Vinny Golia

A multi-woodwind performer, Vinny's recordings have been consistently picked
by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly "ten best" lists. In
1990 he was the winner of the Jazz Times TDWR award for Bass Saxophone.
In 1998 he ranked 1st in the Cadence Magazine Writers & Readers Poll and
has continually placed in the Downbeat Critic's Poll for Baritone Saxophone.
In 1999 Vinny won the LA Weekly’s Award for "Best Jazz Musician".
Jazziz Magazine has also named him as one of the 100 people who
have influenced the course of Jazz in our Century. Golia has also
contributed original compositions and scores to Ballet and Modern
Dance works, video, theatrical productions, and film. As an educator
Vinny has lectured on music & painting composition, improvisation,
Jazz History, The History of Music in Film, CD & record manufacturing
and self-production throughout the United States, Europe and Canada.
He currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts. In 1998 Golia
was appointed Regent's Lecturer at the University of California at San
Diego. Vinny has been a featured performer with Anthony Braxton,
Henry Grimes, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Joelle Leandre, Leo Smith,
Horace Tapscott, John Zorn, Tim Berne, Bertram Turetzky, George Lewis,
Barre Phillips, The Rova Saxophone Quartet, Patti Smith, Harry
"the Hipster" Gibson, Eugene Chadburne, Kevin Ayers, Peter
Kowald, John Bergamo, George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Misha
Mengelberg, Han Bennick, Lydia Lunch, Harry Sparrney and the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra amongst many others.

Ava Mendoza

Ava Mendoza is a guitar player/composer in Oakland, CA. She has played in
a wide variety of groups-- heavy rock/avant jazz/improvised music/contemporary classical. Her solo work draws a lot from early country and blues tunes, reworked (mangled?) in her own way. In any context she tends to tread a wobbly line
between melodicism, atonality and sonic abstraction. Both solo and in groups
she likes to develop specific tunes/riffs/compositional ideas, and then throw
musical monkey wrenches into them live, forcing them to self-destruct and
collide with free improvisation. Ava is an extremely curious person who loves
a lot of very different sorts of music.

Marko Novachcoff

Marko Novachcoff (various wind instruments) studied multiple woodwind
performance at the Interlochen Arts Academy and Indiana University.
As a teenager he met and conversed with George Shearing, John Cage,
Van Cliburn and Count Basie, started freely improvising at the age of
fifteen and began what is now a formidable collection of hundreds of
instruments from around the world. While studying at Indiana University,
he was part of an ensemble that premiered a piece by Lucas Foss.
During the 70's he began performing original musics with his own groups.
In the 70's and 80's Marko was part owner and operator of three
studios, working with many artists including Sly Stone, and George
Clinton/Parliament Funkadlic. He was a member of the "avant folk group
Only A Mother with Frank Pahl as well as The Immigrant Suns, touring North
America and Europe most notably at the Sound Symposium in St. Johns
Newfoundland where he met and performed with the Latvian group ZGA.
Marko played Ophicleide for the soundtrack of the Ken Burns/PBS
Documentary 'Baseball' which led to a performance at the White House.
Over the years, he has played with hundreds of musicians including
Marcus Belgrave, Eugene Chadbourne, Jimmy Carl Black, Paul
Dolden, Amy Denio, Shaking Ray Levis, Trimpin, Damo Suzuki, Wendel
Harrison, Howard Johnson, Don Byron, and Thollem McDonas. He has
had the great pleasure to enjoy friendships with and/or mentored by
the likes of Dizzie Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Yussef Lateef, Donald Byrd and
Archie Shepp. Currently he is playing with Jeff Marx and Odu Afrobeat
Orchestra. "I have always believed that ancient music and modern music
have more in common than that which happened in between. The
music of ancient cultures, primitive or advanced has fascinated me.
In addition to my western instruments, I play instruments outside the
western traditions and feel with confidence that I can speak the musical
language of many cultures. I have incorporated many of these in the
world of free improvisation".

