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August 30, 2020

4pm

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Featured Performers

L.A. Camerata strives to tell the stories of women and "others" silenced throughout history. Our performances highlight works by early modern women from across the world. Inspired by the original renaissance camerati—philosophical societies that debated aesthetics in the arts and society—we seek to blur the boundaries between music anddrama,resurrectinglost or underrepresented voices live on stage. https://www.losangelescamerata.org/

Alejandro Acosta is guitarist and lutenist who specializes in the performance of Renaissance and Baroque instruments of the lute family. He started his musical studies at the National School of Music-Mexico City in Classical Guitar Performance where he earned a BM. His devotion and passion for Early Music led him to study lute performance. Years later, he was selected by the Mexican Culture Foundation to realize musical studies in Germany, where he earned a Diploma in Lute Performance from the University of Arts Bremen.

 

As a lutenist Alejandro had participated with several early music ensembles in Mexico and in Germany. Nowadays, in addition to playing for L.A. Camerata, Alejandro is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he is member of the Baroque Sinfonia.

Verdi’s Requiem, Elijah), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center (La Farsa Amarosa), and has performed in recital at the 92 nd Street Y, The Austrian Cultural Forum, and the Museum of the City of New York, among others. She has performed in cabaret at the Metropolitan Room and (le) poisson rouge in New York, and at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles. She has recorded as a soloist for numerous film scores by Arturo Cardelús, as well as for Iranian singer Hafez Nazeri’s Grammy Award-nominated album “Untold,” released on the SONY Classical label, touring Canada in fall of 2018. Kate Bass is also a composer and singer-songwriter; her debut album, “Maya,” was released in August 2012, and her first single aired on British radio in early September 2013. She released her new EP, “More”, in February 2016 and her May 2017 crowd-funded album, “Songs of the Open Road,” debuted Off-Broadway at the Triad Theater in New York City. She is on vocal faculty at the Herb Alpert Music Center at Los Angeles City College, as well as at Pepperdine University.

David Morales, tenor, is an active ensemble performer throughout Southern California and is currently singing with groups such as Tonality, Pacific Chorale, and the Seraphim. This past spring, he participated in Whittier’s 81st Bach Festival where he not only sang along side the Whittier Festival Singers, but also served as the tenor soloist for Bach Cantatas 182 and 61. He is currently the music director at Casa de Oracion church where he leads the contemporary worship team in addition to being a soloist and section leader with the chancel choir at Bay Shore church. When he is not performing, he can be found teaching at Sunset studio where he teaches piano and voice to various age levels. He holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. Through his undergraduate career he has had the opportunity to perform roles in operas, musicals, and tour with the collegiate award-winning Chamber Choir. Discovering his passion for early music, David has been accepted to the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music,

starting next fall, to earn a Master’s in Early Music Performance. 

Baritone, Joel Nesvadba (pronounced “nes-VAHD-ba”), is a passionate performer of early music, especially that of the Medieval and Renaissance eras. He has toured both nationally and internationally, singing with The Boston Camerata, The Broken Consort, Bach Collegium San Diego, and The Texas Early Music Project. He has performed at the San Francisco Early Music Society's Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival with Early Music America's Young Performers Festival Ensemble. Joel is also active in contemporary popular music. He worked with electronic artist and DJ, Moby, on his recent record, These Systems are Failing, singing background vocals with The Void Pacific Choir. He is currently completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

Cameron O’Connor, whose playing has been described as “stunning and emotive” (Eugene Register-Guard), enjoys a diverse career in solo, chamber, contemporary, and popular music. Recent highlights include solo and duo recitals throughout Japan; chamber music and opera appearances with musicians of the Oregon Symphony and Eugene Opera; as a chamber music soloist at the New World Symphony in Miami (for which the South Florida Classical Review noted that he was “especially effective in the quick and diabolical figures”); appearing as a guest artist and performing duos with Sharon Isbin at the Aspen Music Festival and School; performances with LA Opera singers in the premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Circular 14: The Apotheosis of Aristides”; performing with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony; and appearing under the baton of Chinese composer Tan Dun in his Eastern-tinged Concerto for Six, for which the New York Times reviewed that “O’Connor fluttered on his guitar strings in a manner reminiscent of a pipa player’s technique.” Additionally, O’Connor is a prizewinner in ten international competitions, including the Tokyo and

