Amateur Music Network

Amateur Music Network will present a Chamber Music Intensive featuring four pre-formed amateur ensembles paired with professional mentors for coaching sessions and skill development. The program culminates in a public performance at Drew School auditorium in San Francisco in November 2025.

Amateur Music Network (AMN) was founded on September 1, 2016 and incorporated as a California 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization on July 1, 2017. AMN evolved out of the San Francisco Symphony’s Community of Music Makers (CoMM), a program of music workshops held at Davies Symphony Hall from 2011-2016. When CoMM ended, it had over 7,000 participants from a broad cross-section of participants from the San Francisco Bay Area community. This demonstration of enthusiasm inspired former CoMM Program Administrator, Lolly Lewis, to found Amateur Music Network.

Now in its tenth season, AMN is committed to music’s unique power to bring people together across all boundaries of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, and culture. AMN’s mission is to elevate music appreciation of all genres and to stimulate people of all skill levels to embrace music-making for personal pleasure and life enrichment.

Since 2016, AMN has presented over 80 performance workshops and programs in instrumental and vocal music featuring top professional artists drawn from renowned arts organizations including the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, San Francisco Opera, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.

AMN’s programs and professional presenters bring wide-ranging perspectives and cultural experiences to a broad audience, connecting participants with professional musicians for immersive music experiences. AMN seeks to expand participants’ musical horizons by presenting programs in a wide range of genre styles including chamber music, classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and more.

Anne Hege

Anne Hege will create The Glance, an operatic reinterpretation of the Orpheus myth for laptop orchestra and live voices, featuring electronic instruments including analog live-looping cassette players and motion-controlled devices. The opera will premiere in June 2026 at the Milk Bar in Richmond and Meets the Eye Studios in San Carlos.

Born in Oakland, CA, Anne Hege began her musical journey singing with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir and the Oakland Youth Chorus. She earned a BA in Music from Wesleyan University, an MA in Composition from Mills College, and a PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University, where she explored embodied cognition theory and musical meaning. Her compositions span film, installation, dance, and concert settings, with a practice grounded in deep listening and musical experimentation.

Hege creates immersive, body-aware musical worlds that blur the lines between ritual, theater, and music. As a composer, vocalist, conductor, instrument builder, and scholar, she investigates the intersection of technology, embodiment, and ensemble interaction. Her works have been performed by groups including So Percussion, Stanford Laptop Orchestra, NOW Ensemble, and Volti SF.

Since 2008, she has scored works for Carrie Ahern Dance, praised by The New York Times as “convincing” and “strangely environmental.” Her performance settings have ranged from Wall Street bank vaults to Chelsea Market’s butcher shop. She has received numerous honors, including a New Music USA Project Grant, residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and Røst AiR, a Composer in Residence post with Resound Ensemble, and a visiting artist appointment at CCRMA, Stanford University.

In 2022, Hege premiered The Furies, a groundbreaking “laptopera” for voices and laptop orchestra, to acclaim. She currently serves as Artistic Director of the Peninsula Women’s Chorus and performs with her analog tape-loop instrument, the duo New Prosthetics, and the laptop ensemble Sideband.

Arjun K. Verma

Arjun K. Verma and Pezhham Akhavass will collaborate on Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges, developing new repertoire and improvisational structures for sitar, tombak, and daf that explore the historical connections between Indian and Persian classical music traditions. The project will culminate in a public performance at the Ali Akbar College of Music in Fall 2025.

Sitarist Arjun Verma and percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Pezhham Akhavass come together for their first collaboration, uniting the classical traditions of India and Iran in a bold, cross-cultural exchange.

Arjun, a disciple of the Maihar Gharana, studied under his father Roop Verma, the legendary Ali Akbar Khan, and Alam Khan. With over 30 years of experience, he has performed globally—from the United Nations in Geneva to the Fillmore in San Francisco—and collaborated with artists like Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Bob Weir, and the London Symphony Orchestra. His work has pushed the limits of expression on sitar through recording projects for tv, film, and video garmes. He teaches at the Ali Akbar College of Music.

Pezhham Akhavass, a master of Persian percussion, trained with tombak virtuosos Naser Farhanghfar and Saeid Roudbary, and later with Indian tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain. He has toured internationally with Shahram Nazeri and performed alongside artists such as Yo-Yo Ma. Pezhham’s artistry bridges rhythmic traditions across cultures, and his work as an educator and composer includes presentations at Harvard, UCLA, and UC Irvine. He is also a GRAMMY voting member.

This debut collaboration between Arjun and Pezhham blends centuries-old musical lineages with adventurous improvisation and fresh expression, offering audiences a new take on traditional music.

Bethany Hill

Bethany Hill will develop the next cycle of Femmina Super, a one-woman theatre-opera piece exploring multigenerational women's stories through Barbara Strozzi's 17th-century compositions reinterpreted with early, folk, and electronic music. Development begins October 2025 with San Francisco performances planned for early 2026.

