FacultyFounding Director, Dean
Trombonist Angela Wellman, hailing proudly from Kansas City, Missouri, has performed with the McCoy Tyner Big Band, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Slide Hampton and other noted musicians. From 1991-94, Angela was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence, during which time she designed and implemented a Jazz Studies Curriculum for Cole Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School in Oakland, CA. In 1997, she was awarded a Master’s degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She subsequently returned to the Bay Area, and served as the Education Director for the Oakland Youth Chorus where she developed award-winning community music education programs. Ms. Wellman is a recipient of national, state, and city Arts awards and fellowships for performance study and music education. Among these awards is the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with trombonist Steve Turre. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Ms. Wellman was nurtured in a musical family, and is a third generation jazz musician and music educator. She grew up listening to the stride piano style of her grandfather, her father's swinging ballad & blues piano, and the soul-stirring songstylings of her mother, Jyene Baker. Angela inherits her passion and understanding for the preservation of musical traditions through education from her uncle and mentor, Eddie B. Baker, Sr., founder of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation & Academy for Performing Arts and the International Jazz Hall of Fame. Angela's initiation into the world of Jazz as a player began while hanging out at sessions at the famed chitlin' circuit Local 626, the once–Black musicians' union in Kansas City, and now sanctuary for the spirits of jazz pioneers such as Ernie Williams (The Last of the Blue Devils), Count Basie, Charlie Parker, and countless others who got their start in that very place. Angela performs and teaches throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. Her band, New Roots, performs spirited, contemporary music, creating new forms, styles, and roots in the Jazz tradition.
Director of Vocal Studies
Lauren Carley interprets the vocal solo and ensemble repertoire of recital, oratorio, cabaret, theatre and sacred music. She is a member of the touring acapella Renaissance ensemble, Schola Adventus, and has premiered the vocal works of Philip Glass, Miriam Gideon, John Cage and Edmund Campion. Her solo CD, Hooked on Weill features the music of Kurt Weill as have her touring, original one-woman shows, Chrysalis and Venus Envy. Ms. Carley conducts treble and adult choirs, and has studied conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College and at Butler University with Henry Leck. She is also a Member of the all Woman Shakespeare Company, Woman’s Will. Ms. Carley has taught opera, music theatre, solo performance and voice for the theatre at the University of California’s Young Musician’s Program, and at Colorado College. She holds a Masters of Music and Interdisciplinary Studies from New York University, and a Bachelor of Music from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ajayi Jackson is one of the California Bay Area's most talented and rounded musical artists. He is a multi-instrumentalist with an uncommonly diverse and broad scope of expertise. Mr. Jackson tours internationally, working as a bassoonist, African percussionist, trap drummer, pianist, and composer. This Bay Area native has certainly broken the mold as he has accomplished what no other musician ever has, exemplifying such high degrees of excellence in several genres of music with such diverse instrumentation. He began his international career in Europe at the age of twelve as a classical bassoonist and shortly there after as a pianist in Japan, performing his own compositions. He has worked with some of the most talented musicians of our time such as Prince Lashaw, Omar Sosa, and John Santos, to name just a few. Mr. Jackson has also worked with several esteemed dance companies such as Dimensions Dance Ensemble (Zimbabwe Tour 2001 / CubaTour 2003), Ashe Dance Collective (N.Y.C. Suga Cula Wata), and Traci Bartlow and Dancers (Bay Area HipHop Theatre Festival 2005 / Malcolm X Jazz Festival 2004/5). With a BFA in classical bassoon performance from Cal State Hayward, this self-defined jazz musician has his hands and many instruments in several places. When not on tour performing on one or several instruments, he contributes to his community through arts education, and has an extensive background in the fields of African and African Diaspora arts education as well as music theory and analysis. Whether you see him on stage with artists such Marc Joseph Bamuthi (Word Becomes Flesh / Scourge), in the class rooms of Oakland's inner city schools, or hear his performances on the radio with Jazz artists Idriss Akamor or Hip Hop artist Zion I or Folk artist Hyim, Mr. Jackson is always a pleasure to experience and quite the honor to behold.
