UCLA HERB ALPERT SCHOOL OF MUSIC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Adjunct Professor, Ethnomusicology
- Assistant Adjunct Professor in UCLA 's Department of Ethnomusicology
Abhiman Kaushal is an outstanding exponent of tabla. Belonging to an illustrious lineage, he was initiated by his father, R B Kaushal, who was a disciple of the legendary Ustad Amir Hussain Khan. Later Abhiman became a direct disciple of highly revered Ustad Shaik Dawood and Pandit B Nandkumar of Hyderabad, India.
Abhiman has performed with most of the prominent artists of Indian classical music globally. He has numerous recordings which have been received with high acclaim.
White Sun II, an album on which Abhiman was a featured percussionist, won a Grammy award under the New Age Music category. Some of his other noteworthy recordings have been Passages, with Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, and Delbar/ Saffron, with Ustad Shujaat Khan and Katayoun Goudarzi, that was short-listed for a Grammy.
He has been on the faculty at UCLA since 1998 where he imparts his knowledge of tabla to students from all across the campus.
Abhiman Kaushal, assistant adjunct professor in UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology and a tabla player, was featured on White Sun's Grammy award-winning album "White Sun II," honored last month. Kaushal is…
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Music Education / Woodwinds
- Lecturer - Music Education / Woodwinds / Lecturer - Music Education / Woodwinds
- Music
Adam Joseph Gilberti is a composer, conductor, author, educator, multi-instrumentalist and chef working in the Los Angeles area. He has composed over 150 works for concert, film, stage, video games, and television. His research interests include extended instrumentation, psychoacoustics, video game music, Native-American music, early music and ancient music written before the Middle Ages. He won the Corwin Composition Competition in 2003 for his large orchestra work Reflections of Honor and quartertone choral work Four Poems. His musical/opera Beloved Upon A Time featuring interwoven Korean myths was premiered in Royce Hall in 2009. Dr. Gilberti is the co-conductor and co-director of the Game Music Ensemble at UCLA and teaches students in composition, orchestration, music education, performance, music theory, music history and instrumentation. He is an active performer in the Southern California region on percussion, woodwinds, organ, harp, Lakota flute and the ancient Greek kithara. He is a member of the Wessex Consort of Renaissance Winds, a member of the Los Goytx Medieval Capella, and the director of the Santa Monica Jazz Collective and the Kuiper Ensemble. Gilberti is also executive chef of Epic Dining Experience, LLC. Ph.D. (Music Composition) from UCLA, M.A. (Music Theory & Composition) from UC Riverside, B.M. (Music Composition) from UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Gilberti studied with Roger Bourland, Bruce Broughton, Paul Chihara, Joel Feigin, James Horner, Ian Krouse, Tim Labor, David Lefkowitz, Susan McClary, James Newton and William Kraft.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Associate
Associate Adjunct Professor; Global Jazz Studies, Music, Music Education
Alison Deane, pianist, has performed extensively as both soloist and chamber musician across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and has received numerous prizes, awards, and grants. A native New Yorker, Ms. Deane holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where she was given the school's highest honor, the Harold Bauer Award. The New York Times described her Alice Tully Hall solo recital as "a dazzling affair…has the fingers of a really first-class technician…her performances are exhilarating…the virtuoso demands suited her superbly."
Other solo engagements have included recitals at Merkin Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, concerti with the National Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic and Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as recitals and chamber music at the Mostly Mozart, Spoleto, Salerno, Interlochen, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors festivals. Following a performance at the Kennedy Center, the Washington Star reported: "…playing of size and expressive dimension…power, dexterity…substantial gifts of control and expression most impressively displayed." First Prize winner of the National Black Music Competition, sponsored by the Kennedy Center and the National Music Council, she is a recipient of performance grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Martha Baird Rockefeller foundations, was the subject of two TV programs filmed in Germany for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and was featured in a national commercial for United Airlines, "The Concert Pianist," performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Highly regarded as an educator, Ms. Deane was formerly an Associate Professor of Music at the City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Adjunct Professor, Ethnomusicology
Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy's research, writing, teaching, curatorial activities, and multi-media publications often have an applied focus, aimed at community development of minority traditions, especially in diasporic settings. She served as curator and presented the first concert and lecture tour outside India with a group of African-Indian Sidi performers from Gujarat, in September 2002, traveling with them in England and Wales. Her recent publications include Sidi Sufis: African Indian Mystics of Gujarat (Apsara Media 2002: 79-minute CD), the volume co-edited with Indian Ocean historian Edward Alpers, Sidis and Scholars: Essays on African Indians (New Delhi: Rainbow Publications, 2003), the DVD The Sidi Malunga Project (2004), the DVD From Africa to India: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora (with Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy) (2003), and Music for a Goddess (with Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy) (2008), an interactive DVD of 175 minutes, including Bonus Tracks, on professional musicians dedicated to the Goddess Renuka-Yellamma in southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka.
Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy, adjunct professor of ethnomusicology at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Bakë-Jairazbhoy Chair for Indian Ocean Studies at the…
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Horn Performance
- Lecturer - Horn Performance, Music Performance / Horn
With her dynamic personality as a performer and educator, horn player Amy Sanchez has developed a diverse career in Los Angeles that places her at the front of a new generation of multifaceted instrumentalists. She joined the faculty at UCLA as Lecturer of Horn in 2014.
Having performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Long Beach, and New West Symphonies, as well as LA Opera, LA Master Chorale, LA Chamber Orchestra, and many other ensembles throughout California, Sanchez is a member of the Fresno Philharmonic, Riverside Philharmonic, the Pageant of the Masters Orchestra in Laguna Beach, and is Principal Horn of the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico. She has performed internationally throughout Europe, and in India, Israel, and Japan.
An active studio musician, Sanchez often records music for film and television with the Hollywood Studio Symphony, including blockbusters Rogue One, Moana, Star Trek Beyond, and Jurassic World, as well as Netflix original series Luke Cage and Agents of Shield. Most recently, she can be heard on Disney Pixar's Coco, Jumanji 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Geostorm. Amy has recorded for hip-hop, pop, rock and jazz artists as diverse as Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Florence and the Machine, and Michael Buble's Grammy Award winning album, To Be Loved. Her brass trio, 3Brass is recording their 2nd album, after the success of the their premiere album, An Offering. Sanchez also plays with jazz ensembles, such as VOCE (Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble) and Marcel Camargo's Brazil You Never Heard. Sanchez has toured with Hans Zimmer Live and Andrea Bocelli, and performed with Danny Elfman, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes, Kanye West, and Rihanna, as well as multiple performances on NBC's The Voice.
