Sarah Green

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Sarah Green is the Director of Bands at Central Middle School and Arroyo Upper Elementary in San Carlos, where she leads concert bands, jazz bands, and the drumline program for students in grades 5–8. A passionate advocate for music education, she is committed to building programs that foster a strong sense of community alongside musical excellence, creativity, and a lifelong love of making music.

Prior to joining the San Carlos music team, Sarah founded the instrumental music program in the Ravenswood City School District and previously taught middle school band in Rigby, Idaho. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for educational leadership and program development, securing substantial grant funding and presenting at professional conferences including CMEA Bay Section, CMEA Capital Section, CASMEC, and the prestigious Midwest Clinic. Having taught in rural, urban, and suburban communities, Sarah is committed to creating equitable, welcoming music programs where every student has the opportunity to thrive.

Sarah holds a Master’s Degree in Wind Band Conducting from the American Band College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Northern Michigan University. In addition to her work as an educator, she maintains an active career as a freelance musician, performing as a saxophonist and woodwind doubler with the San Francisco Wind Symphony, various local big bands, and numerous community musical theater productions throughout the Peninsula and South Bay as both a music director and pit musician. Throughout her career, Sarah has had the privilege of performing alongside renowned musicians including Bob Mintzer, Kelly Rossum, Dean Sorenson, Randy Sabien, Bobby Shew, Fred Sturm, Dmitri Matheny and more.

Her work has earned numerous honors, including recognition as a Grammy Music Educator Award nominee, NBC Bay Area All-Star Teacher nominee, and PTA Teacher of the Year.

Sarah is excited to join the Stanford Jazz Workshop as director of the Giants Steps Big Band South. She is passionate about helping young jazz musicians develop confidence, exceptional ensemble skills, and a deep appreciation for the artistry, collaboration, and joy of jazz.

Jeff Denson

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Jeff Denson is an award-winning bassist, vocalist, and composer whose work bridges jazz, contemporary classical, and improvisation. He has released 16 albums as a leader or co-leader and toured extensively across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan, performing at venues such as the Village Vanguard, Birdland, the Kennedy Center, and the Montreal and Berlin Jazz Festivals. He has collaborated with artists including Brian Blade, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Mike Stern, and Terri Lyne Carrington, and maintained a decade-long musical relationship with saxophonist Lee Konitz until Konitz’s passing in 2020. Recent leader projects include his trio with guitarist Romain Pilon and drummer Brian Blade (Between Two Worlds, 2019; Finding Light, 2022) and the vocal-forward Outside My Window (2018). His largest work to date is Webs, a three-act chamber opera for soprano and baritone soloists, string quartet, woodwind trio, piano, and double bass.

Denson is known for integrating voice and bass within both composed and improvised settings, drawing on jazz tradition alongside 20th- and 21st-century classical practices. He has appeared 19 times in the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll across the Bassist, Electric Bassist, and Male Vocalist categories, earning First Place in the Rising Star category for Electric Bass in 2021. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle called him a “master of the jazz bass,” with international critics also praising the distinctiveness of his voice.

A dedicated educator, Denson spent over 13 years as a Full Professor and 5.5 years as Dean of Instruction at the California Jazz Conservatory, and now teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, alongside workshops and residencies throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is also Founder and President of Ridgeway Arts, Inc., a nonprofit supporting creative music and community engagement. Originally from Northern Virginia, he began on saxophone before turning to voice and electric bass in his teens, honing his craft performing regularly in Washington, DC, before earning a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Florida State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music Performance from UC San Diego.

Jeff Worrall

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Jeff Worrall is a lifelong music lover, performer, and educator. Originally from Syracuse, New York, he received his bachelors in music from Western Colorado University and his masters degree in trumpet performance from the University of Wyoming.

Jeff started playing viola in 3rd grade, later switching to trumpet in middle school after receiving a trumpet from his grandfather while visiting family in Oakland. He taught himself guitar from watching his father, and started learning drums from his brother, who played in the school band. Jeff continued to study music in college while focusing on trumpet and falling in love with jazz music.