Frances Walton. His performances have been featured in films, from James Franco’s Don Quixote to Some Kind of Spark (a documentary made on The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program) to Scott Tennant’s instructional classic Pumping Nylon, and on radio broadcasts such as KPFK’s Global Village, KingFM’s Northwest Live!, Portland All-Classical, and American Public Media’s Performance Today. His articles and music are published by LACG Editions. O’Connor also performs regularly in musical theatre productions on electric guitar, banjo, and mandolin, and now serves on the faculty of Oregon State University. O’Connor was a full scholarship recipient at CSU Northridge, where he studied guitar with Ron Borczon and lute with Ron Purcell; the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied with Sharon Isbin; and at the USC Thornton School of Music under William Kanengiser. Upon completion of that degree, the Thornton School designated him as Outstanding Doctoral Graduate. www.cameronoconnor.com

Sarah Reynolds is a singer and voice teacher based in Los Angeles. Equally at home in concert and opera, she has performed with LA Opera, LA Master Chorale, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, and Long Beach Opera to name a few. She is also an artist and co-producer for L.A. Camerata. She recently made her debut with LA Opera’s Education and Community Outreach Department singing the role of Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in recital at The Getty Villa and joined the LA Opera Chorus in Verdi’s Don Carlo. Sarah is an Auxiliary Roster member of the LA Master Chorale, recently singing in the chorus of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in collaboration with the LA Phil. An art song enthusiast, Sarah was a featured recitalist in Pasadena Conservatory of Music’s Mansions & Music concert series and has performed with the Denver Art Song Project as well as LA’s UnSUNg concert series. A frequent concert soloist, Sarah’s recent credit highlights include the Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Gloria with Redlands Symphony, Jenkins Stabat Mater with Musica Sacra of Sarasota, FL and Brahms Alto Rhapsody with Artes Vocales. Her favorite roles include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Opera Animata and Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina with the Napa Music Festival. Ms. Reynolds received her Bachelors in Vocal Performance

from The College of New Jersey and Masters in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA and has studied and performed at Napa Music Festival’s Baroque Opera Program and the Early Music Vancouver and Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Baroque Vocal Programs.

Sarah currently teaches private voice lessons to students of all ages out of her home studio in Eagle Rock and is a Vocal Coach for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. Sarah was recently interviewed by Voyage LA and she was a 2014 Backstage Magazine Reader’s Choice Nominee for LA Vocal/Singing Coach and featured as one of their “8 Vocal Coaches to Know in NYC and LA.” In December of 2019 she launched her blog/platform The Vocal Precisionist.

Mezzo-soprano Katherine Trimble’s concert soloist and ensemble member career has coincided with her passion and interest in historical performance practice. Her recent HPP soloist credits include major Bach and Handel works as apart of CalPoly San Luis Obispo’s annual “Bach Week” (2018 and 2019). She was the alto soloist with the San Jose Symphonic Choir and San Jose Baroque Orchestra’s production of Bach’s Mass in B Minor (2018). As an ensemble member, Katherine has been honored to sing with American Bach Soloists, directed by Jeffrey Thomas, on their first call list for the 2018-2019 season. She has performed Mass in B Minor (2018), the Hunt Cantata (2018), and will join the group for St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B Minor in 2019. Katherine recently recorded arias by Cavalli and J.S. Bach with L.A. Camerata. She also studied at the Early Music Vancouver Baroque Vocal Programme 2015 under the guidance of baroque performance experts Ellen Hargis and Michael Jarvis.

In 2018, Ms. Trimble won the Vocal Soloist Competition sponsored by the Berkeley Community Chorus and

 

Orchestra and sang the alto solos in St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn. Other concert soloist credits include alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Mission Symphony and San Jose State University and Durufle's Requiem with the Winchester Symphony and Peninsula Cantare. In 2017-2018, Katherine was on the roster of Chamber Music Silicon Valley’s Emerging Artist program. She performed Jake Heggie’s “Deepest Desire” and curated a concert of Irish/Scottish/English folk music in collaboration with composer and folk musician Taylor Ackley and Soprano Katya Gruzglina.

