Brendan McMullin is an experienced music educator having taught public school music courses for fifteen years (eleven years online), and college music courses for twelve years. Currently he is directing the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensembles, and teaching brass Applied Music at Moorpark College. He also teaches high school Music Appreciation and Audio Engineering classes at California Virtual Academies. As a trombonist and vocalist he has shared the stage and/or recorded with artists such as Duffy Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eric Whitacre, Barbara Streisand, Clyde Reasinger, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; and has performed on stage at the Academy Awards. He has earned numerous awards for his compositions including the 2014 National Band Association’s Young Composers Jazz Composition Contest where his jazz big band composition, Sal y Pimienta, was awarded first prize. As a result, the piece was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. by the Airmen of Note and broadcast live on their website. Brendan’s composition, Why You Gotta Be Like That (Jazz Overture for Full Orchestra), was also recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic and included in the album Masterworks of the New Era, Vol. 12, which received a JPF Award Nomination under the category “Best Classical Orchestral Album.” Brendan earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Brass Performance and Single Subject-Music Teaching Credential from CSUN, and his Master's Degree in Music Composition from UCLA.

 

Brendan McMullin is an experienced music educator having taught public school music courses for fifteen years (eleven years online), and college music courses for twelve years. Currently he is directing the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensembles, and teaching brass Applied Music at Moorpark College. He also teaches high school Music Appreciation and Audio Engineering classes at California Virtual Academies. As a trombonist and vocalist he has shared the stage and/or recorded with artists such as Duffy Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eric Whitacre, Barbara Streisand, Clyde Reasinger, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; and has performed on stage at the Academy Awards. He has earned numerous awards for his compositions including the 2014 National Band Association’s Young Composers Jazz Composition Contest where his jazz big band composition, Sal y Pimienta, was awarded first prize. As a result, the piece was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. by the Airmen of Note and broadcast live on their website. Brendan’s composition, Why You Gotta Be Like That (Jazz Overture for Full Orchestra), was also recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic and included in the album Masterworks of the New Era, Vol. 12, which received a JPF Award Nomination under the category “Best Classical Orchestral Album.” Brendan earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Brass Performance and Single Subject-Music Teaching Credential from CSUN, and his Master's Degree in Music Composition from UCLA.

Piano Mona Wu DeCesare, NCTM, is a graduate of UCLA and the Aspen Music School, studied under Aube Tzerko and earning multiple degrees in piano performance (BA & MFA) . She is a music faculty at Moorpark College. Previously, she taught at Pepperdine University, Pasadena City College, and Oxnard College. She is a member of the DeCesare-Francis Piano Duo and the Nuance Ensemble, both designated as “Artists- in-Residence” at Moorpark College. The piano duo has released a CD from one of their live performances. She has given recitals at UCLA, CSUN, TOCAP, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Pasadena City College, Pepperdine University, as well as a series of recitals on an international tour of Thailand. She maintains a private studio in Moorpark, and is a member of the Music Teachers’ Assn. of California and Music Teachers National Association. She was honored as “Artist/Educator of Month” on the Piano Education Page of the World Wide Web, and her interview can be accessed on the Internet. Mona has also received honors from the Arts’ Commission of the City of Thousand Oaks. In the summers of 2008 & 2009, Mona was the Chamber Ensemble Director at the Heidelberg Music Festival in Germany.

Praised as “sparkling” by The New York Times and “a rising star” by China Musical Weekly, pianist Hui Wu has continued to display her versatility in a creative approach to programming which stems from a contemporary/classical music duality. Her recent performance highlights include engagements with Philharmonie Salzburg in China, west coast premiere of Merrill Songs by Matthew Aucoin; multimedia project with artists Nova Jiang and Gaëlle Choisne in collaboration with the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator(LACI) and The Mistake Room, as well as chamber music appearances at the Beverly Hills National Auditions Winners’ concert series. 

