C-C teacher named Woman of the Year

Phyllis Contestable was named the 2005 Woman of the Year in the Arts from the Vince Lombardi Lodge Italian Community Association. At the same ceremony, Churchville graduate Raphael Ponti was also honored as the Distinguished Conductor/Musician of the Year.

Contestable has been teaching for 36 years, the last 13 in Churchville. A master teacher, she teaches interdisciplinary arts in a general music setting at the intermediate school.

Contestable is a frequent cabaret performer around the community and is best known as the Reverend Mother from Nunsense. In the year 2000, Contestable was given the Distinguished Teacher Award for Classroom Music Specialist by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and was named Woman of the Year in the Arts by the Monroe County Italian American Community Association. In 2001 she was named a NYS Lotto/Fox TV Teacher of the Month.

"It is my hope that all of our students gain a sense of their own contributions as artists and have the opportunity to have a positive experience with the arts, thereby becoming discerning arts consumers in our community," she said.

February 19, 2006