Musicians

2014 Program:

ADEY BELL – The multi-talented Adey is a vocalist, pianist, composer, and actor. As singer/songwriter, she joins the ranks of such solo female virtuosos as Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell, blending classically influenced piano composition with raw lyrical reflective intimacy. The daughter of two concert organists, and a consummate performer, she lures audiences with her textured, melodic piano and warms them with a voice as gritty with soul as it is soaring with ambiance and mystery. Adey’s debut solo album, Rogue, was released in 2011, followed by Vesica, released in August 2013. She is also an integral part of the Shakti’s Bliss World Dance and Music Performance Project, based in Boulder, CO, creating exotic harmonies for the album Shakti’s Bliss, out this summer. For the last eight years, her one-woman show has been adored at venues throughout the US, including festivals, conventions, clubs and private parties. She is the star of and composer for the forthcoming feature film “The Last Avatar” from Sacred Mysteries. More info: http://www.oracle88.com

AHARON WHEELS BOLSTA – tablas and bansuri. Aharon is a drummer and percussionist working with an array of music-makers in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. He began classical drum study at the age of eleven and continued with teachers of various styles through high school, most notably Jim Dalrymple of Cal Tjader’s ensembles. This period culminated in Aharon’s tympani, marimba, and snare work with the California State Honor Band, and in musical theater and jazz combo work at College of Marin. Although he continued to perform sporadically as a drummer for jazz projects and rock bands, Aharon put down the sticks and focused on non-musical academics for nearly four years before finding renewed love for drumming through the North Indian tabla. More info: www.rhythmwheels.com

ALAN TOWER. A passion for sound began with early years on the piano, leading to 20
years of composing for solo acoustic fingerstyle and Hedges-inspired tapping guitar. In 1991 a hand injury shifted his work from guitar to unusual instruments of resonance — the Huaca, a three-chambered clay flute with split mouthpiece; the Hang, a remarkable new hybrid of steel pan and gamelan with a unique floating sound; the Soundstone, a granite sculpture whose singing tones redefine musical categories; and the Didjeridu. These instruments can be heard on a dozen original CD’s on three labels. Articles about his work have appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, Planet Shifter and Conscious Dancer. His sound theories are available in podcast interviews as well as in website articles. Alan Tower’s teachers have included Roger Bourland (UCLA), Mark Deutsch (Bazantar), W.A. Mathieu (author) and Dr. James Hopkins. He has collaborated with numerous world music luminaries including Stephen Kent, Matthew Montfort, Michael Smolens and Jai Uttal. In 2003 he launched Green Music Network (501c3), known for their Cave Concerts, and now works full time with partner Kim Riccelli developing The Resonance Center (theresonancenter.com) to unleash the power of sound for enhancing life. In 2012 he launched Harmonic Health – biodynamic sound, regenerative and restorative sound sessions along with a a series of sound tools based on his “architecture of tonality” work. Designed for a wide range of populations, his intention is to train practitioners and family caregivers how to use these new tools to create immersive, surround-sound experiences for health. He is working with physicians to develop the program. More info: www.alantower.net

AMAR KHALSA – flute, clarinet and Tibetan bowls. mar has had many lives, many of which he is still currently living. He has been a musician for decades, including previous gigs as a church oganist in a variety of Christian denominations. He plays, just to list a few, piano, keyboard, flute, piccolo, clarinet and saxophone. He is an active member of his American Sikh community and teaches yoga and meditation. By day he works for a software company after years of being an electrician. He performs in many settings and is a member of the improvisational WING IT! Performance Ensemble. More info: www.facebook.com/amar22#!/amar22?v=wall

ANNE CAROL MITCHELL MFA is an eco-artist and teacher who unites ecological discourse with music. She is recognized as a compelling voice in songwriting and for her work as an interdisciplinary composer who merges poetry and music. Her work has been heard in collaboration with LGBTQ poet Judy Grahn, in an opening ensemble for Ani DiFranco, and as a nationally touring songwriter. Her work unites ecological discourse with music. Through the devices of song and composition she evokes a felt-sense of the living Earth and terrains of human emotion. Anne teaches eco-arts, interdisciplinary approaches to sound design and music, songwriting, composition, vocal technique, and music and spirituality. Samples of her songs, scores, and collaborations can be found at www.annecarol.com

BRIAN FESTA is a life-long student of rhythm.  Studying and performing in a wide array of musical ensembles, he is consistently enthralled with the depth of our Rhythmic Universe.