In the past seasons, her performances have included solo recital tours and masterclasses in China and Germany. Other highlights included premieres in Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Concert at Disney Concert Hall; “Art as Activism” concert with Christopher Rountree and contemporary ensemble wild Up; debut of her “Lone Journey” multimedia project in collaboration with the USC Thornton Arts Leadership Program, in addition to chamber music appearances in China with violinist Rainer Honeck, Stefan Dohr, and Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson. She has also been invited to perform at the opening night concert in the Tully Scope Festival in Lincoln Center, chamber music appearances with choreographer Zach Winokur and the Juilliard Dance Division, She has also performed Nick Didkovsky’s Zero Waste for pianist and computer on Beyond the Machine 12.1 series at the Music Technology Center in Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater. and at the celebration of the centennial of John Cage on the FOCUS! festival. Her performances have been broadcast live on WQXR 93.6 FM and KUSC 91.5 FM.

As an avid chamber musician, Hui has been invited to festivals such as at Taos School of Music, Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, International Summer Music Festival in Goslar, Germany, PianoTexas Festival, and Beijing International Music Festival and Academy. She is the founder of ensemble demitasse and trio E’Toile. Her mentors and collaborators include Michel Beroff, Malcolm Bilson, Peter Donohoe, Peter Frankl, Margo Garrett, Joseph Kalichstein, Seymour Lipkin, Susan Narucki, Charles Neidich, Menahem Pressler, Gary Wedow, GuangRen Zhou, Robert McDonald, Michael Tree, as well as the Brentano, Borromeo, and the ShangHai Quartets among others.

An advocate of new music and a composer herself, Hui has performed and premiered numerous contemporary works by composers such as Matthew Aucoin, Du Yun, Huang Ruo, Chen Yi, Jeffrey Parola, Eric Nathan, Paul Chihara, and Elliott Schwartz among others. Hui has collaborated with Juilliard’s Dance Division on her composition Simogatas for soprano and piano four hands. In addition, her Three Little Pieces for Orchestra (2011) was premiered at Juilliard. Her other compositions, vocal and instrumental works have also been premiered and performed in the United States, Germany and in China. Recently, she premiered her Aprés Notations (2015) to pay tribute to Pierre Boulez and That Light In My Dream (2017) at the unSUNg project with soprano Kyra Folk-Farber.

Born in China, Hui started her musical training at the age of four. At the age of thirteen, she made her debut recital in GuangDong Concert Hall with 12 Chopin Etudes and Liszt Rhapsodies. She has won numerous competitions including first prizes in the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in New York, the Murray Dranoff International Artists Competition in Miami, the Beverly Hills National Auditions, and the 65th Steinway International Piano Competition. Hui has also won top prizes in the Ettlingen International Competition in Germany, the Corpus Christi International Competition, Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Award, Young Artists Concerto Competition in Texas, the National Youth Piano Competition of GulangYu International Piano Art Festival and the Golden Clock Piano Competition in China.

Hui serves as the Southern Festival Chair in California Association of Professional Music Teachers(CAPMT). She is also a frequent adjudicator in music competitions in the US. Currently, she teaches at Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, Moorpark College, Cal Lutheran University, and Junior Chamber Music. Hui studied at The Juilliard School for her Bachelor and Master’s degrees with full scholarship. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Her teachers include Matti Raekallio, Jerome Lowenthal, Stewart Gordon, Philip Lasser, and Donald Crockett. 

 

Diane Gilbert is Principal Viola of the Santa Barbara Opera and Assistant Principal Viola of the New West Symphony, as well as a member of the Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and the California Philharmonic.  She has also played Principal Viola at the Ahmanson Theatre for the past twenty years, performing in shows like Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, The Lion King, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, Follies, and many others. 

She has had the privilege of performing and recording with a variety of artists, from Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Yehudi Menuhin, Andre Previn, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Rostropovich to Elton John, Barry Manilow, Leonard Cohen, Bernadette Peters, Andrea Bocelli and Stevie Wonder.

In addition to teaching viola and violin at Moorpark College, she spent nine years coaching chamber music at the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop at Humboldt State University and recently joined the faculty of the Schwab Music Academy at Ventura College. She also has a busy private studio at her 海角社区 in Simi Valley. Mrs. Gilbert holds a Master of Music degree in Viola Performance from California State University, Northridge and a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from University of the Pacific.

