Jack Straw Artist Support Program

Garrett Fisher has created more than a dozen opera-theatre productions in the US and Europe, work that “has combined elements of opera, dance, Indian raga, Japanese Noh theater and more into fusions that have both a ritualistic intensity and an improvisatory freedom . . . a groundbreaking hybrid . . . a strong, unified and strikingly individual utterance of unambiguous beauty” (The New York Times). His work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. His Noh-inspired Kocho was premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in New York City; Yoshinaka, in collaboration with Tokyo-based Noh master Munenori Takeda at Seattle’s ACT Theatre. Garrett’s music is on the BIS label (The Passion of Saint Thomas More is part of their 30 year/30 disc commemorative series). The Iris was recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center as part of their Artist Support Program; his sound installation Mikawa was presented as part of the New Media Gallery Series. Blood Moon, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE Arts Center, was premiered at New York City’s Prototype Festival in 2020.

In addition to his work as a composer, Garrett is developing Cultivating Feedback: A Pocket Guide to Creative Survival with longtime collaborator Ken Cerniglia.

Artist Support Program 2022: On Foot Across the Solar Systems, a song cycle composed by Garrett Fisher featuring vocalist Maria Männistö, based on poetry by poet Edith Södergran.

New Media Gallery 2016-17 (with Tori Ellison): Mikawa

Artist Support Program 2014: Recording and production of The Iris by The Fisher Ensemble.

Sushma Kallam is descended from a long line of Indian farmers in villages close to the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh state.

During her childhood she lived for a year in the peaceful village dwelling of her grandparents, and has since returned there frequently. After earning an engineering degree in India she came to the US in 2001 to work. She became an independent IT consultant specializing in supply-chain management – optimizing incoming and outgoing raw materials and manufactured goods and services for international markets. In that world, she learned about the ways in which neoliberal economic development – “globalization” – was disrupting traditional rural life in India.

Walls and the Tiger presents her vision of the conflicting priorities and values that have come into play as India’s development policies – increasing GDP and average incomes (which are virtually meaningless among the large majority of Indians who are subsistence farmer-villagers with little involvement in any cash economy).

Her film explores the results of global outsourcing and development policies that in India – as in many other nations – grant priority to fast-track industrialization, personal wealth for a few who are equipped to secure profits by any means, menacing populations and environments, alike.

Artist Support Program 2014: Refine field recordings of Andhra Pradeshi folk and work songs to accompany Walls and the Tiger, a feature-length documentary film.

Nate Omdal studied music at Cornish College of the Arts, studying the acoustic bass with Chuck Deardorf and Ron Simon, as well as concentrated studies with Denney Goodhew, Julian Priester and Randy Halberstadt. While at Cornish, Nate was elected Student Representative to the Department Chair, received the Hadley Caliman Merit Scholarship, and was nominated for an Earshot! Magazine Golden Ear Award for his participation with The Qhromatics featuring Denney Goodhew.

Since graduating from Cornish Nate has continued to live and work in Seattle, performing in various groups for many of Seattle’s fine public and private events. In 2007 he co-founded an independent record label to support new and emerging northwest artists. In February of 2010, Nate was awarded a smART Ventures grant from the Seattle Mayors Office of Film and Music to produce a concert featuring the music of film composer Ennio Morricone. (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables) Most recently Nate co-founded a non-profit (501-C3) with the Seattle-based arts management company Shunpike, to help commission new jazz compositions and collaborations.

Artist Support Program 2014 (with Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble): record an album of newly commissioned works from Seattle composers.

The Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble (SJCE) exists to create and perform new compositions by Pacific Northwest composers and arrangers, providing sustainable opportunities for continuing education and work advancement for professional musicians. Within this context SJCE strives to provide the public with unique, compelling community events at the lowest cost possible; integrate cross-disciplinary elements to transcend the traditional concert format; showcase Pacific Northwest composers and musicians on a regional and national level; channel public and private funding directly into the hands of artists for their work.

Since its founding in 2007 by Michael Owcharuk and Nate Omdal, SJCE has commissioned over 15 composers, featured over 30 musicians, produced several large concert events a year, and performed many grassroots concerts; all sustained through community support. SJCE has received support from 4Culture, The Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Jack Straw Artist Support Program, and has garnered media attention from the Seattle Times, The Stranger, and 94.9fm KUOW.