A multi-instrumentalist, trumpet player, arranger, and music educator, Jeff has taught and performed in the Bay Area since 2015 and is currently the middle school instrumental music teacher at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton. He has served on the faculty of the Boston Brass Summer Intensive, the Wyoming Jazz Festival, Oakland Public Conservatory Summer Music Academy, and OUSD Summer Music.

Chloe Rowlands

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Chloe Rowlands is a GRAMMY-nominated trumpet player, composer, arranger, and educator.  Based in Brooklyn, she enjoys playing a wide variety of musical styles and has collaborated with artists such as Fleet Foxes, The 8-Bit Big Band, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Manhattan Transfer, Gil Evan’s Project, Silvana Estrada, Joanna Newsom,  Audra McDonald, Durand Jones and the Indications, Aaron Frazer, Big Red Machine, Haley Heynderickx, Theo Bleckmann, Conrad Tao, Celisse, Samora Pinderhughes, Aoife O’Donovan, Aaron Desner, Dave Douglas, Nico Muhly, and Caroline Shaw.  

Chloe is a long-time member of The Westerlies, a GRAMMY-nominated new music brass chamber ensemble with “a unique reputation for exploring the emotional textures of American music” (DownBeat). From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along, creating music that is “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” – NPR.

Chloe has performed and toured all over the world, performing at venues and festivals such as  the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Lincoln Center, NPR Tiny Desk, Forest Hills Stadium, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival,  Big Ears Festival, FreshGrass, Pitchfork Music Festival, SFJAZZ,  Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note NYC, the Java International Jazz Festival, and the Jarasum International Jazz Festival.  

She also performs on Broadway in NYC, playing trumpet for shows such as the 2024 Tony-nominated revival of “Gypsy” featuring Aura McDonald, and the 2025 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Maybe Happy Ending.   Additionally, she also has worked in Film and Television,  and can be seen and heard featured throughout the soundtrack of Billy Crystal’s self-produced and directed film “Here Today,” and has recorded music for and appeared in the HBO original series “Gossip Girl.” 

Chloe is a graduate of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary music where she now holds a faculty position teaching trumpet and various ensembles.  She works extensively in education with The Westerlies, working with students across the country of all ages and has given workshops and masterclasses at Yale, Colburn, Manhattan School of Music, Northwestern University, Montclair State University, Michigan State University, University of Kansas, University of Iowa, Montana State University, and many others.

Lilan Kane

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Oakland-based soul singer and composer Lilan Kane (LEE – lawn) is authentic, on and off stage. The sultry honesty in her voice is as raw as her lyrical stories of love, life and self-discovery. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Kane has sold out numerous residencies at Yoshi’s Oakland and SFJAZZ as well as performances at Minton’s Playhouse (NYC), Chris’s Jazz Cafe (Philly), French Quarter Festival (New Orleans), Concord Pavillion, The Mint (LA), Fillmore Jazz Festival and many others.

Her songs have been featured on KCSM, WGBO, Jazziz.com, Soulandjazz.com, Soultracks.com, Thisisrnb.com and others.

Kane has sung with Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Orchestra, Tom Browne, and opened for Hall & Oates, Lenny Williams, Freddie Hughes, The Doobie Brothers, Chicago, Sharon Jones, Trombone Shorty, and Morgan James.

 

Ian McArdle

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Ian McArdle, from Oakland, California is a recent graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he obtained a Bachelor of Music degree.  He has had the privilege of studying with Dan Wall, Susan Muscarella, Billy Hart and Jamey Haddad.

Ian began playing piano in elementary school. At that age he preferred playing along with his favorite songs over more formal classical studies.  However, in eighth grade with the discovery of jazz, he became much more serious about music.  In high school, McArdle played with the national award-winning Jazzschool Studio Band under the direction of Keith Johnson and the Oaktown Jazz Workshop led by Khalil Shaheed.

