Download the 2024 Brochure
The heartbeat of Latin America, swing, and the African diaspora
Friday, May 5
7:30 p.m.
Campbell Recital Hall
SJW MEMBERS: $12 | Child (17 and under) & Student (present valid student ID card) $5
NON-MEMBERS: $20 | Child (17 and under) & Student (present valid student ID card) $12
Even today, the term “Latin America” is used as a way to flatten the 21 diverse countries into a monolith that really doesn’t exist. Beneath this strange misnomer, lives a deep history rooted in West Africa, the Caribbean, as well as Spain and the Americas (North and South respectively). What we mean by “Latin music” is actually a fusion of West African, Indigenous and European musical traditions that stretches far and wide with many unique forms and varieties. Jazz musicians often throw this term around to describe music from Cuba (Son, Mambo, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Bolero, Timba), Brazil (Samba, Bossa Nova), Spain (Flamenco, Spanish Rumba), Argentina (Tango), Peru (Lando), Puerto Rico (Bomba) and more.
Join the Bay Area Latin Soul project as they explore the origins of this strange instruction so often heard on bandstands — “play it Latin” — while enjoying the music of the Caribbean and Americas rooted in West African rhythmic tradition joined with music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the US.
Erick Peralta, piano
Silvestre Martinez, congas
Yadier Noa, bass
Vincent De Jesus, drums
Strings – Jazz Camp Week 2, Jazz Institute, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Beloved by Jazz Campers for his ability to get everyone fired up about jazz improvisation, Victor Lin has been on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop for many years, taught at the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp for three years, and currently directs the jazz program at The Calhoun School, a private progressive education school on the upper west side of Manhattan. Victor is a regular headliner at the Stanford Jazz Festival, curating his popular “An Evening with Victor Lin” concerts for the past 13 years.
A jazz pianist and violinist, he has an undergraduate degree in music from the University of Washington and a masters degree in jazz studies from Rutgers University, where he was a student of Kenny Barron. He is currently finishing his doctorate in music education at Columbia University Teachers College, where he teaches jazz piano and jazz ensembles.
In New York City, Victor has performed in a wide and eclectic variety of contexts. As a pianist, he has performed at Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, Bryant Park’s Piano Series, and recently been featured in Jack Kleinsinger’s “Highlights In Jazz” at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. In addition, Victor has performed at Flushing Town Hall, The Japan Society, The Blue Note, and is a regular at the well-known Knickerbocker in downtown Manhattan. As a violinist, he has been a part of Frank Vignola’s Hot Club USA and The Howard Fishman Quartet.
Vibraphone, Jazz Camp Week 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Sasha Berliner is a musician, composer, producer, and band leader originally from San Francisco, CA — and an alumna of SJW’s summer jazz immersion programs. She returns to SJW this summer as a faculty artist for the first time, and she makes her debut at the Stanford Jazz Festival on July 2, performing with noted drummer and SJW alumnus Dr. Jaz Sawyer.
A rock drummer turned vibraphonist, Sasha was first introduced to the instrument through her high school Oakland School for the Arts as part of the jazz program. While she had multi-faceted interests throughout her adolescence that spanned academia and the arts (for example, Sasha is still an active literary writer), the vibraphone swept the lead in becoming her life passion.
She moved to New York City in 2016 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and study under acclaimed vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and was recommended to Stefon personally when trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire heard her at Stanford Jazz Workshop while she was still in high school. Harris’ influence — in particular with regard to harmony — is something that she felt was “nearly prophetic” in helping her liberate her unique style on the instrument.
In 2017, Sasha attended Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, run by pianist Vijay Iyer and future collaborator drummer-composer Tyshawn Sorey, on the program’s full scholarship, Sasha was the also first US recipient of the LetterOne “Rising Stars” Jazz Award, where she headlined 10 jazz festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada. This gave Sasha her her first official foray in to touring as a band leader and facilitated the creation of her debut album.
The alternative jazz album, “Azalea” (2019), was subsequently nominated for JazzTimes 2019 Readers’ Poll’s “Best New Release” and has been described as “shimmering and thoughtful” (Kassel, TIDAL), “gleefully exploring various genres and headspaces” (Tremblay, CTEBCM). The record takes on a trans-genre, politically charged, jazz-alternative sound, employing digital effects, synths, audio speech samples, and strings in the soundscape, a product of her diverse musical background and influences melded in to one.
