Carnegie Hall

Bridget Barkan, a born and raised New Yorker, performing artist, singer, actress, songwriter, musician, producer, and playwright has been in the entertainment business since birth. Her first job was posing as baby Jesus for decorative wall plates—big shoes to fill and some would say she peaked too soon—but she has spent her life working in creative projects that honor the teachings of loving thy neighbor. From childhood to today, she has kept the fire burning, as a professional actress appearing on Sesame Street, commercials, and in various Manhattan Theatre Club productions including The Good Times Are Killing Me at Ford’s Theatre and Elizabeth Swados’s The Prince and The Pauper and Blur. She was in the original cast of Dog Sees God and Spring Awakening. Her film and TV productions include HBO’s Everyday People, a reoccurring role as one-legged hooker Lisa Everly on Law & Order: SVU, Sherrybaby with Maggie Gyllenhaal, God’s Pocket with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian DePalma’s Redacted, Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick, the voice of Misty Holloway on The Get Down, Blue Bloods, Blindspot, The Last O.G., The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and FBI.

She toured the world with pop glam band Scissor Sisters and opened for Lady Gaga, and she is the art daughter of drag legend Joey Arias. As a multi-hyphenate she created one woman shows as an artist-in-residence in Joe’s Pub Working Group. Her shows went on to win awards, featured at American Repertory Theater and a monthly run at The People’s Improv Theatre. She has been said to be the offspring of John Waters and Cindy Sherman raised by the ghost of Janis Joplin and a soul sister of Joni Mitchell and Erykah Badu. Using her humor, depth, character building, and musical chameleon’s skin, she creates unique neocabaret style shows to push buttons, motivate conversation, and promote healing. She has worked as a teaching artist for seven years leading songwriting workshops with incarcerated youth and young mothers through Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs. Inspired by this work, she has been invited as a keynote speaker to share stories and songs. She has led group and one-on-one songwriting experiences with her intuitive creative approach and offers custom song portraits for various occasions. Through all of her endeavors, she believes her greatest purpose is to create healing and love in the community through music and storytelling.

Alejandro Castellano Barona is a Colombian-born, multi-style multi-instrumentalist and music educator. A graduate from Berklee College of Music, he performs in various groups including the New York Arabic Orchestra, the Boston Arabic Music Ensemble, and the rock band Pilgrims of Yearning, for which he is the drummer. Barona also leads and composes for his own band Indra. His instruments include oud, nay, guitar, and drum set. He has been an educator for the past 22 years.

Thomas Cabaniss is a composer and teaching artist. This year he celebrated 26 years on the faculty of The Juilliard School. He was proud to serve as composer-in-residence and host for Carnegie Hall’s Link Up, and he also helped to create Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project, serving healthcare, correctional, and community settings. His music for Camille’s Rainbow, an opera for babies, written in collaboration with Saskia Lane and Zoe Palmer, played 20 performances at Carnegie Hall this past season, and in January 2025 the second volume of his complete string quartets will be released on Navona Records.

April Centrone is a performer, composer, educator, producer, and filmmaker. She is the co-founder and creative director of the New York Arabic Orchestra. Her 20-year career in Arabic music education includes her work with the US Embassy in Malaysia, Musicians For Harmony, Carnegie Hall’s Musical Explorers, Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Connect, and Paul Simon Music Fellows, and has led master classes at various universities throughout the US and worldwide from Taipei University of the Arts to Lebanese American University in Beirut.

As a performer, April has performed in festivals around the world with the NY Arabic Orchestra and Arab icons Ziad Rahbani, Marcel Khalife, Bassam Saba, and Saint Levant at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Festival Músicas do Mundo in Portugal, Festival du monde Arabe in Montreal, Marciac Jazz Festival in France, and renowned New York venues such as The Assembly Hall of the United Nations, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

As a composer and recording artist, Centrone has participated as principal percussionist and producer for Ubisoft’s 2023 soundtrack release of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage video game, and is co-composer for the upcoming National Geographic documentary Attack of the Red Sea Sharks. In Spring 2024, she will release singles from her new album, Phoenix, featuring her on Arabic percussion, drumset, oud, saz, buzuq, violin, and guitar.

