Rhiannon Giddens

2:00pm – Pompeian Room

Masterclass

Three talented students/student ensembles perform for Rhiannon Giddens and receive a public coaching from her. Each lesson lasts approximately 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of audience Q&A.

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7:00pm – First AME Zion Church

Evening Concert

A Grammy-award winning MacArthur Fellow, “celebrated on the folk circuit for a decade”, (New York Times), Giddens is an opera-singer-turned-folk-revivalist who sings, fiddles and picks a replica of an 1858 fretless minstrel banjo while stealing your heart. With the backdrop of a lovingly restored landmark church sanctuary in the historic West Adams district, come explore with us her “contagious sense of delight and enjoyment” (The Guardian) in the Americana music she has so brilliantly championed.

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Masterclass

2:00pm – Pompeian Room

Three talented students perform for Rhiannon Giddens and receive a public coaching from her. Each lesson lasts approximately 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of audience Q&A.

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Julia Johnson

2-2:20pm

Soprano Julia Johnson is a senior at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. She is completing a Bachelor of Arts in Music with an emphasis in Music Education and Vocal Performance and a minor in Psychology.

North Country Blue

2:30-2:50pm

North Country Blue is an all-girl, all-teen bluegrass band from Northern California. The band’s members – just 13 or 14 years old – have grown up together at festivals and youth programs sponsored by the California Bluegrass Association, and they decided to form their own band in 2017. The group includes Roseville’s Megan January, on upright bass; Daisy Kerr, from Placerville, on guitar; Ida Winfree, from Turlock, on mandolin; and Tessa Schwartz, from Berkeley, on fiddle. www.northcountryblue.com

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Maya Jupiter and Los Cambalache

3:30pm – Pompeian Room

Performance: Hip Hop Son Jarocho Songs

Hip hop-infused with Son Jarocho, Maya’s songs meld Chican@ Rock, Mexican tradition and thought-provoking lyrics. She sings accompanied by Maestro Cesar Castro and Xochi Flores of Los Cambalache.

4:30pm - Auditorium

Workshop: Son Jarocho

Born in La Paz, Mexico to a Mexican Father and Turkish Mother, Maya grew up in Sydney, Australia. It was in Sydney’s Western Suburbs where she first fell in love with Hip Hop. Maya’s love of writing rhymes helped her express her fear, pain, joy and hope as a teenager and later on she realized the power music held in using it as a tool to make a positive difference in her community. It is with this ideal that she co-founded Artivist Entertainment, an entertainment company committed to creating and supporting art and music that inspires positive social change alongside Quetzal Flores, Veronica Gonzales, Alberto Lopez and Aloe Blacc.

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LA Women's Koto Ensemble

4:00pm – Pompeian Room

Performance: LA Women's Koto Ensemble

The resonant sounds of the koto zither evoke the majesty of the Japanese court, inviting both contemplation and inspiration. Ten virtuoso koto players perform modern compositions in traditional kimonos.

5:30pm – Auditorium

Workshop

Explore the koto with Yoko Awaya, Tomoya Nakai, Yuki Yasuda, Sachiyo Yoshimoto, and other members of the LA Women's Koto Ensemble.

Tomoya Nakai

Tomoya Nakai is a highly regarded and awarded artist of traditional Japanese music. In addition to the 25-string koto, he also plays the 3-string shamisen lute and composes both solo and chamber music works. Nakai has made it his life work to express the majesty of Japanese Noh theater in music. He performs actively in Japan in various concert venues, schools, and on the radio. He has also performed in Austria, Chile, Dominican Republic, Finland, Mexico, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Yuki Yasuda

Born in the Ibaraki region of Japan, Yuki Yasuda began playing the koto at the age of 12. She is a graduate of the Takasaki Junior Arts College, the Sawai Koto Academy, and the NHK (Japanese National Broadcasting Company) music skills development school. Having taught at the Boston Koto Academy for four years, she moved to Los Angeles in 2014 to open the Yuki Yasuda Koto classroom, where she renders private Koto instruction.

