Jocelyn Moon is completing her PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. Her dissertation research focuses on the sustainability of matepe music cultures in Nyamapanda, Zimbabwe, and the relationships between online communities and local music scenes. She is co-founder of the University of Washington Zimbabwean Music Club and teaches marimba, mbira, hosho, singing and dancing primarily from the Shona cultures of Zimbabwe. As president of the club, she organizes concerts, lectures and workshops with Zimbabwean visiting artists and partners with local schools. She currently plays with Seattle afropop band, Ruzivo, directed by Paul Mataruse. Ruzivo performs both regionally and abroad, including several notable performances at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts. Ruzivo's latest album, Ndega Zvangu, was recently nominated by the 2014 Zimbabwean Music Awards for best collaborative album.
Srivani Jade was introduced to music at the age of four by her father Bhavani Prasad Jade and uncle Raghavendra Tilwalli. She studied Khayal initially with Dr. Sharad Gadre in the Gwalior style (2002-03), and since 2006, with Pandit Parameshwar Hegde in the Kirana style. Srivani also sings an eclectic repertoire of light classical music, such as,Thumri-dadra, Tappa and Bhajans. She concertizes regularly both in India and North America, and has performed in major music festivals such as the Sawai Gandharv Bhimsen Mahotsav (2014) and Devanandan Ubhayaker Yuva Sangeet Utsav (2009). She has five solo albums to her credit, and several grants, artist residencies and awards--including the Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Award (2009). She has lent her voice and music to independent films such as Tapasya (2003), Siddhanto (2014) and stage productions such as Indian Ink (Sound Theater Company). She is an auditioned artist with All India Radio, and Visiting Artist at the University of Washington's School of Music.
Thione Diop, percussionist from Senegal, West Africa, is widely recognized for his powerfully expressive Djembe performances. He is descended from an ancestral line of Griot drummers in Senegal, West Africa, and is a master of the djembe, sabar, tama, and djun djun.
In 1998, Thione moved to Seattle to teach and perform; a year later he formed Yeke Yeke, a percussion ensemble that has performed the traditional rhythms of West Africa to delighted audiences for the last ten years.
Thione is also responsible for some incredible regional events, such as the annual Spirit of West Africa Festival and Kasumai Africa, offering the Pacific Northwest audiences a chance to enjoy immersive experiences in African music, dance, and culture.
Thione has shared the stage with such noteworthy musicians as Poncho Sanchez, Alpha Blondy, Prince Diabate and Max Romeo. Thione Diop and his group Yeke Yeke are well known from their many regional appearances in the U.S. and Canadian Northwest. In Senegal, Thione has collaborated with renowned griot artists Babou Laye Cissokho; master Kora player, Thierno Kouyate; Orchestra Baobab saxophonist, Thierno Ba; Xalam master, Samba Ndoc Tama player for Cheikh Lo and singer Abdoulaye N’Diaye on a number of tracks.
A track from one of his most recent collaborations, Samba Griot, co-produced by Thione and Lynette Wich, is featured in the film The Heartbreak Kid. The track “Lamba” from Jammu Aduna is featured in the documentary “End of Poverty” by Philip Diaz. Additionally, various tracks from Kham Saa Thiosanne were used in the Spanish documentary film “Metropoluz” by Eduardo Torres. Thione is co-producing a documentary film, Modern Day Griots with director Malika Weeden.
In 1998, Thione moved to Seattle to teach and perform; a year later he formed Yeke Yeke, a percussion ensemble that has performed the traditional rhythms of West Africa to delighted audiences for the last ten years.
Thione is also responsible for some incredible regional events, such as the annual Spirit of West Africa Festival and Kasumai Africa, offering the Pacific Northwest audiences a chance to enjoy immersive experiences in African music, dance, and culture.
Thione has shared the stage with such noteworthy musicians as Poncho Sanchez, Alpha Blondy, Prince Diabate and Max Romeo. Thione Diop and his group Yeke Yeke are well known from their many regional appearances in the U.S. and Canadian Northwest. In Senegal, Thione has collaborated with renowned griot artists Babou Laye Cissokho; master Kora player, Thierno Kouyate; Orchestra Baobab saxophonist, Thierno Ba; Xalam master, Samba Ndoc Tama player for Cheikh Lo and singer Abdoulaye N’Diaye on a number of tracks.