CHRIS WALTZ. Acclaimed Singer/Songwriter/Composer and Multi-instrumentalist Chris Waltz performs an eclectic blend of Celtic, SpanishSephardic/Flamenco, Folk, and Gypsy style music featuring songs sung in Irish/Gaelic, Spanish, Ladino, Latin and English on vocals, guitars, mandolin, Irish flute and whistle. Waltz has been hailed by some fans the Josh Groban on Celtic music showing off
the more romantic/lyrical side of Celtic music while still remaining to true to the Traditional style of Irish singing. More info: www.chriswaltz.com

DAN GOTTWALD. Dan is a sculptor, instrument builder, video and installation artist and a musician. His work focuses largely on immersive, tactile and temporary experiences. He has developed and taught art curricula in Albuquerque, New Mexico in conjunction with various local and national organizations. His mission as an educator is the promotion of aesthetic appreciation and craft technique through art practice and research. More info: http://analogousensemble.tumblr.com

DIANA GAMEROS is a Latin-Pop-Folk singer/songwriter. Originally from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and now living in Berkeley California, Gameros creates authentic music that reflects the 21st century experiences of a young indie artist at the borderlands between cultures, languages, and genres. Gameros was born to a musical family where she was surrounded by traditional mexican songs of love and revolution. The first of her family to receive formal music lessons, Gameros left Mexico as a teenager to study piano and recording technology in Michigan. During those formative years, she soaked up the sounds of classical music, underground rock, the avant-garde, world music, and jazz, forever influencing her own deeply diverse style. Indeed, Gameros’ music has been likened in its subtlety, beauty, and nuance to Feist, Caetano Veloso, and Joanna Newsom. More info: www.dianagameros.com

ELEKTRA SCHMIDT – a pianist, teacher and curator originally from Athens, Greece. She performs as a solo artist and in chamber groups in Greece, France, the US and the United Kingdom and has had the good fortune to work with such visionaries as Marios Papadopoulos, Neil Immelman, Theodor Paraskeveku, the Ganev duo and others. After graduating summa cum laude from the National Conservatory of her native Greece, Elektra pursued her post-graduate studies in Paris at the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire Raoul Pugno under the guidance of distinguished pianist Lilia Boyadjieva. She received her master’s degree with First Prize and Distinction (Medaille d’Or avec les felicitations du jury). Elektra is the founder of Artist Migration, an organization dedicated to the integration and mobility of international artists. Elektra lives in San Francisco where she performs and maintains a studio practice. More info: www.artistmigration.com

EMILY SHUMWAY. Inner and outer wild places inspire my music. My background is both in music and in experiential & outdoor education.  I studied at the Audubon Expedition Institute, traveling around the country on a converted school bus, living & learning outside.  There, I came to know my vital need for nature, for wild places and beings, be they simply the weeds growing between the cracks of the sidewalk.  I began to recognize myself as a wild one, too, full of life, vivacity, and creativity.  I found myself drawn to art, poetry and music as a way to express these experiences. I came to San Francisco to study at the California Institute of Integral Studies.  I focused on the relationship between humans, creativity and the natural world.  At CIIS, I became inspired by folks like Paul Winter, who was one of the first western musicians to treat nature as a partner in music, and his predacessor David Rothenberg, who improvises with whales in his book & companion album “Thousand Mile Song”.  My inner life also took a spin as I started going to therapy for the first time, finding beings and emotions inside of me I never knew were there. Walking, gardening and singing in my home Bernal Heights, the songs and the inner / outer wild places connect through me. For the past couple of years, I have now been focusing on deepening my musicianship, taking voice lessons, and having steady practice time for creativity, music and art.  I feel myself swelling with excitement, as I slowly find my place as a musician and lover of nature.  This spring, Anne Carol Mitchell and I began collaborating, and have found that we’ve got a similar interest in the intersection of music and nature.  We enjoy harmonizing with one another and bringing theatrics into the show, as well. I have experience performing in many different venues, from weekly open mics & house concerts to the Palace of the Fine Arts (a recent show with my choir Conspiracy of Venus).  I love audience participation, sing-a-longs, and good solid sounds. More info: emilyshumway.bandcamp.com

EVELIE DELFINO SÅLES POSCH – performing ritual music. Evelie is a sacred song singer and writer, recording artist, drummer, dancer, Tibetan and Kundalini Yogini, sound and pranic healer and practitioner. Coming from a family with a long line of musical history, “Evelie was singing before she could talk,” according to her mother, a radio and club singer herself. Evelie performs with and directs Mahal, a kosmik-ethnik- ekstatik- trance-tribal fusion muzik ensemble; the Kismat-Mahal Kirtan Ensemble; the Bodhi-Gaia Ensemble and Chorus which leads antiphonal spirit chanting and other devotional music; and the Spiral Dance Chorus and Band for Reclaiming’s annual Samhain celebration. More info: www.dreamtimecircus.org/performers/profile_evelie.html