Originally from upstate NY, Sanchez received her Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College, and then toured as the horn soloist with the Broadway show Blast for two years, as well as multiple tours in Japan. She received her Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California, and returned to her Ithaca alma mater to teach as sabbatical replacement Horn Professor in 2007. In addition to her private teaching studio, Sanchez taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and has been a teaching artist for the LA Philharmonic and Harmony Project/Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, supported by Gustavo Dudamel. Sanchez also sings and plays guitar, but outside of music, her passions include traveling, running, hiking, surfing… and tango!
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Professor, Ethnomusicology
Anna Morcom works on music and dance in India and Tibet from diverse perspectives that seek to understand the contemporary world and processes of change in and through musical culture. Her research is ethnographically-based and interdisciplinary and encompasses traditional as well as popular musics. Her publications include Unity and discord: Music and politics in contemporary Tibet (2004, Tibet Information Network); Hindi film songs and the cinema (2007, Ashgate); Illicit worlds of Indian dance: Cultures of exclusion (2013, Hurst and OUP); and articles in a range of peer-reviewed journals - Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology Forum, Consumption, Markets and Culture, South Asian Film and Media, Cultural and Social History, and HIMALAYA. She made a VCD album of Tibetan songs with the singer Tanzin Gyatso in Tibet in 2006, entitled sPrin Gyi Metok (‘Cloud flowers).
In 2014, Illicit worlds of Indian dance was awarded the Society of Ethnomusicology's Allan Merriam prize and the Marcia Herndon prize of SEM's Gender and Sexualities section. Her research has been supported by a number of grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy. She is the founder of SEM's Special Interest Group on Economic Ethnomusicology. Morcom has been interviewed on Illicit worlds of Indian dance by various UK media including BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed, and by India-based media including the national newspaper, The Hindu, the leading social justice magazine, Tehelka, and the independent news, information and entertainment organisation Scroll.
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Department of Ethnomusicology is pleased to announce that Anna Morcom has accepted the department's offer to be the next holder of the Mohindar…
Job Titles:
- Instructor of Armenian Music Ensemble
- Instructor of Armenian Music Ensemble, Ethnomusicology
Armen Adamian is a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA. His research investigates the politics of music making among Armenians and the involvement of musical and choreographic discourses in the production of geopolitical and national narratives. Alongside his academic studies, Armen practices duduk and leads an Armenian folk ensemble in Los Angeles. He received his MA in Ethnomusicology from UCLA, a BA in Psychology and a BA in Music Composition from Humboldt State University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Professor
- Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Professor Global Jazz Studies, Music Director, UCLA Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
ARTURO O'FARRILL, pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Arturo's professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte.
In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music.
An avid supporter of all the Arts, Arturo has performed with Ballet Hispanico, Ron Brown's EVIDENCE Dance company, and the Malpaso Dance Company, for whom he has written several ballets.
Arturo's well-reviewed and highly praised "Afro-Latin Jazz Suite" from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma) took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition as well as the 2016 Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Recording. In addition, his composition "Three Revolutions" from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo also received the Best Instrumental Composition Grammy in 2018. Arturo's 2020 album, "Four Questions" won yet another Grammy award in 2021.
Arturo has been a Steinway Artist for many years and is now a Blue Note Records Recording Artist.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Global Jazz Studies
Considered by the jazz media to be at the forefront of his musical generation, Cuban born multi-instrumentalist and composer Arturo Stable has shared the stage/studio with artists such as Grammy-award winners Paquito D Rivera, Esperanza Spalding, the Caribbean Jazz Project, Miguel Zenon, Terri Lyne Carrington, Christian McBride, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, just to name a few.
Mr. Stable also has extensive experience as a clinician and educator. He was the Chair of the Hand Drum Department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (2012-2017), Artistic Director of the Puebla Jazz Festival (Mexico 2008-2011), and Artistic Director of the Philadelphia International Hand Drum Day (2012-2013). He has also collaborated with various universities including Julliard, Temple, Westchester, and Berklee College, among others. Mr. Stable has developed a strong international presence as a bandleader with five releases under his name and countless international appearances in important festivals such as Madrid Jazz Festival, Vittoria Jazz festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Moscow Jazz Fest, and Budapest Jazz Fest.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Artist
- Lecturer - Tuba Performance
- Lecturer - Tuba Performance, Music Performance
Aubrey Foard is the principal tubist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2018. He also serves as lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and as Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Center. Mr. Foard was most recently principal tubist of the Charlotte Symphony, serving in that position from 2012 until 2018. He has previously held principal tuba positions in the Santa Barbara, West Virginia, Canton, Youngstown and Albany Symphonies, as well as with the Britt Festival Orchestra. He has performed as a guest musician with several other orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, Arizona MusicFest and as Acting Principal Tubist with the San Diego Symphony.
Mr. Foard's solo performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio's "Performance Today," and on WQXR New York, KUHF Houston and KDB Santa Barbara. As a soloist, he has performed with the West Virginia Symphony, the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, the Music Academy of the West Orchestra and on multiple occasions with the Charlotte Symphony. He is a past multiple prizewinner of the Minnesota Orchestra's WAMSO solo competition. An avid proponent of new music for the tuba, Mr. Foard has commissioned a Tuba Concerto by American composer Mark Petering; the solo part is available for free download on IMSLP. The first movement was premiered by the Charlotte Symphony in 2018 and the full work was premiered in February, 2020 with the The US Army Orchestra and Mr. Foard as soloist.
Mr. Foard's students at UCLA have achieved numerous accomplishments, including winning fellowships to music festivals, performing with professional orchestras, performing on major motion picture soundtracks and winning concerto competitions. He previously taught at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and at West Virginia State University. Mr. Foard has presented master classes and recitals worldwide, most recently at the International Women's Brass Conference, Florida State University, the US Army Tuba Euphonium Workshop, and Taiwan TubaMania. He is a founding faculty member and Executive Director of Back to School Tune-Up with the Pros, an online summer boot camp for tuba students that allows for continuing education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Foard is a graduate of The Colburn School's Conservatory of Music, Rice University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. His teachers include Norman Pearson, Fritz Kaenzig, Mark Lawrence, David Kirk, Ron Bishop, and Alan Baer.