 

Operatics roles include the Witch/Mother in outreach performances of Hansel and Gretel and Lilas Pastia (Carmen) with Opera San Jose where she was noted by the San Jose Mercury News for her “agile” performance. Other operatic roles include Countess Ceprano (West Bay Opera), Ormindo (San Jose State), Public Opinion (San Jose State), Olga (Independent Opera Company), Zita (Chapman University), and Mum Herring (Chapman University). She has taken first place in competitions held by SAI Music Fraternity, San Jose Women’s Club, and San Jose Study Club. Katherine was also honored to be the first recipient of the Irene Dalis Memorial Award from San Jose State University. In the summer of 2016 Katherine participated in the first annual Opera San Jose Summer Program for Aspiring Artists which after two weeks of intense training culminated in a well received opera scenes program.

 

Katherine has been the alto vocalist/soloist of Bay Area choir “The New Choir” which is dedicated to high quality chamber choral performance. She toured with them to Seoul, Busan, Gwanju City, and Jeju Island in 2015 and 2019. She has also been alto soloist and member of The Kerry Voice Squad, a trio of classically trained female singers who perform for Kerry Irish Productions Inc’s events. The Voice Squad is a main feature of KIPI's national touring show "An Irish Christmas" which brings traditional Irish music and dance to audiences every holiday season across the United States. Other KIPI shows as a featured soloist include "St. Patrick's Day in Ireland" (2017 and 2018) and "The Heart of an Irish Woman” (2018).  Katherine assembled and directed the seven voice group Dana that was the featured chamber choir in KIPI’s newest production “Celtic Wings” that premiered November 2018. Currently Katherine is alto section leader at Glendale City Church and continues to teach voice in the Los Angeles Area and perform with the American Bach Choir in the Bay Area.

L.A. Camerata is directed by Marylin Winkle, a historical string player (baroque cello, viola da gamba, vielle), teacher, and scholar who specializes in music by early-modern women. In addition to L.A. Camerata, Dr. Winkle serves as Early Music Ensemble Director for UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. She holds a DMA in Early Music from USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied baroque cello and viola da gamba with Bill Skeen (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music) and performed with the Thornton Baroque Sinfonia and Collegium Workshop Ensemble. She received her Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from San José State University, where she studied with David Goldblatt (San Francisco Symphony Orchestra), and she completed her BM in Cello Performance at Stetson University under the instruction of David Bjella (Co-Principal Cellist of IRIS Chamber Orchestra).

 

Dr. Winkle was honored to perform basso continuo in a fully-staged production of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda at for Intersections: Between Music and Theatre in Seicento Italy

in Cambridge (UK) in September 2018, where she also presented her research on gendered rhetoric in Francesca Caccini’s opera. She has played in period productions of L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi), Fairy Queen (Purcell), Don Giovanni (Mozart), L’Ormindo (Cavalli), Il Primo Omicidio (Scarlatti), Haydn’s Creation, and Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart). She has performed professionally with Boston Camerata, Musica Angelica, Concerto NoHo, San Jose Symphonic Choir, and Silicon Valley Symphony. She was recently honored to receive the EMA Summer Workshop Scholarship to play vielle for the Amherst Early Music Festival’s Roman de Fauvel Project in July, 2018; she has also spent several summers coaching and performing for the SFEMS Summer Baroque Workshop, and she attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute (2012). www.marylinwinkle.com 

 

C3LA

C3LA has no artistic or executive director—rather, it is collectively run by its members: highly-trained new-music singers who also perform with L.A. Master Chorale, L.A. Opera Chorus, De angelis Vocal Ensemble, and other professional ensembles. Many of the singers are also conductors and/or composers. 40-50% of each concert is written by members of the ensemble and each piece is conducted by a different ensemble member. 
 

​Modeled after the highly-successful C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective of New York City (and including multiple alumni of the group), C3LA is a unique ensemble dedicated to performing outstanding new choral music; providing a venue for multi-talented singer-composers and singer-conductors to collaborate; and challenging the traditional hierarchical model of our choruses and orchestras.

