CMC Sessions: Traditions Moving Forward
Make musical discoveries with faculty from Community Music Center as they explore their methods, approaches, and creative practices in adapting musical traditions to inspire and guide the musicians of tomorrow. CMC Sessions: Traditions Moving Forward showcases the talents of faculty from the CMC Cultural Traditions and Piano Departments who represent diverse classical and non-classical traditions in workshops and presentations. The online workshops will use video, audio, and lecture-demonstrations to illustrate the faculty members’ influences and the musical education that shaped them, highlighting how their traditions impact their teaching and performing at CMC. Their personal stories illustrate the breadth of talent and creativity in CMC’s faculty.
Meet these talented and inspiring faculty:
June 30, 2022 at 7pm (PT)
FREE
Martha Rodríguez-Salazar will illustrate her musical journey as a classically trained musician in Mexico City, coming to the US to study at Mills College for her M.A,, and ending up learning more about Mexican and Latin American music in the Bay Area. She will share her appreciation for the richness of her cultural heritage and the importance of sharing it with her Bay Area community. Through her work at CMC, she has created multi-generational projects that have transformed lives and been deeply impactful to her. She will also talk about her work as the Día de los Muertos curator at the San Francisco Symphony and her performing life in the US, playing with different ensembles, such as Coro Hispano de San Francisco, the Bernal Hill Players, Chile y Limón Duo, and Ave Fénix Duo.
This event will be conducted online via video conferencing. RSVP HERE to receive the link to join, emailed prior to the start of the discussion.
People who are interested in this workshop can dive deeper by exploring private lessons and group classes and ensembles.
Bio:
Singer, flutist, conductor, and producer Martha Rodríguez-Salazar has been bringing Latin American folk, classical and contemporary music to the Bay Area for more than 20 years. For her outstanding leadership in promoting and developing Mexican music and culture in the Bay Area Martha was recognized as a “Luminary” in 2011 by the Mexican Consulate in SF and as “Excelencia Latina” by LAM and Mundo Fox in 2013.
A native of Mexico City, Martha was classically trained in both Mexico and Mills College as a concert flutist and opera singer. She has been a faculty member of the Community Music Center since 2000, where she teaches voice, flute, conducts several older adult choirs, directs Coro de Cámara, and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District Mariachi Program. Martha has produced several Latin music shows at CMC including La Posarela and December Fiesta. She was also the MDYMP coordinator and Latin Vocal Workshop instructor for 12 years.
She currently performs with the Bernal Hill Players, the Latin folk duo Chile y Limón, and Ave Fénix Duo as well as curating the “Día de los Muertos” event at the San Francisco Symphony since its inception in 2008.
The Shenson Faculty Concert Series returns this summer with free concert spotlighting CMC talented faculty members. Each year, the Shenson Foundation sponsors free community concerts for CMC faculty music projects to support CMC Faculty as performing artists and ensure their work on stage is shared and celebrated in our community.
This year’s presenters, featuring many talented intergenerational collaborators, will highlight a wide variety of musical styles, techniques, and creative inspirations—from the historical legacies of Black roots music, California folk and Sephardic music traditions, to theater and environmental and human rights activism.
June 23: Deszon X. Claiborne, drums
July 21: David Steinberg, saxophone/clarinet
August 4: Beth Wilmurt & Sharon Wayne, voice/piano/guitar
Tunes From Our Backyard: Songs of the WPA California Folk Music Project with David Steinberg
Thursday, July 21 at 7pm
@ Sha’ar Zahav (290 Dolores St, San Francisco)
FREE
In 1938, ethnomusicologist Sidney Robertson Cowell, with the backing of the WPA, the Library of Congress, and the University of California, spent two years field-recording thirty-five hours of folk music from numerous cultural groups throughout Northern California in what became known as the WPA California Folk Music Project. David Steinberg and special guests will explore selections from this collection in an effort to channel the musical spirit of California’s past.
Featuring guest musicians Erik Pearson (Guitar), Adam Kubota (Bass), Guest Vocalists from CMC and greater SF Bay Area musical communities.
This event will be hosted by our Mission District neighbors Sha’ar Zahav. RSVP is recommended, but there will be space for walk-up patrons at the door.
About the Performers:
David Steinberg is a highly sought-after instrumentalist, composer, producer, and educator. He began his professional career playing salsa music in clubs throughout San Francisco before moving east to attend New York University. After graduating from NYU with a Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz Performance (saxophone), David continued to perform on stages large and small including appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Before returning to the Bay Area, he maintained both a private woodwind studio as well as positions at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School (NYC), the Hudson School (Hoboken, NJ), and Turtle Bay Music School (NYC). David has composed and produced music for film, television, advertising, and new media including VR and has lent his experience as a producer and engineer to other artists to help realize their vision in the studio. When he’s not making music, David loves spending time with his wife and son and cycling around the Bay Area.
CMC continues to closely monitor information from public health officials regarding public gatherings. Please be aware that events are subject to change to comply with these protocol. Thank you for helping us keep our communities safe!
Sha’ar Zahav is a fragrance-free environment. Please do your best to follow these guidelines when you visit our synagogue building:
For more information on this subject, including why it’s important and a list of Fragrance-Free products, please visit: eastbaymeditation.org
The Shenson Faculty Concert Series returns this summer with free concert spotlighting CMC talented faculty members. Each year, the Shenson Foundation sponsors free community concerts for CMC faculty music projects to support CMC Faculty as performing artists and ensure their work on stage is shared and celebrated in our community.