Theresa Wong

Theresa Wong is an improviser and composer based in the San Francisco
Bay Area whose work encompasses music, theater and the visual arts.
Her training in classical music and design fused during her fellowship at
Fabrica Center in Treviso, Italy where she recognized the possibility
of creative performance through encounters with Lawrence Weiner, Koichi
Makigami and Alexander Balanescu. Current projects include: O Sleep,
an improvised opera launched into progress at the Headlands Center for
the Arts which explores the conundrum of sleep life, Call It Culture, a cello
duo written for and performed with Joan Jeanrenaud and funded by a Subito
Grant, which utilizes original extended techniques in a score merging
composition and improvisation; and Disasters of War, inspired by Francisco
Goya's etchings, a duo performed with Carla Kihlstedt at the Meridian
Gallery for cello, violin and voices. Wong was recently invited by dance
pioneer Anna Halprin to perform a leading vocal role in Spirit of Place, a
site-specific piece honoring Stern Grove. She is also a cast member on
cello, voice and piano in Carla Kihlstedt's Necessary Monsters seven
member theater project. In addition, she has collaborated with such artists
as Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, Gianni Gebbia, Dohee Lee, Ellen Fullman
and ROVA Saxophone Quartet. Her performances have been included at
the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Unlimited 21 Festival in Wels, Austria, Other
Minds Brink series in San Francisco, Radio France broadcast, A L'improviste
and at The Stone in New York City. Theresa holds an MFA in Performance
and Improvisation from Mills College and a BS in Product Design from
Stanford University.

Kjell Nordeson

Kjell Nordeson divides his time between Stockholm and San Francisco. He has a BA
from Stockholm University, and has studied classical percussion at Ingesund School
of Music with Björn Liljeqvist, former principal percussionist of the Stockholm
Philharmonic. Together with saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, he formed AALY Trio
in 1986. AALY Trio became one of the leading groups in the Swedish experimental
scene in the 90’s. Nordeson has toured extensively in North America, Europe, North
Africa and Japan with various groups. He has performed with Peter Brötzmann,
Barry Guy, Ken Vandermark, Joe Morris, William Parker, Paul Rutherford, Gerry Hemingway, Frank Gratkowski, Stefano Scodanibbio, and many others. In 1994 he founded Co. Alba with choreographer Nathalie Ruiz. Co. Alba is a platform for
Nordeson’s work as a composer. Ruiz and Nordeson have jointly produced
numerous dance performances; their latest piece, a short film entitled Désiré,
was commissioned by Swedish Television. Nordeson has worked in numerous
theatre performances at Sweden’s Dramaten (Royal Dramatic Theater), Riksteatern (Swedish National Theater), and Stockholm's Stadsteater (Stockholm City Theater). Nordeson is a regular member of several musical groups. He performs most frequently with Katzen Kapell, Exploding Customer, School Days, Angles, Alberto Pinton Quintet, sfSoundGroup, and Torbjörn Zetterberg Octet. He has appeared on over 40 CDs
with these and other groups. Since 2004, Nordeson has been active in the San
Francisco Bay Area’s thriving community of  free-improvised, experimental and new music. He regularly plays with musicians Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin, Greg Goodman,
George Cremaschi, Scott Looney, Damon Smith, John Ingle, sfSoundGroup, Aram
Shelton, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa and many others. In 2008, he collaborated with multimedia artist Katharine Gin to create This Place Called Poetry, a three-month exhibition at San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, in which Gin and Nordeson directed and produced a series of 11 short films portraying young San Francisco poets.

Michelle Webb (Past Member)

 

 

 

 

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Carmina Escobar

Carmina Escobar is a singer and multimedia artist from Mexico City that has
collaborated in many different projects which explore a diversity of sonorous
languages such as medieval music, opera, contemporary music, folk music,
electronic music and experimental trends involving interdisciplinary
collaborations and multimedia. As a soloist she has performed concerts of
contemporary repertoire for solo voice, the premieres of works by young
composers and performances of her own compositions. She has appeared in
diverse forums and festivals all around the Mexican Republic as well as
California, collaborating with artists of diverse disciplines. She is an active
improviser, as much in a solo context as in a group context, in which she
involves, as part of her sonorous vocabulary, real-time processing of
her voice and the use of concrète elements through electronic media.
At the moment she resides in Los Angeles CA where she is studying for her
master´s degree in Vocal Performance at the California Institute of the Arts
(CalArts) focusing on the interpretation of contemporary music, extended
vocal techniques, interdisciplinary performance and improvisation.