Conductor: Fahad Siadat

Soloist: Krista Schaeffer

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Singers: Marcus Carline, Saunder Choi, Michael Chwe, Kevin Dalbey, Alice Dryden, Katrina Dubbs, Jeff Greif, Vera Lugo, Tony Moresi, Molly Pease, Will Reeder, Evan Roberts, Krista Schaeffer, Amy Waters, Diana Woolner, Morgan Woolsey

David Avshalomov is a distinguished third-generation American classical composer and conductor, and an accomplished vocalist. He was born in New York City in 1946, grew up in Oregon, and has long lived in Santa Monica, California. He represents a musical lineage (on his father’s side) whose story stretches from the Caucasus to Siberia, through China, to the US. As a young student, David studied piano, music theory, and percussion. He learned the joys of madrigal singing at home, sang in school and professional choruses, and played timpani in school and professional orchestras (soloing in the Milhaud concerto with the Harvard Orchestra). He began composing (self-taught) in middle school, and wrote and conducted his first choral compositions for his high school choir. He earned degrees in music from Harvard (B.A., Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and in orchestral conducting from the University of Washington (where he wrote a noted Doctoral dissertation on the Five Pieces for Orchestra of Arnold Schoenberg), with further conducting studies at Peabody, Aspen, and Tanglewood. His conducting teachers included George

Bell, Stanley Chapple, Leo Mueller, Jean Morel, Henry Holt, Samuel Krachmalnick, Herbert Blomstedt, Werner Torkanowsky, Seiji Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein. His composition teachers included Charles Jones (at Aspen); and John Verrall, Robert Suderberg, and William Bergsma (at UW).


COMPOSER 
A composer grounded in the traditions of Western classical music, David Avshalomov creates his works in an accessible modern romantic, neo-tonal style that balances a rich lyric gift with a characteristic rhythmic vitality and pungent harmonies. The forms he crafts are conservative and developmental, his compositional voice distinctive. The influences on his style include the great 20th-century European and American tonal composers, and both his late father Jacob and his paternal grandfather, Aaron Avshalomoff.


He has composed works for solo voice, choruses, orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, in forms ranging from songs and incidental pieces to full-length oratorio. A decade ago he started focusing more on vocal, choral, and band music, and he recently completed his first two operas, with two more on the drawing board.


He has had commissions from numerous organizations, including the Kaplan Foundation of St. Mary’s University, MN; San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Mission Chamber Orchestra, Musica Bella Orchestra of NY, Portland Jewish Community Center Orchestra, Western Plains Wind Consortium (20 bands), 2012 Bandwagon Consortium (27 bands), LA Flute Orchestra, LA Clarinet Orchestra, Odyssea Chorus of Lisbon, Anglican Chorale of Southern California, Camerata Singers of Long Beach, Westwood United Methodist Church (LA), and St. George’s Episcopal (La Cañada). He has also been Resident Composer with the Anglican Chorale of Southern California, Camerata Singers of Long Beach CA, Torrance Civic Chorale, and Cantori Domino of Santa Monica. His compositions have been performed professionally across the U.S. and in Europe, Russia, China, Japan, and South America, and are recorded on the Albany and Naxos labels. He has earned grants from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composer’s Forum, and two from the Durfee Foundation. In 2014 he was designated an Honored Artist of the American Prize in recognition of the consistently high quality of his submitted works. His compositions have won numerous awards, including Third Prize,7th International Band Composition Competition Harelbeke, Belgium , 2019; Hong Kong Children's Choir 50th Anniversary Choral Selection Winner, 2018; First Prize, International Orange Chorale of San Francisco Choral Composition Contest 2016; Grand Prize, Solo and Chamber Timpanist's Initiative Competition 2017, American Prize for Band Composition 2016 (2rd Prize), Mountainside Master Chorale (Pomona, CA) Composition Contest 2016 (2nd Prize), First Place, American Prize 2015 for Band Composition (semifinalist in 5 genres, finalist in 3); American Prize 2014 for Band Composition (3rd Place, and dual finalist, Orchestral and Chamber Composition), Special Judge’s Citation for Unique Artistic Achievement and Distinctive Merit from the American Prize for Orchestral Composition 2012; Polifonia (Lithuania) International Sacred Choral Music Competition 2013 (Second Prize), ACDA Silver Platter Award for Outstanding Choral Repertoire 2012; PROJECT: ENCORE Choral Work of Exceptional Merit 2013 (Schola Cantorum on Hudson); The C7 Prize, Canada 2014 (2 choral works); First Prize, Sul Ross State University, TX, Wind Ensemble Composition Contest; Hillcrest Wind Ensemble, San DiegoComposition Contest 2013 (2nd Prize); six Vox Nova – Fifteen Minutes of Fame awards 2014-2019, the Aspen Festival Prize, the Korg Competition, and the Santa Monica Debut Concert Series award 2006.

