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LOST IN TRANSLATION

Program note:

 The inspiration for this piece began with a conversation, one that all women can relate to in one way or another. What is your relationship like with your mother? The answer to this question depends on so many factors, from the way you were raised, to how involved your mother is with your life, to if you have a mother around at all. What Micaela, Kimberly and I discussed was the development of that relationship throughout life. We all begin completely dependent on our mothers for love and support, but as we grow older, our desire to spread our wings and discover the world grows stronger and the mother we once relied on, grows farther and farther away. The mother in this relationship also has to learn how to let go, and allow their child to grow and learn on their own. This process of separation can be tumultuous and difficult; this piece explores the dissonance and miscommunications that can ultimately lead to a loss of connection. You realize far too late that you didn’t appreciate what you had all along, and now you long for a connection that is no longer there. We all need our mothers, and mothers need their daughters, this piece is a reminder to be grateful for what you have, and the connections that are irreplaceable.  

Text

Lost in Translation:

I will be with you everywhere you go,

I will need you,

I want to stay here by your side.

I see the world,

I want to see the world and be free to live on my own.

You don’t understand what it is to live,

What it means to see, everything I know,

Over and over again everyday,

Driving me crazy on and on,

You don’t know you don’t know! 

Here I stand, finally on my own,

I can’t hear you anymore.

Here I stand, finally on my own,

I can’t speak to you anymore.

I long to see you every single day,

I need you.

Why can’t I see you, now when I need you,

I feel so lost. 

Fading, fading, fading, fading. 

Tanya Landau is a junior Vocal Performance major at Arizona State University. As a performer, she was last seen as “Novice” in Suor Angelica with ASU’s MTO. She was also recently a part of a new work reading of Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed’s Hometown to the World. She began studying composition with Dr. Chris Stover in spring of 2018 and since then has premiered her reed quintet ‘Woven’ at the Tempe Arts Center with ASU’s Society of Composers. She is excited to be premiering her latest work ‘Lost in Translation’ with the Arizona Women’s Collaborative and is looking forward to premiering many more works in the future!


Micaela Rebb (Soprano) recently graduated from Arizona State University in December earning degrees in both Vocal Performance and Music Education. She studies voice under Amanda DeMaris and is currently teaching K-8 general music and choir at Coyote Hills Elementary in the Northwest valley. She would like to thank Tanya Landau and Kimberly Fullerton for being such amazing collaborators and Stephanie Sadownik for making this whole process possible!


A native of Rigby,

Idaho, Kimberly Fullerton is now pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Arizona State University. She received the Master of Music degree in clarinet performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance at Idaho State University. Kimberly specializes in all members of the clarinet family, including bass clarinet, basset horn, and contrabass clarinet. For her final project, she will be commissioning and recording new works for the contrabass clarinet. In addition to her graduate studies, Kimberly is currently the woodwind instructor for the Arizona Music Academy in Tempe, Arizona, as well as a Curriculum Coordinator for the Graduate College at Arizona State University. Principle teachers include Robert Spring, Joshua Gardner, Linda Bartley, Shandra Helman, and John Masserini.

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TO A CHILD

Alicia Castillo is a composer and singer-songwriter born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She is currently a junior at Arizona State University studying Music Composition and Guitar. In addition to writing concert works and collaborating with students in the School of Music, Alicia recently finished working on composing the music for "The Snow", a theatre production through the School of Film, Dance, and Theatre. This is her second year being a part of the Arizona Women's Collaborative, and she is excited to return and work with all of the wonderful women involved! 