JANET JANAY CIPRIANI is a Certified Angel Therapy Practitioner® and has ahealing practice in Sonoma, California called Divine Connections. An amazing clairvoyant and clairsentient, Janay is an intuitive, medium, healer and Angelic Reader who uses her gifts to offer guidance, insight, and energy healing. Ceremonial Sound Healer René Jenkins & Angel Therapy Practitioner® Janet Janay Cipriani from Sonoma, CA have integrated a unique blend of healing modalities through the beautiful sounds of ancient ritual instruments, healing touch, and the power of Inspiration for well being. Together, they conduct a potent healing environment for clearing and inviting in new energies to activate deep cellular shifts as directed by your Higher Self. More info: www.wholarts.com/vibetherapy/services.html 

JESSICA STYLER – voice, ukulele, Hang. More info: www.jessicastyler.com

JEWLIA EISENBERG is a composer, extended-technique vocalist, lay cantor, and the founder of Charming Hostess. She is interested in the particular emotional, erotic and spiritual terrains that the voice can traverse. Her work explores the intersection of text and the sounding body, pushing for translation strategies between verbal and non-verbal languages. Collaborators include anarcholits Fantom Slobode, choreographer Jo Kreiter and filmmaker Lynn Sachs. Commissioned work includes Harmonices Mundi, an opera about Kepler’s mother, and Red Rosa, a song cycle based on the letters of Rosa Luxemburg. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at MIT and University of Denver; she has studied with sozanda Muna Nissimova, Fred Frith and Daniel Boyarin. Hobbies include class war, knitting, and smashing SUV windshields. Brooklyn born and bred, she now calls San Francisco home. More info: www.charminghostess.us/jewlia.html

KARI FIELD is a multidimensional musician who has a highly flexible range of creative expression, yet is deeply rooted in a foundation of classical Hindustani sitar. She has been playing and studying sitar and classical Khyal vocal for over 15 years. Her training includes several years under Ali Akbar Khan Sahib at the AACM in San Rafael, Cal­i­for­nia, as well as many years of study and practice in Varanasi, India with Prof. Govinda Goswami and Pt. Kushal Das in Cal­cutta.
She performs the sitar in ­Hindustani class­si­cal style and also regularly in Kirtan groups.  She is also an accompanying artist on albums in a wide array of different genres, including Middle Eastern, pop, and flamenco. More info: https://www.facebook.com/kari.field.9

KEVIN CLOUD is a respected world-music specialist and artisan woodworker with a decades-long history in the Bay Area Arts community. His resume includes several years as Technical Director at San Francisco’s ‘The Lab’, custom fabrications and stage-craft with Acme Scenery, Theatre Rhinoceros and various performance-artists, and a stint as Production Manager for Caswell Harps. Berkeley Box Works produces the finest master-quality wooden percussion instruments including cajónes Peruano, Cubano, y Flamenco, marimból, and Macedonian kaval. Mr Cloud’s Oriental music and dance troupe, The Silk Road Caravan, performs regularly at venues including the Yerba Buena Center, The Dickens Christmas Fair, the Ashkenaz, and the northern California Renaissance faire. More info: berkeleyboxworks.com/html/index.html

LAURA INSERRA – artistic director and percussionist.  Laura is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and artistic director. She is a classically trained musician with a strong improvisational background. She plays contemporary and world music in different projects as a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. She authors and performs music for theater, dance performances, exhibitions as well as soundtracks for movies with internationally acclaimed musicians. For many years she has been involved in the artistic direction of multi-disciplinary performances in Europe and in the US. In 2007, she founded Samavesha, an international multidisciplinary non profit performing arts organization based out of Berkeley but performing all over the world. Among her productions Art in Nature Festival, the Cave Concert and Musical Journeys concert series are the most popular. Audiences worldwide are not only mesmerized by this woman but also captivated by her virtuosity, profound musicality and the passion she brings on the stage. More info: www.laurainserra.com

MARIA JOSE MONTIJO. “¿Qué es más importante? Yo no sé – a veces el amor, a veces la libertad.”
(“Which is more important, I don’t know – sometimes love, sometimes freedom.”) Such big, unanswerable questions are at the heart of María José Montijo’s unique original compositions. Ever since 2009, when a friend gave her a used Celtic harp on a beach in her native Puerto Rico, she has been writing hypnotic, haunting songs for harp and voice that incorporate her varied musical interests – from nueva canción to Caribbean rhythms to classical choral music to North American country and blues – as well as her diverse life experiences. Never superficial or trite, María José’s songs grow out of spiritual inquiry and out of the condition of being fully human in an often confusing world. Her lyrics speak of paradoxes: mystery and certainty, doubt and faith, love and profound solitude, sorrow and blissful connection, feeling exiled and feeling at home. Both her language and her melodies are characterized by a simplicity and economy of style, as well as a profound connection with the images and rhythms of the natural world in all its vastness. More info: https://soundcloud.com/mariajosemontijo

