While I’m celebrating my own journey today, I want to send a little encouragement your way, too. May this season of your life bring unexpected kindness, meaningful change, and reasons to smile. We’re all in this together, and I’m so grateful for the connection.
Celebrating 10 years as a DMA
I wanted to be a “doctor of music” ever since I was 8 years old. In December 2014, after more than 4 long years, I graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. I walked in the Thornton graduation ceremony in May 2015. Here’s a memory of me with my daughters on that special day. I think 8-year-old me would be amazed!
Conducting
Registration starts in just a few days!
Sign up to be part of our Summer Intensive with the ZSR Singers — we’re singing Carmina Burana this year!
Come see the Frostig School community production of “Bye Bye Birdie” on May 29, 30, 31 at 7pm and June 1 at 2pm at the Frostig School in Pasadena. I’m playing in the band!
I learned a new way to think about mindfulness from watching a German dark comedy series on Netflix this month. Mindfulness is when what’s happening in your mind matches whats happening with your body.
I guess the opposite of being mindful is being mindless.
Also, the opposite of multi-tasking is single-tasking. It takes mindfulness to do a single task. So then, what if multi-tasking is a form of mindlessness.
I’ve noticed how much happier and less anxious I am when I’m successfully exercising mindfulness and single-tasking. My brain feels less like a sieve. I have a better chance of remembering all the names of the singers in my choir when I practice mindfulness (I’m frequently embarrassed by blanking out on the names of students and adults I’ve known for years!).
It’s a struggle.
How easily distracted I am. And how stubborn I am about feeling the need to multi-task.
I don’t need to do it all, and I don’t need to do it (whatever “it” is) right now.
Sometimes, “now” is the time I take to do just one thing with my whole mind and body. I’m trying to create that “now” every day.
Surgery update: Success!
Thank you all so much for your warm wishes and support as I recovered from abdominal surgery. My surgeon says I should still avoid heavy lifting for a couple more weeks, but I got the green light to ride roller coasters. See you on Ghost Rider at Knott’s Berry Farm!
Conducting
Summer is on its way. Get ready to sing Carmina Burana with me!
Harvard-Westlake Spring Choral Concert
Composition
The Summit is Nigh Now Available! Here’s a sample:
For Fun
Practicing mindfulness while on a spontaneous walk through the lovely CalTech campus
May you be joyful. May you be at peace. May you be in the company of loved ones. May you celebrate all 12 days, if you feel like it. May you celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and all times in which we experience love, awe, and gratitude. May you be amazed and inspired today and in the days to come.
Surgery update
It got postponed. Bad news: I had a mental and emotional breakdown over this whole snafu and will have to wait for god-knows-how-long before I can have my surgery.
Good news: I’m intact and above ground for Christmas and New Year’s!
Composition
My new album “Ecstatic Expectancy” is now available on all major streaming platforms. Many thanks to everyone who met up with me and purchased physical CDs at our album release events. Want more CDs? Visit me in person on Sundays at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena right after the 10am service. And stay tuned for more meet-ups!
Conducting
Come watch me conduct my original Christmas carol “Now the Rejoicing” for choir, piano, and organ at 8pm on Christmas Eve at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena.
For Fun
On Thursday December 19, the Harvard-Westlake Jazz Singers performed at Homeboy Industries for the morning meeting with Father Greg Boyle!
(Event photo by Danny Moloshok of Moloshok Photography)
The ETM-LA Gala on December 6 was incredible! I’m so honored to have received their “Shining Star Award” as an educator. The Harvard-Westlake Jazz Singers performed exquisitely with pop star SYML and award-winning film and television composer Blake Neely. The video below is the short film that was shown at the gala:
Michael Fausto conducts the Neighborhood chorus with me singing “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” arranged by Moses Hogan. I also get to sit in the soprano section while Michael conducts the “Kyrie” from Mozart’s Requiem.
Gonna be fun!!
Conducting
On Wednesday, October 16, I conducted the Harvard-Westlake Chamber Singers at the Riverside City College High School Choral Festival. Singing music by Williametta Spencer, Christopher Wong, and Ralph Vaughn Williams, these young singers were terrific!
For Fun
Woke up from a nap with cats all over me!
Me, starstruck with composer Frank Ticheli after conducting his “Earth Song” at Neighborhood Church last month.
There are so many institutions and organizations that are a blessing to my life. Some have been blessing my life for decades! Besides the pride and joy I feel to be employed at Neighborhood UU Church Pasadena and Harvard-Westlake School, I was happy to reconnect with friends in the George Robert Garner III branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians during a recent branch meeting via Zoom. Watching my freshman daughter perform as a soloist during the Beach Cafe at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB was thrilling not only because my kid was brilliant (!), but because of all the familiar faces and pathways and buildings I got to enjoy at my alma mater.
This fall, I’ll reconnect with friends from the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the California Choral Directors Association through various projects and performances. Organizations like Tonality, Street Symphony, USC Thornton School of Music, The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, All Saints Church Pasadena, The San Gabriel Valley Choral Company, and more – these special organizations and institutions with which I’ve been affiliated are never far from my heart.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the ups and downs organizations and institutions must endure. No organization is perfect, and there are times when I feel let down by them. Still, I value the vision and purpose of these institutions. I recognize the ways in which I have benefitted from their existence, and I want to give back. I can’t participate in everything nor do I have a ton of volunteer hours or money. But I’ll try to show up when I can and give a little money here and there whenever possible.
This is how I can live out my gratitude.
Favorites
I recently realized that Dr. Adolphus Hailstork is my favorite Black composer! It feels really good to have fallen in love with this composer simply from just being exposed to his music more and more on the radio and on social media. Dr. Hailstork celebrated his 80th birthday this year! Here’s my current favorite piece of his, sung by one of my favorite ensembles:
Shout For Joy by Adolphus Hailstork:
The release of my first commercial single, “Ecstatic Expectancy”!!
On Monday September 23, my choral piece Ecstatic Expectancy was released on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Instagram/Facebook, TikTok & other ByteDance stores, YouTube Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Claro Música, Saavn, Boomplay, Anghami, NetEase, Tencent, Qobuz, Joox, Kuack Media, Adaptr, Flo, and MediaNet.
Look for Ecstatic Expectancy wherever you listen to music, and let me know where you were able to find it! My first commercially released album is soon to follow, too, so stay tuned!
For Fun
Conducting the Neighborhood Chorus for Ingathering/Water Communion Sunday, September 8
My office at school (for which I am grateful!) sometimes feels like a sad closet with a lame window. So I created some sunshine to brighten it up.
Did you know you can swim, fish, and go kayaking in the Los Angeles River? Last month, I had the best time kayaking on the water in this very picture. Can you imagine me in a kayak, paddling down that sliver of water in this picture!?! I’m planning to go kayaking one more time before LA River Kayak Safari closes for the season on September 30.
Sexy Archie
Ollie looking down on us all
Originally published as part of Zanaida’s September 2024 newsletter