Ian received the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Dean’s Scholarship and awards for Outstanding Musicianship from the Campana Jazz Festival, CSU East Bay Jazz Festival and the Sacramento State University Winter Jazz Festival.

He has performed at Yoshi’s Jazz Club, Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival as well as jazz venues in Italy and France.  In 2026 Ian released his debut album “Halcyon Week” a collection of original songs and productions.

Ryan Trujillo

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A California native, Ryan Trujillo began his formal musical education in 2011 at Redding CA’s Shasta Community College. Notable achievements from his time there include cofounding the college’s first jazz combo, which would receive unanimous superior ratings at the 2015 Cabrillo Jazz Festival, and portraying the titular character/lead in the Shasta College Opera Theater production of Gounad’s Faust. Following completion of an Associate’s in general music, Ryan transferred to San Jose State University.

Trujillo would study a combined 5 years at SJSU between undergraduate and graduate school under the guidance of bay area jazz bass titans John Shifflett and Dan Robbins. Specific accomplishments at SJSU include accompanying guest artist Dee Dee Bridgewater with the SJSU Jazz Orchestra dir. Aaron Lington, studying Afro Cuban culture, tradition, and music abroad in Havana, Cuba with the SJSU Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble dir. Jeff Lewis, performing Claude Bolling’s Concerto for Jazz Piano Trio and Orchestra with the SJSU Symphony Orchestra dir. Fred Cohen, as well as directing the SJSU Jazz Ensemble.

Since graduating in 2022, Trujillo has firmly established himself as a performer working with a wide variety of groups and managing his own projects. He continues to study the music and cultures of latin America and has become a pillar of the California jazz community as a performer, recording artist and educator.

Ryan maintains a private lesson studio, is a teacher at East West Music and Dance in Cupertino and Opus 11 in San José, is an upright and electric bass coach for Homestead and Cupertino High Schools, and is regular faculty for the San Jose Jazz and Stanford Jazz middle and high school education programs.

Vinnie Sperrazza

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Vinnie Sperrazza is a Brooklyn-based jazz drummer, composer, bandleader, author, and educator, noted for his deep swing, versatility, and commitment to new music. Born in Utica, NY, Sperrazza moved to Brooklyn after completing his studies at William Paterson University, where he was mentored by pianist James Williams.

He’s composed for the groups Vinnie Sperrazza Trio, featuring Ethan Iverson and Michael Formanek, whose first album of Sperrazza compositions was released in March 2023, and Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal, featuring Loren Stillman, Brandon Seabrook, and Eivind Opsvik, with three albums of Vin’s originals since 2014.

Sperrazza is a part of several collectives, including Ember, with Caleb Curtis and Noah Garabedian with a new album out August 2023, the Choir Invisible, with Chris Tordini and Charlotte Greve, with two albums on Intakt Records, and PLAY, featuring Jacob Sacks and Masa Kamaguchi, regularly recording for Fresh Sound Records.
Additionally, he is a member of Matt Bauder’s Hearing Things, the Hank Roberts Sextet, Michael Formanek’s Drome Trio, and many other NYC-based groups. He tours regularly with the Mark Morris Music Ensemble, led by Ethan Iverson, playing Iverson’s scores and arrangements

Also a committed writer, Sperrazza’s Substack entitled Chronicles has been active since October 2022 and features nearly 200 in-depth articles focused on the history of jazz and jazz drumming, with deep dives on well-known and lesser-known figures. An experienced clinician and devoted private instructor, Sperrazza’s teaching emphasizes fundamentals and listening, core components upon which he’s built his musical life.

Sami Stevens

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Singer-songwriter Sami Stevens harnesses Jazz, Soul, Folk and Indie Rock influences to create truly intimate original music. Accompanying herself on piano or Wurlitzer, Sami delivers dynamic, personal performances deeply steeped in the lineage of the great American singer-songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s.