Artist Support Program 2014: record an album of newly commissioned works from Seattle composers.

Artist Support Program 2011: SJCE Volume 1, an album of newly commissioned works from Seattle composers.

Steve Peters makes music and audio for a variety of contexts and occasions using environmental sound, found/natural objects, electronics, instruments, and voices. Elements of improvisation and formal structure are combined to create place-based works that encourage a contemplative state of listening focused on subtle sonic details of the world around us. His work has been released on such labels as Cold Blue, Palace of Lights, Sirr, Dragon’s Eye, 12k, and Present Sounds. He performs with the Seattle Phonographers Union and is Director of Nonsequitur, a non-profit organization that presents concerts of innovative music through the Wayward Music Series at the Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Wallingford.

Artist Support Program 2016: Cancoes Profundas (Deep Songs), a soundscape composition for field recordings and improvising musicians.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record interviews with Seattle-area composers and sound artists in order to assemble individual portraits and a collective oral history of experimental music activity in the city and surrounding region.

New Media Gallery 2012-13: Lições dos Antepassados (Lessons from the Ancestors)

Artist Support Program 2010 (with Steve Roden): Not a Leaf Remains As It Was, a series of experimental songs using Japanese jisei as lyrics.

New Media Gallery 2009-10: Chamber Music 8: Particles/Waves

Robin is a Founding Partner and Artistic Director for Freehold Studio/Theatre Lab in Seattle. She has worked for the past thirty-five years acting, directing and teaching in Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and New York where she directed Curse of the Starving Class Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre. She has directed in Regional Theatres and is presently directing Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Program which tours Shakespeare productions to prisons, projects, and tent cities, for which she has directed Othello, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Cymbeline, A Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and The Merchant of Venice. At Freehold she directed the award winning production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Three Sisters, An Altered Life, and Veronika Falling. She was an Artist in Residence at the Seattle Repertory Theatre with Dan Sullivan, and directed several productions including Marvin’s Room, Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire De Lune, and City of Gold; and the developmental workshop of Elizabeth Heffon’s New Patagonia. She has also directed in Seattle at ACT, On The Boards, The Empty Space, New City Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and Intiman, where she was an Affiliate Artist with Bartlett Sher. She has an MFA from NYU TSOA, and she is currently on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts. She is featured in Acting Teachers of America, and she is a member of SDC and a 2009 finalist for SDCF’s inaugural Zelda Fichandler Award. She is the 2008 recipient of the Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award.

Artist Support Program 2014 (with Freehold Theatre Lab Studio): Create a podcast series based on original works of theater, spoken word, and performance created with incarcerated women and men.

Juliana Svetlitchnaia is a Russian folk singer and an ethnomusicologist. She was born and grew up in Moscow, Russia, where she graduated from Ippolitov-Ivanov Musical Academy. Before moving to Seattle in 2005, Juliana lived in Denmark where she graduated from Carl Nielsen Academy of Music. For the last 20 years, Juliana has organized numerous ethnographic expeditions to remote villages of Russia where she recorded and learned the songs passed down through generations for centuries only by oral tradition.

Juliana is the leader of PAVA, a vocal ensemble performing Russian folk songs, and Gudochek, Russian children’s folk ensemble. Initially PAVA was founded in Denmark, and their CD was nominated for “The World Album of the Year” at the Danish World Awards (2005). After moving to the USA, Juliana founded the second lineup of PAVA. In recognition of her contribution to the Russian community of Washington State and preservation of traditional Russian culture, the Russian Cultural Center of Seattle and Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Seattle awarded Juliana “The Person of the Year” title in 2008. Juliana has also received grants from Artist Trust and 4Culture, as well as the Russel Jaqua Award for Artistic Excellence.