Bethany Hill is an Australian singer, composer, theatre-maker, and playwright, now based in the U.S. Hill is a specialist in 17th and 18th century music, a passionate exponent of new music, and a sought-after artistic collaborator. She integrates her love for folk and electronic music into her work, aspiring to create new sound-worlds for audiences.

As a theatre-maker and playwright, Hill recently debuted her first play with original music, Femmina Super. She was nominated for the 2024 Loud Karma Emerging Female and Non-Binary Playwright Award. Hill co-created and performed with Patch Theatre the children’s opera Can You Hear Colour?, which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2018 Adelaide Festival of Arts.

Hill is one half of the experimental-folk duo, Turas Ensemble, and collaborates regularly with pianist Penelope Cashman to re-imagine traditional song recitals. She has featured on several recordings, notably Advice to a Girl—the debut album of award-winning Australian composer Anne Cawrse.

A storyteller at heart, Hill uses music and text to illuminate ancient and often forgotten stories, particularly those of women. Grounded in historical performance and opera, she reimagines music for modern audiences, drawing from early music, folk, and electronics to create work that is transportive, empathetic, and aesthetic.

In the U.S., Hill has worked with Victory Hall Opera (VA), performed as a soprano soloist throughout the Bay Area, and collaborated with ensembles including Nash Baroque, Artist’s Vocal Ensemble, and Philharmonia Baroque Chorale. She is committed to creating performances that connect deeply through beauty, honesty, and storytelling.

Brett Carson

Brett Carson will compose and record “Lights Out! (Angel Telephony)”, an experimental chamber opera for three voices, piano, drums, and electronics, based on the work of Renaissance cryptographer and occultist Johannes Trithemius. The 70-minute work bridges avant-garde electronic music, modern classical, and jazz, with a recording scheduled for April 2026.

Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, poet, and theater artist based in Berkeley, and is an active contributor to the Bay Area’s improvisation and contemporary classical music communities. His compositional work—described as “fascinatingly intense” (Stephen Smoliar, SF Classical Voice)—explores the juxtaposition of a plurality of musical approaches, spanning contemporary classical music, free improvisation, jazz, harsh noise, video game music, and progressive rock. Carson’s practice is grounded in the creation of imagined spaces and cosmologies, drawing inspiration from Surrealism, Outsider art, and occultism, as well as the visionary music of Sun Ra, Olivier Messiaen, and Magma, and the literary works of Borges, Tolkien, and Clark Coolidge. Deeply engaged with language, he writes his own libretti and is committed to composing for voice and stage.

As a pianist, his practice bridges multiple genres, and he has performed across the US and internationally, with appearances at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Sons d’hiver, Roulette, the Barbican, the Kennedy Center, The Broad, and SESC Pompeia in Brazil. He has collaborated with an array of distinguished artists including Sidney Corbett, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, and William Winant, and from 2019–20, performed and recorded as pianist with the legendary jazz unit, the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Carla Lucero

Carla Lucero will present a public workshop of Muriel & Anita, an opera exploring a Napa true crime story about a woman guided by her murdered sister's ghost in pursuit of justice.The staged showcase featuring arias and duets will be performed at Mercury Theater in Petaluma in June 2026.

Bay Area composer Carla Lucero studied composition at CalArts with Rand Steiger, Morton Subotnick, and Leonard Rosenman. Known for her bold, socially conscious operas, Lucero’s work blends theatrical depth with a cinematic musical style.

Her debut opera, WUORNOS (2001), about America’s first female serial killer, earned “10 Best of Stage” recognition from The Advocate and OUT. Juana (2019), a Spanish-language opera about 17th-century Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, was praised by the LA Times and had a second production in New York (2022). Las Tres Mujeres de Jerusalén (2022), commissioned by LA Opera, reimagines The Passion through the voices of three women and will be remounted in 2025.

Lucero’s fourth opera, t o u c h (2024), explores the life of DeafBlind writer and activist Helen Keller. Her fifth, ¡Chicanísima! (2024), honors Chicana icon Olga Talamante and was commissioned by Quinteto Latino. A 2025 Latin American production is underway.

Upcoming commissions include Hello, Star (Opera Paralléle/Peabody Institute, 2025), The Tower of Babel (LA Opera, 2026), and Tea (Hawai’i Opera Theatre, 2026–27). She also continues composing for dance and music-driven film, with The Everywhere of Her remounted by The Wilshire Ebell (2024), and a 2025 release of the aria Sin vos from Juana on Navona Records.

Lucero is currently developing Muriel & Anita, a true crime opera set in Napa, and Fracture, based on the novel by Andrés Neuman, exploring love and loss through the lens of Kintsugi.