Founder and CEO of 10PRL film production studios, Centrone produces, directs, writes, and composes music for various film projects, including narratives, commercials and promotional videos, music videos, and events.

Tanatchaya (Tanya) Chanphanitpornkit, known for her joy, is a bassist and conductor from Thailand who focuses on educating and inspiring young musicians. Chanphanitpornkit received her education from the Eastman School of Music. She continued her education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where the emphasis of her master’s degrees was on social justice through orchestral pedagogy. Her pedagogy was highlighted in an exhibit for the Smith Learning Theater. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College studying first-generation college students in music conservatory. She teaches at Nyack Public Schools, and she is the music director of New York Youth Symphony Crescendo Orchestra and conductor of Manhattan School of Music Precollege Symphony Orchestra. Her faculty positions include Teachers College, Columbia University, William Paterson University, and The College of New Jersey. She is a co-founder of the nonprofit Girls Who Conduct. She has served as the assistant conductor for New York Youth Symphony’s Grammy Award–winning orchestra. Recently, she was awarded the Eastman Centennial Award, recognizing 100 individuals who exemplify Eastman’s mission and legacy through their commitment to artistry, scholarship, leadership, community engagement, and philanthropy. In 2022, she was awarded the Early Career Award by Teachers College, Columbia University. As she continues on her journey in music education alongside her students, she will always base her decisions and teachings on the belief that the symphony is for everyone.

Nick Demeris is a singer, improviser, and teaching artist whose mission is to foster experiences of interdependent collaboration and creativity through recorded music, live performance, and interactive music making. With his magic wand of spontaneous creativity, anything that he touches turns into an amalgam of music and connection. Mr. Demeris developed the #humaninstruments method, which posits that the human body and voice is the first instrument from which all external instruments derive, and has been teaching around the world since 2016. Previous collaborators and clients include Carnegie Hall, TEDx, The Juilliard School, UNICEF, Apple, Shopify, Target, New York City Civic Engagement Commission, United Nations, University of Chicago, Sesame Street, Bobby McFerrin, and Quiara Alegría Hudes. He holds a theater degree from Illinois State University. He studied clown with Paola Coletto and completed All the Way In, a yearlong training in jazz and vocal improvisation, with master singer and improviser Rhiannon (of Bobby McFerrin’s Gimme5). His performances, workshops, collaborations, and somatic vocal coaching have brought him to Brasil, Greece, Canada, Mexico, India, Finland, Denmark, China, Taiwan, Nepal, Thailand, Guatemala, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Hawai‘i, Colombia, Germany, Netherlands, and across the US.

Multidimensional conductor and educator Julie Desbordes leads ensembles in the Americas, Asia, and her native France. Music director of the Philharmonia Orchestra at Arizona State University, where she teaches conducting, she is also music director of three additional ensembles in greater Phoenix: the Tempe Winds, Salt River Brass, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestras.

Prior to arriving in Arizona, Ms. Desbordes conducted community and youth orchestras in New York City, among them, the Turtle Bay Youth Orchestra, the Queer Urban Orchestra, and the Chelsea Symphony. With those ensembles, she presented innovative programs that attracted large, enthusiastic audiences. In between her New York commitments, she appeared as a guest conductor with orchestras in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Active in the El Sistema movement, she was a featured cast member in the documentary film, Crescendo! The Power of Music, directed by Jamie Bernstein, and she is a frequent guest conductor and teaching artist for youth ensembles internationally. Eric Booth, a senior advisor to El Sistema in the US, said, “Julie Desbordes has that unteachable natural gift of being an inspiring conductor, leader for high-level musicians, and an inspiring teacher to music learners at all levels.”

Ms. Desbordes holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in conducting and trumpet performance from conservatoires in France and Canada. Her conducting mentors included Gustav Meier, Raffi Armenian, and Marin Alsop, who was her major professor during her doctor of musical arts studies at the Peabody Conservatory.

