HERB ALPERT MUSIC CENTER

Dr. Ron Anderson holds a doctoral degree in Piano Performance, as well as degrees in Opera and Composition, and has enjoyed successes in all three endeavors. 

During his 10-year singing career, Dr. Anderson performed about two dozen operatic roles, including Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen and the title roles in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde. His oratorio credits include numerous performances of the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah, requiems of Mozart, Fauré, and Duruflé, baritone soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, and multiple performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, as well as other choral masterpieces.

In addition to his long list of operatic roles, he has been regularly featured as soloist (both as a pianist and a vocalist) in televised concerts with several orchestras throughout Southern California, including Torrance Symphony, the Marina Symphony, the Cypress Pops Orchestra, and the Redlands Bowl.

His compositions for orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles, piano solo, and voice have been received enthusiastically, having won competitions and critical acclaim. Recently, his choral anthem “Wilt Thou Forgive?” was awarded First Prize in the Cerddorion Composers Competition, tied with Bernardino Zanetti of Italy. He is a current winner of the SMP Press composition contest in three categories (Choral, Chamber, and Solo). His compositions and arrangements are published on SMP Press (Sheet Music Plus).

Aside from teaching at LACC, Dr. Anderson is presently on the Piano Faculty at Chapman University. His private studio has produced several winners in the National Chopin Foundation, MTNA, Composers Today, Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and others. He is in demand as a lecturer, and often adjudicates for competitions and events, such as the Steinway & Sons Junior Piano Competition, MTNA Composition Competition, MTNA State and Division Piano Competitions, the Reno Youth Music Festival, the Yamaha National Junior Original Concert, MTAC Young Composers Guild, and the Composers Today State Contest and Evaluations. Dr. Anderson is the former State Chair for the Composers Today Young Composers Guild and continues to serve in an advisory capacity.

Professor Mattie Barbier is an LA-based musician and sonic researcher focused on experimental intonation, noise, and the physical processes of their instrument. Their playing has been described by the LA Times as being "of intense, brilliant, virtuosic growling that gave the striking impression that Barbier was dismantling the instrument while playing it," by the Wire as “exploring the nooks of instrumental tone far beyond the reach of most mortals,” and by the New Yorker as being a "diabolically inventive trombonist-composer."

Professor Barbier engages in collaborative relationships with a range of musicians including Clara Iannotta, Michelle Lou, Weston Olencki, Catherine Lamb, Kevin Drumm, Sarah Davachi,  Jacob Kirkegaard, and Katherine Young. As an interpreter, they have given premieres by and collaborated with a broad spectrum of composers including George Lewis, Liza Lim, Lester St. Louis, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Kaori Suzuki, Raven Chacon, and Scott Walker.

They are a member of RAGE Thormbones, wildUp, echoi, wasteLAnd music, and is an active soloist and improvisor on low brass instruments and bagpipes. They teach at CalArts and Los Angeles City College (LACC).

Professor Barbier has presented and created work with and for the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Getty Villa, Monday Evening Concerts, San Francisco Exploratorium, Indexical, Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, Roulette Intermedium, RedCat, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Factory Seconds Brass Trio, and Issue Project Room as well as in collaboration with holographer Tristan Duke. They have made festival appearances at Borealis (NO), IMD Darmstadt (DE), Donaueschinger (DE), Maerzmusik (DE), Bludenz Tage zeitgemäßer (AT), Chicago’s Frequency Festival, Dartington International Summer School (UK),  Kalv Festival (SE), the Ojai Music Festival, and Musica Nova Helsinki (FI) with the Helsinki Philharmonic with upcoming engagements at Donaueschinger with the SWR. Various recording projects have been released on Sofa, Dinzu Artifcats, Carrier, Populist, Mode, Hat Hut, Innova, Faux Amis, New Focus, Domino, New Amsterdam, and Kairos Records.

Professor Gabriela Cartulano-Zambrano is an Italo-Venezuelan Latin Grammy nominee, singer-songwriter, vocal instructor, producer, and music business specialist based in Los Angeles, California.