David James

David James's GPS will record the song cycle Mission Rebel No. 1: Looking for Jesse James, a 12-part contemporary music work exploring the composer's father's life and work. The recording will take place in July 2025 and be released on CD, vinyl, and streaming platforms in January 2026.

David James is a San Francisco-born composer, guitarist, vocalist and bandleader who draws from his years of experience in hip-hop, film and theater scores, afrobeat, and more, bringing these influences to bear in his “ … thoughtfully composed, boundary-blurring new music.” (All About Jazz)

James’s compositions join a sometimes sing-song-y melodicism to his explorations of rhythms and textures from across the African diaspora and beyond. This can be heard in the political instrumentals and songs of his long-running rhythm-horns-and-strings sextet GPS, which features clarinet, trombone, viola, electric guitar, acoustic bass, and drums.

​After a youth of ambient/noise and rock rock groups, James became recording and touring guitarist of Spearhead. Later, while beginning to develop his own compositional voice, he toured and recorded as a member of the Coup, the Beth Custer Ensemble and Afrofunk Experience. He has performed chamber jazz at the community-level salon Red Poppy Art House (SF); live scores to silent films in the screening rooms of MoMA and SFMOMA, as well as in Prague, Tbilisi, and Cork (Ireland); and hip-hop at the Glastonbury Festival (UK) and the Fillmore (San Francisco).

​​September 2023 brought the premiere of “Mission Rebel No. 1: Looking for Rev. Jesse James”, a musical contemplation of David James’s father, a San Francisco activist. The 12-part song cycle for GPS and additional vocalists was performed at the historic BRAVA Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District.

​Along with the mostly acoustic GPS, David James currently co-leads the electric sextet Russian Telegraph and performs with Jordan Glenn’s BEAK, the Moe Staiano Ensemble, and Richard Marriott’s band.

Ensemble for These Times

Ensemble for These Times will record their sixth album, "El Tiempo Latine," featuring contemporary classical chamber music by eight 21st century women, queer, and nonbinary Latine composers, including Grammy winners Gabriela Ortiz and Claudia Montero, and Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León. The recording will be released on Aerocade Music in May 2026.

Winner of The American Prize for Chamber Music Performance in 2021, contemporary chamber music group Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) focuses on 20th and 21st century music that is relevant, engaging, original, and compelling, music that resonates today and will speak to tomorrow. E4TT strongly believes in the power of artistic beauty, intelligence, wit, lyricism, and irony to create a deep understanding of our times and the human condition. Women creators are an ongoing primary focus. E4TT consists of award-winning soprano, Artistic Executive Director and co-founder Nanette McGuinness, cellist Abigail Monroe, pianist Margaret Halbig, and composer, co-founder, and Senior Artistic Advisor David Garner, plus fine guest artists.

E4TT frequently commissions and performs music centered on urgent social and historical themes of our times, including exile and displacement, identity, the Holocaust, and women’s voices. Their repertoire particularly explores the human costs of injustice and the resilience of the creative spirit, often highlighting underrepresented or silenced perspectives.

Internationally and across California, E4TT has performed at major venues and festivals, including a U.S. Embassy-sponsored tour in Hungary, the Krakow Culture Festival, UCLA, Paderewski Festival, and the LA Museum of the Holocaust, among many. Their discography includes five acclaimed albums, all of which have medaled in the Global Music Awards: “Emigres & Exiles in Hollywood” (2024), “The Guernica Project” (2022), “Once/Memory/Night: Paul Celan” (2020), “The Hungarians: From Rózsa to Justus” (2018), and “Surviving: Women’s Words” (2016).

To date, the ensemble has commissioned 61 new works and four arrangements, with major initiatives such as “The Cassandra Project,” “Film Noir Project, and “Expression: Ism,” uniting music and storytelling to illuminate the complexities of our world. They also produce a weekly podcast of conversations with underrepresented voices, “For Good Measure.”

Esotérica Tropical

Esotérica Tropical will record Futura Ancestral, blending Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba rhythms, folk harp, and experimental electronic music rooted in Caribbean spiritual traditions and Latine futurism. The album will be developed at Montalvo Arts Center and recorded at Women's Audio Mission in Summer 2025.

Esotérica Tropical is a queer Boricua bruja who transcends musical boundaries with her commanding voice, intuitive folk harp, and a fusion of Afro-Puerto Rican bomba rhythms and electronic innovation. The project of singer-songwriter María José Montijo, Esotérica Tropical draws from over two decades of healing practices—including tai chi, daoist cosmology, and traditional medicine—transforming trauma into ritual, art, and sound.