Jennifer Madruga Chavez is Pursuing her Masters in Vocal Performance at ASU and is a student of Stephanie Weiss. This past year, she debuted a leading role as Atalanta in ASU’s Music Theatre and Opera production of Xerxes by Handel. She has also enjoyed participating in the ensemble of 

Les mamelles di Tiresias with Arizona State University's Music Theatre and Opera as well as a featured soloist in Bach's Cantata 79

 with the Chamber Singers, Choral Union, and Symphony Orchestra of ASU. She has performed in the ensembles of New Works operas,

 Behold the Man, and Halloween Tree, in addition to Handel's Acis and Galatea. She would like to thank her husband and voice teacher for their never-ending support and love!—


Jasmine Rodriguez is a first year Opera Performance major at ASU under the voice instruction of Stephanie Weiss. Jasmine received her bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from Chapman University in Orange, CA. Roles performed include “Rose” (Street Scene), “Dew Fairy” (Hansel and Gretel), “Miss Wordsworth” (Albert Herring), and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi).  She’s attended the Taos Opera Institute and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, where she was a soloist in various orchestral tours around the country. She placed 1st in the Scholund Concerto Competition and the NATS LA competition, as well as a semi-finalist in the Classical Singer National Competition in Boston and the Meistersinger Competition in Graz. In the summer she will be attending Seagle Music Colony, performing the roles of Minnie Fay (Hello Dolly) and Cendrillon (Cendrillon). Thanks to Stephanie for putting this empowering program together! 


Sarah Han is currently getting her doctorate degree in Arizona State University studying under Tom Landschoot. Han started her music education when she was 8 in South Korea, then she moved to United States to continue her education. She got her Bachelor’s degree at James Madison University with Carl Donakowski. Then she finished her Master’s degree at Indiana University-Jacobs School of Music with Emilio Colon. 

She was an active musician since she was 12. She attended Bay View Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival, and Round Top Music Festival, working under many great musicians. She got invited to play for the Saarburg International Festival in Germany as a guest artist. She played with Terra Haute Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and The Phoenix Symphony. 

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VOICES

Program Notes


In order to create the background text for this piece I reached out to a variety of women via social media to share words that women had spoken to them that they found to be impactful in their lives. As I heard back from women, it was interesting to note how many of these quotes began with a story of how they had felt uncertain of their own abilities and a woman had been able to reassure them and give them the confidence they needed. I collected all of these words and manipulated them in a variety of ways in order to create a background texture for the piece. In combining Erin's text about how words can often become empty if we do not have actions to back them and the conglomerate of  the text shared with me about how words from fellow women can be incredibly impactful, my hope is for the listener to consider the ways that we as people can create a better world through support and sincerity. 

I would like to thank the following women for sharing words that have impacted them:

Karina Majewski

Annika Reiger

Casey Deal

Molly Cox

Mana Contractor

Haley Stead

Esther Lim

Alexus Simpson

Also special thanks to Alyse James and Casey Deal for lending their literal voices to this project. 

-Gillian

Artistic Statement

In spite of what academics say, it is very easy to make art. We have been doing it since the very beginning. It, however, is far more difficult to create something that has intentionality. There is no separation between art and politics. As an Asian female-presenting person in america, everything I make, speak, and do is political. Those who fail to understand that, fail to understand me, and the way in which this world operates. It is very easy to make art, but it is extremely difficult to make art that is seen, understood, and used to liberate others. It is easy to use words like “intersectionality” and “solidarity” with no actual understanding or implemented practice of the word. Witnessing “important” art is only the first step. Those who sit in their towers built on the labor of the working class, who clap and applaud, shout encore at “moving” performances, remain liberation’s greatest adversaries. Through this text, I encourage listeners to overcome merely parroting co-opted jargon, and instead work towards building a world in which we all are free.

-Erin Kong

Text

if i set myself on fire will you listen to me then? when the bodies you make obvious mean nothing pollute & pile your roadways, the tanks will have nowhere to go, & surely surely surely you must listen to me then? when bloated wells swell, bubble over & dams burst with ache & your borders are washed away will that finally mean something? what will your grants & fellowships & diversity & inclusion mean at the end of the world? what is art when we all go home afterwards & nothing has changed? solidarity is an empty word used to make us feel better. where is tenderness, where is the sisterhood promised? i want to be confident. i want to stuff this whole country in my mouth & spit up only solutions, reparations, i want to hold everyone, i want to dream this possible. there is no point except to say i am trying my best. i am loving the only way i know how. every day i mourn this is all i can do but i know love is god & heaven is here if we make it.

