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Gavilan College Home Bach to Blues Home Bach to Blues Tickets Bach to Blues Sponsors Gavilan College Music Dept |
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Bach to Blues 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008 |
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Bach to Blues Performers Maria Amirkhanian |
B210BC |John
Garcia Diane Guerrazzi, our Emcee Emmy-award winning news reporter Diane Guerrazzi has taught at Gavilan the past four years. She has more than 25 years experience in TV news, and continues to work part-time as a news reporter at KTVU-TV, Channel 2 in Oakland, where she has been the last 13 years. She is the adviser to the Gavilan Press. In addition to teaching at Gavilan, she also teaches Journalism & Communications at Santa Clara University. In the fall, she will be an assistant professor at San Jose State, where several of her former Gavilan students will be once again in her classes.
Maria AmirkhanianA native of Yerevan, Armenia, Maria Amirkhanian began piano lessons at the age of five. While studying under Armine Mokatsian at the Tchaikovsky School of Music, she won first place at the Khachaturian Competition. After graduating from the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, she was accepted, with a full scholarship, to CSU Fresno where she became a student of Andreas Werz. In addition to performing throughout California and internationally, Maria has participated in master classes with Peyter Frankl, Barbara Nissman, Tamas Ungar, Ruth Laredo and Oxana Yablonskaya. In 1994, Maria won second place at the Liszt Competition in Pasadena.
The following year she won first place at the 1995 MTA Solo Competition, a statewide event. Maria was also the
winner of the Fresno Organizers Scholarship Award in 1996. She obtained her DMA from Moscow Conservatory,
Russia. After serving as an instructor at CSU Fresno Maria joined the faculty of the Gavilan College Music
Department in the Fall of 2006. John GarciaAs a professional singer and guitarist for the last 30 years, John Garcia has performed with John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Johny Winters, Paul Simon and Huey Lewis. Bo Diddley once described John as "one hell of an entertainer." As a blues guitarist, there are few his equal. Instrumental virtuosity coupled with a unique vocal style are his trademarks. John has
been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for 25 years now. His credentials include both private instruction
and group instruction for places such as Gavilan College, South Valley Music Conservatory, Morgan Hill Adult
Community School, and breakout sessions at Harmonica Masterclass Workshops all around the world. John is also a
published author with Mel Bay Publications. Art JunckerArt Juncker (1948-) has been a full-time teacher at Gavilan since 1980 and is now in his 27th year of teaching music theory, music history, electronic music and leading various college performance groups. A composer by nature and by training (BA in Music, Sacramento State, 1975, MA in Music, University of California, Davis, 1977) several of his works have premiered here at Gavilan College, including his Piano Concerto No. 1, by the South Valley Symphony, Daniel Glover soloist. His music has also been performed at venues as various as the University of California, Davis, University of the Pacific, the Herbst Theater and the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco as well as the Smithsonian. Several of his works are part of the Nicolas Slonimsky archive at the Smithsonian. and the Boardinghouse. He is a member of the Society of Composers, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). and for some years in the '70s and '80s, achieved some discrete fame as performing artist Bodhi Chicken. As a returning Vietnam veteran in 1969, he attended Sacramento City
College, an experience so positive and life-affirming that he decided to devote his life to music and teaching
at the community college level. He has been married to the fabulous Marie Juncker (nee Walcott) for 34 years
and, apart from that, is probably best known as the father of the famous Al Juncker, with whom Mr. Juncker has
studied privately for the past 23 years. In addition to music courses, Mr. Juncker also teaches Art 11,
Creativity. Oh ... and then there's the wood.
Albert Marqués, known as El Ajito in the flamenco world,
was born into a family where flamenco was a part of life. Albert’s first teacher was his father. Later he went
on to study with world renowned guitarist, Mariano Cordoba. Wanting to pursue his dreams, Marqués moved to
Spain in 1989 and studied with one of the top guitarist in Spain, Chicuelo. Upon returning to the U.S. in
1992, Marqués went to CSU, Fresno to study with yet another world renowned guitarist, Juan Serrano.
In 1994, Albert entered the prestigious Fresno Guitar Society Competition for the first time and won first place. Albert has done television and radio performances as well as extensive touring throughout California, Spain, and South America. Some of Albert’s most recent projects include the song, “Piel de Seda” for the movie soundtrack, It’ll Happen. In January of this year, Alberto was a featured guitarist for the concert series, Dynamic Guitars, held at the Historic Hoover Center in San Jose. Albert Marqués is married to concert pianist Maria Amirkhanian. They have twin daughters, Jade and Dominique, who love playing Mom’s piano and Dad’s guitars. Nate PruittWeb: www.primarycolorsmusic.com/Acclaimed as "the finest jazz scatting vocalist on the West Coast," (Good Times, Santa Cruz, CA), Nate Pruitt has developed his unique style over a long and multifaceted musical education. He is a Gavilan College music instructor. Nate Pruitt and Guitarist Rick Vandivier are Primary Colors, a jazz and
blues duo often featuring other great musicians in the California Bay Area of San Francisco and San Jose. Their
music is more than jazz and blues. It also includes elements of swing, soul, pop, spiritual, and Latin rhythms
... and even a trademark deep Southern yodel. Kathryn Waggoner - received her MFA from Mills College where she danced with many fine, notable choreographers: Joe Goode. Janice Garrett, and Moussa Fenley. She has taught ballet and modern dance since 1985 at various colleges and universities throughout California. Currently, in addition to teaching at Gavilan College, Kathryn is owner of Body Lab, a somatic arts studio, where she teaches Yoga and Pilates and is a certified Rolfing practitioner. She loves her job. "There's no business like show business, like no business I know." Janine Moretti - Hails from New Jersey and comes armed with a bachelors degree in dance from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and is pursuing her dance education at one of our fine California institutions this fall. She has proven her talents in Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Tap; Lyrical, Pointe, Acrobatics, and Hip-Hop and is also trained in Yoga and certified in Pilates instruction. She loves choreographing and teaching and hopes to have her own dance company in the future. Stephanie Games - is a California native and a, graduate of Gavilan College. She is currently studying dance with Kathryn Waggoner, and Western Ballet. For the past two years she has studied at the Joffrey Ballet School and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City, where she has performed at the Skirball Theater. Stephanie has also studied at the Lines Ballet School in San Francisco. She will continue to pursue dance in LA starting this Fall. Toni Benevento - has been dancing for a number of years and hails from San Jose, California. After the birth of her twins (boy and girl) she has come back to fulfill her dance goals with Kathryn Waggoner and has proven to be a very valuable contributor to the choreography. Valerie De Soto - a native of Morgan Hill, California has been involved in many color guard stage performances. She has performed in many countries: China, Vietnam, Thailand, and London. She is furthering her dance career with Kathryn Waggoner's dance company while pursuing her interest of muscle manipulation in massage therapy, where she has gained 7 years of experience. The Performing Ensemble is a combination of the Instrumental Ensemble
Class – Music 14A-B-C-D and Vocal Ensemble Class – Music 12, headed by Art Juncker and Albert Marqués |