Aubrey Foard is a Buffet Crampon performing artist, representing the Melton Meinl Weston line of instruments.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Ethnomusicology
Through his research and teaching, Ben Doleac has explored sound, signification, and subversion in popular music and the music of the African diaspora, from funk and jazz to disco, hip hop and beyond. His current research examines the New Orleans brass band parade known as the second line, detailing how black New Orleanians have utilized the parade as a site of both creative resistance and direct political action from the Jim Crow era through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, Doleac won a Graduate Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where he researched the early history of jazz. His writing has been published in Ethnomusicology Review and The Yearbook of Traditional Music. He has also been a performing vocalist for more than two decades in ensembles ranging from Harvard's Kumbaa Singers to the UCLA Early Music Ensemble.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Composition / Music
- Music
Called "feisty" and "impressive" by the LA Times, Ben Phelps lives in Los Angeles, where he is a percussionist, composer and amateur urban planning enthusiast.
He is director of What's Next?, a leading post-classical new music event and performance collective in Southern California, and has performed and collaborated extensively with many other local chamber music groups, including the Definiens Project, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, WildUp, and the pioneering multimedia based theater company Rogue Artists Ensemble. In 2009, in conjunction with What's Next?, he founded the Los Angeles Composers Project, the most comprehensive survey of local music from composers of all stages of their careers in Southern California. His new project, The B Band, is an eclectic "classical band" created for performance in both clubs and the concert hall. Commercially, he has toured the world as an assistant conductor for Lord of the Rings Live, presenting the entire score, performed live by an orchestra to the films.
His music has been performed by the likes of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Argus String Quartet, pianist Vicki Ray, the Bass Clarinet Duo Sqwonk, and by percussion ensembles across the country, including The Los Angeles Percussion Quartet and Talujon Percussion Group, and many more.
Phelps is also an accomplished percussionist. He has had the pleasure of working with such luminary living composers as Steve Reich, Thomas Adès, Michael Gordon, and John Adams. Steve Reich called his performance of Nagoya Marimbas at a concert honoring Reich's 70th birthday "the best I've ever seen- and I don't say that," and the Huffington Post has called him "a magician of the marimba." He can be heard performing frequently with Orchestras in the Southern California area as well on locally recorded film and television soundtracks.
His work with the pioneering theater company Rogue Artists Ensemble has been called "enchanting" by the LAWeekly and "sonically brilliant" by the OCWeekly.
Phelps holds a BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a DMA in music composition at University of Southern California.
Beth Kraemer has extensive experience in nonprofit program and organizational development. Her work includes leadership roles in a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the position of founding President and CEO of Social Enterprise Alliance, a national membership organization focused on helping nonprofit organizations generate earned income. She has also served as Vice President, Community Affairs for a large regional bank, where she managed an award-winning corporate philanthropy program. Beth has held educational positions at the USC and Rutgers University schools of social work where she trained bachelors and masters level students. Beth's career began in the organized Jewish community, where she worked in a variety of organizational settings, including Hillel Council at UCLA. She has a Master of Social Work from Yeshiva University, where she concentrated on community organizing, planning and administration.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Lecturer - Clarinet Performance Principal Clarinet LA Phil
- Lecturer - Clarinet Performance Principal Clarinet LA Phil, Music Performance
Boris Allakhverdyan was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2016. He previously served as Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Associate Principal Clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony. Allakhverdyan is a founding member of the Prima Trio, the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal winner of the prestigious 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
The New York Times called his performance "inspired" and "superlative," and the Los Angeles Times praised his "energetic, vibrant solos."
Allakhverdyan has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle, Tucson, Bakersfield and Springfield Symphony Orchestras as well as orchestras in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. He has participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommen Festival in Germany and the Emilia Romagna Music Festival in Italy. Allakhverdyan is a winner of Rimsky-Korsakov International Woodwind Competition, Rozanov International Clarinet Competition, Hellam Concerto Competition, the Tuesday Musical and the Oberlin Concerto competitions.
Allakhverdyan serves on the clarinet faculty at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as well as at California State University at Fullerton. He previously taught at Peabody Institute of Music, Pacific Music Festival in Japan and Interlochen Clarinet Institute in Michigan. He has given master classes at most prestigious schools in North and South Americas, Europe and Asia. As a chamber musician, Allakhverdyan has performed throughout the United States and Europe on such series as Chicago Chamber Music Society, La Jolla Athenaeum, Dumbarton Oaks, the Dayton Art Institute, CityMusic Columbus, Da Camera Society, Fontana Chamber Arts and Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra
- Continuing Lecturer
- Continuing Lecturer, Global Jazz Studies / Director, UCLA Jazz Orchestra Director, Jazz Combo
Charley Harrison is one of a rare breed of composers that is as equally skilled with a baton in front of an orchestra, as he is behind a computer in a studio full of synthesizers. Known for his stirring orchestrations, as well as hard-driving swing, Harrison's music has been enjoyed on film and television, symphony halls and nightclubs, in the studio and on the road, both domestically and abroad.
His compositions and arrangements have been performed by some of the biggest names in jazz including: Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry, Marcus Miller, Freddy Cole, Kurt Elling, Joe Williams, and Cedar Walton, and the Count Basie Orchestra.
Harrison's recently released CD, Keeping My Composure, received critical acclaim, and appeared on the JazzWeek radio charts for 13 consecutive weeks. Harrison's recent film scoring highlights include writer/director Don Goodman's dramedy, Lavinia's Heist (which premiered at the famed Cannes Film Festival); and writer/director Steven Gary Banks' comedy Head Rush .
Prior to his relocation to Los Angeles, Harrison spent ten years working as a composer/producer in Chicago's advertising community, where he created music for such clients as McDonald's, The Chicago White Sox, Chuck E. Cheese's and Bissell Vacuum Cleaners.
Even though he resides in Los Angeles, Harrison also serves as the Associate Director of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the city's resident professional jazz ensemble. The 18-piece big band presents a yearly subscription concert series in which they have featured such guest artists as Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry, and Kurt Elling. As principal composer/arranger for the CJO, Harrison's music is heard regularly on their subscription concerts, as well as their other performing engagements, including their annual appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of the Formosa Quartet
- Professor - Viola Performance
- Professor - Viola Performance, Music Performance
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of African American Studies
- Professor
- Professor Ethnomusicology, Global Jazz Studies
Cheryl L. Keyes is the author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness (University of Illinois Press), which received a CHOICE award for outstanding academic book titles. She has written numerous journal articles, essays, and reviews on hip-hop/rap and African American popular music. Amongst her most recent essay is "Long Live Hip-Hop: Hamilton and the Death (and Rebirth) of Hip-Hop" in the edited volume Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton. Professor Keyes is also a member of the Executive Committee for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and the National Museum of African American History and Culture's project, Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap, and help "stewarded the selection of nine CDs consisting of 129 tracks and a 300-page book" along with additional writing for the Anthology. On other fronts, Professor Keyes has been featured in public facing platforms as a critic and cultural consultant for the television mini-series documentary, Death Row Chronicles (BET) and for DreamWorks Animation's film, Trolls World Tour (Universal Pictures), respectively.