Jess Dilday, aka DJ PlayPlay, is an educator, DJ, and music producer in Brooklyn. They are currently the program manager at Building Beats, leading our digital creativity programs in DJing, music production, podcasting, and music coding for both youth and educators. Dilday has also been teaching with Building Beats over the last six years as an artist educator. Over the last decade, they have held DJ workshops at festivals, museums, and universities worldwide, including UNC-Chapel Hill, Rider University, ARoS Museum in Denmark, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In addition, they have participated in the Next Level’s Hip Hop Diplomacy program, exchanging DJ and beat making knowledge with Peruvian hip-hop artists in Lima. Before Building Beats, Dilday taught The Art and Culture of the DJ course for three semesters through the University of North Carolina Department of Music. They also served as the former editor-in-chief for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

When not teaching, Jess is also an active DJ in both nightclubs and at weddings, as well as an experienced music producer under their moniker, PlayPlay. With more than 15 years of experience, they started off on turntables with vinyl, and have since learned to perform on everything from CDJs to controllers to the Ableton Push. For music production, they use a combination of digital and hardware synths, drum machines and samplers.

With a passion for creating inclusive spaces in the music industry, Jess is deeply committed to mentoring up and coming artists.

Dr. Lorrie Gax̱.áan.sán Heagy is the music teacher at Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School, creator and founder of Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM), and adjunct professor at Longy School of Music of Bard College. In 2018, she completed her PhD in education with a concentration in learning, instruction, and innovation and was awarded an honorary doctorate in education from the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) that same year. In 2019, she received the Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching where she researched global music education models in the UK that support student creativity, agency, and identity. Aanyaanáx̱ (Ray Wilson) adopted Lorrie into the Kiks.ádi clan in 2014 for her work with all children. She holds up the ancestors’ name of his sister, Gax̱.áan.san, and her memory by using it. To help support Lingít language revitalization in her community, Lorrie completed an Indigenous Language Teaching Certificate and Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Language Revitalization from UAS and University of Victoria, respectively. JAMM’s Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee (It Is Within Us) initiative works with culture bearers and Lingít language scholars to indigenize the music curriculum and teach music through the Lingít language. A goal for youth in HTYY classes is to understand, honor, and communicate Lingít values, culture, and language of the Áakʼw Kwáan, the Indigenous people upon whose land Juneauites reside, along with an appreciation and respect for all cultures—especially those represented by the diverse body of students in the Juneau School District.

Stephanie Lin Hsu brings belly-laughs, creativity, and a deep desire for mutual support to the spaces and communities of which she is a part. She is often reflecting on “How are we building power and community?”; “What is the learning here?”; and “How can we increase the FPM (fun per minute) in what we’re doing?” For the past 12 years, she’s been asking these questions with her team at Yakima Music en Acción (YAMA) as they work to co-create spaces where young people can be their fullest selves and build connection, creativity, and leadership skills. Hsu is a co-founder and executive director of YAMA, a leadership- and community-building organization for young people that uses music as its vehicle. Beyond her title, she is an organizer, educator, and facilitator committed to disrupting harmful systems and creating communities of mutual empowerment. Inspired and energized by a lifetime of participatory music-making, her work through the New England Conservatory’s Sistema Fellows Program, the youth-led Chinatown Youth Initiatives in Manhattan, and ongoing mentorship from friends, family, and elders, Stephanie strives to close the gap between her values and action in order to increase the social impact music and lifelong learning can make in a complex world. Stephanie also holds deep gratitude to peers and mentors from Swarthmore College, from which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education, sociology, and anthropology.

A New York City native, Darick Kelley is a music educator in the New York City Department of Education, currently teaching at Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island, and is an associate conductor for the All-City Latin Ensemble in New York City. He has taught and arranged for numerous ensembles in the tri-state area and has given clinics and master classes at high schools and universities across the country, including New Mexico State University, Southern Arkansas University, Southern Utah University, Stony Brook University Day of Percussion, and the Percussion Arts Society Connecticut Day of Percussion.

