Welcome to New Music Works!

Jon-Mark Hurley, Tenor
A versatile singer-actor performing in diverse musical genres, holds a Master of Music degree from Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee) and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Santa Clara University. He has performed with Bay Area Singer’s Opera Theater Institute of San Francisco and in several Cabrillo Stage Productions as well as a Jewel Theater's 2009 performance of “A Betrothal” by Lanford Wilson and Kenneth Fuchs. Jon-Mark has concertized with the Nashville Concert Choir, the Santa Cruz Chamber Orchestra and the Monterey County Symphonic Chorus directed by Maestro Leroy Kromm. As a local voice teacher and coach, he maintains an active vocal studio and is Musical Director for several children's theatre companies.

Matthew Lovell, Baritone
New England native, baritone Matthew Lovell is currently finishing his Masters in Music at the UCSC. With a great interest in the operatic repertoire some of Mr. Lovell’s operatic credits include Il Conte Almaviva from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Demetrius from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and John Sorel from Menotti’s The Consul. He has performed in the bay area with such opera companies as San Francisco Lyric Opera and Opera San Jose. Mr. Lovell also enjoys the concert repertoire with future engagements including the baritone soloist in Ralph Von William’s Five Mystical Songs with the UCSC Concert Choir. He is currently under the tutelage of Patrice Maginnis.

Simon Kelly, Narrator
Simon Kelly, actor/performer, was connected with Shakespeare S.C for a number of years playing character parts. He also was a member of the Dickens Players, which performed scenes from the works of Charles Dickens locally and around California, He was also one of the founders of the short lived but brilliant Steamboat Springs Repertory in Colorado. His favorite role was Gogo in the Bear Republic production of "Waiting for Godot." He presently is directing a remounted production of "The Naz", a bebop musical drama based on the Lord Buckley monologue. the Naz, to be presented at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on April 8, 2010, 7:30pm.

Billy Packard, Mandolin
Billy Packard has lived in S.C. since 1970. His mandolin background has included years playing first with Ricardo Tunzi, then Tony Flores and Mateo Casserino, all Italian mandolin players. Billy has since branched out to include many other styles. He plays regularly at Los Jardines de San Juan Bautista. See his web site at billypackardmandolin.com

Dale Wolford, Saxophone
a saxophone and Yamaha Performing Artist and an internationally recognized performer on the saxophone and Yamaha WX-5 Wind Controller. He has performed to critical acclaim in Europe and the western United States. With pianist Ivan Rosenblum, as the Wolford/Rosenblum Duo, Dale has premiered many new works including the Sonata for Saxophone & Piano by Gunther Schuller. The Duo has released two compact discs. Dale is a member of the Premiere Saxophone Quartet.

He has also performed with Philip Glass, the Morosco Saxophone Quartet, the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet and the Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra, with whom he has made two recordings. He is a frequent guest soloist with area orchestras and bands; and has performed with the San Francisco and San Jose Symphonies. His teachers included Sigurd Rascher, William Trimble and Victor Morosco. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Saxophone Performance from San Jose State University and a Master of Arts degree in Saxophone Performance from California State University, Hayward. Dale is currently on the faculty of San Jose State University and California State University, Stanislaus. He has also taught at University of the Pacific, California State University, East Bay and Chabot College.

Sayaka Yabuki (b. 1975, Gunma, Japan)
Sayaka Yabuki is an electronic sound artist currently based in California, USA. Sayaka immigrated to the USA from Japan during the 1980s, at the same time beginning her classical violin studies. As a teenager, she began her studies in visual arts, experimenting with sound installations, sound collage and performance art. As a university student, Sayaka met Australian electronic music pioneer, Steve Law aka Zen Paradox, who introduced her to experimental music composition using electronics. While at Brown University where she obtained her B.A. in Visual Arts, Sayaka studied interactive visual media with Rachel Stevens, then curator of Creative Time(NYC) and Max/MSP/Jitter with Todd Winkler, director of the MEME(Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments) program. Since relocating to California, Sayaka has studied music composition with Philip Collins and Rick Walker and was a recipient of the 2009 Sherman David Cowen Memorial Scholarship in the Music Technology program at Cabrillo College. Sayaka is the violinist and vocalist in the band Noise Clinic and also performs under the name Sayaka Starlite.