Yoko Awaya

Yoko Awaya is a noted koto and jiuta sangen performing artist and teacher trained at the famed Michio Miyagi School of Koto in Tokyo. In 1975, Yoko Awaya founded the Awaya-kai (粟屋会) Conservatory, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art of koto and jiuta sangen music and seeks to enhance Japanese cultural and ethnic awareness and appreciation not only in Southern California but also throughout the United States.

Sachiyo Yoshimoto

A multi-instrumentalist of diverse genres, Sachiyo Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo and reared in Santa Monica where she received formal violin training at age ten under noted instructor Dorothy Compinsky and at The Colburn School of Performing Arts. A veteran violinist with both the National Arab Orchestra and the New York Arabic Orchestra, Sachi is also the co-founder of SAVICTO, a Los Angeles based world music ensemble which performs and promotes music of the Silk Road.

Also featuring koto virtuosi Yukari Fujiu, Yuki Kudoh, Yumi Ozaki, Sayaka Pereira, Stephanie Simpson-White, and Nanami Yoshimura.

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Sibarg Ensemble

4:30pm – Pompeian Room

Performance: Iranian jazz fusion

Traditional Iranian music meets jazz improv in this charismatic ensemble. The earthy sounds of Kamancheh fiddle and Tar lute interweave seamlessly with double bass, piano, and Farsi vocals.

The Sibarg Ensemble was established in 2008 by Hesam Abedini along with a group of students as the first Fusion Ensemble of the Tehran Music Conservatory in Iran. Since 2010, Hesam Abedini and Niloufar Shiri (founding members) have moved to the United States where they have performed at many academic and cultural institutions and music festivals. With each performance, they share their methods and innovations in fusing Eastern and Western melodic patterns that form the basis of their unique and original compositions.

In 2015, Sibarg invited Kyle Motl (Double Bass), Josh Charney (Piano) and Ebrahim Poustinchi (Târ) to join the ensemble, which became a starting point for several concerts in different cities such as San Diego and Los Angeles. In these concerts, Sibarg combined traditional Iranian and Jazz music in order to create a sense of unity and peace and facilitate interculturalism. Recently, Sibarg’s first album “Cipher” has been published, which includes compositions by Josh Charney, Kyle Motl, and Hesam Abedini as well as new arrangements of Iranian folk tunes.

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Julia Johnson

5:00pm – Pompeian Room

Performance: Art Song by Women Composers

A witty and magnetic soprano sings contemporary art song. Accompanied by the experienced touch of pianist Hak Soon Swiatkowski.

Soprano Julia Johnson is a senior at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. She is completing a Bachelor of Arts in Music with an emphasis in Music Education and Vocal Performance and a minor in Psychology.

Julia sings with the Mount Chorus and Mount Singers where she has been a featured soloist with both ensembles. She has participated annually in the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Collegiate Auditions where she received first place in the Junior Women’s category. Most recently, she made her operatic debut in scenes from Italian operas at Scuola Italia’s Summer Program for Young Opera Singers in Sant’Angelo in Vado. She also performed at the International Vocal Artists Academy of Payerbach in Austria.

After graduation, Julia plans to attend UCLA for graduate studies in vocal performance. She ultimately hopes to combine her love of performing arts with her passion for music education and humanitarian activism.

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Women in Balinese Gamelan

3:30pm – Auditorium

Workshop

Join Dr. Macy and other female musicians in exploring the ethereal sounds of the Balinese gamelan, an Indonesian gong and percussion ensemble traditionally used to accompany ceremonies. Until 1980, Balinese gamelan musicians were almost exclusively male. Today, however, women's gamelans are popular and widespread. Learn about this tradition firsthand, and try your hand at playing Balinese music.

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VOX Femina

5:30pm – Pompeian Room

Performance

VOX Femina Los Angeles gives women voice through the performance of quality choral literature. Diverse in culture, age, race, belief and sexual identity, VOX is a chorus committed to commissioning new works and raising awareness about issues that affect women. Through music, VOX aims to create a world that affirms the worth and dignity of every person. Founder and Artistic Director Dr. Iris S. Levine is nationally recognized for her excellence in choral conducting. Through her extensive experience with women’s choral literature, and innovative concert programming, Dr. Levine has charted VOX Femina on an impressive 21-year journey, building its prominence in the choral community and collaborating with 35 composers on over 40 commissions for women's voices.

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