She has three music productions and dozens of music singles released as a soloist where she has participated as main artist, general producer and singer-songwriter. She has also participated as back vocalist in several albums and music productions. Professor Cartulano-Zambrano is a certified announcer and voice-over artist. She has participated on doubling TV series, and TV and radio jingles.

She has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Master’s in Marketing Management (with honors) and with a Specialization in Popular Music in Venezuela. In 2022, after many years of experience within the music industry, she added a Specialization in Music Business.

She has been Projects and Special Events Coordinator for the Symphonic Orchestras System of Venezuela in Venezuela. She has participated as Associate Coordinator for International tours with the conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphonic Orchestra in England, Turkey, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Uruguay. She has been Production Coordinator for TV shows as Univision New Year’s Special, Los Angeles and Music Videos among many others. She has been a vocal instructor in private and public institutions and non- profits since 2010.

In 2017 she received a Latin Grammy nomination with her album “Tu Amor” as artist, singer-songwriter and general producer. She received 2 nominations for Arpa Awards in 2018 and 2022 and Redencion Awards, NYC in 2018. In 2007 she received Publications Mention for her Bachelor’s Thesis and in 2010 for her Graduate Thesis “Recording and Releasing a Music Production”. In 2004 she won the 1^st Place in Simon Bolivar University Festival and in 2006 was awarded 3^rd Place in the National Festival of the University Voice, Venezuela.

Professor Cartulano-Zambrano is a voting Member of Latin Grammy Awards (LARAS), member of The American Federation of Musicians, Local 47 (AFM), and BMI, among others. She is sponsored by Fender Guitars and Telefunken Mics.

Professor Andrew Conrad is a single reed artist, improviser, and composer living in Los Angeles, CA. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz and Improvisational Music at the University of Nevada, Reno and a Master’s degree in Jazz Reeds performance at California Institute of the Arts, where he primarily studied saxophone, improvisation, and composition. While attending CalArts he studied Jazz as well as music from around the world taught by its masters including West African Ewe Music, Balinese Gamelan, Cuban Music, Balkan Folk Music, and North Indian Classical Music. He has received several awards including the LA Weekly Theater Award for “Best Original Music for a Musical” for his work with Poor Dog Group on Brewsie and Willie, and 1st Place in the Umbria Jazz Festival’s CONAD Jazz Competition. He is the leader of A Conrad Trio and a co-leader of the improvisational jazz quartet Chord Four, both of which perform all original compositions as well as being a longstanding member of Orkestar Meze. Andrew has performed or recorded with Wild Up, Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Jon Armstrong Jazz Orchestra, theBABAorchestra, Poor Dog Group, Tina Raymond, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Fell Runner, and The Trevor Anderies Quintet. He has performed at many national and international venues including Umbria Jazz Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival, Los Angeles Bach Festival, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. Professor Conrad also works in Los Angeles with JoAnn Kane Music Service as a professional Music Copyist, Transcriber and Librarian.

Dr. Patricia Hannifan is an Instructor at Los Angeles City and Valley Colleges and a Staff Accompanist at Los Angeles Valley College. She is also the Organist and Music Director for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Long Beach as well as a freelance piano and organ accompanist in the greater Los Angeles area. Dr. Hannifan also teaches piano and organ and coaches singers in her private studio.

Her achievements include being a four-time Winner of the Artistic Director Achievement Award for 'Best Music Director' by the Valley Theater League for her work with the Woodland Hills Community Theatre - The Fantasticks (1998), The All Night Strut! (2001), The Taffetas (2006) and Nunsense (2009).

As a founding partner of the LAVC Summerfest, a collaboration of the Music, Theater, and Dance departments of Los Angeles Valley College, she served as the Musical Director for the inaugural performance of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret in the summer of 2010 and the 2011 performance of Anything Goes by Cole Porter.