Sasha graduated from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music with her Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Vibraphone Performance and a minor in Non Fiction writing from the adjacent Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. Sasha’s music work remains primarily based in New York City, and she has gone on to perform at venues like Newport Jazz Festival, The Blue Note, Montreal Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and NJPAC Prudential Hall. She has been featured by The SF Jazz Education Center, PBS News Hour, NPR, WBGO, and The New York Times for both her musicianship and her activism surrounding intersectional feminism, representation, and mental wellness in the music industry.
In addition to performing internationally with her own band, her recent notable performances and recordings have been with musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, and Quincy Davis. She is an endorsing artist for Marimba One and Vater Drumsticks, developing her signature Sasha Berliner vibraphone mallet. She is a regular faculty member at the MalletLab percussion intensive, where she gives masterclasses and clinics. She has also lead masterclasses and Q&As at esteemed universities like MSU Denver and Berklee College of Music. She has also taught at The New School and Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy on topics of composition, vibraphone technique and performance, notation software, music theory, and ensemble based jazz and improvisational pedagogy.
Sasha was named the 2020 Downbeat Critics’ Poll winner of the “Rising Star – Vibraphone” category. She was both the first woman, and at 21, was the youngest individual in the poll’s history to be granted the win. She was voted in the top ten vibraphonists for the 2021 and 2022 Downbeat Reader’s Polls, sharing a list with vibraphonists such as Joe Locke, Stefon Harris, and Joel Ross. Sasha has commissioned works for Modern Marimba (Sarasota, FL) and the SWR NewJAZZ Meeting (Baden-Baden, Germany) as artist in residence for fall 2021, which resulted in her suite of music entitled “Tabula Rasa”.
Sasha has also been awarded grants from NYFA, Musicares, and The Louis Armstrong Foundation to fund her ongoing artistic endeavors throughout the inconsistency of the pandemic. These grants enabled Sasha to work on developing new music for her sophomore album. Entitled “Onyx”, the album will be released digitally and on vinyl with JMI Recordings in summer 2022 alongside Jimmy Fallon/The Roots music producer “Suga” Steve Mandel and Grammy award winning engineer Ben Kane. A fiery, dense, winding, yet thoughtful 43 minute musical development that gestated in just four days, the album features all-star musicians Marcus Gilmore, Burniss Travis II, James Francies, Thana Alexa, and Jaleel Shaw, and was tracked entirely analog to tape. She is currently represented by International Musician’s Network.
Saxophone, Jazz Camp Week 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO, saxophonist, composer, and educator Anisha Rush is a member of SJW’s Mentor Fellowship program. Anisha began playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and immediately developed an interest in jazz and gospel music. She went on to study music and psychology, earning a BM in Jazz Studies from the Thompson Jazz Studies Program and a BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2016, she was chosen to attend the International Association of Schools of Jazz, a prestigious week-long conference led by renowned saxophonist Dave Leibman.
Anisha has shared the stage with Ron Miles, Greg Gisbert, Tommy Campbell, John Lee, and Art Lande to name a few great jazz artists. In 2016 she received a grant from the Boulder County Arts Alliance through Pathways to Jazz allowing her to record her debut album entitled Pursuit. The album feature’s her unique approach to music with a number of original compositions. Anisha is also a well-respected educator and has taught at Metropolitan State University – Denver, University of Colorado at Boulder and the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts. She’s now an active member of the Denver music scene as both bandleader and sidewoman.
Trumpet, Jazz Camp Week 1, Jazz Camp Package, Giant Steps Package
Andrew Stephens returns to SJW as a member of the Mentor Fellowship program. He first taught in SJW’s acclaimed Giant Steps Big Band program, and now joins SJW’s summer jazz immersion programs for the first time this summer.
He’s a trumpeter and educator based in NYC since 2021. He is currently pursuing a masters at Juilliard, and performed Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall this February. Andrew has been working outside of school with Kaleidoscope, a group he formed with two fellow students, as well as touring with the Hot Sardines; he also recently recorded an album with Electroveesedstene, a project he co-leads with Ben Goldberg, which features Kenny Wollesen, Ryan Ferreira, Hamir Atwal, Kai Lyons, and Michael Coleman.
Andrew was born in Sacramento and began playing at the age of 10, immediately interested in Louis Armstrong and traditional jazz, which was a strong part of the scene there. He moved to the Bay Area to get his BA in pure mathematics at UC Berkeley, and worked his way into the jazz scene outside of school. He was an instructor at Sonoma State University from 2018 until 2021, where he taught private lessons and led the university’s first early jazz ensemble for 2 semesters. In addition, he has taught at Stanford Jazz, the California Jazz Conservatory summer program, and the Teagarden Jazz Camp. He is the winner of the 2021 Ryan Anthony Memorial Trumpet Competition, and placed 2nd in the 2019 Carmine Caruso Competition.