 
For balance, David returns to nature. He hikes (off-trail), camps, backpacks, ski tours, and snowshoes in West Coast mountains, forest, and wilderness—habitat where he feels most in harmony. At home he walks, bicycles, swims, boogie-boards, practices Tai Chi ,Yoga, and Qi Gong, reads (mostly fiction), studies Torah with a men’s group at his Reform temple, and spends time with his wife Randi, in their Santa Monica bungalow near the Pacific shore where he has his studio. He also volunteers, planting trees in local forest burn zones and serving at a local food bank and homeless shelter, and organizes for social justice.

MORE: www.davidavshalomov.com

Described as “radiant and transcendent” by New Classic LA, the music of Juhi Bansal takes its inspiration from a disparate set of elements. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her work draws subtly on those traditions, entwining them closely and intricately with the gestures of western classical music. Her work features themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment, and strong female role models.Current projects include We Look to the Stars, a full-length cantata for soloists and chorus commissioned by LA Opera, celebrating the diversity of the human experience through stories from different cultures about the night sky; and Enchantress of Numbers, an opera about Ada Lovelace, daughter of infamous poet Lord

Byron and a 19th Century pioneer in computing. Recent seasons have included commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Beth Morrison Projects, New York Virtuoso Singers, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, AIDS Quilt Songbook 20th Anniversary project and more.

Her music is regularly performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia and available on the Naxos, Albany and Roven Records labels. Awards received for her work include prizes from the Five Colleges New Music Festival Competition, ASCAP Lotte Lehman Foundation Art song Competition, Boston Metro Opera International Composers Competition, and multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards.

A conductor as well as composer, she has been awarded fellowships by the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, the Atlantic Music Center, Seasons Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, and the Pacific Music Festival. She frequently premieres the work of other composers and accompanies singers at the piano. She is currently on the composition and core music faculty of Pasadena City College.

James Beauton is a Southern California based percussionist and conductor who specializes in the experimental music of the last century. Beauton is committed to the continued performance of the percussion solo literature and performs regularly as a soloist in Los Angeles for the Music@MiMoDa concert series. He has also performed as a part of Monday Evening Concerts and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Noon To Midnight Festival. James conducts multiple concerts every year which combine contemporary and classical programming in the hopes of creating a more inclusive concert experience.

Presently, James is a member of the contemporary percussion ensemble, red fish blue fish. He conducts and directs the UC San Diego Wind Ensemble as well as the Villa Musica Summer Orchestra. He was recently appointed as the director of the Mt. San Jacinto College Concert Band and the Buddy Rogers Youth Symphony. James is concurrently working toward his DMA in Contemporary Music Performance at UC San Diego. He has earned degrees from SUNY Stony Brook (Master of Music) and Michigan State University (Bachelor of Music). James is a Yamaha Performing Artist.

Jenni Brandon is a composer and conductor, creating music in collaboration with other musicians and artists.  She writes music that is beautiful and lyrical, telling stories through memorable musical lines often influenced by the collaborator’s story, nature, and poetry.

She has been commissioned to write music for soloists, chamber ensembles, concertos, opera and orchestra.  Her music appears on over 20 albums, and has been awarded the Sorel Medallion, American Prize, Paderewski Cycle, Women Composers Festival of Hartford International Composition Competition, and Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition among others.