Rooted in Puerto Rico and based in Oakland, her music channels surrealism, sovereignty, and collective liberation. A serendipitous gift of a harp from a friend sparked her songwriting journey, leading to her first release, Glaciar (2016), and culminating in her 2024 self-titled debut album on Panapén Records. Deeply influenced by bomba and created in community, the album features collaborations with Taller Bombaléle, Batey Tambó, Jesús “El Tambor Mayor” Cepeda, Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards), and electronic producers Uji, Kaleema, and Atropolis. It is a sonic offering of healing and joy, described as “a soundtrack for liberatory practices and joyous moods; a space for ritual and ceremony through song and dance.”

Her ritualistic performances have captivated audiences at major festivals and venues including The Chapel, Oakland Museum of California, Teatro el Supremo (CDMX), Teatro Municipal de Cusco, and Festival Color Caribe. In 2022, she featured on Chancha Via Circuito’s La Estrella. Esotérica Tropical was named among the Best Bay Area Music of 2024 by KQED, KALW, and White Crate.

Heart Matter

Heart Matter will record and release their debut album Horizons, reimagining the singer-songwriter tradition with chamber music precision and jazz improvisation, featuring vibraphone as the primary chordal instrument. Recording begins in late May 2025 at the Record Plant in Sausalito, with release planned for Spring 2026.

Heart Matter is a Bay Area-based ensemble that creates compelling musical experiences in both live performance and recorded formats—treating concerts as sacred ceremonies where personal reflection and communal healing take root. Blending the improvisatory spirit of jazz with the precision of chamber music, Heart Matter reimagines the singer-songwriter tradition, crafting songs that invite deep presence. Thoughtful arrangements, evocative lyrics, and a distinctive voice-and-vibraphone-centered sound foster an atmosphere of warmth and emotional safety.

Exhibiting both virtuosity and accessibility, Heart Matter bridges musical sophistication with heartfelt storytelling, with the intention of reaching diverse audiences and contribute to the legacy of Bay Area creative music. More than anything, Heart Matter shares transformative music with those who need to hear it, prioritizing emotional acuity, fierce musicality, and a commitment to illuminating the depth of the human experience.

Founded in 2022 by vibraphonist Dillon Vado and vocalist/composer Amy D, Heart Matter grew from their shared influences and eagerness to create meaningful, intimate musical experiences for themelves and their community. Rounded out by Lukas Vesely (bass) and Isaac Schwartz (drums), the quartet has performed throughout the Bay Area.

Their sound is shaped by influences ranging from Brazilian jazz, R&B, and soul to avant-garde improvisation, jazz fusion, indie pop, and ’90s rock. With vibraphone as the primary chordal instrument, Heart Matter offers a fresh take on the jazz rhythm section, while Amy D’s vocal style blends jazz, classical, and popular styles.

Ian Dogole

Ian Dogole will engage the services of an internationally recognized professional to promote his upcoming release titled “The Last Trane to Africa,” to international radio and press. “The Last Trane to Africa” is an Afro-infused homage to the legendary music of John Coltrane.

For decades, Ian Dogole has created “Music Beyond Borders.” During his high school years near Philadelphia, Ian studied with acclaimed guitarist Chuck Anderson and was concurrently exposed to the innovators in Jazz. Exposure to the classical music of India and China further expanded his musical world.

Ian attended Brown University, where he concentrated in Ethnomusicology and Classics and then earned his MA in Classics from Villanova University. In 1978, he relocated to Palo Alto, CA and soon thereafter formed his first band. Ian has released nine recordings: “Along the Route,” (1982), “Dangerous Ground” (1986); “Ionospheres” (1996); “Night Harvest” (2002); 2003 – “Ian Dogole & Hemispheres in Concert” DVD (2003); 2006 – “Convergence” (2006); “Crossroads” (2009); “Outside the Box – Jazz Journeys & Worlds Beyond” (2013); and “Quinta Essentia” (2023). Ian will soon release his tenth recording, “The Last Trane to Africa.”

Ian’s percussion array includes a host of African, Middle Eastern, South American and European instruments, including udu, cajon, hang, African talking drum, kalimba, doumbek, djembe, cymbals and maracas llaneras.

Ian has presented educational programs to more than 60,000 students in the San Francisco Bay Area, individually and through nonprofit organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony and Young Imaginations. Ian has also performed for disadvantaged audiences of all ages in a wide range of facilities.

Ian has been awarded numerous grants, including a Jazz Performance Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as multiple grants from the Marin Arts Council and InterMusic SF.

Jazz in the Neighborhood

Jazz in the Neighborhood will present Jazz in Southwest Berkeley, featuring six free outdoor concerts on Saturdays this late summer and fall. Each event will showcase quartets or quintets of local professional jazz musicians, performing straight-ahead, Latin, fusion, and contemporary jazz styles.

Jazz in the Neighborhood (JitN) works to improve the economics of jazz performance in the Bay Area by presenting affordable concerts, paying musicians a guaranteed wage, and supporting the work of established and aspiring jazz artists. Their motto is Access • Equity • Art.