Kelley served as an educator for WGI’s United Percussion and Arts in 2009 and 2010, and was battery coordinator and percussion caption head for The Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corps in 2013 and 2014. He has also arranged musical works for the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, NFL & United Way, and designer Tory Burch. He has also collaborated with one of Europe’s premier electronic music DJs, Thomas Gold, whose set was performed in NYC and LA. Most recently, he collaborated with Little Daylight on their album Hello Memory. He received his BM in percussion performance from SUNY Purchase College, and in 2008, he received his master’s degree in music education from New York University. He has performed on some of the world’s greatest stages, including at the 2005 Seoul Drum Festival in South Korea, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas.

Rob Kelley, aka Robzilla, is a music producer from Honolulu, Hawai‘i. He grew up on reggae, punk, and hip-hop. He has released an EP of dancehall reggae tunes on the Brooklyn label Dutty Artz, and has had his songs played on the radio in New York, Jamaica, and London. He produces dancehall using Ableton Live and the Push controller and he has DJed across New York and the US over the last 20 years.

He teaches music production and DJing to students with Building Beats. He especially loves teaching about Caribbean music like reggae, reggaeton, dembow, and kompa (compas). As many of these styles share West African rhythms and attitude, they go well together.

His first EP was based on the concept of Godzilla arriving in Jamaica and is called Too Tall Monster Come for Kingston. He produced all the riddims (rhythms) and then flew to the island to work with five classic artists in the genre, such as Tifa and Ward 21.

Presently he is producing a short record of political MacBook punk songs, under the name Quazi Kenedi. The first single is called “Rakakaka.” He likes to incorporate samples and unusual instruments into the songs. He believes punk rock is more about attitude than guitars.

He loves the challenge of music, and believes life is about exploring, in terms of creativity and playfulness, but also traveling and living freely. He speaks English and Spanish, and is learning Portuguese.

Dr. Janet Song Kim (who accepts any pronouns) is the director of wind bands, coordinator of woodwinds, instrumental ensembles, chamber music, and assistant professor of music at the University of Connecticut. In this role, they conduct the UConn Wind Ensemble in addition to teaching basic conducting, advanced instrumental conducting, instrumental pedagogy, chamber ensembles, and wind literature classes. In addition to their role at UConn, they also actively compose original works and arrange traditional Korean folk music for wind bands. Dr. Kim is also an active guest conductor and clinician, and has worked with various ensembles, honor bands and festivals across the US, Canada, and South Korea. Most recently, they have presented at the 2023 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic about the impact of thoughtful programming practices and tokenism and published an article in the California Band Directors Association Bulletin on the same topic. They earned their doctorate in conducting from The Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Prior to this, they earned a master’s degree in instrumental conducting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and their bachelor’s degree in music education and jazz studies, magna cum laude, from Montclair State University. Their primary conducting teachers include Dr. Travis J. Cross, Dr. Timothy A. Paul, Dr. Jason Worzbyt, and Dr. Shelley Axelson.

Onome designs and leads experiential workshops for a wide variety of audiences internationally at colleges, corporations, cultural centers, and retreats. She guides groups to confidently wield the power of their imaginations, and foster creative fellowship with each other through mindfulness practices, relational games, and vocal play.

As a vocalist and educator, Onome incorporates improvisation into her practice as a tool for creative fulfillment and personal development.

She brings more than 20 years of experience in expressive arts facilitation across a diverse range of programs for both youth and adults. She has partnered with numerous organizations as an artist-in-residence, teaching artist, and facilitator, including the UN; Madison Youth Choirs; Teachers College, Columbia University; The Juilliard School; Música do Círculo in Brazil; Teatro Porta Portese in Italy, and Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs retreat at Omega Institute.

Her immersive, group vocal-rituals include singing circles, concerts, poetry readings, panel discussions, experimental theater, and sound installations. She has led improvisational vocal gatherings at hundreds of venues, created vocal film scores, and recorded soundscapes for podcasts and guided meditations.

Onome’s work serves holistic-oriented individuals committed to moving beyond fear and stuckness to emotional freedom and fulfillment, expressive arts enthusiasts whose souls are deeply nourished by community vocal rituals, and organizations engaged in building thriving cultures of connection through experiential learning in the workplace.