Gillian Rae Perry grew up studying music, theatre, and dance. During her undergraduate career, she also studied film. As a result, Perry is greatly influenced by art forms outside of music. Perry studied abroad in Paris with the EAMA-Nadia Boulanger Institute during the summer of 2016 as well as the summer of 2018. During her time in Paris, she studied harmony, counterpoint, musicianship, and composition, all of which greatly influenced her process as a composer. Her time in Paris reinforced her belief that intentionality is one of the most important aspects of composition. An avid poetry reader and writer, Perry is also influenced by text and how text can interact with music in both spoken and non-spoken ways. Perry was recently awarded the Teaching Artist Fellowship with the LA Chamber Orchestra. She is a fellow with LACO for both the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 season. Perry holds an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University and a Master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts.

Erin Kong is an interdisciplinary artist (actor, writer, singer) whose written work explores the footprints & intersection of memory, identity, & creation. They are author of the poetry collection, korean mourning rituals, and was nominated for the Phoenix Mayor's Literary Art Award in 2019. They are a phenomenal ex-girlfriend. They co-founded Desert Diwata, an Asian women-led organization dedicated to advocating, healing, & creating. Erin is currently based in NYC. You can find more of them at www.erinkong.com or on Instagram @erin.kong 

Molly Cox is a Mezzo Soprano from Floyd, VA who has been recognized for having a “fantastic voice, a delightful stage presence, and quite a range” (Noxon, BroadwayWorld.com). In 2015 Molly received a degree in Vocal Performance from Radford University in Virginia, and she is currently a Master of Music candidate in Opera Performance at Arizona State University.

Molly made her international operatic debut in 2014 as Dido (Dido and Aeneas) at the Mittelsäcsiches Theatre in Freiberg, Germany. Before pursuing her graduate studies, she was an apprentice artist at Opera Roanoke in Roanoke, VA, performing in the choruses of mainstage productions including La Bohème, La Traviata, and South Pacific as well as covering multiple roles including Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd.) She made her professional Operatic debut as Mrs. Gleaton (Susannah) with Opera Roanoke in 2016. Outside of Opera Molly has performed numerous roles in musicals including the Baker’s Wife (Into the Woods), and Veronica Sawyer (Heathers the Musical).

While at Arizona State University Molly has been cast in many main stage productions as well as new work readings. The roles she has played are the title role in Handel’s Serse, Signora Naccarelli (The Light in the Piazza), Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), the Mistress of the Novices (Suor Angelica), Olga Olsen (Street Scene), a member of the Street Chorus in a production of Bernstein’s Mass directed by David Lefkowich, Mina Wylie in Well Behaved Women, a new work musical by Carmel Dean, and Linda Larsen in Hometown to the World, a new work opera by Laura Kaminsky. She also had the opportunity to perform the title role in the Arizona Opera production of the children’s opera Cinderella with the Operatunity outreach troupe. Additionally, she covered the role of Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza. Molly has loved collaborating with such exceptional women.

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1936

Program Note (for 1936):

The concept for 1936 grew out of a series of conversations about Dorothea Lange's famous photo of Florence Owens Thompson during the Great Depression and the impact of resilient women in our own lives who overcame tremendous hardship to pave the way for future generations.  We wanted to celebrate all that we inherited from these women--the good, the necessary, the complicated. The piece divides into four sections--each a mixture of dictated notation and guided improvisation.  Responsibility for determining when the music advances from one section to the next shifts between the singer, pianist, and dancers in a fluid dialogue.  In addition to this live conversation among performers, interaction occurs with pre-recorded projected images representing the past bleeding into the present.  1936 is still very present in 2020.


Text:

Her hands leathered
Rough from care
The earth, the children.
Palms open, sores pink
She lifts the child to her breast.
The sun rises, an eye seeking.
The children and the horses run.