Artist Support Program 2014 (with PAVA): mix and master Russian polyphonic folk songs recorded in an ethnographic expedition to the Belgorod region of Russia

Danielle Villegas is an independent film and theater Director/Producer based in Seattle, WA. Her work often explores gender identity and the Native American Two-Spirit concept. She has been awarded support from Artist Trust, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Jack Straw and is currently serving on the 4Culture Arts Advisory Committee. She is actively working on a feature film project and is a rental income maximization consultant. She was brought to the Northwest in 2000 as a co-founder of the Utilikilts Company where she helped launch the “manskirt” industry. She holds an MFA in Directing for TV, Film and Theater from California Institute of the Arts and a BA in Sociology from UC Santa Barbara.

Artist Support Program 2016: Record narration for a documentary film about senior lesbian trailblazers

Artist Support Program 2014: Produce sound for InBetween, her documentary film about the Two Spirit concept and philosophy.

Randal Bays is an American born, Irish style fiddler and guitarist who brings power and passion to the old tradition. He’s well known on both sides of the Atlantic for his fiery fiddling and his devotion to the traditional style of playing. He has a special love for the fiddle traditions of Counties Clare and Galway, where he’s spent many a night playing tunes with the masters of that intricate music. Randal has recorded and toured in the US, Ireland and Europe with such musicians as Martin Hayes, James Keane and Daithí Sproule (Fingal), James Kelly and many more. In 2021 he received the Irish Artist in America Achievement Award from O’Flaherty Irish Music in Texas. Randal lives in the Seattle area and is the Artistic Director of Cascadia Irish Music Week. As Fiddler Magazine says, “Randal Bays is one of the finest Irish fiddlers one could ever hope to hear.”

Randal is also famed as a fingerstyle guitarist. He recorded two seminal albums with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes in the early ’90s (Martin Hayes and Under the Moon) and later contributed two tracks to the Masters of the Irish Guitar CD on Shanachie Records. In 2012 Randal finally released his first album of solo guitar work, Oyster Light.

Watch: Randal Bays live at Jack Straw with Susan Waters and Clint Dye

Artist Support Program 2023: Recordings of live ‘house show’ style performances of Irish music.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record an album of the traditional Irish style music that’s been played and created in the Pacific NW over the last few decades.

Artist Support Program 2007: Record new compositions based on traditional American folk music, Irish and Celtic music.

Cellist Rose Bellini is an avid performer of a wide variety of music, especially contemporary and experimental music. Currently based in Seattle, Washington, she regularly performs with classical music ensembles, modern dance companies, bands, and chamber and orchestral groups from New York City to San Francisco. A founding member of mixed-chamber ensemble Redshift, she also currently plays with Seattle Modern Orchestra and has appeared with Hotel Elefant, the Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble Signal, FLUX Quartet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, East Village Opera Company, Phoenix Ensemble, folk and rock bands, and in venues from ranging from neighborhood bars to Carnegie Hall.

Bellini frequently collaborates with living composers from around the world and often premieres and records new works for cello and for chamber ensemble. A doctoral graduate of Indiana University-Bloomington, her primary teachers were Emilio Colón and János Starker.

As an arts entrepreneur, she has established herself as a resourceful fundraiser and leader in the music and arts community working in development for a variety of organizations. She serves on the board of the Switchboard Music Festival in San Francisco.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record an original electroacoustic project titled Arctic Sounds, a program that consists of eight commissions that incorporate live performance with field recordings of Alaskan wildlife.

Born and raised in Olympia, WA, drummer and composer Brad Gibson is known as a sensitive, supportive and dynamic musician, who enjoys performing as a sideman as much as leading his own groups.  Brad works with a diverse array of artists, both live and in the studio.  Current projects include his original composition vehicle Poontet, standards ensemble Brad Gibson Quartet, and impromptu group Synthesis, which features Denney Goodhew, Steve Kim and Brian Kinsella.

In 2009, Brad was commissioned by Jim Knapp for a new work to be written for and performed by the Jim Knapp Orchestra, resulting in “Winter Moving.”  His tune “Bedtime Waltz” was featured on the 2010 compilation Dhamma Gita, Music of Young Practitioners Inspired by The Dhamma (More Than Sound).

Brad holds a BMA in performance from Cornish College of the Arts (2008) and teaches at the Seattle Drum School, where he has been on staff since 2004.

Artist Support Program 2017: Produce an album focusing on the classic jazz trio sound of Hammond organ, guitar, and drums.