Julián Martínez Vázquez

Julián is a violinist from Charapan, Michoacán, México and Mexico City.
He was born into a family of folk musicians. Began his professional violin
studies at the Nat'l conserv. of music with Espin Yepez in 1994. In 1997
he studied under Boris Klepov until 1999. He finished his studies in
Morelia under the tutelage of Prof. Guela Duprova. He has been a member
of the Orquesta de Camara of the Univ. of Mich. since 1999, and was part
of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in 2000-01.  His participated as a
soloist in various occasions with the Orquesta de Cámara de la Universidad
Michoacana, Orquesta Juvenil de Guanajuato, Camerata de Michoacan
and Orquesta Sinfónica de Michoacán. He's part of the traditional
musical group, Los P’urhepecha de Charapan., with whom he recorded the
album, Juchaari Kuinchekuecha.  He received the FOESCAM 2003 grant
and the grant for interpretation from FONCA 2005 and 2008 as well as
managed and/or participated in a variety of community/cultural projects,
such as the Programa de Educación Musical Regional de la Secretaría
de Cultura de Michoacán.  He's participated in the Darmstadt contemp.
music festival '06, 08, and Ensemble Recherche Akademie in Freiburg '08.
That same year he was part of the Ensemble Modern Akademie,
participating in the festivals of Klangspuren (Austria) y Transart (Italy).
Julian Martinez is specialized in contemporary repertorie for solo violin,
and this year (09) have published two investigations about the folk
music of Michoacan.

Alexander Bruck Santos

Violist Alexander Bruck Santos is one of the most active musicians in
Mexico’s fast growing contemporary/experimental music scene. Though
classically trained, he feels equally at home in rock, free jazz, and music
on the boundaries of sound art/installation. Born in Cologne, Germany,
into a family of a long musical tradition, Bruck Santos has made a living
playing in symphonic orchestras since 1995. In 2001, he decided to
devote himself entirely to music and went on to study viola privately
with several renowned teachers. Thanks to a scholarship from the
National Fine Arts Institute he studied in Paris from 2003 to 2006 with
Garth Knox, the legendary former member of the Arditti Quartet,
who remains his most important musical influence. During those years
in Europe, he took many workshops and classes with members of
some of Europe’s major ensembles (Recherche, Modern, Klangforum)
and soloists of the likes of Stefano Scodanibbio and Mike Svoboda.
He gained experience playing in groups such as Musikfabrik, United
Instruments of Lucilin or On_line Viena, as well as with many
improvisers of the new generations. Back in Mexico since 2006, he
has been playing with La Orquesta Silenciosa, Generación Espontánea,
the Orka free jazz orchestra, and Tempus Fugit, as well as in a
large number of occasional projects. As a soloist he has been
commissioning and premiering an ever growing number of pieces
by some of Mexico’s most remarkable new composers, such as
Ignacio Baca Lobera, Iván Naranjo, Juan Felipe Waller, Arístides
Llaneza and others, and has been featured at festivals in Mexico,
Lima, Morelia, Monterrey, León, Oaxaca, Mérida and Puebla.
Alexander Bruck now teaches viola and contemporary music at
Mexico City’s music college Escuela Superior de Música. He is a
permanent member of Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra.
He has recorded for Jazzorca Records, and the Mandorla net label.
This fall, Alexander will premiere works by Juan Cristobal Cerrillo,
Ignacio Baca Lobera, Iván Naranjo, Dario Palermo (I) and Gabriel
Paiuk (ARG), as well as playing the first performance of Julio
Estradas Yuunohui ‘Ome ‘Wah with NYC percussionist David Schotzko,
at the Festival Internacional Chihuahua.