Dr. Hannifan holds a DMA in organ performance from University of California, Los Angeles, a Master’s Degree in Organ Performance from the Flora L. Thorton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from California State University, Northridge.

Professor Horton has a very rich experience in Commercial Music and currently teaches Commercial Voice courses and lessons at Los Angeles City College. She trains and nurtures students' voices through the nuances of varying genres while solidifying a firm foundation of vocal technique. Professor Horton also introduces students to African American traditions in the LACC Gospel Ensemble and the African American Music history course. The ensemble learns music that spans the musical canon from the old standards to the newest releases within the gospel genre. The history course explores the contributing factors that helped develop and nurture genres born from the African American experience.

Professor Horton not only lives an active life of music but also studied it intensively. Her informal study began as a child in church and then school. She began her formal study at Berea College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music then flourished at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where she received her Masters in Vocal Performance. Though formally studying classical voice in both undergrad and grad school, Professor Horton explored the music of Africa, India and Indonesia alongside the art of improvisation at CalArts. She also sang with the Latin Jazz Ensemble as she perfected her salsa moves. Her passion led her to create and direct the CALARTS Gospel Choir for two years. Seeing a greater need, she also created/ produced “The African American Arts Experience”. It was a three day collaborative festival covering film, music, fine art, artist talks and writing that highlighted African American and Black contributions to the Arts. Embracing all of these influences, including gospel, R&B, pop and jazz, she provides a culturally diverse mindset to her approach to performance and teaching music.

Dr. Ken Nagatani received both a Master of Music and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Manuel Barrueco, and completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California in 2006 as a student of William Kanengiser.

He has been the recipient of several honors and awards, including the Mary Pickford Foundation Endowed Scholarship in Classical Guitar and the Jack Marshall Memorial Scholarship while at USC. He has certified training in the Suzuki method, and has been active as a performer and teacher in Southern California for the past 24 years. He currently teaches Classical Guitar and Beginning Guitar at LACC.

Dr. Steven Niles attended the University of Southern California where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance with minors in Historical Musicology, Music Education, and Harpsichord. He has taught music in the Los Angeles Community College District since 2011, at Pierce, Mission, and City Colleges. He teaches class and applied Piano, Music Appreciation, and Music Theory. Professor Niles has performed nationally and abroad in solo recitals and as concerto soloist. He has taught numerous masterclasses at institutions in the US, China, and Taiwan. He has commissioned and premiered numerous works by contemporary composers. He performs continuo and improvises in early music, as well as Jazz. He also writes music criticism for New Classic LA and other publications.

Professor Caroline Reyes is an Instructional Assistant at Los Angeles City College, who returned to her native Los Angeles and Orange County area from Western New York in the summer of 2015. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in harp performance and ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. An active performer and educator, Professor Reyes has served on the faculty of Roberts Wesleyan College and has performed with many notable ensembles, including the Long Beach Symphony, Orchestra Santa Monica, The Eastman Wind Ensemble, The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Rochester Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, Professor Reyes has been featured in the Rochester Women in Music Festival, as guest faculty recitalist at the Eastman School of Music, and the Rochester Fringe Festival. When not playing or teaching the harp, Professor Reyes can be found performing with and teaching Balinese gamelan ensembles and teaching world music courses.

As a bassoon and contrabassoon player, Dr. Rebecca Rivera has recorded for several film and music projects and performed with many ensembles throughout Southern California including Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony and Pops Orchestras and the woodwind trio Third Wheel.

She recently performed with Elton John at the 125th Anniversary concert for Yamaha. She has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cerritos Performing Arts Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Orpheum and The Los Angeles Music Center. She is a guest artist on Fiesta by Flamenco Latino guitarist Tony Ybarra.

In addition to maintaining her private teaching studio, Dr. Rivera is adjunct professor of bassoon and Chapman University and a lecturer in reed-making at the University of Southern California. She completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in bassoon performance at the University of Southern California, studying with Rose Corrigan and Judith Farmer.

Professor Emilia Simeonov has been an active violinist and educator with a diverse performance career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra and theater musician in Europe and the US.