Keyes's scholarship has advanced into other areas including producing, writing, and directing a documentary (short) called Beyond Central Avenue: Contemporary Female Jazz Instrumentalists of Los Angeles. In addition, she has served as musical director for the "Lady Jazz: Blues in the Summertime" concert, commissioned by Instrumental Women Project™ for its Lady Jazz summer concert series held at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and created and produced the concert Swinging to a World of Strings, presented at UCLA's Schoenberg Auditorium and supported by the David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund.
In the area of performance, Professor Keyes is a pianist, flutist, singer, and composer with a list of credits. Most noted are performances with the All-Girl All-Star Invitational Band under the direction of the legendary jazz flugelhornist Clark Terry, and a featured artist-composer on The Other Side of Eddie Bo with New Orleans rhythm and blues icon Eddie Bo. She has recorded with jazz clarinetist-educator Alvin Batiste in which Keyes performs keyboards on Batiste's debut album, Musique D'Afrique Nouvelle Orleans. She is a recipient of numerous awards: NAACP Image Award in the category of "Outstanding World Music Album" for her debut CD, Let Me Take You There (Keycan Records); Global Music Award Silver Medal for "Outstanding Achievement" for her double-single CD Hollywood and Vine (Keycan Records); and the Indiana University's Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award.
Under leadership, Professor Keyes is currently chair of the Department of African American Studies at UCLA. She also holds a post on the Editorial Advisory Board for Society of Americanists Review (SOAR), the flagship journal for the Society of Americanists, and currently serves as chair of the Program Committee for the 2021 66th Annual Meeting for the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM). Keyes has formerly served in other capacities. Among these include President of the US Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US); member of the Board of Directors for the SEM; chair of the Faculty Executive Committee for the School of Arts and Architecture at UCLA; Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA; Inaugural Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music; Director of Graduate Studies and Vice Chair for the Department of Ethnomusicology; and Chair of the Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Well-Being Sub-Committee for the UCLA Academic Senate Graduate Council.
Cheryl Keyes was in the sixth grade, watching her older brother perform in a high school band concert, when she decided what instrument she would play: the flute. She was…
Job Titles:
- Director
- Lecturer - Vocal Diction, Vocal Coaching
- Lecturer - Vocal Diction, Vocal Coaching, Music Performance
"Warm, grand, and rich", Cheryl Lin Fielding's pianism has been praised by the New York Sun, and throughout the world. Her performances have taken her to major venues including Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Juilliard Theater, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and the Getty Museum.
Fielding has been honored with the Grace B. Jackson Prize in Excellence by the Tanglewood Music Festival, recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and three times received the distinguished Gwendolyn Koldofsky Award in Keyboard Collaborative Arts.
Her musical studies began at the age of three in Taiwan, first on the piano and later the violin. She continued through dual master's degrees at the Juilliard School (Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano) and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at the University of Southern California, with extended emphasis in Vocal performance.
Fielding has served as music director and vocal coach for Opera Chapman at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, Operafestival di Roma, an adjunct professor at California State University at Northridge, Azusa Pacific University, and Chapman University. She was an adjudicator for NATS and Spotlight Awards, and served as a pianist for the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Juilliard School, Los Angeles Opera, Operalia, and OperaWorks. Dr. Fielding also served as vocal coach and pianist for USC Thornton Opera, Operafestival di Roma, Opera Pacific, and as the Principal Coach at Opera San Jose and Opera Santa Barbara. She is currently on the music staff as a coach and pianist for Dolora Zajick's Institute of Young Dramatic Voices, and as a Lecturer and opera coach for UCLA Opera at the Herb Alpert School of Music.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Adjunct Professor, Ethnomusicology
At UCLA, Li teaches group lessons in all the major Chinese instruments, the most popular of which are the erhu (2-string fiddle), zheng (bridged zither), dizi (flute), yangquin (hammered dulcimer), pipa (4-stringed plucked lute) and ruan (4-stringed plucked lute with a round body). Li occasionally teaches less popular instruments such as the sanxian (3-stringed plucked lute) and qin (7-stringed bridgeless zither) to a small number of interested students.
Li was one of three individuals selected for the 2008 UCLA Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for non-Senate faculty. This award is intended to increase awareness of UCLA's leadership in teaching by honoring "individuals who bring respect and admiration to the scholarship of teaching."
We have heard from Professor Christoph Bull, University Organist, about his latest podcast interview with Jim Logue. He says "Jim Logue interviewed me about how I got into playing…
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor - String Bass Performance Principal Bass LA Phil
- Adjunct Professor - String Bass Performance Principal Bass LA Phil, Music Performance
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor - Organ Performance
- Adjunct Professor - Organ Performance, Music Performance
- Department 's Professor of Organ
- Professor
Born in Mannheim, Germany, Christoph Bull has performed and recorded around the world, including France, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Russia, India, Taiwan and El Salvador, at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and at venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York City, Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, the Cathedrals of Moscow, Saint-Denis and Salzburg as well as rock clubs like The Viper Room, The Roxy and The Whisky in Los Angeles.
Bull improvised his first melodies on the piano at the age of five and gave his first organ recitals and rock concerts with a band at the age of twelve. He's collaborated with leading orchestras, conductors, choirs and ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, James Conlon, Carl St.Clair, Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony and Grammy-winning Southwest Chamber Music.
His organ teachers were Cherry Rhodes, Hermann Schäffer, Ludwig Dörr, Samuel Swartz, Christoph Schöner and Paul Jordan. He also participated in master courses with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Craig Cramer and Rudi Lutz.
Bull is the creator of the genre-crossing, collaborative multi-media series organica, combining traditional and contemporary music. His collaborators include DJs, video artists, live painter, instrumentalists and singers. He has also contributed to projects by Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, Harry Connick Jr., George Clinton and Bootsy Collins (Parliament Funkadelic), Cindy Lauper, Lili Haydn and Nishat Khan and opened the organ series at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa and Villa Aurora in the Pacific Palisades.
His solo album First & Grand, the world premiere recording of the Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ, was celebrated by the international trade press and showcases the stylistic versatility and expressiveness of his playing. His original song "Peace" was featured on the benefit album 2 Unite All together with songs by Peter Gabriel, Stewart Copeland and others. His song "Ali" was featured on the website for the collector's book about Muhammad Ali by Taschen.
His music has been broadcast on TV and radio, including on NPR's flagship station in Southern California, KCRW, on Classical KUSC and the Minnesota Public Radio program "Pipedreams".