Jazz in the Neighborhood has spent the past 11 years advocating for the sustainability of Bay Area jazz musicians. At the heart of this work is the Guaranteed Fair Wage (GFW) program, which has dispersed hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure professional musicians are paid a baseline wage of $150 per gig. In 2025, the GFW program shifted focus and objectives to support small neighborhood venues, helping them present live jazz while upholding equitable pay and diversity in bandleaders and artists.

JitN’s JazzMobile—created in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—brings free outdoor jazz concerts directly to Bay Area neighborhoods. With over 300 performances to date, the JazzMobile transports the necessary equipment and backline to set up a small tent and stage in parks, plazas, recreation and senior centers, street closures, and block parties.

Committed to identifying and impulsing young talent, JitN’s Emerging Artists program supports young generations of musicians through mentorships and performance opportunities. By partnering with active educators and bandleaders, the program presents highly talented high school and college students alongside the bandleaders on JitN programmed gigs.

Kasey Knudsen Sextet

The Kasey Knudsen Sextet will record an album of original compositions by saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, blending modern jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary composition inspired by literature, film, and visual art. The studio recording will take place in Fall/Winter 2025 to support future performances and festival submissions.

Kasey Knudsen is a San Francisco-based saxophonist, composer, and educator, dubbed “one of the region’s most esteemed saxophonists” (SF Classical Voice) and “an essential voice in the Bay Area jazz scene” (East Bay Express). A graduate of Berklee College of Music with a BA in Jazz Composition, she has earned national recognition, including being named one of “10 Female Instrumentalists Who Redefine Jazz” by Paste Magazine.

She has received commissions from San Jose Jazz (2021), InterMusic SF (2020), Intersection for the Arts (2013 & 2012), the de Young Museum (2008), and the Jazzschool (2007).

In addition to leading her own projects, Knudsen co-leads the Schimscheimer Family Trio and the Holly Martins. She has toured the U.S. and Europe, collaborating with standout Bay Area artists such as Fred Frith, Charlie Hunter, Ben Goldberg, Scott Amendola, Ian Carey, Erik Jekabson, Rob Reich, and Circus Bella. A passionate educator, she teaches at the Jazzschool and has led workshops at Berkeley High School, Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Lafayette Summer Jazz Workshop, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. She also taught jazz studies at Sonoma State University for ten years.

Khatchadour Khatchadourian

Khatchadour will record Shounch: Breath, a world music album exploring Armenian sacred, folk, and troubadour traditions sung in Eastern and Western Armenian dialects. The album, featuring original compositions and arrangements born out of the 2023 conflict and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians, will be recorded in 2025 and early 2026.

Khatchadour is a Lebanese-Armenian vocalist and duduk player based out of the Bay Area. His vocal repertoire is grounded in the Armenian and Levantine Arabic vocal traditions. Growing up within the Armenian diaspora on the Lebanese Mediterranean coast, and later having spent many years in Aleppo, Syria, Khatchadour’s voice pays homage to the vocal landscapes spanning the regions of the South Caucasus, Levant, and Anatolia. Khatchadour’s passion for the duduk, an Armenian double reed woodwind, began in 2007, and has since taken him on musical journeys across Armenia and Southern France. He studies under master duduk player Levon Minassian. Additionally, for the past few years, Khatchadour has been immersed in the study of Persian vocal Radif, and sings in Farsi under the guidance of master vocalist Mahsa Vahdat.

Raised in the Levant’s multi-ethnic cultures in Lebanon and Syria, Khatchadour’s early musical experiences included years singing in a children’s choir, and studying Armenian sacred hymns. These soundscapes remain central to his artistic voice, one shaped by diasporic memory, migration, and multicultural synthesis.

Since immigrating in 2001, and later studying at UC Berkeley, Khatchadour has cultivated a multilingual musical syntax, singing in Armenian, Arabic, and Farsi. His work honors the uniqueness of each tradition while embracing their modal commonalities and shared ancestry. As a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, his music engages in conversations about suffering, resilience, memory, and love, offering a space that invites healing and cultural transformation.

Kurt Erickson

Kurt Erickson will compose a 7-10 minute song set for voice and piano exploring themes of loss, beauty, and resilience, inspired by the Pan Am Flight 103 tragedy and personal grief. The expanded art song will premiere on a Fall 2026 LIEDER ALIVE! concert and be incorporated into his existing oratorio Each Moment Radiant.

Composer Kurt Erickson specializes in writing works for multi-disciplinary collaborative projects that address loss and healing. His song set Here, Bullet has been performed across the globe and occupies a unique place in the classical music world as a composition being turned into a short film, as a vehicle for veterans arts therapy programs, and the recipient of the First Prize Award in the 2020 NATS Art Song Composition Competition.

Each Moment Radiant, his latest work with poet Brian Turner, tells the stories of interweaving lives affected by the tragic bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. The work honors loss while celebrating resilience, love, and our capacity to celebrate the precious and ephemeral moments in our daily lives.