Artist Support Program 2014: epilogue / procession, an album of original jazz compositions for solo piano, trio, and quintet.

David Hahn is a composer and performer and the Music Director of Concert Imaginaire, an ensemble based in Seattle. He believes that, in our distracted, overly monetized world, Music has power.

Artist Support Program 2014 (with Concert Imaginaire): Produce an album of eight original pieces.

As a pianist, Rachel Matthews has performed across the U.S and in Canada and Europe. Increasingly active in recent years as a composer, Rachel is winner of the 2010 International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, as well as the first biennial Maurice Gardner Composition Competition. Her works have been heard in concert and on radio around the country, and 2013 saw the premiere of her works at the Fondazione Ambrosianeum in Milan and the Espoo Music College in Finland. Rachel is recipient of grants and commissions including the American Composers Forum, 4Culture, and Jack Straw’s Artist Support Program, and she held a 2011 City Artist Grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Her Voices of Trees for clarinet and piano was released in 2008 on the Origin Classical label, and a full-length disc of her compositions, entitled Dreams, produced through Jack Straw’s Artist Support Program, was released in April 2012 on Centaur. This album was well received in the national press: critic Laurence Vittes described it as “exquisite . . . one of those miracles in which a new musical vision is defined” (Strings, November 2012). Various of her works are published by Ourtext and Comus Editions, both based in the UK.

Rachel Matthews is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and holds a doctorate in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she was recipient of the Irving Lowens Memorial Prize and the Peabody Career Development Grant. She maintains an active teaching studio in Seattle.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record material for her second CD of original compositions.

Artist Support Program 2009: Record new original works for piano and violin.

Yogi McCaw brings a unique and very diverse perspective to composing and performing. In addition to the Yoginis Indian Jazz project, he leads the Yoginis World Jazz Band, which performs American Jazz alongside Brazilian-, Latin-, and African-influenced originalsongs and well-known favorites from these styles. He has also worked with the two-time Juno award winning African balafonist Naby Camara, the acclaimed Red Hot Blues Sisters, Bollywood playback singer Chandana Dixit, and Jamaica’s Selassie I-Soldier Reggae Band. He currently performs with the Afro-jazz group Comfort Food in Seattle, and collaborates with Chinese pop-singer Shanel Hsu, and American R&B singers Stacey Israel and Tena Duberry.

Artist Support Program 2014 (with the Yoginis Indian Jazz Project): Record new songs in the genre of Indian/Jazz fusion to complete a CD project.

A synesthete with colored-hearing, Memmi Ochi shares her unique internal experiences through marimba performance, conducting, and multi-media presentations.  As a marimbist, she has presented concerts and recitals in the United States, Japan, Europe, and South America.  Her appearance in Lima, Perú, at the international vibraphone and marimba festival, Vibraciones, has resulted in a return invitation from the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in August 2014.  She was a guest lecturer for the Northwest Mallet Camp in 2013.  She has collaborated with dancer/choreographer Keely Isaac Meehan, and dancer/choreographer Pam Kuntz, the multi-media dance company Manifold Motion, actors, storytellers, narrators, photographers, filmmakers, and computer programmers.  Her marimba adaptation of Hildegard von Bingen’s chant, O Nobilissima Viriditas, is used for the dance film Isthmus.

Memmi received a Bachelor of Music from Western Washington University and a Master of Music from the University of Washington.  Currently, she is a Doctoral Candidate in Percussion Performance at the University of Washington School of Music, where she is the first marimbist to win their concerto competition.  In addition to her musical, teaching, and writing activities, Ms. Ochi also serves as an organizer for the Songs of Hope, a Seattle-based organization to support the Japan Disaster Recovery effort.

Artist Support Program 2014: Produce original music in response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Michael Owcharuk is a Seattle based composer, pianist, and accordionist. His great love for all music compels him to work in many genres: jazz, new music, rock, Slavic folk, modern chamber/orchestral, and music for theater, dance, and film. Michael co-directs the Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, leads The Michael Owcharuk Trio, is a member of Crystal Beth and the Boom Boom Band, and performs and collaborates with a diverse community of local musicians and artists.

