tom Silliman has held the position of orchestra director and string teacher with the Brevard County School District for over 15 years, is currently teaching in the Bayside High School feeder chain and serving as orchestra director at Southwest Middle School in Palm Bay. He is the assistant principal cellist of the Brevard Symphony and the artistic director/concert orchestra conductor of the Brevard Symphony Youth Orchestra. He frequently performs with many other organizations in the Central Florida area and performs with his wife Becky in the Highwire flute and cello duo. Prior to moving to Brevard County, he served as professor of string education at Southern Utah University for three years. Dr. Silliman has a Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from James Madison University and Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in cello performance from Arizona State University. Dr. Silliman is also an active member of the Worship Orchestra at First Baptist Melbourne.
Dance
Kimberley King Prinsloo is originally from Boston. Her love for music and dance was nurtured through church and school musicals as a little girl in California and continued throughout high school. Lynchburg College and Liberty University (’93) introduced her to further educational experiences in dance and choreography. She has performed extensively with secular and Christian theatre and dance troupes throughout the United States, Israel and South Africa. In 2001, Kimberley began intensive ballet, jazz and modern dance training with the Dramatic Truth School of Ballet and the Culture House near Kansas City. She spent two years studying under professionals who love the Lord. Kimberley returned to Boston and taught dance until she got married and moved to South Africa in 2004. She and her husband, a professional artist, established a dance/art program in a private school in which every student participated in a forgiveness/restoration outreach to an apartheid-fall-out community using the universal language of dance. In 2006, Kimberley and her family relocated to Florida and taught with Light of the World Dance Academy in the both private and public schools. Most recently, she was honored to choreograph West Side Story and perform at the Bushnell in Hartford, Connecticut in the summer of 2009.
Guitar
Kim Jacobs knows what it feels like to have a passion to play the guitar and to work hard to accomplish it. It is her desire to help others accomplish their goals and avoid bad habits and pitfalls along the way. She is personally attracted to all forms of guitar styles enjoying the growl and sustain of a heavily distorted tube amp as well as the simple beauty of acoustic finger-style guitar or just playing rhythm. But mostly, Kim loves to raise her instrument up in praise of God and just offer back what He has so graciously given to her. She is an active member of the Worship Orchestra and Praise Band at First Baptist Melbourne
Her formal training allowed her two years to study classical guitar, music theory and musicianship from Ohlone College and the Mission San Jose School of Guitar in California. As a teacher, Kim is especially interested in developing a strong foundation from the beginning by teaching good technique, note reading and theory. It is her desire to point her students down the path to success in their guitar endeavors, and to help them to discover purpose in playing. Her professional experience includes playing for weddings and special family events, rhythm guitar player in bands, leading worship services in local churches and teaching guitar to children and adults.
Piano
Le Ann S. Hasker is the wife of our Academy Director, Pastor David A. Hasker. She holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education and the Master of Education degree in Educational Administration from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. She has taught elementary music professionally in both Christian and Public schools in Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. She holds Orff Level II Certification and is currently the elementary music teacher at Covenant Christian School in Palm Bay, Florida. She taught piano privately for 15 years and now is delighted to have her studio here at Gateway Academy. She is the Children’s Choir Coordinator at FBC Melbourne where she oversees six musical ensembles for Preschoolers and Children.
Sara Rhodes has been playing the piano since the age of five. Having a natural ear for music, she quickly became proficient, even as a young child. Being the daughter of an Air Force Major, she moved often and was constantly awarded new opportunities to serve in every church music department. At the age of thirteen, she began formal training under a local teacher, Leigh Julian. During this time, Sara began to teach and share the gift of music with peers and young students alike. When she moved away to attend college in Jacksonville, Florida, she continued her musical education, both in voice and piano. Sara graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Secondary Education and Music. She became the full-time church pianist and music coordinator at the First Baptist Church of South Brevard from 2001 to 2006. Today, she and her family attend the First Baptist Church of South Brevard where she and her husband are actively involved in the music department. Having taught private piano for over twelve years, Sara is looking forward to influencing even more young musicians through Gateway.
Piano/Flute
Linda Hill received a Bachelor of Science in Music Performance from Radford University in Radford, VA and a Master of Music Education from Florida State University. She taught beginning band for 1½ years and has taught private music lessons for over 15 years. She has participated in the Space Coast Flute Choir, toured as Flutist with the Celebrant Singers, arranged Christian songs and performed for various churches under her Sounds of the Master’s Flute ministry. She has been active in the music ministries of each church she has attended. Currently, at First Baptist Church Melbourne, she enjoys playing the flute for their Praise Band.
Trumpet
Andy Benedick is the Associate Pastor and Music Director at First Assembly of God of Melbourne, Florida. He has an Associate in Arts Degree in Music from Indian River Community College and has also studied music at Florida State University. Andy is a Disney cast member as a seasonal musician and also plays trumpet in Tapestry Brass, a professional brass quintet out of Orlando, Florida. He is a local orchestra coordinator for the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem and has played trumpet for the Embassy's annual Christian celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem for the past two years. Andy is also a sub for the Brevard Symphony.
Violin/Viola