As a conductor she often conducts her own works and works by living composers.  She conducted her one-act opera 3 PADEREWSKIS in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in 2019. She also presents workshops and talks on collaboration and the business of music, striving to create a supportive environment where collaboration leads to an exploration of ideas.

When she is not making music, Jenni is often on her yoga mat, either practicing or teaching yoga.  Jenni

​also loves walking her dog and travelling with her husband to snorkel in tropical waters.  Visit jennibrandon.com to learn more.

David A. Castillo is a versatile performer, producer, and educator.  His upbringing in the beautiful city of New Orleans heavily influences his eclectic style.  Since childhood, David always gravitated toward music. His studies began with his Aunt Brenda, who introduced him to the trumpet and to Dreux Montegut, who led the newly formed St. Louis Cathedral Boychoir. As his voice developed, his Aunt B also encouraged him to audition for musicals and eventually was cast in his first, The King and I, as Prince Chululongkorn. While at Loyola University New Orleans, David pursued Pre-Dentistry, which continued until the college cast him in his first operatic role

in The Elixir of Love.  He completed his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music with a Master of Music in Vocal Arts.  He graduated with honors from both institutions.  

Singing has been a major part of his life, with his first public performance as an infant rumored to be “Baby Beluga” after stealing the microphone on the Stanford Basketball Court. Since then, David’s solo career brought him to Paris, The Vatican, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Severance Hall, Off-Broadway on 42nd Street, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Hollywood Bowl.  He performed many world premieres for the LA Philharmonic (War of the Worlds with Sigourney Weaver), LA Master Chorale, The Industry, and the LA Opera and with several dance companies, such as American Contemporary Ballet, Luminario Ballet, Mojacar Flamenco, and in residency with choreographer Jay Carlon as co-producer and narrator at LA Dance Project.

Music also became his gateway to the screen competing on two episodes of America’s Got Talent.  After the show he began a career in print and commercial.  His years as an instrumentalist came back into play, when he was cast as the Trumpet Player in Camila Cabello’s short film/music video “Liar.”  It was on set where he met Anthony Meindl and later began his studies in acting at his Los Angeles school. David sang on several soundtracks and movies, including Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker and Call of the Wild.

As a producer, David created the multi-sensory experience Seven Deadly Sins in New Orleans.  With writer William Nedved and Project Runway winner Kentaro Kameyama, David produced and performed the role of Lee “Alexander” McQueen in their show The Passion of McQueen and performed the role of Perseus in their show Medusa with Deaf West Theatre at the Getty Villa.  With Kentaro, David also produced and directed the fashion and art exhibition “for anna.”

In education and in the community, David discovers and understands arts’ purpose beyond entertainment with humans of all ages and backgrounds.  He traveled all over LA County on tour with LA Opera Connects working with elementary school students, worked and performed with the Skid Row Community through the Street Symphony, and frequently builds programs with the Foothill Service Club for the Blind.  He is on the voice faculties of Moorpark College and Pierce College.

When not on set, on stage, nor in the classroom; you may find him at a muay thai, a brazilian jiu-jitsu, or a climbing gym.  You most likely will find him wandering the streets with his pup Pippa (@pippalouthemaltipoo).

Maura Janton Cock, soprano, teaches voice and conducts the Women’s Choir. She earned her bachelor of music education at the University of Arizona (Tucson) and her master of arts at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. She previously taught on the music faculty at Concordia College (Moorhead). She has appeared as soloist with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, the Tucson Symphony, the Southwest Michigan Symphony, and the Northwest Indiana Symphony. Professor Cock worked extensively with Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers as both soloist and chorus member, and Helmuth Rilling of the Oregon Bach Festival.A regular performer with the Valparaiso University Symphony Orchestra, she has been soprano soloist in such works as Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Mahler’s Symphony no. 2, Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Mass in B Minor (the latter two works under the direction of Maestro Rilling on Valpo’s theatre department, providing

musical direction for The Cradle Will Rock (2003-04), Side by Side by Sondheim (2005-06), Cabaret (2009-10) and vocal direction for Dido and Aeneas (2004-05) and Sondheim on Sondheim (2019-20). She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