Erickson currently serves as Composer-in-Residence with San Francisco’s LIEDER ALIVE! He has designed and implemented over fifteen years of multi-year composer residencies with a wide assortment of performing arts organizations, dance companies, and cathedrals and national shrines. Erickson has been called “a composer at the height of his powers” and his music has been described as “haunting and poetic”, “gripping”, “genuinely moving”; with one author writing that a performance “moved this reviewer to tears”. Recent performances of his music have been heard at Deutsche Oper Berlin, at colleges and concert halls across the country, and on classical music radio programs and podcasts.

He is a frequent performer and collaborator with his wife, acclaimed soprano and scientist Heidi Moss Erickson.

LIEDER ALIVE!

LIEDER ALIVE! will present and record Sacred Joy: The Recording, a live concert of sacred classical vocal music featuring soprano Esther Rayo and pianist Peter Grünberg, showcasing their long-standing musical partnership in the church's resonant acoustics. The performance will be recorded live at St. Stephen's Belvedere on December 20, 2025.

LIEDER ALIVE! is a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to keeping the tradition of German Lieder, multilingual vocal repertoire, and instrumental chamber music passionately ALIVE. Founded in 2007 under the fiscal sponsorship of the San Francisco Foundation, LIEDER ALIVE! was initially focused on masterclasses connecting emerging singers with legendary artists such as Marilyn Horne, Thomas Hampson, and June Anderson. It has since evolved into a robust recital and mentorship program, providing deeply transformative experiences for both artists and audiences.

With a mission rooted in accessibility, intimacy, and artistic excellence, LIEDER ALIVE! now produces eight concerts per season, up from just three in its early years. These performances, held primarily in vintage and acoustically rich venues such as Old First Concerts in San Francisco and an additional series in Berkeley, offer audiences emotionally impactful musical encounters. A strong emphasis is placed on equal pay for singers and pianists, with honoraria provided for each artist.

In addition to live performance, the organization supports artists through professional development, recording projects, and mentorship opportunities, most recently through the upcoming “Sacred Joy” live recording. LIEDER ALIVE! places a particular focus on supporting underrepresented artists and nurturing long-term artistic partnerships that inspire both personal and professional growth.

LIEDER ALIVE! is committed to accessibility and intimacy, producing transformative live performances for audiences that include vocal music enthusiasts, classical musical supporters, and newcomers alike. It especially prioritizes supporting artists from underrepresented backgrounds and connecting deeply with patrons in vintage, acoustically rich spaces.

Lisa Mezzacappa

Lisa Mezzacappa will record othrwrldly, a suite for creative jazz sextet that explores "worldbuilding" through electroacoustic ensemble improvisation, drawing influences from literature by Ursula LeGuin, David Mitchell, and Haruki Murakami. The recording will take place in fall 2025 and be released in February 2026.

Lisa Mezzacappa is a San Francisco Bay Area-based composer, bassist, bandleader, and producer, hailed as “one of the most imaginative figures on the Bay Area creative jazz scene” (The Mercury News) and “a Bay Area treasure” (KQED). For nearly 20 years, she has been a vital force in California’s vibrant music community, creating works that span ethereal chamber music, avant-garde jazz, electro-acoustic experimentation, and multimedia collaboration.

Her wide-ranging projects include Cosmicomics, inspired by Italo Calvino’s tales of the universe; avantNOIR, rooted in noir fiction; Organelle, a suite for improvisers grounded in science; Glorious Ravage, a multimedia song cycle based on Victorian women explorers; and Touch Bass, blending choreography and bass performance. She also co-created the opera podcast The Electronic Lover with writer Beth Lisick.

Mezzacappa’s music appears on New World, Clean Feed, Leo, and other notable labels. Her work has earned support from the MAP Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Copland Fund, Warhol Foundation, and many Bay Area institutions. She has held residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Djerassi, Headlands, and Banff, and participated in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute.

As a performer, she has collaborated with Fred Frith, Nicole Mitchell, Myra Melford, Vinny Golia, and many others. Mezzacappa also curates the long-running JazzPOP series at the UCLA Hammer Museum and co-organizes Oakland’s Do-Over Music Series, continuing her commitment to creative jazz, improvisation, and community-driven experimental music.

Omar Ledezma Jr.

Azesu will record Legacy, an album honoring 80-year-old Latin music legend and master percussionist Orestes Vilato, combining Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, Venezuelan rhythms with contemporary American jazz. The album will be recorded at El Cerrito Records studios during summer 2025 and released in August 2025.