Karla Raquel Avil, Clarinet
San Francisco-based clarinetist Karla Avila is highly sought after as a performer and teacher throughout the Bay Area. She has performed with various orchestras, new music, and mixed-genre chamber ensembles throughout Northern California, including the San Francisco, Monterey, Marin, and Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestras, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players and Ensemble Parallèle. From 2004-2008, Karla also served as principal clarinetist of the Amadeus Opera ensemble in Salzburg, Austria. Recent winner of the Salzburg Festspiel’s International Young Artist Mozart Concerto Competition, Ms. Avila performed as soloist in Salzburg under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. She has recorded feature film scores at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and at Dolby San Francisco, and has played woodwinds, composed and sung vocals with the chamber-jazz-folk band Nobody’s Mother. Karla is currently a member of the hip-hop chamber project Ensemble MikNawooj, the new music groups Nothingset Ensemble, New Music Works, and the Avenue Winds Quintet, artists-in-residence at the annual San Francisco Chamber Winds Festival. Ms. Avila earned her M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2003) and her B.M. from the University of North Texas (2001). She serves on the woodwind & jazz faculty at Laney College, Oakland, CA and maintains a private teaching studio in San Francisco.

Cole Berry, Percussion
Cole finished up at ucsc two years ago where he studied percussion with William Winant and jazz drumset with George Marsh. He has also studied Latin percussion extensively with Michael Strunk at Cabrillo. Cole works as a youth counselor for Youth Services of Santa Cruz and as a freelance percussionist / drumset player. He is the principle percussionist in the progressive- world - jazz band, the New World Ape.

Colleen Donovan, Soprano
For info, please contact artist directly at: colleendonovan@yahoo.com

Lana Gruen, Cello
Lana Gruen served as Principal Cellist for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (2003-09), as well as Principle Cellist for the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra (2002-03), and Alternating Principle Cellist for the Oldenburg State Opera (2002). From 1995 to 2002 Lana performed with several orchestras in Germany, including the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, the International Academy of Bavarian Broadcast Orchestra, and the Mannheim Opera Theater.

Ms. Gruen has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout the Bay Area, and she has made a number of recordings in Germany and the U.S. She holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Conservatory of Music, Stuttgart, Germany. Ms. Gruen's major teachers include Michael Flaksman, Daniil Schafran, Ivan Monighetti, Natalia Shakhovskaia, and David Grigorian.

Daniel Lewin, Violin
Daniel Lewin has performed extensively throughout the United States , Canada and Europe. He has had an unusually diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster and teacher. During the 1996-1997 season he was first violinist of the Montclaire String Quartet and Concertmaster of the West Virginia Symphony. Mr. Lewin began his musical training at the age of six, studying piano with Edmund Arkus and violin with Benno Rabinof. From 1973 to 1976 he studied with Giorgio Ciompi at Duke University. As a scholarship student of Joseph Fuchs he received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. He made his European recital debut at the Festival de Boulogne-sur-Gesse in Southern France. He is frequently heard in duo recitals with his brother, concert pianist Michael Lewin. Daniel Lewin has held the position of Concertmaster with the Charleston Symphony (S.C.), Nevada Symphony, Cedar Rapids Symphony, the Symphony of the United Nations, Solisti New York and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. He made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut with the New York Youth Symphony. He has also played with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and the Spoleto Festival in both Charleston, S.C. and Spoleto Italy From 1989 to 1992, Daniel Lewin was Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to teaching both undergraduates and graduate music students, he also served as the Concertmaster of the Nevada Symphony and was a founding member of the Nevada Fine Arts Trio. During the 1992-1993 season he was Visiting Artist in Residence of Violin at the University of Memphis where he was also a member of the Pyramid String Trio. His teaching credentials include the College of Charleston, S.C., and the Eastern Music Festival. Mr. Lewin plays a violin made in 1667 by Jacob Stainer.

Will McIntire, Percussion
Will is from Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently a fourth year at UCSC studying percussion. He specializes in mallet instruments, specifically jazz vibraphone. He has an identical twin brother who is also a musician.

Matthew Montgomery, Accordion
Matt Montgomery is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, born and raised in the Bay Area. In 2005, he graduated with a BFA in viola performance and composition from the California Institute of the Arts. He frequently records live instruments for Film, Television and Video Games in his home studio, and is currently pursuing a career in composition. His current passions include writing the music and singing lead vocals for his band “Vs Them,” as well as performing as part of local Tango ensemble “Montango.”