Starting her career in Oslo, Norway and later in NYC, Professor Simeonov has been invited to perform at several music festivals - The Annual Oslo Opera Ball, Knut Hamsun Festival, Bergen Mostraspelet, Music on Madison concert series in NYC, and New York Fringe Festival to name a few.

Professor Simeonov has been a violinist in Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra, The Norwegian Opera, Manhattan Symphony, as well as a member of TettPå String Quartet and Forte String Quartet.

As a theater and musical musician she has been a soloist and a composer of the theater production Dos Parables by Isabel Allende, performed at Oslo New Theater, a concertmaster of the musical production Jesus Christ Superstar by Lloyd Weber and a solo violinist at the chamber musical Araby at NYC Fringe Festival, featured at the WNYC Greene Space.

As an educator, Professor Simeonov has more than twenty years experience teaching violin, viola, chamber music and string orchestra. She served as a faculty of Paramus High School Music Program (NJ), Montclair Kimberly Academy, as well as Oslo Community Music School (Norway). Many of her students have won regional competitions and been accepted to music colleges and universities.

Besides being a classical violinist, Professor Simeonov has a passion for improvising in different styles, including Balkan, Flamenco and World music. She has been performing and recorded with several bands.

Born in Varna, Bulgaria, in a family of musicians and artists, Professor Simeonov started playing violin at the age of six with her mother, a professional violinist and educator. After graduating Sofia School of Music “L. Pipkov” in the class of Alexander Seraphimov, she was accepted with a full scholarship at The Norwegian Academy of Music, where she holds a Graduate Performance Diploma in Chamber Music and B.M. in Violin Performance. Professor Simeonov studied with professors Terje Moe Hansen, Milan Vitek and Gregori Zhistlin.

Professor David Stahl has been an Adjunct Professor of Music at Los Angeles City College since 1996. Before his Professorship at LACC, he taught music classes at Harbor College beginning in 1991. From 1999 to 2022 he also worked as the full-time commercial voice accompanist at LACC. Originally from Ohio, he received his Bachelor of Music degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati in Piano Performance where he was the winner of the Van Cliburn scholarship. He later earned his Master of Fine Arts degree also in Piano Performance from UCLA. His teachers have included Eugene Mancini, Aube Tzerko, Bela Siki, and David Bar-Illan. He works in both classical and commercial music. He performed the Tchaikowsky Piano Concerto #2 with the Maui Symphony, composed music and lyrics for a stage musical and choral works, and has commercially recorded 3 CDs (David on the Keys, Guy in a White Shirt, and Christmas by the Fireside). He presently lives in the Chicago area and teaches remotely at LACC.

Professor Lori Stinson is a frequent concert and soprano opera soloist in the greater Los Angeles area and the country. She has sung operatic roles with San Diego Opera, Opera Pacific, Glimmerglass Opera, Aspen Opera Theater, Utah Festival Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, and Long Beach Opera, as well as covering roles at New York City Opera.

As a concert soloist, Professor Stinson has sung with Los Angeles Bach Festival, Redlands Bowl Symphony, Torrance Symphony, The Marina Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Pacific Chorale, Ventura Master Chorale, and Foothill Master Chorale, as well as many others. Some of the roles and oratorio she has most performed are The Countess in the Marriage of Figaro and Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte. She has performed as the soloist in Carmina Burana five times in the past seven years. When she was a soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the Cypress Master Chorale, the newspaper there said, “Her large, gleaming soprano soared above all else, and her wonderful performance would have graced any stage in the world. She sang loud, she sang soft, she colored her words, she shaped her phrases. She made the most of her turn in ‘Libera me’ and her soft high note at the end of the a cappella section was dynamite. Her high C was great. She was fabulous.”

She made her motion picture debut as the singing voice of actress Alison Elliott in a 2001 made-for-TV movie, “The Song of the Lark,” broadcast on most public television stations as part of the network’s “Masterpiece Theatre American Collection.” Professor Stinson recorded more than half a dozen opera and oratorio arias and art songs for the soundtrack in portraying a fictional character through her vocal development from a teenager to a renowned opera diva.