 

 

John Hester began in music at an early age.  After studying various instruments including piano and voice, he quickly discovered his love for the double bass and began with private studies.  Progressing quickly, he was soon touring Europe and won positions in the San Francisco Youth Symphony, Debut Orchestra, and the American Youth Symphony.  His teachers have included Charles Siani, Principal Bassist with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Ed Meares, Principal Bass of the Pasadena Symphony, Peter Rofé, Bassist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Julius Levine, renowned bassist and pedagogue.  Mr. Hester received his Bachelor of Music performance degree from California State University, Northridge and his MFA from California Institute of the Arts.  He has performed at various music festivals across America including the Round Top Festival and the Malibu Strawberry Creek Festival.  Mr. Hester is currently Principal Bass of the Dutch International Chamber Orchestra based in Amsterdam and the United Armenian - American Chamber Orchestra based in Yerevan, Armenia.  He also performs with the Bakersfield Symphony in an Associate Principal Bass capacity.  He has also served as Principal Bass with the Classical Concert Chamber Orchestra.  In 2016, Mr. Hester was honored to be invited to perform with an ensemble at the White House for a private function hosted by the President Obama.  Mr. Hester frequently performs with many ensembles around Southern California such as the Pasadena Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, New West Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Opera, Redlands Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Riverside Philharmonic, Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, Dream Orchestra, and the avant-garde Orchestra Unleashed, as well as many others. An avid chamber musician, he has performed noted premiers of new works by Esa-Pekka Salonen and William Toutant with the Composers in attendance.  Mr. Hester as toured with chamber orchestras extensively throughout Europe and Scandinavia, as well as Armenia and China.

An avid teacher, Mr. Hester maintains an active private studio and has trained aspiring artists for international television performances with Disney’s Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra as well as working with students at the Idyllwild Arts Academy.  As an adjunct faculty member he has taught string bass at California State University at Northridge, Pepperdine University, California Lutheran University, California Baptist University, and currently teaches string bass at The Master’s University, Ventura College, and Moorpark College.  Mr. Hester also holds a current California Teaching Credential in Instrumental Music and enjoys teaching orchestra in the public schools at every level.

In an Administrative capacity, Mr. Hester has been successful in the positions of Contractor, Director of Operations, and Manager for domestic and international orchestras, as well as the current Assistant Director for the Schwab Music Academy at Ventura College.  Currently, Mr. Hester is also the Manager for the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, AV Master Chorale, and the new AV Strings Academy which he has helped to develop into a successful after school teaching program for underprivileged and underserved students.  Enrolled students are provided free access to instruments, curriculum, and experienced, professional instructors.

Cellist Ashley Walters has been described as performing "with the kind of brilliance that beckons a major new performer on the new music scene" (Mark Swed, L.A. Times). She has been praised for her "imposing talents" (Sequenza 21) and "impressive" (Pitchfork) and "beautiful playing" (All About Jazz). Walters maintains a uniquely diverse career, performing music that blurs the boundaries between classical, avant-garde, and jazz, breaking new ground in repertoire with microtonality, extended techniques, alternative tunings, and improvisation.

As a solo artist known for tackling virtuosic, demanding works and collaborating with composers, Walters has been the dedicatee of significant additions to the cello repertoire and has appeared on concert series and venues throughout the United States, including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Spectrum (NYC), Center for New Music (San Francisco), Continuum Music Festival (Memphis), Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, San Diego New Music soundON Festival, Nief-Norf (Knoxville), Tuesdays @ Monk Space (Los Angeles), wild Up’s WORK series (Los Angeles), REDCAT (Los Angeles), and wasteLAnd music (Los Angeles).

Walters' debut solo album, Sweet Anxiety, was released in 2017 on populist records and has received rave reviews. David Olds of theWholeNote says about the album, "Walters is simply brilliant throughout the disc, and the short printed examples of the scores (other than the Berio) give some idea of the challenges she faced." Brandon Rolle of New Classic LA remarks, "Walters breathes life into each work with her astounding virtuosity." Sweet Anxiety features works by Berio, Nicholas Deyoe, Andrew McIntosh, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Wadada Leo Smith.

