Resident Artists

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM & PROJECTS

Visual & Performing Arts

2009 features four resident artist ensembles at the Red Poppy Art House. Their collective works span cultural traditions of five continents, and a multiplicity of musical genres deriving from each. The 2009 Artist-In-Residence Ensembles are: Nefasha Ayer, Quijerema, Valerie Trout, and Classical Revolution. Complimentary to the performing arts, the Art House features a rotation of visual artists-in-residence who create on-site works. Presently working in the Art House studio is visual artist Ella Noe of the San Francisco Studio School.

While the Art house has hosted artist-in-residence since its founding, 2009 marks a decisive step towards placing resident artists at the very center of Art House life. This means inviting artists to participate beyond the formal aspects of work development and presentation, and to engage the Art House as a place of informal connection and exchange, a space in which to relax, converse, meet friends and colleagues, share food and drinks - an essential space in which new relationships are born and deepen. Through the weaving of diverse social and artisitc networks, new dialogues emerge, furthering each of our understandings of the complex world of which we are a part.

This emphasis on the informal comes as a response to the lack of such spaces in our society that are dedicated to facilitating the informal and unstructured exchange of an artistic community. It is, in fact, around such spaces that new artistic communities often emerge. The Art House seeks to be a catalyst in sparking such cultural developments, providing ground for artists of varying disciplines and cultural veins to gather and think anew, outside the domain of the market economy that so often forces them to package and sell their work. It is critical that artists have this space. It is amazing to see what can evolve out of a sustained gathering of creative minds.

(Above photos by Adrian Arias and Nate Keck)

ARTIST RESIDENCIES & PROJECTS 2009

Nefasha Ayer - The Space of In-Between

Nefasha Ayer, loosely translated from Amharic as “the wind that travels”, is an eight-member music ensemble that tells of a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters who find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics - a living history found universally amongst people of movement, and indeed all human beings. Headed by Ethiopian-born vocalist/lyricist, Meklit Hadero, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Brown, Nefasha Ayer joins melodies, rhythms, and poetic texts from the continents of Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Through this interweaving, the ensemble explores the intangible quality of living in a world where borders have given way, where identity is fluid and moving, no longer framed by nation or tradition, but born in the space between the many.

As Hadero states,

"When growing up in Brooklyn, my mother would refer to Ethiopia simply as “back home.” Years later, during our first trip to the Horn of Africa, I witnessed her using the very same words to describe the United States, which struck me profoundly. It became instantly clear that there was, in fact, no such place as “back home.” Rather, it was a reference to an in-between, heavy with nostalgia and fluid enough to change from moment to moment, as she herself was capable of doing."

NEFASHA AYER
Keenan Webster: balafon, kora, m’bira (bandleader of Pan-African ensemble Talking Wood)
Michael Warr: poetic text (author of the book, "We Are All the Black Boy.")
Mohini Rustagi: drums (from the all-women jazz-indian trio "Ambika")
Prasant Radhakrishnan: tenor saxophone (composer/saxphonist/band leader of South Indian carnatic jazz trio VidyA)
Abdi Jibril: percussion (percussionist from Talking Wood)
Meklit Hadero: voice, lyrics/composition (Nefasha bandleader)
Todd Brown: guitar, composition (Nefasha bandleader)

Guest Artists:

Gabriel Teodros: emcee (first generation Ethiopian-born Emcee, flying in from the North West's hip-hop community)
Marcus Shelby: upright bass (acclaimed composer/Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra)
Lalo Isquierdo: cajón (Founding member/musician/choreographer of world-acclaimed Afro-Peruvian performance troupe Peru Negro)
Adrian Arias: poetic text & performance (Peru-San Francisco interdisciplinary surrealist and creator of "Ilusion")

www.nefashaayer.com

Nefasha Ayer images by Nate Keck.

Quijeremá - Folkloric Music of the Americas Expanded Through Contemporary Composition

Quijeremá is a performing arts quintet that celebrates and expands the cultures of the Americas through original music, poetry and multi-media art installations. Members of the ensemble have performed worldwide and have appeared on national and international radio and television stations (playing a combined total of more than 30 instruments!).

As music reviewer Willy Lizarraga writes, Quijeremá manages “to render a whole constellation of South American rhythms into a jazz idiom. … The cueca from Chile, tango from Argentina, waltz at its most Latin, landó from Peru, joropo from Venezuela, huaino from the Andes fuse into a musical continuum whose identity, no matter how jazzy, always remains rooted in the deep South, not of the U.S. but of the Americas.”

Quijeremá Artist Biographies:

Composer Quique Cruz (Chile): strings, winds & percussion

Quique Cruz is a Chilean-born award winning musician and composer. He has been awarded with the prestigious Oshita Composer Fellowship from the D’jerassi Foundation, in California; the National Endowment for the Arts and also the Artist in the Community Fellowship by the California Arts Council Foundation. Cruz has recorded numerous albums with artists such as Jackson Browne, Strunz and Farrah, William Ackerman, and has produce albums for the Chilean ensemble Grupo Raiz. Cruz has traveled nationally and internationally and has made significant crossovers into the realm of popular North American music working with artists such as Kenny Loggins, Mimi Fariña, Pete Seeger, and Sting, among others. In 2000 he released “Tatamonk” with Alex de Grassi, a CD which experimented with Andean musical art forms and jazz. Recordings made in Chile include “Santiago del Nuevo Extremo Live” (2002) and “Charango: Autores Chilenos 2002”. He recently co-directed and co-produced the award winning documentary film Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi. The documentary will be aired on September 2009 on PBS and is being featured in national and international film festivals around the world.