Professor Stu Suarez is the full-time sound engineer for the Cinema/TV and Music Departments at LACC.

Dr. Sezin Ahmet Türkmenoğlu is a versatile bass player, composer, and educator based in Los Angeles. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2012, he has worked with musicians like Alan Pasqua, Stanley Jordan, Bruce Forman, Otmaro Ruiz, Jimmy Branly, Frank Potenza, Nick Mancini, Chris Wabich, Abe Lagrimas, Larry Koonse, Michael Carvin, Michael Orland, Dennis Hamm, Kenwood Dennard, and Steve Hass. Dr. Türkmenoğlu has recorded and toured all over the world with many artists, both in Turkey and the U.S. He holds a doctorate degree in jazz performance from the University of Southern California.

“A truly beautiful listen from start to finish” - Pop Matters  
“Bold, dramatic, powerful” - Jazz Times 
“Ushering you into a magical sound world that references everything from The Third Stream stylings of Chick Corea to the songs of Kurt Weil...★★★★”  - Jazzwise
“Sublime voice... truly unique performance” - The Telegraph

London born vocalist-composer, multi-instrumentalist, author and painter, Professor Joanna Wallfisch heralds from generations of professional musicians.

However, music was not always simply a focus of work in her family, but of survival. Her grandmother, Anita Lasker Wallfisch, now 98, survived Auschwitz Birkenau as she was invited by conductor Alma Rose to play the cello in the camp orchestra (a band that entertained the Nazis in exchange for life). Post liberation Anita became a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra. Her brother Simon is a renowned cellist and opera singer, and her eldest brother Benjamin is an Oscar and Grammy nominated film composer. Her parents, Elizabeth and Raphael, are concert violinist and cellist respectively. 

Since 2011, Professor Wallfisch has released six albums of original music, has featured on various film soundtracks, and appears on four tracks of the 2021 chart topping record Dawn Fm, by The Weeknd. 

Music and creativity have been the through line of the Wallfisch family, and integral to Joanna's life and career. World Music Report describes her songs as "quintessential heart-music by a vocalist who seems to have connected with the deepest recesses of her being emerging into brightness again with songs of haunting beauty.” Her music defies genre classification as she effortlessly imbues her songs with nuances of jazz, classical, art-song, and folk, carrying her "clear-eyed poetry" (Boston Globe) and "striking vocals" (Hothouse). Her unique musical background shines through in her own compositional style, evoking her classical routes with her love of jazz, art-song, folk and pop, pushing boundaries of genre and stylistic expectations. 

Professor Wallfisch is master in the art of live vocal looping, and plays the guitar, ukulele, charango, piano and flute. She composes for ensembles including string quartets, woodwinds, and choir. In the summer of 2023 Joanna's piece "Uprise Skyward" is being premiered by the Laude Ensemble at First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, as part of the NEO Voice Festival. In April 2023 she performed in a brand new opera by Olan Jones with Overtone Industries at USC. 

Her gift for music encompasses her passion for both performance and for education. She strives to helps others, promoting messages of peace and community, healing and equality through the arts, via education and outreach programs. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Professor Wallfisch sings with the Laude Ensemble, is on songwriting faculty at Los Angeles College of Music, works regularly as a session vocalist, is an early childhood music educator for non-profit Urban Voices Project and owns her own company, Little Whale Music. In August 2023 she her sixth record is out on Galileo Music.

She also recently became a mother - her greatest achievement yet.

Her music and art has taken her around the globe.  She first studied to be a painter at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2008 she lived in Paris for a formative and pivotal semester, where she fell in with a jazz band, busking along the Seine. There Professor Wallfisch realized her true passion was sharing music with strangers, transforming tired commuters to joyful humans through song. Following this she completed a masters program in jazz vocals at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  

In 2012 she moved to New York City where she forged an indelible creative path, collaborating with musicians, circus artists, choreographers and photographers, developing her voice as a multi-dimensional artist. In 2013 she toured with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performing as part of Chorale Le Chateau for the Abyssinian Mass.