Michael has received support for his music from 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and Jack Straw Cultural Center. He and his music have been featured on/by NPR, KEXP, KBCS, SIFF, Bumbershoot, Earshot Jazz, The Bushwick Bookclub Seattle, 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival, Book-It Repertory Theater, Balagan Theater, the Seattle Rock Orchestra, and by many others.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record original compositions, including a string quartet and several pieces written for performances with the Bushwick Book Club Seattle.

Artist Support Program 2011 (with Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble): SJCE Volume 1, an album of music composed for the 17-piece big band Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble.

Artist Support Program 2007: Produce an album of original music for jazz sextet.

Composer and guitarist Greg Ruby is a distinctive voice in the Hot Club jazz tradition. His 2010 CD, Look Both Ways, celebrated the 100th birthday of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt with 12 original compositions, and reached #1 on the Roots Music Review’s jazz chart. As a former member of the group, Pearl Django, Greg spent five years performing and touring throughout the United States, Canada and Europe and appeared with the group at the prestigious Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois sur Seine, France. As founding member of the hot jazz string band, Hot Club Sandwich, Greg can be heard on all four of the band’s recordings and produced their 2010 release, And If Only, featuring legendary vocalist Dan Hicks. Currently, he leads his own group, The Greg Ruby Quartet and collaborates with New York and New Orleans musicians on a project called The Rhythm Runners. A perpetual student and educator, Greg has published the Pearl Django Play-Along Book Vol.1 through Djangobooks.com and is currently completing a play-along CD/book on the swing guitar mastery of Oscar Aleman.

Artist Support Program 2014: Record new works for string jazz ensemble.

Mary Sherhart is a Seattle-based singer, performer, teacher and ambassador of the music of Eastern Europe. Mary is currently choir director of the Bulgarian Voices of Seattle Women’s Choir. Its 35 members were all born in Bulgaria and range in age from 23-80. This choir is a program of the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle on which Ms. Sherhart serves as an advisory board member. Mary produced the Tazi Baba / This Baba documentary film and Penka Encheva and Friends CD, produced at Jack Straw Cultural Center through the Artist Support Program.

Mary was founding president of Sevdah North America, a non-profit organization formed to preserve and promote sevdah, the traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Diaspora communities. She toured and recorded with legenday sevdah artist Omer Pobric. As choir director she led the Vecerinka and Sedyanka Balkan Women’s Choirs, New Land Choir, and Vela Luka Croatian Ensemble choir. Mary directed the major musical production “Joyous Nativity, a Croatian Cantata” a 3-year project culminating in performances of Croatian composed and traditional music in three Pacific Northwest venues including St James Cathedral. She studied and performed from 1983-84 with the professional folk choir of Ensemble Varna in Bulgaria. Mary was soloist in local groups Balkan Cabaret and Aegean View, and appeared with numerous other groups over her long career. Mary’s path started in 1970 as a teenager in Seattle’s Koleda Ensemble. The years and experience have added to her personal belief in the healing powers of music. The joy of singing and finding one’s passion are interwoven throughout every performance and workshop.

Artist Support Program 2014: Penka Encheva & Friends, a CD of traditional Bulgarian songs featuring soloist Penka Encheva.

Sharon Nyree Williams has been living in Seattle since 2001. In 2006, she founded the collaborative arts organization The Mahogany Project. Sharon is an arts administrator, playwright, filmmaker, solo performer, producer and poet. She has written, performed several solo pieces: The American Dream, Homelessness: Driven – Spirited – Broken, Plight: I am my brother’s keeper and Circles of Life. Sharon co-produced the short film What About Us, which has been seen in several festivals throughout the United States. For two years she was a teaching artist for Freehold Theatre’s Engaged Theatre Program for the Washington Correctional Center for Women. Sharon has just celebrated her one-year anniversary as the Managing Director for the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Sharon is really excited about her most recent project. Humanity an album of poetry and music the project was inspired and influenced by her work with the Annual Urban Poverty Forum and a 2011 immersion to Mexico sponsored by Seattle University.

Artist Support Program 2014: The Consciousness of Love, a poetry and storytelling project exploring different social justice issues.