Grammy-winning percussionist and vocalist Omar Ledezma Jr., born in Caracas, Venezuela, is a distinguished graduate of Berklee College of Music. After relocating to the U.S., Omar became an integral part of the vibrant Latin music scenes in New York and Boston. Currently, he teaches percussion at the SF Community Music Center and the California Jazz Conservatory and has contributed to the DISC residency program at the San Francisco Ballet. A founding member of the Ka-Hon Ensemble for the SF Symphony’s Adventures in Music program, Omar is also a trailblazer in promoting Venezuelan music in the United States. In 2014, he earned a Grammy for “Best Latin Album” with his acclaimed recording for the Pacific Mambo Orchestra (PMO).

Now based in the Bay Area for over 18 years, Ledezma is also a founding member and now producer of Azesu, a dynamic Latin jazz ensemble led by legendary timbalero Orestes Vilató (Fania All Stars, Santana). Azesu merges Afro-Peruvian, Cuban, Venezuelan, and jazz traditions, with longtime collaborators David Pinto, Jonathan Alford, and Maria Márquez. After a pandemic hiatus, the ensemble is reuniting to record a new album of mostly original music, continuing their mission to celebrate and expand Afro-Caribbean musical traditions.

As a freelance musician, Ledezma has built a prolific career spanning more than 70 recordings, hundreds of live performances each year, and ongoing collaborations with leading Bay Area institutions and bands. With three decades of experience, two Grammy nominations, and a powerful commitment to community and cultural preservation, Ledezma continues to inspire through teaching, performance, and now, production.

Roopa Mahadevan

Roopa Mahadevan and Sruti Sarathy will record and release Songs for Many Lives, a diasporic Carnatic album featuring new compositions inspired by South Asian American immigrant history in the Bay Area. The Carnatic music recording explores themes of resistance, community building, and cultural diversity through traditional raga and tala structures and is planned for a 2025 release.

Drawing from her rigorous training and love for Carnatic music, vocalist Roopa Mahadevan creates unique
works with artists in jazz, world music, free improv, and R&B/soul genres. Roopa leads the crossover ensemble
Roopa in Flux, directs the innovative choir Navatman Music Collective, and sings for leading Bharathanatyam
and modern dancers around the world.

Roopa trained in Carnatic vocal under Asha Ramesh and further under Suguna Varadachari in India through
the Fulbright scholarship. Roopa has performed in diverse venues ranging from Chennai’s Music Academy
during the December festival in India and Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, which awarded her the title “Kala
Ratna,” to stages like Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, MET Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, Sadler’s Wells, and
more. She is a soloist on Christopher Tin’s Grammy Award-winning album Calling All Dawns, and a featured
voice with many innovative ensembles, including Brooklyn Raga Massive. She has participated in residencies at
the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Joe’s Pub, MASS MOCA, Hedgebrook, and Ryder Farm, and is
currently a fellow with Asian Improv Arts, working on new compositions inspired by South Asian American
history with support from the Creative Work Fund. Prior to music, Roopa worked in public health policy,
following degrees from Stanford University.

Roopa’s many avatars include composer, dancer/theater artist, comedian, teacher, facilitator, and more.
Through all of these, she seeks to express joy, humility, and tradition as radical and essential antidotes to
modern life.

RyanNicole Austin

RyanNicole will present a live ensemble performance of Yours Truly, described as "a love letter to Black sound," bridging jazz and hip-hop traditions through live instrumentation, reinterpretations of jazz standards, and original compositions. The showcase, featuring local musicians, celebrates her debut album with performances planned for Fall 2025.

RyanNicole is a GRAMMY®-nominated feature MC and poet whose lyrical prowess has been exploited on international stages and web platforms such as Team Backpack, garnering a global following. A TEDx Fellow, her musical catalog includes her latest release #YoursTruly, a solo mixtape Dis’Onance, and several collaborative projects with her hip-hop group Nu Dekades. She has performed alongside a wide array of artists and public figures—including a performance for President Barack Obama.

RyanNicole embodies the spirit of Oakland excellence, fusing art and activism in pursuit of equity, justice, and liberation. Her work centers the voices of Black women, addressing and disrupting misogyny, racism, anti-Blackness, and the silencing of Black women’s narratives. She invites audiences to unlearn, reflect, and engage in necessary conversations about race, gender, power, and storytelling.

Her interdisciplinary contributions to the Bay Area’s cultural landscape earned her recognition as a 2023 Rainin Fellow, and she continues to shape Bay Area culture through bold storytelling. Most recently, she was commissioned by American Conservatory Theater (ACT) to co-write and co-produce Co-Founders: The Musical, a full-length hip-hop theater piece examining the cultural intersections of Oakland and Silicon Valley. Co-Founders recently concluded a sold out and highly acclaimed world premiere run and is preparing for their pathway to Broadway.

A dynamic performer and community leader, RyanNicole is the longtime main stage host of the Black Joy Parade, curating performances for over 500,000 attendees annually.