In 2015 she released her second album, The Origin of Adjustable Things, on Sunnyside Records: an intimate duo project with pianist Dan Tepfer. As a follow up to this success Sunnyside released Gardens In My Mind, her third album of self-penned songs and arrangements, featuring the award winning string ensemble The Sacconi Quartet, and Dan Tepfer on piano.

Her debut album, Wild Swan was written while still a student at The Guildhall in 2011, and features Joe Martin (bass), Sam Newsome (piano), Rob Garcia (drums) Art Hirahara (piano) and Jay Vilnai (guitar).

In 2018 she self-released her fourth record Blood and Bone, which London Jazz said, "overflowed with creativity and musical resources."

2019 marked the release of her fifth record entitled Far Away From Any Place Called Home... a song-cycle depicting the events of her 1500 mile solo bicycle tour down the US Pacific Coast Highway.

2023 introduces her sixth record, All In Time, on Galileo Music. An album of 9 songs, inspired by dreams and real life, and the transformation of moving into motherhood. 

The Great Song Cycle

Professor Wallfisch is an adventurer at heart, and in August 2016 Joanna created her ongoing project The Great Song Cycle: a zero-emissions concert tour by bicycle. She first embarked on a solo concert tour of the West Coast of the USA, 1154 miles from Portland to Los Angeles, carrying her instruments, camping gear, and everything else she needed upon her bike.

Inspired by this life-altering experience, she composed a 60-minute song-cycle, which she released as her 2019 album, and performed as a one woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018. She also wrote and published a memoir (on UWA Press), entitled "The Great Song Cycle; Portland to LA on Two Wheels and a Song".

In 2019, she set off on a second Great Song Cycle tour, this time cycling the Pacific Coast of Australia, from Brisbane to Hobart. She made a documentary film of this tour, which featured in multiple film festivals around the world. 

Alongside her musical career she is a passionate educator and takes her songwriting and teaching skills to outreach programs, schools and colleges. She is on the songwriting and vocal faculty at Los Angeles College of Music, and runs her own early childhood music program, Little Whale Music.

In 2016 she travelled to Mumbai to volunteer with charity organization Songbound, an outreach initiative that brings the transformative power of music to some of India’s poorest and most marginalized children.

In Los Angeles, Professor Wallfisch works with non-profit organization Urban Voices Project, working in a trauma-informed setting of music education, music therapy, and community choir for unhoused people in the Skid Row. Joanna helped pilot an early childhood program named Family Sing, aimed at the children and parents who are experiencing homelessness.

Of this work, she says, “Bringing music to people in need keeps me grounded and inspires everything I do. It reminds me how powerful music is beyond the concert stage. Music saves lives. It saved my grandmother’s life, and I am compelled to bring my musical skills into a situation that can truly heal and inspire those who need it most, and to help them find a way through their darkest times through singing.”

Dr. Wanner is the Dean of Pathways and Curriculum at LACC.

He was Chair of the Music Department from 2004-13, served as the Chair of Department Chairs for five years, and was the President of the Music Association of California Community Colleges (MACCC) from 2010-12.

Dr. Wanner received his Master's Degree in Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition from Columbia University in New York City. Following the completion of his studies, he worked as a music editor; published articles on music, film, and art; wrote numerous orchestral and chamber works; and served as the President of the League of Composers/ISCM.

Professor Greg Zilboorg is a trumpet player and composer who draws on his experience in jazz, classical, and electronic and music to create works featuring lush harmonies, lyrical melodies and engaging textures with an alive, unpredictable, yet organic quality.

Professor Zilboorg began his journey in music as a cornet player with the school band where he grew up in northern Vermont. He later studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and California Institute of the Arts, where he focused on jazz, improvisation, and composition. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches, performs, and does session work.