Bill BellJazz Studies
Bill Bell's performance career as a pianist is equally distinguished. He has toured as musical director and piano accompanist for legendary jazz singer Carmen McRae. He has also worked with Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Anita Oday, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls and the Supremes. His credits also include work with instrumentalists Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell, Louie Bellson, Benny Carter, and Clark Terry. Bill Bell is also the featured pianist on the Art Farmer CD "Live at Stanford". His current CD entitled "Just Swing Baby" has hit the San Francisco bay area jazz scene with a blast of long awaited freshness. Bill is accompanied by swing masters Eddie Marshall on drums and Jeff Chambers on bass. Guitarist Brad Buethe, bassist John Shifflet, and drummer Jason Lewis perform on the featured composition "Charisma". Stellar tenor Saxophonist David Ellis is special guests on three tracks. "Just Swing Baby " is currently number 15 on jazz radio playing list.
Dr. Gregory Mertl
Gregory Mertl has received commissions from the Phoenix Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Fairbanks Symphony, Richard Killmer, ASCAP/the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Festival of the East, and the Big Ten university wind ensembles. Recent awards include the Chicago Symphony’s First Hearing Award, a 1998 Tanglewood Composition Fellowship, and three ASCAP Foundation Grants to Young Composers in 1996, 1997, and 1998. At Tanglewood, he had the tremendous privilege of studying with Henri Dutilleux and Mauricio Kagel. Orchestras such as the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic (through ASCAP’s Millennium Commission in honor of the Aaron Copland Centenary) premiered his works. Other projects included composer-in-residence at the Chamber Music Festival of the East at Bennington College in Vermont in August 2001 and the Phoenix Symphony premiere of Pandora’s Beethoven-Box in January 2002. In recent years, his compositions have been performed at the 1999 International Double Reed Society Conference in Madison, WI, the Festival du Moulin d’Andé in France in 2001, the University of Illinois, the University of Alaska, Colgate University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. In 2002 his music reached audiences in Honolulu, Boston, Rochester, France, Singapore and Taipei, Taiwan. Performances in 2003 and 2004 included Princeton, Hamilton, Colgate and Northwestern Universities, Eastman School of Music, Weill Recital Hall in New York and a French premiere by cellist Xavier Phillips on the France Musique radio station. He has worked frequently with choreographer Augusto Soledade and Brazz Dance Company. Stable Flux, one of their largest collaborations, premiered at Smith College in April, 2001 and subsequently in Salvador, Brazil. Awarded by the symphonic wind ensembles of the Big Ten Universities, the Big Ten Band Commission received its premiere in April 2003. The score, entitled Love, Play On, won third prize in the Harelbeke International Wind Ensemble Composition Competition in Belgium. 2005 winter concerts included four performances of Lover Calls in Florida and a Canadian premiere in January, a radio program on Vermont Public Radio on February 12th with live performances and, in March, a song cycle at Towson University in Baltimore. Subsequent performances occur in Taiwan and China in June. 2005-2006 commissions include a concerto for piano and winds for Taiwanese pianist Solungga Liu and a consortium of ensembles in the US and Europe, a work for the Ostrava Oboe Festival, and a cello concerto for the French cellist Xavier Phillips. He holds his undergraduate degree from Yale University and master’s and doctoral degrees in music composition from the Eastman School of Music.
BABATUNDE LEA Babatunde Lea is a Bay Area percussionist, and an established session musician. He has forged a career steeped in the rhythms of the Motherland of Africa and its Caribbean & South American Diaspora. Lea was raised in New York and Englewood, New Jersey, but in the late 1960s migrated westward to the Bay Area, where he was further immersed in global rhythms, courtesy of such affiliations as fellow percussionist Bill Summers’ (The Headhunters; Los Hombres Calientes) visionary ensemble Bata Koto. ‘Tunde, as he is known to intimates, has also drawn immeasurable experience working with such singular stylists as Leon Thomas, Pharaoh Sanders, Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Van Morrison, Oscar Brown, Jr., and a host of others. Lea’s cultural quest doesn’t end at the bandstand. Since 1993 he and spouse Dr. Virginia Lea have operated the Educultural Foundation, a Bay Area youth education operation that through a variety of programs immerses students and schools in global rhythms primarily from Africa and the Caribbean Diaspora. “The Educultural Foundation is something my wife and I put together to sow seeds of change and be agents of change, trying to better ourselves and our communities. We teach critical thinking about social and cultural issues through the arts,” the drummer informs. One of their programs, Yo Ancestors! neatly dovetails and is a precursor to Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost’s quest for the spiritual essences.
Theory & Composition
Willie Adams is an Oakland native and graduate of McClymonds High School. He earned his BA from UC Irvine where he became a radio disc jockey and film scholar. After graduating from the University in 1996, he spent a year in London, England as a radio personality and club DJ. After returning to the states, Willie became a teacher. He is currently completing his Masters in Education from the University of San Francisco.