Bull is based in Los Angeles. In addition to his activities as a concert organist, composer, singer-songwriter, speaker, university organist and organ professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he is organist-in-residence at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, playing one of the largest pipe organs in the world.
Outside of music, Bull is interested in politics, theology, cinema and sports. He's read the whole Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching, watched every Seinfeld episode and all Star Wars movies in a row in the chronological order of the storyline. He's run the L.A. Marathon several times and won the National German Youth Championship in Baseball with his team BC Tornados Mannheim.
We have heard from the Music Department's Professor of Organ, Christoph Bull, who has been performing in Japan and China. Below are some of the photos he has shared with…
Job Titles:
- Continuing Lecturer
- Continuing Lecturer, Global Jazz Studies
Clayton Cameron is known as a dynamic drummer who has also experimented with and perfected the art of brush technique. Cameron has toured with Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett, as well as other legends of the jazz world including George Shearing, Joe Pass, and Joe Williams. During Cameron's time with Tony Bennett the group performed with many great artists including Frank Sinatra, Billie Joel, Sting, Mariah Carey, Brandy, the Back Street Boys, James Taylor, K.D. Lang, Elvis Costello, and Ricky Martin.
In 1990, after the release of his video, The Living Art of Brushes, Clayton was given the honorary title "Brush Master."
Born in Los Angeles, California, Cameron received a degree in music from California State University at Northridge. During college, he played in clubs around L.A behind artists such as O.C Smith, Ernie Andrews, Jimmy Weatherspoon, instrumentalist Teddy Edwards, Larry Gails (of Thelonious Monk fame) and Gerald Wilson. After graduating from college, Clayton moved to Las Vegas to perform nightly with a jazz group called the Kirk Stuart trio. While in Las Vegas Cameron experimented with brush techniques. It was during this time that some of the rough ideas for his future videos and books were developed.
In addition to his video, Cameron has created a ground-breaking book on the elusive art of brush playing, entitled Brushworks. You can hear his masterful work on his 2012 CD Here's to the Messengers: A Tribute to Art Blakey.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Global Jazz Studies / Trumpet
Dan Rosenboom (b. May 7, 1982) is an internationally recognized trumpet player, composer, and producer. He is known as a prolific member of the Los Angeles creative music scene, having released more than 25 albums of original music as a solo artist and bandleader and has supported over 60 artists across nearly 90 releases on his label, Orenda Records. Rosenboom frequently performs in Hollywood Studios for major film and television soundtracks, highlighted by the latest Star Wars trilogy, with such notable composers as John Williams, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, and Alexandre Desplat.
He has also performed often with such elite ensembles as the LA Philharmonic, the LA Chamber Orchestra, and the LA Opera. His own music eschews genre distinctions and draws from such disparate influences as jazz and Black American Music, metal and experimental rock, contemporary classical music, folk music from around the globe, and a broad range of progressive music from the avant-garde. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, CalArts, and UCLA, where he earned advanced degrees in music. The Los Angeles Times has called Dan Rosenboom "a musician dedicated to exploration and expression, regardless of anyone's imagined boundaries" and "a phenomenon."
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Composition / Music
- Music
Dante De Silva is a Los Angeles-based composer and musician. His music has been described as "haunting" (Classical Sonoma) and "beautiful" (Los Angeles Times) to "sparkling" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and "fun" (Sequenza21). From his early days in a rock band up until the present, Dante has always aimed to create music that evokes emotions ranging from the simple to the complex. To conjure those emotions, his compositions incorporate a characteristic balance of lyricism, simplicity, humor, fragility, and even savagery.
He has received commissions from Grammy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng, Opera Parallele, the Verdehr Trio, the B Band, and the Humboldt State University Percussion Ensemble, among others. In addition to his commissions, performers of his work include Talea Ensemble, Pacific Serenades, pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, What's Next, and Composers Inc. His music has been performed throughout the U.S., as well as parts of Canada and Europe.
De Silva holds a Ph.D. in composition from UCLA, where his primary teachers were David Lefkowitz and Paul Reale, an M.A. in composition from UC Santa Cruz with David Cope and Paul Nauert, and a B.A. in music with an emphasis in piano performance from Humboldt State University, where he studied with Brian Post (composition), Eugene Novotney (percussion, composition), and Deborah Clasquin (piano).
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer / Director of the Klezmer Music Ensemble
Dr. David Asher Brown is a composer, conductor, and speaker based in Los Angeles, California. His music is just as likely to be written for orchestra as it is for MIDI-mapped Nintendo controllers. His greatest sources of musical inspiration include (no joke) Renaissance counterpoint, Balinese Gamelan, German 80's bands, and the movie Cinema Paradiso. The Metropolitan Opera's William Lewis praised him as, "one of the most brilliant music makers it has been my pleasure to serve." Additionally, Brown is the founder and CEO of www.PianoCub.com, which offers high-quality online piano instruction. He gives talks to businesses, schools, and organizations about how thinking like a musician can help solve problems and build teams.
His musical activities take him around the world, including conducting engagements in France and Austria and a composition grant in the Czech Republic. His principal past instructors include Morten Lauridsen, Donald Crockett, Frank Ticheli, Erica Muhl, Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Ladislav Kubik, and Stella Sung.
Brown earned his doctorate in music composition at the University of Southern California. In addition to having conducted and coached numerous opera and musical theater productions in the United States and abroad, he regularly conducts several children's orchestras and guest conducts various college and professional orchestras. He is the founder and director of the Yiddish Music Collective, which works to perform Yiddish-language musical works, many of which have gone unperformed for nearly a century.
When not working, Brown loves to cook, travel, spend time with his family, and write about himself in the third person.
Job Titles:
- Continuing Lecturer, Ethnomusicology / Director, Old - Time String Band Ensemble
David Bragger is a performer and teacher of old-time music on a variety of early American stringed instruments. He is a world-renowned fiddle instructor who teaches workshops and private lessons around the globe. David is the artistic director of the Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention which is now in its 49th year and a producer/workshop coordinator for the Los Angeles Old-Time Social. David is also the founder of the Old-Time Tiki Parlour where he documents the greatest living musicians of traditional American music.
Bragger was a professional music video director for Sony Europe and Atlantic Records while earning his B.A. in Religious Studies from UCSB. After graduation, he spent time in India recording the folktales and music of itinerant Indian street magicians. He then went on to study the art of old-time fiddle and banjo with his mentors Mel Durham and Tom Sauber. This led to visits around the country with many of the remaining old-timers including Clyde Davenport, Joe Thompson, Benton Flippen, Will Keys and Charlie Acuff.