Erica Glenn is in her final semester of the Choral Conducting DMA at ASU, where she has led the Women's Chorus, taught Beginning Conducting, and worked as chorus master for various opera productions. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Theory and Composition and an Ed.M. in The Arts in Education from Harvard.  In the past year, Erica has composed original music for the first cycle of AWC, the premiere performance of Phoenix Singing, and an exploration of Chekhov within the Slavic department (voice and sampled sounds). As a composer and conductor, Erica has worked personally with Jason Robert Brown, Charles Strouse, David Del Tredici, John Corigliano, and Morten Lauridsen (among others). Her compositions have been commissioned by choirs and vocalists across America, and her first opera won the 2007 International Opera-in-a-Month Competition sponsored by VocalWorks. Erica also won the Chanticleer Student Composer and Longy Graduation Composition Competitions, and her works have been performed under the direction of Sam Pilafin (Empire Brass Quintet); Steinway Artist, Walter Cosand; Longitude conductor, Paul Brust; and St. Lawrence String Quartet cellist, Christopher Costanza. Erica's most recent full-length musical, The Weaver of Raveloe, received both a developmental reading at the 2012 NY Musical Theatre Festival and a 2014 world premiere at the American Repertory Theater. Erica publishes with LazyBee Scripts, and her musicals have been performed throughout the US, Europe, and as far away as Hong Kong.

Kalani Pickhart is the recipient of the 2018 Virginia G. Piper Creative Writing Research Fellowship where she traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine and Prague, Czech Republic to complete research on her first novel. Additionally, in 2018 she was selected as a Title VIII Fellow and awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence in Eastern European Research. She holds an MFA from Arizona State University.


Described by the Lincoln Journal Star as a “mischievously effective” Amore in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, Melanie Holm is a soprano currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. This summer, Melanie was an Emerging Artist with Opera in the Ozarks, singing Amy in Little Women and Blonde in The Abduction from the Seraglio, and covering Musetta in La Boheme. She was also a featured performer with the 2019 OME New Music Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, performing music by OME Guest Composer-in-Residence Sarah Gibson and premiering the song cycle Atypical Chronicles by composer Ashlee Busch. Melanie is passionate about contemporary music and presenting opera in innovative and exciting ways. She has sung in multiple workshop readings of new operas and musicals, and is thrilled to be working with the Arizona Women’s Collaborative for a second season! Melanie holds degrees from Arizona State University (MM/Opera Performance), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor). She currently studies with Stephanie Weiss.

Lisa Juliet is the founder and Artistic Director of Ballet Fusion Fitness Studio specializing in Ballet for Adults. Lisa is a mom of 2 and has 32 years of classical ballet training, a minor in dance, a major in molecular biology, and a masters in business. She worked as a biochemist doing cancer research for the last decade before following her true passion. Lisa LOVES to teach and has truly found her passion with Ballet Fusion Fitness. This is BFF’s 10 yr anniversary and we are so excited to feature some of our advanced dancers in this collaboration.


Heeyoung Haylie was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea.  She was first introduced to dance in high school. With less than 2 years of training, she was accepted to Ewha Women’s University, the most prestigious dance university in Korea and received classical modern dance training.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance. After college, she continued her education in the US, earning a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. Upon graduation, she pursued her career in social work and stopped dancing.  After almost two decades of not dancing, she rediscovered her passion when she stepped into an adult only ballet studio. Since then, she has performed in several venues with Arizona based dance groups, such as the Second Act Dance Co., CGCC/AZprojectDANCE and Center Dance Ensemble.  She competed in the Artists of Promise and placed in the choreography category. She has been mentored by the renowned teacher and choreographer Daniel Baudendistel and recently produced a community based dance festival, Panoramic: Celebration Dance Project 2019 at Tempe Center for the Arts (www.panoramiccdp.com).  Currently, Heeyoung teaches at Ballet Fusion Fitness (www.studiobff.com), an adult only dance/fitness studio as well as works for Dillon International, an adoption agency that specializes Korean adoption. Heeyoung continues to seek opportunities to grow as a dancer and instructor and through her dance, she hopes to inspire people to follow their passion.  She looks forward to sharing her love and passion in dance for many years to come.