Maria Fernanda Acuña (Venezuela): percussion & venezuelan cuatro

Born and raised in Venezuela, Maria Fernanda Acuña began her musical training on piano as a child, and as a teenager, trained on trapset with noted Venezuelan percussionist Jose Matos. She studied composition and arranging in Caracas with Maria Eugenia Vera, and percussion with Itabora Ferreira (Brazil), Alexander Livinali (Venezuela), and Alex Acuña (Peru), as well as studying at the Jazz School in Berkeley, California. Acuña has a degree in Latin American literature at Mills College, with an emphasis on the historic and cultural development of Venezuelan music as it relates to the African diaspora, and is presently in a Master’s program in English Literature at Mills College. Acuña's work with Quijeremá centers around the Peruvian Cajon, Afro-Venezuelan hand drums, Maracas, and the Venzuelan Cuatro. Through an ever-explorative approach to Quijeremá's unique compositions, she has reconstucted the contemporary drum-set to incorporate an array of folkloric instruments combined with traditional cymbals, snare and kick drum.

Jeremy Allen (USA): bass & percussion

Jeremy Allen is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, producer, and audio engineer. He specializes in Venezuelan traditional music, as well as the music of other Latin American countries and the Caribbean. He has performed nationally and internationally for over 15 years showcasing the music of Latin America. Among the artists Allen has recorded, collaborated and performed with are: Jackeline Rago & the Venezuelan Music Project, Maria Marquez, Lichi Fuentes, Kachimbo with David Peñalosa, Julio Clemente's Orquesta Original, guitarist Alex de Grassi, hip-hop groups Fiyawata and Empireal with Cava Menzies, Pancho Sazo of Congreso, Daniel Delgado, Mike Marshall, Pedro Villagra, Irene Farrera, Jesus Diaz, Andy Narrel, Aquiles Baez, as well as the Latin American Sax Quartet and Ome-Yah with Jack West and Jenny Scheinman.

Elijah Samuels (USA): saxophones, clarinet
Born and raised in California, Mr. Elijah Samuels is an up-coming talent in the Bay Area music scene. He is a saxophone and clarinet performer and arranger and has been collaborating in Afro-Cuban music projects with master musician John Calloway. He studied Jazz at San Francisco State University where he graduated Cum Laude in 2007. He studied classical clarinet with professor Robert Busan and jazz performance and arranging with professor Andrew Speight.

John Calloway (USA): piano and flute

John Calloway is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, arranger, and educator, specializing in Cuban popular, Latin and Latin jazz music. He has worked with such renowned artists as Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Max Roach, Omar Sosa, John Santos, Pete Escovedo, and Manny Oquendo. He currently works with his own band, Diaspora, Quijerema, the Bay Area Afro-Cuban All-Stars, and the John Santos Quintet. John holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in music from City University of New York and San Francisco State University respectively, and he is currently completing his doctorate in Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco. He is program coordinator for PlazaCuba, an educational organization that facilitates legal travel and study for music and dance programs in Havana, Cuba. John is currently part of the faculty of the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University, and also directs the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, a highly acclaimed adolescent group that performs Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music. He has two CDs: Diaspora, featuring Omar Sosa and Jesus Diaz, and The Code, with Cuban flute legend Orlando “Maraca” Valle.

www.quijerema.com

Valerie Troutt - Prepare for a Future

Intuitive, precise, and fearless, Valerie Troutt brings a striking authenticity to her jazz-based song-writing and arrangements. Drawing from gospel, soul, folk, electronica, and multiple international influences, Valerie blends vocal nuance with a complext and syncopated rhythmic sensibility. She'll take a 4/4 standard and put it into 7/8 rhythmic meter so naturally that you won't even notice - complex and yet understated. Rodney Whitaker calls her "innovative and fresh with the ability to set a room into motion". Diane Reeves comments on her first musical encounter with Valerie stating, "Valerie is energetic and spontaneous and ready".

"This age of American Idol and Disney-approved singers has no room for a big, brassy woman who takes no shit and can really belt one out. From Big Mama Thornton to Etta James all the way to Patti Labelle, every generation has had one but ours. It's like when Chuck D asked all those years ago, "Who stole the soul?" Thank goddess for Valerie Troutt and the Fear Of a Fat Planet Crew. Mentored by jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, Troutt approaches R&B standards, house grooves, and her original socially conscious jazz and soul compositions with the verve of the missing masters." (D. Scot Miller)

Valerie graduated from New York's New School University with a degree in Jazz Studies. She has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center with the Marcus Strickland Quartet. Valerie made her first appearance at the Red Poppy Art House as part of the Mission Arts & Performance Project in October, 2006.

www.myspace.com/valerietroutt

Classical Revolution

Classical Revolution is a musical movement to engage a broad and diverse community listeners by offering chamber music performances in highly accessible and unlikely venues— bars, cafes, and art galleries— and collaborating with local musicians and artists from a variety of styles and backgrounds. With the goal of bringing classical music to an ever-widening audience, they seek out a fan base of their own peers: thinkers, artists, fellow musicians, construction workers, bartenders, cabinetmakers, and anyone else interested in broadening their musical tastes.