Guitar, Jazz Camp Week 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Alicyn Yaffee is a New York City-based guitarist, vocalist and bassist, by way of Kelseyville, California. An artist of wide range and depth, she earned her BM in Jazz Studies, with a Double Major of Guitar and Vocals, at Cal State University in Sacramento. In the few years since the move to New York, she has toured the U.S. and Europe under her own name, as well as with Becca Stevens, Grammy-nominee JC Hopkins’ Biggish Band, award winning singer Allan Harris, and bassist Benny Rietveld (Santana ); released her first solo album, “Someone Else”, featuring Cindy Blackman Santana, Ronnie Foster, Jeff Cressman; and played numerous venues with her own groups and with a diverse range of jazz and rock artists, including guitarist Mark Whitfield, China Moses, Kat Rodriguez,Bria Skonberg, Shirazette Tinnin’s Sonic Wallpaper, Arcoiris Sandoval, 13th Law, Tiana Major9, Haitian singer Darlene Desca, Dawn Drake’s Zapote, and Indian progressive rock composer Anupam Shobhakar. Alicyn was featured in Classical Theater or Harlem’s remake of “The Bacchae” where she was performing with the actors onstage with a wireless guitar in Marcus Garvey Park. Alicyn has performed at many venues including; Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Birdland jazz club, Minton’s Playhouse, Bar lunAtico, Carnegie Hall, Little island main stage as well as many other notable venues.
She has opened for artists David Lindley and Masta ace, been a tour assistant to David Crosby, a music transcriptionist for blue note recording artists. She is currently working on her second solo album while getting her master’s degree from Rutgers University in jazz performance.
Saxophone – Jazz Camp Week 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Born in Berkeley, California, Howard Wiley displayed a unique musical talent from a very young age, while performing at his local Gospel church. Wiley says “the first time I picked up the saxophone, it became a part of me, like an additional limb, I knew I had found my purpose.”
Wiley studied the saxophone in high school, was selected to be a member of the Grammy All-American Jazz Band two years in a row at 14 and 15 years old. He travelled to both New York and Los Angeles performing with the best young musicians in the country at various activities related to Grammy Week. The following year, he was selected to participate in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz’s All-Star Band. This band of young lions studied andperformed with jazz greats including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Gerald Albright, and many others. Wiley then received a scholarship to Berklee School of Music; where he would graduate with honors. During his time with the Institute, Howard also met and collaborated with other rising stars of Jazz in Los Angeles, including Kamasi Washington, Tony Austin, Miles Mosley and more (the collective now known as the West Coast Get Down). To this day, Howard is still a member; recording and touring with them worldwide when not working on his solo projects.
At the age of 15, he released his first CD as a leader with the local press review stating “…this CD signals the arrival of the San Francisco Bay’s newest diamond in the rough.” In 2007 Wiley released his third album, The Angola Project, comprising ensemble pieces inspired by 1950s recordings from Angola State Prison. According to Jazz critic Daniel King of the San Francisco Chronicle, “What makes Wiley’s album a great listen is his textural range, his less-is-more compositional approach and his patience as a soloist. Instead of packing notes into every bar, he places them thoughtfully into well-paced improvisations.”
Wiley’s love of jazz and arranging led him to fuse his jazz sounds with funk. Ever the soulful live musician, Howard has built a strong reputation for presenting jazz shows ‘that you can dance to’. On experiencing Wiley in a live setting, journalist Drew Foxman writes, “…he befitted a dignified presence by displaying his deep reverence for the musicians with whom he was collaborating, unmasking the persona of an unassuming leader. This is a musician who understands his sound, not only in an ensemble, but in the history of music. This humility, though, translates into downright explosiveness on the bandstand.”
Howard Wiley has toured internationally, recorded and performed with artists including Miss Lauryn Hill, Sheila E, Cory Henry, Christian McBride, Chester Thompson and more. He is a Founding member of the new Bay Area collective BLACK LONDON, who are currently performing in and around Northern California. He has performed worldwide with other artists and with his solo project at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Fest, Blue Note Club, Madrone Art Bar, Cape Town Jazz Festival, the Grammy Museum, Yoshi’s Oakland, Malcolm X Jazz Festival, Sonoma Jazz Festival, Smalls NY and SXSW, to name a few. Recently, he was also a featured artist performing his original music for the official new APPLE iPhone commercial and global conference.
Bass, Jazz Camp Week 2, Jazz Institute, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package
Hannah Marks is a bassist, bandleader, composer, and educator living in New York City — and she joins us at SJW for the first time as a member of the Mentor Fellowship program. Welcome, Hannah!