MICHAEL WAGNER. Biomigrant (Mike Pipes, Tomas Salcedo) have been delving into roots music, travelling through the Americas and West Africa, learning, playing, recording, and broadcasting from the road.  Bridging digital and acoustic worlds, can be found bringing bass music to clubs or acoustic music to farmer’s markets.  In the face of globalization and monoculture, we dance, sing, and plant seeds for our future. More info: www.soundcloud.com/Biomigrant

REBECCA TRUJILLO – Rebecca Trujillo is a Bay Area pianist, teaching, performing and gathering musicians wildly throughout the year! Co-director of the Garden Gate Creativity Center, pianist for tango group “Orquestra Z”, solo player, and Suzuki teacher, her days are filled with the wonders of music and art. More info: http://dcpianos.com/_/rebecca-trujillo-suzuki-piano-creativity-at-the-piano-teacher/

SARAH CAHILL – pianist. Recently called “fiercely gifted” by the New York Times and “as tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of” by the San Francisco Chronicle, has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, and Evan Ziporyn, and she has also premiered pieces by Lou Harrison, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Toshi Ichiyanagi, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein, and many others. Cahill has researched and recorded the music by the important early 20th-century American modernists Henry Cowell and Ruth Crawford, and has commissioned a number of new pieces in tribute to their enduring influence.  She enjoys working closely with composers, musicologists, and scholars to prepare scores for performance.  Recent appearances include Spoleto Festival USA, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Pacific Crossings Festival in Tokyo, the Portland Piano Festival, and the Mendocino Music Festival.  In December she was soloist with the Berkeley Symphony for Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto.  She has performed chamber music with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and many other chamber groups. Sarah’s most recent project,A Sweeter Music, premiered in the Cal Performances series in Berkeley in January 2009 and continued to New Sounds Live at Merkin Hall, Rothko Chapel, the North Dakota Museum of Art, Le Poisson Rouge, and venues around the country, with newly commissioned works on the theme of peace by Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono, Frederic Rzewski, Phil Kline, and many others. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that “the music, helped along by the impassioned force of Cahill’s playing, amounted to a persuasive and varied investigation of the subject,” and London’s Financial Times called it “a unique commissioning programme that unites artistic aspirations with moral philosophy.” Most of Sarah’s albums are on the New Albion label. She has also recorded for the CRI, New World, Other Minds, Tzadik, Albany, Cold Blue, and Artifact labels.  She is currently preparing a CD of Mamoru Fujieda’s Patterns of Plants. Her radio show, Then & Now, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco.  She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and curates a monthly series of new music concerts at the Berkeley Art Museum. More info: www.sarahcahill.com

SHAY NICHOLS – singer. Voice empowerment sessions. Your voice is one of the most vulnerable and powerful gifts you have. Many of us have felt stifled or shut down, and giving voice to our bodies, our feelings, our dreams, all aspects of ourselves, is essential to our wholeness. In these sessions, you’ll open and expand your voice in a supportive, playful environment. You’ll leave these sessions joyful and exhilarated by your new vocal freedom! More info: www.shaynichols.tumblr.com

SWEET MEDICINE is a collaboration between Naia Graham and Emily Lewis. This duo’s music has roots in the folk, world, and sacred chant traditions. Inspired by the elements, spirit, truth, earth wisdom, and heart opening, they sing as a pure offering to the community, to the earth and for the healing of all beings. They offer a participatory musical experience, bathing you in sacred sound, soul harmonic singing and playful improvisation. Their harmonies and hauntingly beautiful earthy folk ballads will help you sink into a deep state of relaxation and appreciation for the human state and what is possible in your life. They will remind you that you are human and you are divine.  More info: http://singsweetmedicine.reverbnation.com

TAJology is a newly formed music manifestation of ancient origins. Ancestral in nature, TAJology will take you on a cosmic journey through
the use of primal harmonic frequencies that promote balance, crown chakra opening, and joy. The listener is taken into a deep listening experience through positive musical intentions. TAJology presents the earthly sounds of the Didgeridoo, Native American flute, Djembe drums, Blossom Chimes, Tongue drums, Brass and Woodwind instruments, Harmonium, and many different types of hand percussion originating from cultures around the world. More info: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TonyKiserAtaTothFejelJimGordon

TBIRD TALL FLAME LUV – acoustic and indigenous music.Tbird is a great integrator of many talents. Her music is a constant evolution of melodious sound. With an avant-garde approach, she’s invented an accessible global style that blends the magical aspects of acoustic, ambient and indigenous music with edgy and soulful undertones of blues and indie rock.