A track from one of his most recent collaborations, Samba Griot, co-produced by Thione and Lynette Wich, is featured in the film The Heartbreak Kid. The track “Lamba” from Jammu Aduna is featured in the documentary “End of Poverty” by Philip Diaz. Additionally, various tracks from Kham Saa Thiosanne were used in the Spanish documentary film “Metropoluz” by Eduardo Torres. Thione is co-producing a documentary film, Modern Day Griots with director Malika Weeden.
Phyllis Byrdwell is director of the UW Gospel Choir, is Minister of Music at Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle and also a music educator for Lakeside School. She has conducted several seminar workshops on Gospel music throughout Washington state and nationally, and served as a songleader for the Baptist World Alliance conference in Birmingham, England in 2005. Byrdwell was inducted into the Washington Music Educators Association's Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves on the Seattle Symphony Board of Directors. A School of Music alumna, she holds a bachelor's degree in music and bachelor's and master's degrees in music education.
J. Christopher Roberts is Lecturer and Coordinator of Music Teacher Preparation at the University of Washington. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A., History) and the University of Washington (M.A., Ph.D., Music Education), with research and clinical interests in children’s musical cultures, world music education, and the nature of children’s interest in music. Recent articles have appeared in publications including Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (2017), Update (2017), British Journal of Music Education (2016), Journal of Research in Music Education (2013; 2015), and Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education (2015). An elementary music teacher for 20 years, he currently directs the Kodály Levels Program of Seattle.
Shannon Dudley, associate professor of Ethnomusicology, holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He teaches courses that include music of Latin America and the Caribbean, American popular music, Music and Community, Comparative Musicianship and Analysis, and graduate seminars in Ethnomusicology. He also directs the UW steeelband.
Dudley has conducted research in Trinidad and Tobago, focusing on the history and music of steelbands. More recent research projects include the music of El Gran Combo, and salsa music in Puerto Rico generally, as well as Latino contributions to American popular music. His theoretical interests include nationalism, transculturation, and participatory music practices.
His publications include Carnival Music in Trinidad (Oxford University Press, 2004), as well as Music From Behind the Bridge (Oxford University Press, 2008), a history of Trinidad steelband music, and numerous other articles on Caribbean music, including and "Judging by the Beat: Calypso vs. Soca," Ethnomusicology (1996), and “El Gran Combo, Cortijo, and the Musical Geography of Cangrejos/Santurce, Puerto Rico,” Journal of Caribbean Studies (2008).
Dudley is one of the curators (along with his wife, Marisol Berríos-Miranda, and Michelle Habell-Pallan) for American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, a bilingual museum exhibit that opened at the Experience Music Project in Seattle in 2008. American Sabor was exhibited in museums in several U.S. cities, culminating in a 3-month run at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in summer 2011. He is also guest curator for a smaller version of the exhibit prepared by the Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibit Service (SITES), and for their website (http://www.americansabor.org), and is currently working on a book manuscript.
In Seattle Dudley performs on steel pan with several local bands, and participates in the Seattle Fandango Project (SFP), a community music group that practices son jarocho. He has helped to bring visiting artists from Mexico to the University of Washington (including Son de Madera and Laura Rebolloso) and to promote active collaboration between community arts activists and university individuals and programs.
Dudley has conducted research in Trinidad and Tobago, focusing on the history and music of steelbands. More recent research projects include the music of El Gran Combo, and salsa music in Puerto Rico generally, as well as Latino contributions to American popular music. His theoretical interests include nationalism, transculturation, and participatory music practices.
His publications include Carnival Music in Trinidad (Oxford University Press, 2004), as well as Music From Behind the Bridge (Oxford University Press, 2008), a history of Trinidad steelband music, and numerous other articles on Caribbean music, including and "Judging by the Beat: Calypso vs. Soca," Ethnomusicology (1996), and “El Gran Combo, Cortijo, and the Musical Geography of Cangrejos/Santurce, Puerto Rico,” Journal of Caribbean Studies (2008).