Sam Reider Music

Sam Reider will record a solo album featuring 8-10 songs for piano, accordion, and voice, exploring themes ranging from personal to the political and environmental. The compositions will draw on influences ranging from folk singer-songwriters like Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, to jazz pianists Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Keith Jarrett, and Ray Charles.

Sam Reider is a Latin GRAMMY-nominated pianist, accordionist, composer, and educator from San Francisco whose work blends jazz, folk, popular song, and contemporary composition. A genre-defying performer and prolific composer, he has appeared at major venues worldwide and collaborated with artists such as Jon Batiste, Jorge Glem, Laurie Lewis, and Paquito d’Rivera. Reider’s projects include his virtuosic acoustic ensemble The Human Hands and a celebrated duo with Venezuelan cuatro master Jorge Glem. Their 2022 debut Brooklyn-Cumaná was nominated for Best Instrumental Album at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs and featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk.

Reider’s solo piano album Petrichor (2022), a musical reflection on returning home to California, earned four stars and Best of 2022 from Downbeat Magazine. His compositions draw from a rich background in American music and cross-cultural collaboration, including diplomatic tours in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East as a musical ambassador for the U.S. State Department. A dedicated educator and lifelong learner, Reider teaches jazz and composition at St. Mary’s College and holds degrees from Columbia University and San Francisco State. His music—praised for its lyricism, improvisational fire, and sense of place—has been described by Songlines as a “mash-up of the Klezmatics, Quintette du Hot Club de France and the Punch Brothers.”

Sascha Jacobsen, with Melinda Becker & The Musical Art Quintet

The Musical Art Quintet with mezzo-soprano Melinda Becker will record Kanta Judezmo, a 10-movement oratorio in the endangered Ladino language telling the story of a young Sephardic girl's journey during the Spanish Inquisition. The modern Ladino chamber music work will be recorded at Buffalo Bill Studios in Ross, CA between August 2025 and January 2026.

2022 Latin GRAMMY nominee Sascha Jacobsen is a bassist, composer, and educator whose work bridges classical, jazz, tango, and flamenco traditions with striking versatility and depth. A fourth-generation musician with roots tracing back to the Moscow Opera, Jacobsen studied with esteemed mentors and earned his Master’s at the University of Southern California. He has taught at the California Jazz Conservatory, Humboldt State, and various youth music programs across the Bay Area.

Jacobsen has performed with a wide range of renowned artists, including the Kronos Quartet, Rita Moreno, Hugh Jackman, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and flamenco and tango legends such as Raul Jaurena and Chuscales. He is a founding member of Classical Revolution and frequently collaborates with Adam Theis and the Jazz Mafia. As a principal and section bassist, he has worked with the Santa Cruz Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and Sarasota Opera, and has toured globally with Trio Garufa.

Founder of the Musical Art Quintet, Jacobsen composes original works praised as “stylish and vigorous” by Strad Magazine and “impressing with ear-catching intricacy and handsome technique” by the SF Bay Guardian. He has composed for leading Bay Area dance companies and received commissions from the San Francisco Arts Council, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and others.

Sierra Ensemble

Sierra Ensemble will commission and premiere a new work by Berkeley composer David A. Jaffe for their unique instrumentation of violin, French horn, and piano, building on the classical chamber music tradition established by Brahms. The project includes educational workshops featuring an introduction by composer, David A. Jaffe and premier performances TBA at San Francisco and east bay venues, as well as a live recording taking place in 2026.

Sierra Ensemble is an innovative violin, French horn, and piano trio committed to supporting a lively chamber music environment. Performing worldwide and throughout the United States since 1998, Sierra Ensemble’s mission seeks to build community via composer commissions, education projects and accessible performances. Sierra Ensemble was the winner of CEC ArtsLink and U.S. Department of State grants for the ensemble’s project, the Turkish American Composers Project in 2013. To help expand the horn trio repertoire past engagements have included commissioning composers Russell Steinberg, and Tolga Ozdemir and recent commissions include new works by Andres Carrizo, Aida Shirazi.and Richard Aldag. Sierra Ensemble has also expanded to include concerts with other ensembles such as MediusTerra Horn Duo, performing works by Haydn, Telemann for violin, cello, 2 horns and piano as well performing work by Eric Ewazen for 2 Horns and piano, “Gold Coast Harmony” and the Johannes Brahms Five Songs for 2 Horns and piano.

A cornerstone of this repertoire is Johannes Brahms’ beloved Trio in E-flat Major for Violin, French Horn, and Piano, Op. 40, a work that showcases the dark, mellow horn tones blending beautifully with the piano and violin. The Brahms Trio has been a defining piece for Sierra Ensemble, helping to shape its distinct sound and inspiring its members to discover and commission additional works for horn trio. Their ongoing collaborations with composers and performers—locally and internationally—have led to a growing body of new works that expand the expressive possibilities of the horn trio and inspire future generations of musicians.