For the past five years, David has released twenty DVDs and CDs through Tiki Parlour Recordings and continues to bring prominent traditional musicians out to Los Angeles for concerts, workshops and master classes with the UCLA Old-Time String Band Ensemble. He strongly believes that our local community should have the opportunity to interact and learn from these traditional masters. David is currently producing a modern anthology of American folk music.
David also plays fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar for his traditional old-time stringband Sausage Grinder and recently recorded the first ever fiddle duet album in the old-time genre. He can also be heard on recordings and at live shows with mainstream rock artists including Bad Religion's Greg Graffin and Social Distortion. David also contributes music to Paula Poundstone's podcast and he recently performed the featured fiddle and banjo music in the western Hollywood film "Gone are the Days."
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Music Education / Music Education Class in Brass or Woodwinds
- Music
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor - Piano Performance
- Assistant Professor - Piano Performance, Music Performance
- Assistant Professor of Piano
- Shapiro Chair
David Kaplan, pianist, has been called "excellent and adventurous" by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for "grace and fire" at the keyboard. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Britten Sinfonia and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Known for diverse and creative recital programs, he has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington's National Gallery, Strathmore, and Bargemusic. Kaplan's New Dances of the League of David, mixing Schumann with 16 new works, was cited in the "Best Classical Music of 2015" by The New York Times.
Kaplan has collaborated with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets, and is a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. He has appeared at the Bard, Seattle Chamber Music, Mostly Mozart, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals, and is an alumnus of Tanglewood, Ravinia-Steans Institute, and the Perlman Music Program. Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as with Timo Andres in the acclaimed disc, Shy and Mighty (2010), for Nonesuch. For 2021, he commissions renowned composers Anthony Cheung and Christopher Cerrone for two works based on music written by one another, to be programmed with fantasy-form works from L. Couperin to Elliott Carter.
Passionate about teaching, Kaplan was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2020. Kaplan's distinguished mentors over the years include the late Claude Frank, Walter Ponce, Miyoko Lotto, and Richard Goode. With a Fulbright Fellowship, he studied conducting at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Lutz Köhler, and received his DMA from Yale University in 2014. Preferring Yamaha and Bösendorfer pianos, David is proud to be a Yamaha Artist. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.
David Kaplan has plans for the Shapiro chair. "The opportunity of a gift like this is that it can create truly big things," said Kaplan, assistant professor of piano performance.…
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Professor, Composition / Composition / Theor
David Lefkowitz, a native of New York City, studied music composition at The Eastman School of Music, Cornell University, and University of Pennsylvania, where his principal teachers were Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, George Crumb, and Karel Husa.
As a composer Lefkowitz has won international acclaim, having works performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Ukraine, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and Egypt.
Lefkowitz has won national and international competitions, including the Fukui Harp Music Awards Competition (twice), and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP) Grants to Young Composers Competition. In addition, he has won prizes and recognition from the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA), the Guild of Temple Musicians, Pacific Composers' Forum, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Washington International Competi tion, Society for New Music's Brian M. Israel Prize, the ALEA III International Competition, and the Gaudeamus Music Week. He has also been a Meet-The-Composer Composer in Residence.
Recent commissions include works for Melia Watras of the Corigliano Quartet, 'cellist Elinor Frey and pianist David Fung, violinist Petteri Iivonen, soprano Ursula Kleinecke and Colloquy, harpist Grace Cloutier, quintets for Pacific Serenades and the Synergy Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cantor Joseph Gole and the Cantor's Assembly, the Harvard Westlake Orchestra, and by the Beijing City Opera Company (China's largest and best Beijing Opera company) to write the music for a thirteen-minute solo dance-drama; the resulting BR/EIDGING OPERA for small chamber orchestra has been well received by audiences and artists on both sides of the Pacific. He has music published by MMB Music, by Yelton Rhodes Music, Zen-On Music, Whole>Sum Music, and Lawson-Gould/Warner-Chappell Music. He has recordings available or soon to be available on Yarlung, Fatrock Ink, Japanese Victor, Yamaha, and Albany record labels.
As a theorist Lefkowitz has researched "meta-theoretical" issues such as the process of segmentation (a Component of post-tonal analysis) and the internal structure of set-classes, he has written extensively on Schoenberg's piano music, and also has done work on music theory pedagogy, culminating with his textbook Music Theory: Syntax, Function, and Form which is expected to be published soon.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Flute Performance Principal Flute LA Phil
- Lecturer - Flute Performance Principal Flute LA Phil, Music Performance
Established as one of the world's leading flute soloists, Denis Bouriakov was the winner of the 2009 Prague Spring competition, and prize winner at most major international flute competitions, including the Nielsen, Munich ARD, Kobe, Rampal, Nicolet, Larrieu, and others. He is currently the Principal Flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, appointed by Gustavo Dudamel in 2015, and has previously served as the Principal Flute of the Metropolitan Opera in New York under James Levine. Denis has been combining orchestral and solo careers, regularly performing concertos and recitals worldwide. He has collaborated as a soloist with many prominent conductors, including Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, and Gustavo Dudamel.
With his phenomenal virtuoso technique and musicianship, Denis looks outside the standard flute repertoire for works that would allow the flute to shine, continually transcribing and performing violin concertos and sonatas, and expanding the limits of flute technique and artistry. A number of his arrangements have been published by Theodore Presser, with a few in the works. Additionally, some of them are available as free downloads on his website. His first solo CD, featuring the Bach Chaconne, Sibelius Violin Concerto, and other daring original arrangements, was released in 2009 and followed by a number of other solo albums over the years. His upcoming CD release, in collaboration with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, features Romantic-era violin and flute concertos such as the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. In addition to his commercially released solo albums, Denis has published hundreds of videos of live performances from recitals and concertos on his YouTube and IGTV channels.
Denis has held a full-time teaching position at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2017, alongside his fellow-flutist wife, Erin, who shares his enjoyment of collaborative teaching and duo performing. In 2018 he was appointed Visiting Professor of Flute to his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music in London. The Academy previously awarded Denis the prestigious titles of Associate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2006 and 2014, respectively. Denis leads many masterclasses for conservatories and universities worldwide and teaches many courses in Germany and Japan. He has been on the faculty of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, both of which he had participated in as a student. Additionally, Denis has been invited to adjudicate many international competitions. In 2019 he was appointed chairman of the woodwind jury by Valery Gergiev for the prestigious XVI Tchaikovsky International Competition.