A frequent collaborator with legendary trumpeter, improviser, and composer Wadada Leo Smith, Walters joined his Golden Quintet in 2016, recording America's National Parks the same year. The album was named Jazz Album of the Year in DownBeat Magazine’s 65th Annual Critics Poll and one of Nate Chinen’s Best Albums of 2016 in the New York Times. Dan McClenaghan of All About Jazz said about the album, “Ashley Walters' cello paints the rich, beautiful hues that subtly enhance the entire proceeding — the most auspicious addition to a jazz ensemble since Chico Hamilton brought the instrument into his chamber groups in the late 1950s.” With Smith, Walters has played: Jazz at Lincoln Center (NYC), Sons d’Hiver Festival (Paris), Saalfelden International Jazz Festival (Austria), Mostra Sesc de Artes (Brazil), Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall (Turkey), Monterey Jazz Festival (CA), SFJAZZ (San Francisco), CREATE Festival (San Francisco/New Haven), Chicago Jazz Festival, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), The Kitchen (NYC), University of Alabama, Loyola University (New Orleans), Boyd Vance Theater (Austin), Match (Houston), Four Seasons Arts (Berkeley), Atlas Theater (Washington D.C.), Roulette (Brooklyn), and Angel City Jazz (Los Angeles). She appears on four of Smith’s albums: America’s National Parks, Rosa Parks: Pure Love, The Complete (14) String Quartets (forthcoming), and Appassionata to be released on ECM in 2020.

Walters is a founding member of the “superb” and “fabulous” (LA Times) Formalist Quartet, which has premiered a vast repertoire of works and is known for its audacious programming. The quartet was born on the 100th birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich (September 25th, 2006) and has played in concert halls, festivals, art galleries, cafes, and 海角社区s throughout the United States and abroad. Their recordings include the epic 100 Cadences by Arthur Jarvinen, music for several small films and pop records, and Kristian Ireland’s Clearing on the <541> series through Innova records. Soon, the quartet will release a recording of Christian Wolff's string quartets, recorded in collaboration with the composer.

In the summer of 2013, Walters joined the faculty of the nief-norf Summer Festival, part of a multi-faceted contemporary music organization devoted to fostering creative collaboration among musical performers, composers, and scholars. Each summer, she joins colleagues from throughout the U.S. to perform, teach, and conduct at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

 

Walters serves on the faculty at Chapman University and Moorpark College. At Ventura College, she oversees the chamber music program and conducts both the Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. ashleywalterscello.com

Rachel Beetz is a Los Angeles based flutist whose playing is both “soulfully elegant” (Washington Post) and evokes the “roar of prehistoric animals” (San Diego Union Tribune). Rachel is passionate about contemporary music and creating supportive and collaborative environments for her community to make music. She is Executive Director of the wasteLAnd concert series and also half of Autoduplicity, a performance project with cellist Jennifer Bewerse.
Rachel has been invited to play with ensembles who share her mission such as Callithumpian Consort, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Noise, Southland Ensemble, Third Coast Percussion, and has been featured on the Jacaranda and Monday Evening Concerts series. Rachel has appeared at festivals all over the globe such as the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico, Vértice in Mexico City, the Dog Star Orchestra in Los Angeles, Prisms New Music Festival in Tempe, American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art, the New Music Gathering, soundON Festival of Contemporary Music, XI Festival Internacional de Música Nueva in Monterrey, Mexico, Internationales Institut Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Atlantic Music Festival, WithOut Walls Festival at the La Jolla Playhouse, unSUNG Music Festival in Los Angeles, and the Ojai Music Festival.
As an educator, Dr. Beetz lectures on flute playing, collaboration, and the creative process of creating and realizing graphic scores. She has given guest lectures at Arizona State University, California Institute of the Arts, Iceland Academy of the Arts, and Santa Clara University, among many others. She holds degrees from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Bachelor of Music) and UC San Diego (Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Arts). Currently, Rachel instructs contemporary chamber music at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) at New England Conservatory and is the Instructor of flute at Moorpark College.