AMY ENGELHARDT loves words, music, cats, cheese and garlic. From 1998-2011, Amy was the sole female writer/arranger/vocalist in Grammy-nominated, genre-busting vocal band The Bobs. A bridge-and-tunnel theatre kid from New Jersey, she made her Off-Broadway debut in 2017 as composer/lyricist of BASTARD JONES, an Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Musical and Richard Rodgers Award nominee (“Smartly plotted and irrepressible, with hummable pop music to match” – TimeOutNY). As a session/concert singer of everything from Bach to rock, Amy’s credits include the films Jurassic World, Real Steel and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. She

joins Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Spinal Tap) and Judith Owen in their annual CHRISTMAS WITHOUT TEARS show and is thrilled to be the only “sub-lebrity” on their EP. And as Mother Superior of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl in Amazon Prime’s GOOD OMENS promo campaign, Amy led a gaggle of a cappella, rock-belting nuns through the premieres in London, New York, LA and Austin’s South by Southwest, and produced their EP Unholy Night for Amazon Music. She is the only honorary female member of the Vienna Boys Choir. www.amyengelhardt.com

George N. Gianopoulos, known colloquially as Nick, began his musical study at age eighteen upon entering college. Enraptured by his first course, an Introduction to the World of Music, George immersed himself in the studies of classical music; the theory, the repertoire, the performance and the history. He immediately began taking group piano lessons and within a semester advanced to private lessons with Dr. Robert M. Auler. Throughout his tutelage he also undertook the art of pedagogy, developing a private piano studio of twelve students as well as working as a church pianist and organist. After four years of intense study, George gave a senior recital that included performances of works by Mozart, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and Chopin as well as faculty performances of original compositions.

 

A native of Syracuse, New York and now a resident of Los Angeles, Gianopoulos’ music has been performed throughout Europe and America, including performances in China, Israel, Spain, England and Greece and regular performances in Southern California. George has been commissioned by The Glendale Philharmonic, The Chamber Opera Players of Los Angeles, Tala Rasa, The Symbiosis Ensemble, The Helix Collective and the Malkin-Trybeck Duo, among others. He has been awarded by the American Viola Society, One Ounce Opera, Boston Metro Opera, Aurora Borealis Duo and was the Composer-in-Residence for the Los Angeles based Symbiosis Ensemble and the Alumni-in-Residence (AIR) for the State University of New York at Oswego, where he worked with students and faculty. His music has been performed by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, along with musicians Dr. Robert Auler, Kathleen Roland-Silverstein, Lynn Vartan, Maksim Velichkin, Michele Fiala (IDRS 2018), Rong-Huey Liu, and Kate Kayaian. Mr. Gianopoulos is the currently the Composer-in-Residence for the Los Angeles based concert series Music @ MiMoDa.

 

Jennet Ingle has been noted for her “extraordinary artistry and virtuosity” (Illinois Times) and for the “intimacy and spirit of fun” (State Journal-Register) in her playing. She has appeared as soloist with the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the Pine Mountain Music Festival’s Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and the Rochester (New York) Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 2007, Jennet gave the world premiere of Doug Lofstrom’s Oboe Concertino, a work commissioned for her by the New Philharmonic Orchestra and the College of DuPage. She has performed on Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess concert series, broadcast live on WFMT radio, and in numerous solo recitals in Chicago, Springfield (Ill.), and Valparaiso and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2001 Jennet won a Farwell Award from Chicago’s Musicians Club of Women, and in 2003 she was a semifinalist in the Seventh Tokyo International Oboe Competition, finishing in the top 15 out of 115 applicants worldwide.

Jennet has a lifelong interest in new music, which led her in 2000 to participate in the group commission and premiere of Bernard Rands’s Memo 8 for Solo Oboe. Jennet has been principal oboist of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra since 2006 and serves as instructor of oboe at Valparaiso University and at Goshen College. She also performs as principal oboe with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra and the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, and she is a former member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Illinois Symphony. Jennet has served as principal oboe with the Spoleto-USA Festival Orchestra and can be heard on that group’s recording of Kurt Weill’s Die Bürgschaft, available on EMI Classics. As a founding member of the Barossa Quintet, she has performed numerous recitals and countless educational presentations in the Chicago Public Schools through the International Music Foundation and the Ravinia Festival’s Classical Connections program. Since 1998, she has owned and operated Jennet Ingle Reeds, specializing in customized oboe, English horn, and oboe d’amore reeds. Jennet is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Richard Killmer.