Denis was born in Simferopol, Crimea, and was a prodigy flutist from a young age. At the age of 10, he was admitted to the Moscow Central Special School, where he studied with the famous Professor Y.N. Dolzhikov, the only French-trained professor in USSR. With the support of the "New Names" International Charity Foundation and the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation, Denis toured as a young soloist in over 20 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and the USA, performing for Pope John Paul the Second, Prince Michael of Kent, and the presidents of Russia, Romania, and Indonesia. When he turned 18, Denis went on to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Professor William Bennett, OBE.
While studying in London, he competed internationally and freelanced as a Principal Flute with the Philharmonia of London, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leeds Opera North, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. He won his first full-time orchestral position in 2005 as Principal Flute with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland, where he also taught at the Tampere Conservatory of Music. In 2008 Denis moved to Spain to become the Principal Flute with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Eiji Oue. Later that year, Denis won the position as Principal Flute of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has resided in the United States since 2009.
Job Titles:
- Instructor
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Ethnomusicology / Director, African American Music Ensemble
A native of Washington, DC, Diane White-Clayton holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in music composition from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a B.A. degree in music from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri with emphases in composition, voice, and piano. As a rotary scholar, she studied classical piano at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, performing solo gospel concerts throughout Europe as an Ambassador of Goodwill.
Affectionately known as "Dr. Dee," Diane travels extensively as a vocalist, pianist, composer, conductor, workshop clinician, and speaker. She has held numerous positions at universities, colleges and churches across the country including Artistic Director with the Washington Performing Arts Society; Artist-in-Residence and Assistant Director of African-American Student Development at Appalachian State University; Artist-in-Residence at Westmont College; Composer-in-Residence at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Scholar-in-Residence at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; lecturer at Loyola Marymount University; and Choral Conductor at the New Christ Memorial Church under legendary gospel great, Pastor Andraé Crouch. For thirteen years, she was a choral conductor at the 6,000-member Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California under the headship of internationally esteemed, Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer, where she founded the beloved Sacred Praise Chorale.
Possessing a three-and-a-half octave range, Diane weaves her high operatic soprano voice with her soulful gospel roots in her self-produced recordings. As a composer, her works have been performed at such venues as the John F. Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, with her most popular piece, "Clap Praise" having been performed across the globe. Whether arrangements of African, Korean or African-American folk songs, her arrangement of the Hatikvah, her atonal classical works, her vocal jazz or her inspirational sacred or gospel songs, Dr. Dee's compositions and performances demonstrate a mélange of the power and complexity of gospel music, the technique of classical music and the colors of jazz.
An inspirational speaker and author, Dr. Dee combines an inviting genuineness with humor, eloquence and faith. Dr. Dee is a member of the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles and conducts the African American Music Ensemble featuring choral works from the repertoire of gospel and spirituals and other sacred works by black composers. She is founder and CEO of BYTHAX, through which she publishes, produces and books herself and other artists. She is the artistic director of the famed Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, known for their international influence as classical performers of Negro Spirituals. And she is the founding director of "Dr. Dee & the BYTHAX Ensemble," a gifted, musically-diverse, professional vocal ensemble. Diane shares her life with her best friend, husband and business partner, Joe Louis Clayton, former recording and touring Motown R&B percussionist.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Ethnomusicology / Director, Music of Java Ensemble
Djoko Walujo Wimboprasetyo, respectfully addressed by his professional colleagues and his students as "Pak Djoko" (Father Djoko), is one of the most highly regarded senior performers of Javanese classical music. He is a performer and composer of the music of the Central Javanese gamelan, a percussion-dominated musical ensemble featuring tuned bronze gongs, bronze metallophones, and drums, along with flutes, zither, vocals, and spiked fiddle.
Pak Djoko studied music at the Indonesian Arts Institute and law at the University of Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta, Java. He studied gamelan music from an early age with many well-known teachers, including Raden Lurah Dhamowijoyo, Raden Ngabehi Prawira Pangrawit, Bapak Sunardi Wisnubrata, Bapak Promono, Bapak Hadi Sumarta, and K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat. He has performed widely, composed music for dance and drama, and received awards from the Javanese Ministry of Education, Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, and The Radio Republic of Indonesia.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer
- Lecturer, Global Jazz Studies
Duane Benjamin is an accomplished performer, composer, orchestrator and arranger. For over thirty years he has made a successful living playing trombone, electric bass, and arranging "clean, easy to read charts" for industry legends and everyday musicians alike.
Benjamin has performed and recorded with jazz greats like the Count Basie Orchestra, Stanley Clark, The Gerald Wilson Orchestra and The Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, not to mention contemporary legends like Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Joss Stone, Diana Ross, Earth Wind and Fire, Jamiroquai, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, rock guitarist Steve Vai, Kirk Franklin and many more. As an orchestrator, his work has also been featured on top-rated television shows such as American Idol and the Voice.
Dwayne Milburn (Lecturer in Music) returns to UCLA after completing a twenty-year career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Music Program. Before joining the Army, he earned a BFA in Music from UCLA (1986), worked as the Director of Cadet Music for the US Military Academy at West Point (1986-90), and received an MM in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music (1992). While in the Army, Dwayne served in a wide variety of locations, to include Washington, DC, Kuwait, and Germany. During this time, he also established a reputation as a noted composer, arranger, and adjudicator, receiving commissions from The University of North Texas, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Pacific Serenades, and the Association of Anglican Musicians.
The Alfred, Kjos, and Ludwig Masters Music Companies publish his band and choral works, and several of his pieces are discussed in the multi-volume anthology, Teaching Music through Performance in Band, edited by Eugene Corporon. Dwayne received his PhD in Music from UCLA in 2009. In addition to teaching composition, orchestration, and conducting at UCLA, he is serving as the Music Director for the Parish of St. Matthew and the St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra in Pacific Palisades, California.
Elisabeth Le Guin was professor of Musicology at UCLA from 1997-2022, when she became Emerita. She will remain involved with the School of Music as a colleague, mentor, facilitator, and informal student adviser.