Amanda Sherrill, a native of Orlando, Florida, has taught private and group piano lessons for over 15 years independently and through various organizations in the greater Phoenix area and central Florida. Since 2015 she has been an adjunct faculty member at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, where she teaches various sections of class piano, private piano lessons and music humanities courses. She also serves as a board member of the EVMTA (East Valley Music Teacher’s Association). 

Amanda received her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano Performance from Arizona State University. There she studied collaborative piano under program director Dr. Andrew Campbell and solo piano under Walter Cosand. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with a double major in Piano Performance and Clarinet Performance from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and studied piano under Dr. Michael Rickman and clarinet under Dr. Lynn Musco. 

Currently Amanda is working toward a Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Performance with an emphasis in Collaborative Piano Performance at ASU. She spent the summers of 2015 and 2016 on faculty as the Vocal Coach at MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, IN and Cedarville, Ohio. Amanda’s experience as a vocal coach also includes three years as the Director of Choirs at Xavier College Preparatory in downtown Phoenix. In 2011, Amanda led Xavier’s Honor Choir to it’s debut performance at Carnegie Hall as part of the National Youth Choir under the direction of Anton Armstrong. Amanda feels extremely blessed to be able to pursue her dream career as piano instructor, collaborative pianist and vocal coach and treasures the opportunity to share the joy of music with those around her.

Jenny Rodegast was raised in North Carolina. She took dance classes through the public school system and didn't begin her technique training until College. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Dance from the University of North Carolina. After taking some time off from dance, Jenny has found her passion again. Her hope is to connect with others through movement and grow as a dancer, leader and woman. 


Elizabeth Fiorentino started dancing at the age of 3 at the Patricia Schuster School of Dance (now Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance) in Ridgefield, CT, studying Ballet and Jazz.  After high school she studied Public Policy and pursued a career in that field.  She returned to dance 3 years ago after discovering Ballet Fusion Fitness in Mesa and is excited to be back in the studio and performing.


Sarah Aiwohi started dancing at the age of 4. Her mother was a ballerina and who Sarah looked up to and aspired to be as a young girl. Her support and encouragement is what helped Sarah’s love for dance to grow and flourish. It quickly became a passion and a positive outlet to express feelings and emotions that can be difficult to express in words.

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BORN INTO A RED, RED WORLD

Ashlee T Busch (b. 1986) is a composer, performer, remixer, arranger, and educator based in Mesa, Arizona. Ashlee is currently pursuing her DMA in music composition from Arizona State University where she is a graduate teaching assistant in music theory and aural skills. Ashlee is also adjunct faculty at Scottsdale Community College. Ashlee most enjoys collaborating with other artists in poetry, dance, installation art, video, and more. Such collaborations have included residencies with East Coast and Midwest universities, album production with video game remixing company Materia Collective LLC, publishing with mixed ensemble music education publisher Leading Tones LLC, and collaborations with ensembles premiering her work across the United States. When not buried in music, Ashlee enjoys spending time with her cats--Neapolitan Chord and Petruska Chord.


Sarah Welden is a second-year Master’s student in Opera and Musical Theatre Performance. Her recent roles at ASU include Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Atalanta in Xerxes. Sarah has a passion for contemporary music, and regularly works with local composers and performs with the Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble. Sarah holds a BM in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Ithaca College, and worked as an apprentice artist with Opera Ithaca and soloist with the Ithaca New Music Collective from 2015-2018.

Kirsten Blair enjoys a vibrant musical lifestyle as a soloist, performer, private teacher, and classroom instructor. She appears frequently in solo and collaborative recital, having given performances at Arizona State University, the Eastman School of Music in New York, San Francisco Conservatory, Loyola University in Louisiana, Athens, Greece, East London, White River and Nelspruit, South Africa, and in her home states of Maine and Alaska.  She has played several principal roles with Opera Fairbanks, Anchorage Opera, University of Alaska Fairbanks's Opera Workshop, and internationally with Théâtre Roger Barat in France and the Lowveld Chamber Music Association in South Africa. Some of these roles include; Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone, Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen, and Roxy LaRue in the World Premiere of The Color of Gold. Kirsten has been a featured soloist at the UAF New Music Festival, the Vianden Festival in Luxembourg, and travelled for two consecutive sessions to Zimbabwe for Music Inspire Africa. She appears frequently as a soloist with orchestra, including the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, the Northern Lights String Orchestra, the Uplands Festival Orchestra in South Africa, the American Institute of Musical Studies: Graz Festival Orchestra, the Arizona State University Orchestra, and most recently, with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in Ballet Arizona’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  She completed her Graduate Teaching Assistantship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks under the artistry of Dr. Jaunelle Celaire. In addition to her Private Studio, she joined the University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty in 2015 as an Adjunct Professor of Voice. She is currently in pursuit of a Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree at Arizona State University as a student of Dr. Stephanie Weiss.