Dudley is one of the curators (along with his wife, Marisol Berríos-Miranda, and Michelle Habell-Pallan) for American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, a bilingual museum exhibit that opened at the Experience Music Project in Seattle in 2008. American Sabor was exhibited in museums in several U.S. cities, culminating in a 3-month run at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in summer 2011. He is also guest curator for a smaller version of the exhibit prepared by the Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibit Service (SITES), and for their website (http://www.americansabor.org), and is currently working on a book manuscript.
In Seattle Dudley performs on steel pan with several local bands, and participates in the Seattle Fandango Project (SFP), a community music group that practices son jarocho. He has helped to bring visiting artists from Mexico to the University of Washington (including Son de Madera and Laura Rebolloso) and to promote active collaboration between community arts activists and university individuals and programs.
Marisol Berríos-Miranda has a PhD in ethnomusicology, but her first education came from a childhood in her native Puerto Rico, where she was soaked in music. "I studied music academically, but the way I learned music - who sings well, what had a good rhythm - was sitting down and listening with my dad." She also credits her mother, Juanita Miranda-Berrios. "She is the encyclopedia. She knows everything about Latin rhythm and dance."
Marisol teaches in layers, one rhythm at a time. She recently completed a residency at Alki Elementary School, teaching Latin rhythms to 120 fourth and fifth graders, which culminated in a concert. "They were the best!" she says, "curious, engaged, respectful. 30 years ago, when I came to the United States and was teaching people the Clave, it was almost impossible for them to get it: the side-to-side movements that accompany the rhythm can be difficult. But these kids nowadays hear more Latin and African rhythms at a younger age, they are more exposed to world rhythms." (Clave is the Spanish word for keystone or key. A Clave rhythm is a repeated five-note pattern.)
"The interlocking rhythms and call-response singing of Latin Caribbean music have a special power to generate participation," says Marisol, who used the fellowship to share her knowledge and experience with Eckstein Middle School, taking young jazz musicians to a deeper level of Afro-Caribbean playing. She is also deeply involved with the Seattle Fandango project. "People need to get back to playing music themselves," she says, "all the generations: mamas with babies, teenagers, elders. We are community building through music making. And that's amazing."
As co-curator of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit American Sabor, Marisol developed, in collaboration with Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pallán, a classroom curriculum, educator resources, and guided listening programs. The exhibit highlights the contributions of Latinos to popular music in the United States since World War II.
"One of my purposes is to share the joy and happiness of music and dancing," says Marisol. "This is my way to free the creative impulses in our children, so they have such intense joy in the learning and doing." Quoting Nietzsche, she says, "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."
Marisol teaches in layers, one rhythm at a time. She recently completed a residency at Alki Elementary School, teaching Latin rhythms to 120 fourth and fifth graders, which culminated in a concert. "They were the best!" she says, "curious, engaged, respectful. 30 years ago, when I came to the United States and was teaching people the Clave, it was almost impossible for them to get it: the side-to-side movements that accompany the rhythm can be difficult. But these kids nowadays hear more Latin and African rhythms at a younger age, they are more exposed to world rhythms." (Clave is the Spanish word for keystone or key. A Clave rhythm is a repeated five-note pattern.)
"The interlocking rhythms and call-response singing of Latin Caribbean music have a special power to generate participation," says Marisol, who used the fellowship to share her knowledge and experience with Eckstein Middle School, taking young jazz musicians to a deeper level of Afro-Caribbean playing. She is also deeply involved with the Seattle Fandango project. "People need to get back to playing music themselves," she says, "all the generations: mamas with babies, teenagers, elders. We are community building through music making. And that's amazing."
As co-curator of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit American Sabor, Marisol developed, in collaboration with Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pallán, a classroom curriculum, educator resources, and guided listening programs. The exhibit highlights the contributions of Latinos to popular music in the United States since World War II.
"One of my purposes is to share the joy and happiness of music and dancing," says Marisol. "This is my way to free the creative impulses in our children, so they have such intense joy in the learning and doing." Quoting Nietzsche, she says, "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."