Mesut Özgen, Guitar
Mesut Özgen has performed and taught master classes throughout the United States, Spain, and Turkey and has been a guitar faculty member at UCSC since 1998. In addition to being a prizewinner in the International Portland Guitar Competition, he has performed as featured soloist in many festivals, including the International Paco Peña Guitar Festival in Cordoba, Spain, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Yale Guitar Extravaganza, April in Santa Cruz: Contemporary Music Festival, and many others. He was the first guitarist to be awarded the "Dean's Prize," which is the highest honorary prize of the Yale School of Music. He began playing guitar in 1981 while pursuing his study at the School of Medicine. During his seven years of medical practice, as a self-taught guitarist, he also played concerts and taught guitar in his native Turkey. After his two performances in the International Paco Peña Guitar Festival in Cordoba, Spain (1989 and 1990), he was invited to the U.S. by Benjamin Verdery to study with him at Yale University, where Özgen completed both his Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma. Between 1994 -1998, Özgen studied with Professor Frank Koonce in the doctoral program at Arizona State University and worked as his teaching assistant.

Özgen performed in master classes for many notable guitarists, such as John Williams, David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, Leo Brouwer, and Jose Luis Rodrigo. He has also studied early music on guitar, lute, and Baroque guitar with Jaap Schroeder, Rosalyn Tureck, John Metz, and Robert Spencer. Besides his own compositions, Özgen has long been a strong advocate of new music for guitar and frequently collaborates with other composers. Composers who have written solo, concerto, and various ensemble music for Özgen include Anthony Gilbert, Pablo Victor Ortiz, Anthony Newman, Benjamin Verdery, Jack Vees, Deepak Ram, Christopher Pratorius, and others.

Özgen has also a long-standing interest in bringing classical guitar music to a larger audience. His staged performances include “Folkie Classical Guitar,” presenting classical music based on American, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, and Argentinean folk cultures, with special stage design and costumes, as well as “Pick and Roll” for guitar ensemble by Ben Verdery.

LORI RIVERA, Voice
Lori Rivera, local chanteuse and actress has mostly recently been thrilling Bay Area audiences with her one-woman show “Smoke”, with original music by Joe Ortiz. She was a featured soloist with The Mount Madonna Choir, The Fairy Godmother in Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s “Cinderella”, and a member of the Grammy nominated a cappella group, The Bobs. Earlier this year, she played The Mother in “The Yellow Boat” and The Little Girl in “Tomato Plant Girl” both presented by WEST productions. Comfortable with all styles of music, Ms. Rivera performed with bassist Stan Poplin at this year’s Avant Garden Party and is thrilled to be working with New Music Works on Cabaret Politico

Tom Graves, Actor
Lori Rivera, local chanteuse and actress has mostly recently been thrilling Bay Area audiences with her one-woman show “Smoke”, with original music by Joe Ortiz. She was a featured soloist with The Mount Madonna Choir, The Fairy Godmother in Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s “Cinderella”, and a member of the Grammy nominated a cappella group, The Bobs. Earlier this year, she played The Mother in “The Yellow Boat” and The Little Girl in “Tomato Plant Girl” both presented by WEST productions. Comfortable with all styles of music, Ms. Rivera performed with bassist Stan Poplin at this year’s Avant Garden Party and is thrilled to be working with New Music Works on Cabaret Politico

Ryan Coonerty, Guest Speaker
A native of Santa Cruz, is in his second term on the Santa Cruz City Council. As Mayor in 2008, he successfully negotiated a settlement between the UC Santa Cruz and the City over their Long Range Development Plan. In doing so, he ended more than a dozen lawsuits and helped redefine the relationship between the community and university. He also authored the Clean Oceans, Rivers and Beaches initiative, led innovative efforts to invest city funds in local financial institutions and created a help line for day laborers to report abuse.

Prior to his election to the City Council, Ryan served as Legislative Counsel to two national commissions, including President Carter and Ford’s National Commission on Federal Election Reform. He managed a school bond campaign for Santa Cruz City Schools that raised $86 million to repair and remodel school facilities. Ryan graduated from Santa Cruz’s public schools and the University of Oregon. He then earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Martin Kachuck, Actor
has performed in numerous Monterey and Northern Bay area theatre productions over the last three decades. He has acted for Carmel Shakespeare, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Actors Theatre and Cabrillo Summer Stage, starring in roles such as Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tevye in Fiddler or Mr. Peechum in Three Penny opera. Martin has taught at Mt. Madonna School in Watsonville since 1983 and is current Director of Theatre. He obtained his B.A. in Theatre Arts at UCSC and M.A. in Directing Children’s Theatre at San Jose State.

Arianna Haltom, Dancer
has been dancing for 12 years. She currently dances at Steps Dance and Performing Arts located in Watsonville, taking classes in jazz, ballet, lyrical and theatre jazz. Lulu has been in many theatre performances, including James and the Giant Peach (Glow Worm), Babes In Toy Land (Queen), Hamlet (Queen of Denmark), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Lucy), and Yellow Submarine (George Harrison). Lulu performs with local company All About Theatre, and has participated in The Jungle Book (Bagheera), Peter Pan (Tiger Lily, Dance Captain) and others. She goes to Mount Madonna School as a sophmore, and will participate in the school’s Winter production of Urinetown and the spring production of the 32nd annual Ramayana. Lulu is very excited to be a part of the Farewell to Stromness dance and hopes to continue performing throughout her life!