This year’s presenters, featuring many talented intergenerational collaborators, will highlight a wide variety of musical styles, techniques, and creative inspirations—from the historical legacies of Black roots music, California folk and Sephardic music traditions, to theater and environmental and human rights activism.
June 23: Deszon X. Claiborne, drums
July 21: David Steinberg, saxophone/clarinet
August 4: Beth Wilmurt & Sharon Wayne, voice/piano/guitar
This World with Beth Wilmurt and Sharon Wayne
Thursday, August 4 at 7pm
@ Sha’ar Zahav (290 Dolores St, San Francisco)
FREE
THIS WORLD is a collection of songs by San Francisco-born, environmental and human rights activist Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978). Our playful new arrangements weave bluegrass, jazz, Sephardic, classical, and theater traditions into the sounds of the ’60s and 70’s that Malvina was immersed in. This program offers a healing ritual through connection, bringing together multiple generations and cultures from within CMC, engaging audience members, and making meaning through making music. Malvina’s songs give us a template, a guide, wisdom from an elder, the “truth”, a message about how to move forward together into the future.
Featuring guest musicians from CMC staff, faculty, and alumni for a CMC Intergenerational Choir and Band:
Ashley Alvarado (CMC Children’s Choir, Piano Student)
Carol De Francis (Bernal Hill Older Adult Choir)
Albert Eng (OMI Older Adult Choir)
Debra Lepsch (Aquatic Park Older Adult Choir)
Sylvia Sherman (CMC Program Director)
Jeremiah Soto (CMC Children’s Choir)
Ben Welte (CMC Saxophone Student)
Sophia Welte (CMC Children’s Choir Alum)
Sharon Wayne (CMC Guitar Teacher and Older Adult Choir Accompanist)
Beth Wilmurt (CMC Older Adult and Children’s Choir Director)
This event will be hosted by our Mission District neighbors Sha’ar Zahav. RSVP is recommended, but there will be space for walk-up patrons at the door.
About the Performers:
Beth Wilmurt has taught singing, acting and movement in the Bay Area for the past twenty years working with Leonard Flynn Elementary, Sugarloaf Fine Arts Camp, American Conservatory Theater and San Francisco State University. Alongside that, I have also been working as an actress, singer, and theater director. I have appeared in over seventy plays, musicals, dance pieces, and cabarets with a variety of companies throughout the Bay Area and as far reaching as New York, Washington DC and Berlin. Much of my recent work has been with Shotgun Players, of which I have been a company member since 2010, Aurora Theater and Z Space. I’ve also composed and arranged songs and choral pieces for projects with Shotgun Players, Hope Mohr Dance, and others.
As a performing arts teacher with over twenty-years of experience, I work with the assumption that art exists to help us understand ourselves and one another more fully. I approach all my students as inherently creative human beings regardless of age, ability, economic, social or cultural circumstance. Why one person feels a need to engage creatively with art may differ from another person. These people can work together. I strive to create a practical, experiential learning environment for them that combines rigor and joy, never sacrificing one for the other.
Sharon Wayne has worked for over thirty years as a solo performer, recording artist, music educator, and chamber musician. A founding member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, she has also performed regularly around Boston and New York with the crossover group Back Bay Guitar Trio. Formerly on the faculties of Santa Clara University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Preparatory Division, and several community music schools on both coasts, Sharon has also served as Artistic Director of the San Francisco Classical Guitar Society and the Boston Classical Guitar Society.
Her passion for bringing new music to wider audiences has led to close collaborations with local composers, commissioning, performing, and recording their works, and premiering pieces for guitar in local venues, including the Green Room, Center for New Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Community Music Center.
Sharon’s current artistic collaborators include mezzo-soprano Nicole Takesono and CMC faculty members Martha Rodríguez-Salazar and Beth Wilmurt, with all of whom she has continued to develop new programs in the face of the pandemic’s challenges.
She has recorded six CDs, including SFGQ’s Black Opals (SFGQ2001); In the Midst of Winds (M.A. Recordings, Tokyo) with composer/guitarist Dušan Bogdanović; and her debut solo CD From the Heart (Joplin and Sweeney, 1996), which features works by 20th century composers. Sharon has performed in master classes for David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, David Leisner, and David Tanenbaum, among others, and earned her BM and MM degrees in Classical Guitar Performance at the USC Thornton School of Music, where her primary instructors were William Kanengiser and James Smith.
“I love teaching students of all ages and levels. I tailor lessons to the interests and needs of each student, always with attention to developing a healthy technique that will support a lifetime of playing. I have an appreciation for the range of different learning styles and preferences, and use varied teaching strategies including games, hands-on activities, ear training, note-reading, theory, and ensemble playing, to engage and support students on their musical journeys.”
CMC continues to closely monitor information from public health officials regarding public gatherings. Please be aware that events are subject to change to comply with these protocol. Thank you for helping us keep our communities safe!
Sha’ar Zahav is a fragrance-free environment. Please do your best to follow these guidelines when you visit our synagogue building:
For more information on this subject, including why it’s important and a list of Fragrance-Free products, please visit: eastbaymeditation.org