Bass & Composition
Known mostly as a jazz bassist, Walter Savage has proven himself as singer, pianist and composer as well. His blues, pop, rock and jazz vocals are truly distinctive and compelling. Walter became interested in bass after seeing and hearing Paul Chambers perform with Miles Davis. He immediately purchased a bass and began to take lessons with Leroy Vinegar, Al McKibbon, and other bassists in the Los Angeles area. From 1963 to the present, Walter has appeared in the rhythm sections of Tony Scott, Gerald Wilson, Mary Jenkins, Horace Tapscott, Taj Mahal, Gloria Lynn, Sonny Chris and Arthur Blythe, to name a few. Walter has also appeared with Bobby Hutcherson at Hermosa Beach’s famed Lighthouse Jazz Club. Since moving to the Bay Area, Walter has worked with the likes of David (Fathead) Newman, John Handy, Pharaoh Sanders and Richie Cole, Harold Jones, Donald Bailey and Mary Stallings (jazz cruises). Besides working actively as a teacher, Walter also works a full schedule of club, casual and concert performances around the San Francisco Bay Area. Regular venues for this talented artist include Jazz at Pearl’s in North Beach, Enrico’s, The Black Cat, Yoshi’s in Jack London Square, Napa Valley wineries and numerous festivals including San Francisco’s Fillmore Street Fair, the Union Street Festival and the Vallejo Shoreline Jazz, Art, and Wine Festival.
Percussionist
Héctor Lugo is a talented and experienced percussionist, singer, songwriter, and teacher. A native of Puerto Rico, Héctor has performed, recorded, and toured with renowned local and international artists in the Latin, Jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music communities, including, among others, Luis Cepeda and the Los Cepeda Folkloric Ensemble, Bobby Céspedes, Conjunto Céspedes, Luis Romero and Mazacote, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Gilberto Gutierrez and Mono Blanco, the Larry Vukovich Latin Jazz Orchestra, the Venezuelan Music Project, and the Mission Project. He composed music for a theatre piece, Living in Spanish, that has been produced in San Francisco, New York, and Seoul. He has lectured on the history of Puerto Rican music and taught workshops on Latin percussion locally and internationally. Hector has a Masters in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, where he has also done substantial doctoral work in the political sociology and cultural history of Latin America and the Caribbean. Presently, he leads Son Borikua, a seven piece ensemble, dedicated to creating original music inspired in the Puerto Rican folklore. He is co-director of the Bomba and Plena Workshop at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, and a percussion instructor with the Oakland Youth Chorus’ Music of Our World program. Trumpet
Mark Wright, trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger, has been an active part of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene for about 16 years. He studied music formally, at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Pacific. Mark has performed with many greats, including, Clark Terry, Ray Charles, Plas Johnson, John Handy, Pharaoh Sanders, Louie Bellson, Herb Geller, Grover Washington Jr., David Murray, Steve Turre, Rodney Franklin, Freddie Redd, Dave Ellis, Joshua Redman and Don Carlos. Born in Berkeley, California, his first teacher was Vernon Carlson. Strongly versed in the Jazz tradition, Mark places an emphasis on performing his own compositions, of which he has written over 250. In addition to performing with his own Jazz band, Mark also works as an independent contractor performing, arranging, and composing for diverse musical groups and styles, including Latin, R&B, large Jazz units, Reggae, and Pop. Mark's musical activities have taken him to Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hawaii, Seattle, Idaho, and other locations throughout the country.
Piano & Composition
Allan Crossman, teacher, composer, pianist, has written music for many performers. The recording of his Millennium Overture Dance received a GRAMMY nomination in 2003, and Music for Human Choir (SATB) shared Top Honors at the Waging Peace Through Singing Festival. The North/South Chamber Orchestra of New York records his Flyer (cello solo and string orchestra) in 2006, a piece commemorating the centenary of powered flight; the soloist is Oakland’s Nina Flyer. His most recent piece is Icarus, written for the Bay Area’s New Pacific Trio. The most recent presentation of his many theatre scores was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Log of the Skipper’s Wife at Stratford and the Kennedy Center, with Crossman’s music drawn from Irish/English shanties and dances. He has taught at Concordia University (Montreal), Wheaton College, the Pacific Conservatory, and is now on the faculty of the SF Conservatory of Music. His composition studies were with George Rochberg and George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania.