Oboist Michael Bernard’s undergraduate studies began at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with Stephen Adelstein and Roger McDonald.  He left NCSA in 1974, to begin his professional music career as Oboe and English Horn soloist with the United States Army Field Band in Washington, D.C.  While in Washington, he continued his oboe studies with Don Hefner and completed both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Oboe Performance at the Catholic University of America.  He was a founding member of the United States Army Field Band Chamber Series and, also performed regularly with his own chamber music group—The Bernard Baroque.  After 6 years with the United States Army Field Band, he left military service to pursue a Master of Music Degree in music history at Yale University, where he continued his oboe studies with the famed Ronald Roseman.  Mr. Bernard arrived in the Los Angeles area in 1985 and served as Principal Oboist in the Torrance Symphony for 2 seasons.  In 1987, he began a 13-year tenure as Principal Oboist for the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra in Palos Verdes, California.  He currently serves as Principal Oboist with the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra (2015 through the present) and the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra (2003 through the present).  He has served on the faculty of Moorpark College as the Oboe Instructor since 2015.  In 2009 he traveled to Vienna, Austria to serve as principal oboist with the International Haydn Festival Orchestra.  Other music credits include performances with the Hour of Power (Crystal Cathedral) Orchestra, the Burbank Philharmonic, Marina Del Rey/Westchester Symphony, the Joffrey Ballet orchestra, the Rio Hondo Symphony Orchestra, the La Mirada Symphony, and the Southland Symphony. CD credits include “Awake Inside a Dream” (Angels of Venice), “The Cat and the Broom” (13 Nights of Halloween, In a World), “Season of Joy” and “Angels & Shepherds” (Terry Minogue). He has a film credit for his Oboe and English Horn playing in the feature film, “Saving Flora” (released in 2018). 

Praised in The Clarinet Magazine for her “intense musicality … and unapologetic interpretations,” Los Angeles-based clarinetist Virginia Figueiredo is an internationally active performer, recording artist, and educator. She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician, and her performances have been featured on radio broadcasts in both Portugal and the United States. In Southern California, she performs regularly with The Pacific Opera Project, the Luso-American Duo, and numerous other orchestras and chamber ensembles. As a recording artist, Figueiredo has released three albums to critical acclaim: her debut solo album, Seule, was a 2018 Global Music Awards silver medalist, while her 2014 album with The Divan Consort, Refuge, earned a first-round GRAMMY nomination in 2015 as well as a Global Music Awards gold medal. Her third CD Intuicion, released in 2019, is a 2020 Global Music Awards Silver medalist. A passionate advocate for new music, Figueiredo has commissioned and premiered works by Bill Kraft, Ken Walicki, Jenni Brandon, Christopher Bochmann, Luis Tinoco, Clotilde Rosa, Paulo Brandao, and Sergio Azevedo, among many others. As an educator, Figueiredo is a frequent clinician and teaching artist for clarinet festivals and masterclasses around the world. She also teaches clarinet at California State University, Dominguez Hills, Moorpark College, Pierce College, and Cerritos College. Figueiredo holds a DMA in Clarinet Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles, in addition to degrees from the Lisbon Superior School of Music and California State University, Fullerton. Her principal teachers have included Olga Prats, Nuno Silva, Carlos Alves, Håkan Rosengren, and Gary Gray. Figueiredo is a Silverstein endorsed artist.

Dustin Donahue is a percussionist based in Los Angeles. He frequently performs with the International Contemporary Ensemble and collaborates with many of southern California’s presenters of chamber music, such as WasteLAnd, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, the Ojai Music Festival, Monday Evening Concerts, Jacaranda Music, and San Diego New Music. He appears on releases for Mode, Naxos, New Focus, Stradivarius, and Populist Records. As a soloist, Dustin has been featured at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Carlsbad Music Festival, the John Cage Centennial Festival in Washington, D.C., and Mengi in Reykjavik, Iceland. As an advocate for contemporary music, Dustin has commissioned and premiered a large body of solo and chamber music by living composers, such as recent collaborations with Nicholas Deyoe, Laure Hiendl, Elise Roy, Bruno Ruviaro, and Steven Takasugi. He holds a DMA from the University of California – San Diego where he studied with Steven Schick, and a BM from the University of Wisconsin where he studied with Anthony Di Sanza.