Stephanie Sadownik, mezzo-soprano, is a charismatic, versatile performer, stage director and producer who, prior to doctoral studies at ASU under Stephanie Weiss, was an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera, PORTopera and a three-time Opera Fellow at Aspen Opera Center. For ASU Music Theatre and Opera Student Lab she directed; Trouble in Tahiti, an original adaptation of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, and Nora at the Alter-Rail with A Hand of Bridge. Additionally, she staged Dominick Argento’s From the Diaries of Virginia Woolf with Duo au courant, the reading of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera Hometown to the World, and assistant directed Arizona Opera’s La bohème. She is Artistic Director and Co-founder of the Arizona Women's Collaborative, an all-female identifying new works initiative, which has commissioned 10 new works to date. 

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AMEN, ITS YOU.

Teresa Murphy is enjoying her first year at ASU, as a masters student in Voice Performance & Pedagogy. When she's not off campus, she can usually be found conducting the Risen Savior Choir, writing songs, and Latin dancing: salsa, bachata, and tango. She is honored to set her mother’s poem to music, and to have her mother, Sheila, present today! 


Sheila Murphy is a poet, musician, spiritual director, wife of John and mother to Teresa and Jack. She has published poems in The Ekphrastic Review and Presence, an International Journal of Spiritual Direction. She hosts poetry-based groups for adults with mental illness, leads music for Catholic worship, and plays Irish fiddle regularly at a local pub in her hometown in Maine.

McKaylee Todd is a Master of Music student in Opera/MT Performance and studies under the instruction of Stephanie Weiss. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she was a student of Patricia Craig. McKaylee’s most recent performances include “Mrs. Buchanan/ ensemble” of ASU’s production of Street Scene, “The First Touring Sister” in ASU’s Suor Angelica, and as "Polly Peachum" in The Threepenny Opera at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her favorite roles include "Une Dame Élégante” in Les Mamelles des Tirésias" and “Crystal Poole” in Very Good Eddie. In April, she will play “Kathy” in ASU’s production of 9 to 5. McKaylee has thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with these musicians and friends and is so excited to get to perform alongside such talented artists. 

Madison Boyer is a Master of Music candidate in Opera Performance at ASU and a student of Carole FitzPatrick. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Kansas State University. Most recently, she has performed the role of "Greta Fiornetino" in ASU MTO's production of Street Scene, "Nella" in Gianni Schicchi, and was a member of the "Street Chorus" in Leonard Bernstein's MASS.


Bhavana Somayaji is a passionate Latin dancer, dance minor and a Pre-Vet major at Arizona State University. She is a dedicated member of Mambo Exquisite Dance Company, as well as the co-director of Bachata X dance team. Bhavana is currently applying to Veterinary schools to study primates and carnivores. She also continues to train in dance and hopes to open up her own studio in the future.

Jo Ramirez (congo) is a returning student in the Music Therapy program with a focus in percussion. Once graduated, she hopes to work with incarcerated woman to improve resilience and empower them as they work toward a new future. 


She currently works in Graphic Design for the School of Life Sciences where she performs many duties including helping undergrad students through the printing process to present their research. When she is not at work or the practice room, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and enjoys helping out with her two grandchildren.

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AWC SECOND ANNUAL CONCERT

Newly Commissioned Works reflecting the complicated theme of "Sisterhood."

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