Ariel Pisturino, check out my bio on the About page.

 

A versatile vocalist, Alina Roitstein is known for her “beautiful voice and equally beautiful presence” (El Nuevo Herald). Her career spanning chamber music and contemporary works, opera and art song, jazz and Latin music, and choral music has taken her to venues all over the world, including Disney Hall in Los Angeles, London’s Wigmore Hall, Japan’s Symphony Hall in Osaka, South Korea’s Seoul Arts Centre Concert Hall, Scotland’s Royal Conservatoire, Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series, Chicago’s Poetry Foundation, and Los Angeles’ REDCAT. One of Alina’s passions is performing new works, and she has premiered pieces by Jordan Nelson, Thomas Kotcheff, Juhi Bansal, Gregory Uhlmann, Allen Menton, David Rentz, Trevor Anderies, David Roitstein, and others. She also premiered the role of Emily in The Discord Altar, the first of OperaWorks’ Arts for Social Awareness Project, a groundbreaking musically improvised opera created to bring awareness to current social issues.

Alina is a singer and composer for River Song Quintet, a chamber jazz ensemble whose performances have been described as "sparse and beautiful… mesmerizing and strewn with hauntingly gorgeous vocals." (Jhanne Jasmine, Camellia Lounge) and "… a joyous blending of memorable compositions, artful orchestration, subtle improvisation, and fresh creative energy" (Art Lande, Grammy-nominated pianist). River Song Quintet’s album Monarchs, was released in 2014. Roitstein is also the singer for the Trevor Anderies Quintet, an ensemble led by drummer/composer Trevor Anderies, exploring the lines between composition and improvisation, jazz, folk, and West African music. Their recent album released on Orenda Records is entitled Promise of a Tree. Alina is also featured on Toomai String Quintet’s album, Cuerdas Cubanas, an album of Cuban music arranged for string quintet, which was released in June, 2018.

Roitstein is a committed educator and is on the voice faculty at Pasadena City College and Los Angeles Pierce College. She maintains an active private studio and has performed workshops and master classes at colleges all over the United States, including California Institute of the Arts, University of Southern California, Sonoma State University, University of Oregon, Denison University, University of Nevada, Reno, Colorado Mesa University, and Cal State University, Northridge. She has served as adjudicator and clinician at the Reno Jazz Festival and the Southern California Junior Bach Festival.

Lisa Sylvester, coach/pianist/conductor, is Chair of Vocal Arts and Opera at the Thornton School of Music at USC.  She is vocal coach and teaches courses in Diction, Vocal Repertoire and Collaborative Piano. She is also faculty coach at OperaViva!, a summer training program for young singers in Verona, Italy.  Sought after as coach and recital collaborator, Ms. Sylvester has also given presentations and performances at the conventions and symposiums of the National Opera Association, National Association Teachers of Singing, Classical Singer, and the Song Collaborators’ Consortia.  She has long been associated with the acclaimed Long Beach Opera where she has served as assistant conductor/orchestral pianist in their main stage productions of works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Leos Janacek, Osvaldo Golijov, among others.  She also served as Music Director for LBO’s Educational Outreach production of the Diary of Anne Frank by Grigori Frid.

An advocate for new vocal music, Sylvester has been on the creative teams for several new works. 

She conducted scenes from Julia Adolphe’s  So Donia Speaks on Chamber Music Palisades, and was Music Director/ Conductor for Teresa Levelle’s aLtered sTates on the RealNewArts Foundation series.   She served as assistant conductor for two world premieres produced by First Look Sonoma: Caliban Dreams by Clark Syprynowicz  and Daughter of the Red Tsar by Lisa Scola Prosek.   She is a frequent performer at the Boston Court Theater in Pasadena CA, on the Music @ the Court series, curated by Mark Saltzman, where she has premiered several works for voice and piano, including Juhi Bansal’s “ Enchantress of Dreams” – an excerpt of an operatic work in development about historical figure, Ada Lovelace.