In 2023, Sami released her debut solo album ‘Morning’ on Sunnyside Records. Born from a love of classic American music and an ear for storytelling, ‘Morning’ showcases Stevens’ rich vocal delivery as it ebbs between intimate personal stories and stunning symphonic textures, treating the vastness of the human condition with painterly impressions and an empathetic disposition. Glide Magazine wrote “Sami Stevens did more than impress with her first solo outing, she quickly established herself as one of the most promising songwriters to appear in the past few years.”

Sami is also an avid collaborator; fresh off of a two year run with nine-time Grammy winner Norah Jones on auxiliary keys and background vocals as Norah toured her 2024 release ‘Visions.’ Other ongoing collaborations include Rose Thorne by Kenny Wollesen, I Insist by Kazemde George, The Way I Feel Inside by Marty Isenberg, Brave New World by Tredici Bacci, and a new one woman show by John Zorn and Jesse Harris, currently in development.

Sami’s performance and recording career has transcended genre; she has performed with Brian Blade, Emily King, John Scofield, Gary Wilson, Curren$y, and Jason Moran, and has opened for Rachael Price, John Zorn, and Talib Kweli. Sami has appeared on film and TV soundtracks including Archer, Sesame Street, and the French Italian (Cat Cohen). She has toured five continents with various projects, appearing at the Barclays Center, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Nippon Budokan, the Apollo Theatre, Red Rocks, the Kennedy Center, Paramount Brooklyn, the Late Show with Steven Colbert, Lincoln Center, Cotton Club Tokyo, and National Sawdust. She has performed at music festivals including Big Ears, Austin City Limits, and SXSW. Her projects have been lauded by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Downbeat, and the New York Times, and featured on various official playlists, including Spotify’s “Best Vocal Jazz of 2021.”

Sami Stevens studied privately with Dominique Eade and John McNeil at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with a BM in Vocal Jazz Performance in the fall of 2014. Sami also received a BA in Psychology from Tufts University. She grew up in East Winthrop, Maine, and is currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Ben Feldman

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Hailed as one of the most versatile and dynamic up-and-coming instrumentalists on the scene, Ben Feldman (b. 1999) is a multi-award winning bassist, composer, and educator currently based in NYC. He holds a Bachelor’s of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Ron Carter and Buster Williams, and a Masters of Music from the Juilliard School.

Growing up in Seattle, Ben benefited greatly from the city’s strong jazz education. He began playing bass at the age of 13, inspired by his band director at Hamilton International Middle School, Dan Rowe. He continued on to Garfield High School where he joined the jazz band and orchestra, as well as the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. While in high school, he quickly began working as a professional bassist, playing with Seattle luminaries including Jay Thomas, Mark Taylor, Dawn Clement, Johnaye Kendrick, Bill Anschell among others.

Among his accolades, Ben Feldman is a recipient of the Manhattan School of Music Presidential Scholarship and has appeared at many distinguished festivals and venues, such as Dizzy’s Club, The Django, the Kennedy Center, the International Jazz Festival Bern, musig im pflegidach, Jazz à Vienne, The Grammys After-Party, Regattabar, Umbria Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and the Vail Jazz Festival. Furthermore, he has shared the stage with world-renowned artists the likes of Stefon Harris, Jane Monheit, Sullivan Fortner, Gerald Clayton, Geoffrey Keezer, Dave Liebman, Regina Carter, Joey Alexander, and Matt Wilson. His own projects include the piano/bass duo series 4+88, which features performances with artists including Donald Vega, Glenn Zaleski, Jean-Michel Pilc and Paul Cornish, as well as co-leading the NYC-based bands FRIENDSHIP and Meridian Odyssey, which have released five critically acclaimed albums.

In addition to being an active performer, Ben is a passionate and experienced educator. He maintains a private studio and serves on the faculty of 92NY as a bass, guitar, and piano instructor. He has also given clinics at Portland State University, Central Washington University, Jane Addams Middle School, and Shorewood High School, among others.