Le Guin's academic research has journeyed from Italy (Boccherini's Body, UC Press, 2008) to Spain (The Tonadilla in Performance, UC Press, 2014) to the Gulf of Mexico (current research), asking questions about the historiographies of embodied performance along the way. She has received awards from the ACLU and the American Musicological Society, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship funded her bilingual, community-based podcast/radio show "Si yo fuera una canción," in which ordinary people in Santa Ana, California, tell us about the songs they love.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Flute Performance
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- Adjunct Professor - Contemporary Music, Performance Studies
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- Lecturer - Percussion Performance
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- Adjunct Professor LA Phil Guest Artist
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- Professor - Head of Piano
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- Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
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- Professor - Director of Choral Studies
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- Lecturer - Trombone Performance Associate Principal Trombone LA Phil
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- Visiting Scholar, Curator and COO of the Milken Archive
Jeff Janeczko ('09), Ph.D. is the Curator and Chief Operating Officer of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, a project of the Milken Family Foundation devoted to the preservation and dissemination of music of the American Jewish experience. He holds a Doctoral Degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA, and a Bachelor of Arts in music from the Metropolitan State College (now University) of Denver. His publications include "A Tale of Four Diasporas: Case Studies on the Relevance of ‘Diaspora' in Contemporary American Jewish Music" in Perspectives on Jewish Music: Sacred and Secular, edited by Jonathan L. Friedmann (Lexington Books, 2009), and "Negotiating Boundaries: Musical Hybridity in Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture Series," which appears in the Annual Review of the Casden Institute for the Jewish Role in American Life (Purdue University Press, 2011), edited by Josh Kun.
Job Titles:
- Trumpet Performance and Brass
Job Titles:
- Manager, Ethnomusicology & Musicology Departments
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Bassoon Performance
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- Lecturer - Oboe Performance
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- Lecturer - Clarinet Performance
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- Distinguished Professor, Voice Performance
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- Associate Professor ( on Leave 2022 - 2023 )
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- Adjunct Associate Professor
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- Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for Curricular Reform Professor
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- Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
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- Executive Director of Development
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Academic Administrator
Lorry Black ('09), Ph.D. is a percussionist, pedagogue, and Jewish music specialist. Deeply rooted in the Los Angeles performance scene, he has performed with various ensembles and had the privilege of performing under the baton of great conductors including John Williams, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, and James Conlon, as well as recording for various artists. As an active member of the Jewish music community, Black is a sought-after percussionist, conductor, and arranger. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Sacred Music from the USC Thornton School of Music where he specialized in Jewish music and music of the Holocaust. Previous degrees include a Bachelor of Arts from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and a Master of Music in orchestral percussion from USC.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Harp Performance Harp LA Phil
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Vocal Diction, Vocal Coaching
Job Titles:
- Director of Music Technology and Production, Director of the Recording Studios
Madison Dorsett's passion for the French horn began in the 7th grade. Now in her fourth-year at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Dorsett is able to hone her…
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Violin Performance
Job Titles:
- Dean
- Maria Fortuna Dean / Lecturer - Voice Performance
Job Titles:
- Director
- Mickey Katz Endowed Chair
- Professor of Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Humanities Mickey Katz Chair of Jewish Music Director of Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience
Mark Kligman, Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music, specializes in the liturgical traditions of Middle Eastern Jewish communities and various areas of popular Jewish music. He has published on the liturgical music of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn in journals as well as his book, Maqām and Liturgy: Ritual, Music and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn (Wayne State University, 2009), which shows the interconnection between the music of Syrian Jews and their cultural way of life. His other publications focus on the intersection of contemporary Jewish life and various liturgical and paraliturgical musical contexts. He is the academic Chair of the Jewish Music Forum and co-editor of the journal Musica Judaica. He is also on the board of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Armenian Music Program and Lecturer
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- Professor, Voice Performance
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- Director of Indo - Persian Music
Job Titles:
- Director of Armenian Music Program
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- Lecturer - Introduction to Musicianship
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- Adjunct Professor - Guitar Performance
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- Artist of International
- Professor - Cello Performance and Strings Area Head
- Professor - Cello Performance and Strings Area Head, Music Performance / Area Head, Strings
Antonio Lysy, an artist of international stature and dedicated pedagogue, has performed as a soloist in major concert halls worldwide. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras of London, Camerata Academica of Salzburg, Zurich Tonhalle, the Zagreb Soloists, Orchestra di Padova e il Veneto, Israel Sinfonietta, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roi.
He has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sandor Vegh, and Kees Bakels, and continues to perform regularly both as a solo, and chamber music artist. Lysy enjoys exploring the versatility of the cello's voice, from Baroque to electric, and is committed to projects which enrich his diverse interests in music.
The currently touring show, "Te Amo, Argentina", a personal journey through the heart and soul of Argentina's fascinating culture, featuring solo cello and chamber works, dance, film, and spoken word, has met with widespread acclaim. Tango dancers Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo and the Te Amo, Argentina Ensemble, join Lysy in this inspiring multimedia experience. Te Amo, Argentina is based on Lysy's CD - "Antonio Lysy at the Broad - Music From Argentina", featuring the works of Piazzolla, Golijov, Ginastera, Bragato, and Schifrin. This CD won a Latin Grammy Award ‘Best Classical Contemporary Composition' for Pampas, a piece he commissioned from Lalo Schifrin. A recent review on Musicangle.com declares it "among the most beautiful recordings of cello and piano you are likely ever to hear", and Absolute Sound recognized it as one of the 40 best recordings of all time.
Highlights of his recent work include an extraordinary recital, broadcast on live radio, celebrating Bach and the cello through performances on baroque, acoustic, and electric cellos at the Los Angeles County Museum of the Arts. A recent program with Les Violons du Roi in their new and fabulous hall in the heart of Quebec city, led "Le Soleil" to remark: "Antonio Lysy shone and enchanted his audience in an arrangement for cello and strings of Schubert's Arpeggione". He presented a multimedia concert with pianist and comedian Jean Marchand, showcasing the history of his Carlo Tononi cello on its the 300th birthday. He has performed in recitals in New York and Los Angeles with pianist Rascal Rogé, and enjoys frequent collaborations with distinguished fellow faculty at UCLA's Royce and Schoenberg Hall, and Colburn's Zipper Hall.
Grammy winning cellist, Prof. Antonio Lysy, performs with his father, the legendary Argentine violinist Alberto Lysy in the Kodaly duo, and Coco Trivisonno (one of the last living members of…
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- Lecturer - Music Director of the UCLA Opera Workshop
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- Musicology and Humanities Chair of Musicology Director, UCLA Center of Musical Humanities ( CMH )
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- Chairman of Music Industry IDP, Professor of Musicology and Humanities
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- Chairman of Ethnomusicology Professor
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- Member of the Administrative Leadership Team
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- Assistant Dean
- Member of the Administrative Leadership Team
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- Chairman of Global Jazz Studies Professor
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- Adjunct Assistant Professor
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- Instructor, Beginning Voice - Summer Session a
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- Lecturer - Percussion Performance
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- Chairman of Music Professor
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- Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
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- Distinguished Professor - Voice Performance
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- Adjunct Professor Star - Studded Tribute LA Phil ( April 2020 )
Job Titles:
- Lecturer - Vocal Coaching
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- Professor - Elaine Krown Klein Chair in Performance Studies