Violin/Piano
India Cooke, violinist, composer and educator, plays a wide range of music – from classical to jazz. India has performed in San Francisco Bay Area symphony and opera orchestras, chamber ensembles, and Broadway shows. As one of California’s most respected contract artists, she has performed as featured soloist with Joe Williams and the Louie Bellson Orchestra, and has played with Sarah Vaughn, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and many others. Her continuing jazz and improvisation experiences include performances with Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Pauline Oliveros and many others. As an educator, Ms. Cooke was an Artist-in-Residence at the San Francisco School of the Arts, and currently teaches at the San Francisco Community Music Center, Mills College and at her private studio. She has conducted lecture/performances in Bay Area public schools, colleges, and other educational programs.
Steel Pan
Steelpan master and multi-instrumentalist Anthony “Cannon” Hernandez was born and raised on the beautiful Island of Tobago. He began playing the steel drum at age 9 and was playing double tenor pans with the world-renowned Our Boys Steel Orchestra by age 19. While with "Our Boys" Cannon performed for several exclusive audiences including Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, Phil Collins and basketball star David Robinson. They also shared the stage with infamous Calypsonians David Rudder, Mighty Sparrow, Crazy, Brother Resistance, The Baron, Arrow, as well as with world famous steel pan artists Andy Narell, and Len "Boogsie" Sharp. Cannon has performed with well known Bay Areas bands such as Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeno Band, Jeff Narrell's Rhythm and Steel, Caribbean Allstars, Junglz Apart, Creations, Tropical Vibrations, Junglagoove, Harmonics Steel Orchestra, The Hyler Jones Jazz quartet, and many more. In 1993, he formed Caribbean Rhythms, a band with an exciting, provocative, new Caribbean sound. In 2000 he produced, arranged, and composed the debut release CD for Caribbean Rhythms on the CR Record label. Additionally, Cannon has recorded for numerous local and international artists, including Jazz & Blues artist Roberta Donnay, master drummer Sanga of the Valley, Folk & Blues artist Alesia Panojota, Africa’s renowned Salif Keita, master drummer Babatunde Lea, master panists Len "Boogsie Sharp & Andy Narell, and the Caribbean Allstars. In October, 2004, Cannon was honored by the City of Vallejo Commission on Culture and the Arts. He was awarded a special plaque and certificate as Vallejo’s “Best Performer of the Year”, beating out the Vallejo Symphony! Cannon's musical talents range from Classical, to Pop, Jazz, Funk, Contemporary, Latin, Reggae, Calypso and Soca/SoulCalypso. Additionally, he offers private lessons to anyone interested in learning this amazing instrument.
Julia Chigamba
Angela Dean-Baham
Angela Dean-Baham has made her reputation in the San Francisco Bay Area where she is a much sought-after performer. She has been recognized for her Aexuberant portrayal and her distinctive silvery soprano voice. Ms. Dean-Baham spent two consecutive seasons with Pocket Opera of San Francisco, performing as Erste Dame in Die Zauberflote and Pauline in Offenbach's operetta La Vie Parisienne. She has also performed with Festival Opera and Berkeley Opera singing roles including Suor Genevieve in Suor Angelica.Her Performances have been said to leave an "indelible impression." In 2001, Ms. Dean-Baham made her Berkeley Opera debut as Frasquita in Carmen and created the role of La Novia in the contemporary opera Asi que Pasen Cinco Arios at the Oakland Opera Theatre. Other notable roles include Lady with a Cacke Bos inPostcard from Morocco, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Serena in Porgy and Bess. Ms. Dean-Baham returned to the Oakland Opera Theatre in the spring of 2003 where she sang the role of Helen in their production of Three Sisters Who are Not Sisters. She has continued her work with Oakland Lyric Opera's outreach program, where she has been featured in concert at East Bay elementary schools. A gifted recitalist, Ms. Dean-Baham was greatly honored to perform at Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown's 2000 inaugural festivities. In addition, she has been a featured artist at the City of Oakland"s Italian Festa and at Walnut Creek's Opera in the Park. Maestro Eric Kujawsky, Music Director of the Redwood Symphony Orchestra, calls Ms. Dean-Baham"s performance as Serena in Porgy and Bess ". . . deeply moving and impeccably sung" and recalls that " her >My Man's Gone Now< brought the house down." In competition, Ms. Dean-Baham has earned recognition. In 1999, she was selected as one of only thirty international artists to perform at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. At the Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competition, she was named a third place regional winner and was also a finalist in the Columbus Opera Competition. Ms. Dean-Baham received her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Spelman College and continued her studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she obtained a Master of Music in Voice. She has studied both the lyric and dramatic coloratur repertoire and has furthered her training at the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, the Brevard Music Center and most recently, at OperaWorks in Los Angeles.