WILLIAM WINANT, Percussion
Described as "one of the best avant-garde percussionists working today" according to Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times, William has collaborated with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Keith Jarrett, Anthony Braxton, James Tenney, Cecil Taylor, Steve Reich, the Kronos String Quartet, and Frank Zappa, among others. He has made over 100 recordings, covering a wide variety of genres, and many important composers have written works for him. He has appeared as percussion soloist with major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony Mavericks series. He teaches at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and is an Artist-In-Residence at Mills College

TIMB HARRIS, Violin and Trumpet
He performs, records, and tours the US and internationally with avant-rock ensembles Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3. His focus on contemporary music has resulted in a wide variety of performing and recording with artists such as William Winant, Eyvind Kang, Roy Malan, Mr. Bungle, New Music Works and many others. His recordings can be found on The End Records, Web of Mimicry, and John Zorn's Tzadik label.

Kenny Hill, Guitar
Classical guitarist Kenny Hill has been in and around the music community in Santa Cruz and New Music Works since the 1970s. His natural playing ability draws on music from many sources, traditional and exotic, ancient to modern. He has performed and taught in many, many schools and venues, local and international over the last 35 years.

DAVID TANENBAUM, Guitar
Recognized internationally as an outstanding performing and recording artist, a charismatic educator, and a transcriber and editor of both taste and intelligence, David Tanenbaum is one of the most admired classical guitarists of his generation. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia. He has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, Vienna's ORF orchestra, with such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.

David Tanenbaum has been a featured soloist at many international festivals, including those of Bath, Luzern, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Vienna as well as numerous guitar festivals. In 1989, as President of the Second American Classical Guitar Congress, he commissioned five new works, including Rosewood by Henry Brant for a large guitar orchestra. He has subsequently conducted Rosewood more than a dozen times on four continents.

While his repertoire encompasses diverse styles, David Tanenbaum is recognized as one of today's most eloquent proponents of new guitar repertoire. Among the many works written for him is Hans Werner Henze's guitar concerto An Eine Äolsharfe, which he premiered throughout Europe and recorded with the composer conducting, Terry Riley's first guitar piece, Ascención, four works by 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis, two pieces by Roberto Sierra, and a suite by Lou Harrison. He is currently working with Terry Riley on a series of 24 guitar pieces. He has toured extensively with Steve Reich and Musicians, was invited to Japan in 1991 by Toru Takemitsu, and has had a long association with the Ensemble Modern.
David Tanenbaum's three dozen recordings, which reflect his broad repertoire interests, can be found on New Albion, EMI, Nonesuch, Ars Musici, Rhino, GSP, Albany, Audiofon, Bayer, Acoustic Music Records, Bridge, Stradivarius and others. His 2002 recording as soloist with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in John Adam's Naive and Sentimental Music was nominated for a Grammy as the Best New Composition.

David Tanenbaum is currently Chair of the Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received the 1995 Oustanding Professor Award, and he has been Artist-In-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He is in demand for master classes worldwide. Mr. Tanenbaum's students have won many international competitions, and his former students hold teaching positions internationally.

David Tanenbaum studied guitar with Rolando Valdez-Blain, Aaron Shearer and Michael Lorimer, attending the San Francisco Conservatory and Peabody Conservatory. Further studies included work with pianist Jeanne Stark-Iochmans and harpsichordist Laurette Goldberg. He participated in the 1981 New York master class with Andres Segovia.

SHEILA WILLEY, Soprano, is working toward her MM at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studies voice with Patrice Maginnis. An Iowa native, Miss Willey has Bachelors degrees from the Peabody Conservatory—where she studied with Deidra Palmour—in voice and music education. She has performed in Weill’s Street Scene at UCSC and debuted the roll of Julia in David Evan Jones’ one act opera The Rehearsal and also performed as Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone.

JUDY ROERTS, cello, is a native Californian, received her BM degree in Music Performance from Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana. After 2 years as Assistant- Principal cellist in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Ms. Roberts traveled to Europe where she played as principal cellist in the Stadttheater Lueneburg in Germany. Along with frequent chamber music performances, solo recitals, and extensive teaching, Ms. Roberts was also a member of the Stadttheater Kiel and Stadttheater Luebeck. In 2007 Ms. Roberts returned to the USA and is currently living and playing in the Santa Cruz area.