As a bandleader, she has performed at several major festivals, including the Detroit Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival, and Indy Jazz Festival. Her current band, Hannah Marks: Outsider, Outlier, is a genre-defying, lyric-based project. Marks plays in many bands including Tide Pools, with alto saxophonist Alfredo Colon and drummer Connor Parks, as well as for singer-songwriters Elora and Jack Broza.
She is a frequent sideman with SJW faculty artists Geoffrey Keezer, Ingrid Jensen, and Matt Wilson, as well as many other noted jazz artists such as Kalia Vandever, Ted Nash, Morgan Guerin, and Marcus Printup. Her former project, Heartland Trio, released their debut album in November 2018. Marks is a 2021 alumnus of the Woodshed Network, a 2019 alumnus of Betty Carter Jazz Ahead, a 2018 alumnus of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, and a 2014 alumnus of the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony. She is on faculty at The Spence School and runs her own private lesson studio. Marks is currently an artist-in-residence at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in New Jersey and a curator for Green Lung Studio in Brooklyn.
Hannah is an alumnus of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Walter Smith, Todd Coolman, Kurt Muroki, and Jeremy Allen. She was a member of IU’s top jazz group, the Plummer Jazz Quintet, led by Walter Smith. She is a former member of the IU Soul Revue and was the assistant principal bassist in the Spring 2018 production of West Side Story.
She hails from Des Moines, IA, where she got her start playing in monthly Des Moines Community Jazz Center jam sessions and attending Synergy Jazz Foundation Workshops. By the time she graduated high school, she played regularly with the Max Wellman Quartet, the Plymouth Church Saturday Night Band, and the Dave Bohl Quartet. She was selected for the Dave Brubeck Colony in 2014; she had other eye- opening experiences from attending the Centrum Jazz Workshop, the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshop, the University of Northern Iowa Jazz Camp, and the Simpson Jazz Camp in high school.
Hannah is passionate about sharing her love of music with a range of communities. She is involved in music education, non-profit work, and community outreach across the Midwest and East Coast, and currently works at Manhattan School of Music doing performance operations for the jazz department. As well as teaching on faculty at The Spence School, Hannah has also taught several masterclasses on music business and entrepreneurship for Indiana University’s Project Jumpstart program.
She created a music venue in Bloomington’s cozy mead bar, Oddball Fermentables, in 2017, and booked 27 shows and employed 160 musicians over the course of a year and a half. While in college, Marks interned for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Girls Rock! Chicago, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, and Civic Music Association. She taught bass lessons and music theory at the Girls Rock! Des Moines camp and mentored at-risk elementary and middle school girls involved in Chrysalis Foundation’s after school programs in 2014.
Recent studio work includes Heartland Trio’s debut album Year One; Alone Together, a jazz vocal/bass duo EP with vocalist Kathryn Sherman, and Mostly Home, a full-length album with singer songwriter Grace Minnick.
Inside the composer
Friday, April 21
7:30 p.m.
Campbell Recital Hall
SJW MEMBERS: $12 | Child (17 and under) & Student (present valid student ID card) $5
NON-MEMBERS: $20 | Child (17 and under) & Student (present valid student ID card) $12
“West Coast minimalist math jazz,” is how composer and band leader Steven Lugerner describes this hauntingly beautiful music. But the story of how Steven composed these wonderful pieces is as emotional as the music itself. Steven will talk through his compositional process, showcasing his original video sketches and handwritten scores, as the band treats you to an amazing night of beauty.
Steven Lugerner, bass clarinet & baritone saxophone
Justin Rock, guitar
Steve Blum, synthesizer
Christina Galisatus. piano
Josh Thurston-Milgrom, bass
Michael Mitchell, drums
Friday, April 14
7:30 p.m.
Dinkelspiel Auditorium
SJW MEMBERS: Free
NON-MEMBERS: $10 | Youth (17 and under) or Student, free
Trombonist and composer Francisco Torres is one of the great exponents of Afro-Cuban jazz and beyond. In this special performance, the Stanford Jazz Orchestra performs arrangements by Francisco and other composers. Opening the show is SJW’s Miles Ahead Big Band, an award-winning high school ensemble that will kick off this evening of burning big band jazz, all directed by Mike Galisatus!
Stanford Jazz Workshop
P.O. Box 20454
Stanford, CA 94309
Phone: 650-736-0324
Fax: 650-856-4155
Email: [email protected]
Please email inquires about performing at the Stanford Jazz Festival to [email protected].