Russ Landers
Russ Landers has played Shona music since 1983, guided by Ephat Mujuru, Mondreck Muchena, Tute Chigamba, Irene Chigamba, Frank Gomba, Simon Mashoko, Forward Kwenda, and others. During extended stays in Zimbabwe, he studied and performed with many highly respected musicians, including Mhuri Yekwa Chigamba. In the United States, Mr. Landers has performed with Mutupo Mbira Group, Our Spirits Blend Together, Tatenda Music and Dance Ensemble, and Zawadi (“gift”), a group he formed with musicians Joy Gamble and Abdi Jabril. As a member of Zawadi, Mr. Landers brings music and stories of Africa and the African Diaspora to schools and universities, festivals, and cultural centers. Zawadi does this through classes, performances, and cultural exchange, bringing artists from Zimbabwe to meet with the people of Oakland and the Bay Area. His instruction of mbira (thumb piano) and chipendani (mouth bow) have been enjoyed from San Diego to British Columbia and New York City. He teaches regularly in Santa Cruz and in Oakland Public Schools.
Marci Brown
Marcie Brown has a master’s degree in classical cello from the Manhattan School of Music, and a master’s degree in progress in jazz improvisation and composition from the University of Massachusetts. She has played with world class artists in both the jazz and classical idioms, such as Ray Charles, Dizzie Gillespie, Yusef Lateef, John Blake, Archie Shepp, Luciano Pavaratti and Andrea Bocelli. Ms. Brown has performed with a variety of fine symphony orchestras, studied chamber music with the Julliard String Quartet, and recorded two CD’s with Yusef Lateef. Her own CD, Night of a Thousand Rains, features the cello as an improvisational instrument and it harbors original compositions that draw from Indian, Latin, African and European classical musical influences. Her last two major appointments were with the Cirque du Soleil’s “O” show in Las Vegas from 2002-2004, and with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for the 2005 season. She was also recently the head of the string department for the Oakland School for the Arts. Ms. Brown currently teaches privately in her Alameda home, and she performs regularly with her string quartet Enchante, and her gypsy jungle all woman band the Druid Sister’s Tea Party.
Viola Pellegrini
Viola Pellegrini is currently a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) majoring in violin performance. She previously studied in Italy at the Florence Conservatory of Music with professor S. Michelucci. She performs with the SFCM orchestra and has performed with the Oakland Civic Orchestra. Ms. Pellegrini finished her Music Together training and became a certified Music Together teacher in October, 2005. She teaches both private and group violin as well as Music Together.
Harmonica player and vocalist Carlos Zialcita has been part of the San Francisco Bay Area blues scene for three decades as a performer, promoter, educator, and radio announcer. His career began in the early 70's with the Chico David Blues Band, a group first based in the Bay Area, and then Los Angeles. They backed artists like T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, and Big Mama Thornton. Since those early days Zialcita has recorded and toured throughout the United States and Canada with several major blues artists including Johnny Otis, Sugar Pie DeSanto, and Sonny Rhodes. Not exactly a stranger to the jazz scene, Zialcita has also performed with many well known artists over the years including Donald Byrd, Eddie Palmieri, John Handy, Donald Bailey, and Calvin Keys. He has two CDs as a solo artist – Train Through Oakland with The Johnny Otis Band in 2000, and Evolution, released in 2004. He has recorded with different artists and groups, including the gospel group the West Coast Spiritual Corinthians in 1988 and the rap/hip-hop group, the Coup in 1987. In 2003 Zialcita expanded his musical horizons and formed The Carlos Zialcita Jazztet, incorporating jazz and latin elements into his vocal and instrumental repertoire. Breaking away from the standard diatonic blues diatonic harmonica, Zialcita’s sets now also features his chromatic harmonica stylings. Playing both chromatic and diatonic harmonicas to compliment his vocals, Zialcita performs songs from a wide repertoire that includes many jazz and blues standards. Zialcita has considerable experience as an educator, working as the class coordinator with Johnny Otis since 1998 to present the Jazz, Blues, and Popular Music class with the Peralta Community College District. For the past 10 years, Zialcita has taught computer applications and PC Hardware repair and maintenance at Encinal High School in Alameda, where he also sponsors the Filipino Club. Zialcita also provides harmonica lessons to students both in a private setting and at music education seminars sponsored by Hohner Harmonicas and the City of Oakland.
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