Emilio Tamez

Born in San Luis Potosí, México. Freelance drummer, composer and
poet, Emilio Tamez has been involved for more than ten years in the
development of an integrated art form of percussive sound. Ethnic
textures and colors, sound-poetry, modern structuralism, jazz languages
and free improvisation: it’s a work in progress/process. Emotional
communication is what counts in his work and in the development of his
individual identity. It is a style without boundaries or fixed schemes.
There are elements from many cultures presented in an energetic
performance attitude that features a strong connection with the
artistic “moment”. This elements constitute an ongoing poetic laboratory
of sound in the search of an integration of universal percussive expression
and a very unique multidisciplinary performing art form. He has been a
former member and co-leader with the projects La Batería Multidireccional
(México 1996-1999); Non Jazz (México 1997-2005); UBUDIS Ensamble
(México-EUA 2005-2006); México Trio (México-Germany 2004-2005);
ScglagArt-Arte Percusivo Integral Libre (México 2005-2009); Bajo el
Volcán (Malcom Lowry) with actor David Evia (México-Germany
2003-2005); Theater des Lachens (Germany-Mexico 2004-2005);
TAMBORERO LAB (México 2004-2009); Encuentro Internacional de
Jazz y Música Viva (México 2003-2007); rízOmä, Multidisciplinary
Art Collective (México-Chile 2006-2009). Emilio has been involved in
projects along Andrew Cyrille, Rashied Ali, Sonny Fortune, Reggie
Workman, Ratzo B. Harris, Ronnie Burrage, Gebhard Ullmann, Gabriele
Hasler, Ramón Lopez, Neil Swaison, Andre Jaume, Felix Petry, Ursel Schlight,
Bruce Arnold, Shanti Oyarsabal, Jonathan Golove, Agustí Fernandez,
Hernán Ríos, John Beacon, Indran Amyrthanayagam, Jasna Jovicevic,
Udo Moll, Hans Perment, Jen Kuan Chang, Ute Volker, Sankari Krishnan,
Vlady Bystorv, among many others. Emilio Tamez has been teaching,
giving workshops and drum clinics for more than ten years around
México and EUA. For the last four years he has been actively performing
around México at festivals and offering concerts as a soloist as well
as doing art residencies in EUA and in México. He is currently promoting
“Transition-Transmission: New Creative Processes of the 21th Century
Drums”, a project focused on new music for drums set as part of his
work in progress solo project SchlagArt-Arte Percusivo Integral Libre
and in collaboration with Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes
Sonoras (CMMAS), in Morelia, Michoacán, México.

Thollem McDonas

Pianist/comproviser Thollem McDonas (Artistic Director Estamos Ensemble
2009, 2010) was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area of Irish and
Cherokee descent. Not long after birth he began studying the keyboard repertoire
from the medieval to the 20th century and studied with many notable
teachers including Aiko Onishi, Allen Strange, and Lou Harrison. After graduating
with degrees in both piano performance and composition he dedicated
his time for years in grassroots political movements and ecological restoration
projects before coming back to music with his full focus. He is currently
touring perpetually, back and forth between Europe and the States, mostly as
a soloist but also in collaboration with many other individuals and groups.
Thollem's travels as a performer and teacher have covered much of the North
American continent and Europe (he often leads listening and group
improvisation workshops as well as master-classes). He has performed
extensively as a soloist as well with groups. He is a founding member of
several innovative ensembles. In the past 5 years alone he has added 16
albums to his discography on 6 different vanguard labels in 3 different
countries. His music is diverse, with each album and every concert exploring
a variety of approaches and paths, resulting in dramatically different outcomes.
Thollem is a recent recipient of a Meet The Composer grant. He was commissioned
by The Limon Dance Company for a large-scale piece in commemoration of their
50th year anniversary. This previous September he was invited to perform the
late works of Claude Debussy on the piano on which they were written,
as well as his own comprovisations with Stefano Scodanibbio. This will be the
first album (OnDebussy'sPianoAnd...) ever recorded on Debussy's piano.
Thollem has performed in theaters, art galleries, universities, elementary schools,
concert halls, jazz clubs, rock clubs, festivals, warehouses, house
concerts, streets, forests, riots and on television and radio. He has performed
piano concertos with symphonies, played in West African drumming
troupes, Javanese gamelan ensembles, an afro-punk band, with hundreds of
free improv groups, and as an accompanist and a composer for opera
and modern dance. His music appeals to a wide variety of audiences because
of these rich and wildly disparate experiences. Currently Thollem
Primarily plays his own comprovisations.