Classical Revolution’s musicians come from a variety of backgrounds. Over the past two years, more than 200 musicians have performed as part of the ensemble. These musicians include international concert soloists and members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Others are current students or recent graduates from some of the nation's top conservatories, or are accomplished non-professional musicians who play with the group in order to maintain their musical lives.

Since Classical Revolution began hosting weekly chamber music readings at Revolution Café in 2006, they have performed at the de Young Museum, Legion of Honor, SOMArts, CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technology, at UC Berkeley), Stern Grove Festival, and dozens of living rooms, backyards, and other public spaces. Classical Revolution has active chapters in Portland, Reno, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Plans for chapters in additional US, Canadian, and European cities are in development.

www.classicalrevolution.org

Meklit Hadero - Vocalist & Lyricist

Meklit Hadero is a singer, musician, arts organizer, and former Director at the Red Poppy Art House. She is also the primary lyricist and singer for Nefasha Ayer. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meklit has since lived in twelve cities, on three continents, and brings her international experience to all her creative work. While her work with Nefasha Ayer places her in an outward and expansive world of music-making,her solo work draws audiences close to reveal an intensely personal and intimate style. She recently released her first EP, titled "eight songs...."

Meklit has a degree in Political Science from Yale University. She has been commissioned, for musical composition, by the San Francisco Foundation Fund for Artists (Nefasha Ayer), and Brava Theater: under Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges, score for "Over the Mountain", April 2009. Awards: 2008 recipient of the Arts and Culture Award by the Belle Foundation, Commissioned Artists in Residence, de Young Museum, June 2009. Meklit has been profiled three times by the San Francisco Chronicle, and was featured in the quarterly arts journal Hoboeye, as well as on the KPFA morning show. She has performed extensively for the Mission Arts and Performance Project (MAPP) as well as serving as a Street-level Curator/Presenter and Performer, 2005-08.

www.meklithadero.com

Image by Donna Tung

Visual Artists 2009

Ella Noe

Ella Noe is a long-time student of the plastic arts. She is currently enrolled at San Francisco Studio School. A former 2006 Art House Resident Artist, Ella has recently returned to the Art House to explore on-site live-drawing during performance events and rehearsals. The large-scale drawing (144x84) to the left, "A Night at the Red Poppy", was created in collaboration with two fellow artists during the December 08 Mission Arts Project Night at the Red Poppy. Ella Noe, Rachel Gilroy and Lori Schwilling draw together at the San Francisco Studio school. Their divergent backgrounds and styles coalesce in this interactive piece,Respectively from South America, the East Coast and the American West all three artists are dedicated to the plastic arts.

Rachel Gilroy: www.rachelgilroy.com
Ella Noe: ellanoe@mac.com
Lori Schwilling: lschwilling@gmail.com

San Francisco Studio School: www.sfstudioschool.org

Todd T. Brown

Beyond Todd's work in musical composition with Nefasha Ayer, he is a long-time visual artist, over 20 years experience in oils, acrylic, mixed media, and installation. Working both in abstract and figurative, his work explores the emotive power of color and line, with themes ranging from the political explorations of race and American society, to both the whimsical and darker sides of love and life's tumultuos journey. Often painting large-scale, Todd emphasizes the physical experience of painting, wherein a work's content is not understood merely in terms of its visual properties, but is seen (and felt) as a receptor that house's the emotive force of the artist's intent - that which was, in actuality, transferred by a physical process, working in tandem with the visual.

Todd was recently selected for a commission by San Francisco's de Young Museum. In June of 2009, Todd with be working on-site in the Kimball Gallery, for the entire month, as an Artist-in-Residence.

You can view Todd's work at his website: www.artist-toddbrown.com

Image by Nathaniel Keck

Caleb Duarte

Caleb Duarte, born 1977, migrated from Northern Mexico to the farm working communities of the Central Valley in California. He began to paint at an early age and continued his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. Duarte has exhibited his work in Pienza Italy, Mumbai India, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santiago de Cuba, Mexico, Miami, White Box gallery in New York, and LIMN and Jack Fisher galleries in San Francisco. His work has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Art LTD magazine, Metro Active and was featured on KQED Spark. Duarte has also worked with communities in Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Japan, and the US, exploring the possibilities that art can have in celebrating creative thinking through the arts. Caleb's involvement and work with the Art House has been instrumental in informing the dialogue

www.calebduarte.com

Former Resident Visual Artists: 2003-2008

2008

Caleb Duarte

Nicole Bauguss
2007

Adrian Arias

2006

Ella Noe

2005

Indira Urrutia

Aydasara Ortega

Adrian Arias

2004