She is a teaching artist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, where she contributes her performances and trainings across its vast educational programming spectrum. Learn more at onome.org.

Steven Oquendo, a New York City native, is a professional trumpeter, Latin jazz big band leader, composer, arranger, and educator. He holds a master’s degree in applied music and music teaching and a bachelor’s degree in music from Lehman College. He is the associate conductor of the very first Latin jazz ensemble in the prestigious All-City High School Music Program and the music director at Pelham Preparatory Academy.

He has also served as the jazz band manager for the 2023 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Eastern Division Conference, mentored early career teachers in the Paul Simon Music Fellows Program, and led professional development training for New York City public school music teachers. Dedicated to music education and history, he sits on the advisory boards for The International Salsa Museum and Jazz Power Initiative. Mr. Oquendo’s love affair with music began at age 10, when he first learned to play the trumpet. He later attended some of the nation’s most prestigious performing arts institutions: Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Manhattan School of Music. While at LaGuardia, he was a member of the award-winning LaGuardia Concert Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble won first place in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s inaugural Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival (1996). He was individually awarded the Outstanding Soloist Award during the 1998 competition by Wynton Marsalis. That same year he was also a member of the prestigious Grammy All-American High School Jazz Orchestra. During this time, he was mentored by Jon Faddis and Wynton Marsalis—two of the most highly regarded jazz trumpeters. During and after high school, Mr. Oquendo, who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, proved himself to be a powerful force in the Latin music scene. He has toured all parts of the globe, including Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. He has recorded and performed with a wide and diverse range of artists, including Juan Luis Guerra, Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis, Arturo Sandoval, La India, George Lamond, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Santos, Milly Quezada, Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz, Tito Rodriguez and His Orchestra, Machito Orchestra, Mana, Reggie Young, David Bratton, Destiny’s Child, Big Pun, Swizz Beatz, and Angie Martinez. In 2009, he formed the Steven Oquendo Latin Jazz Orchestra (SOLJO), a 19-piece big band comprising well-seasoned professional musicians that for the past nine years, has intrigued and captivated audiences with its sophisticated use of free improvisation, dissonant harmonies, fusion rhythms, and creative arrangements of Palladium-era Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz, salsa, and mambo classics. SOLJO has been featured at a variety of venues, including the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lehman College, Hostos Community College, the infamous Spanish Harlem 111th Street “Old Timers” Street Party and festivities, the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, Jazzmobile, Jazz Power Initiative, and the Sugar Hill Music Festival. He has served as an educator for nearly 20 years. He began his teaching career with the nonprofit Multicultural Music Group, where he spent seven years as a teaching artist responsible for developing and implementing instrumental music programs in inner city middle schools. He also spent five years directing the Harlem School of the Arts Jazz Ensemble, where he taught rising star pianist Matthew Whitaker.

Elijah J. Thomas is a Black Philadelphia-born, Harlem-based multi-instrumentalist, educator, and composer-experimentalist. He studied woodwind performance and improvisation with Dick Oatts, Tim Warfield Jr., Walter Bell, and Dr. Cynthia J. Folio; composition with Kevin Rogers, Dr. Folio, and Dr. Maurice W. Wright; and music education studies with Dr. Rollo Dilworth and Dr. Allison Reynolds. He has held teaching positions at Temple University Music Prep, Settlement Music School, Tune Up Philly (Philadelphia Youth Orchestra), Education Through Music, and BASIS Independent Schools. He creates what he calls “enuff music”: music for Black healing and spiritual transcendence. His accolades and recognitions include the commission and premier of his site-responsive work For Harlem for the new music organization Music at the Anthology, which debuted at the Kente Royal Gallery in Harlem (October 2021); work with the International Contemporary Ensemble for their Ensemble Evolution partner program with The New School (2020–2022); winner of Best Film Score at the Pure Magic International Film Festival in Amsterdam for the documentary short Fan of Cory (February 2021); and selection as one of 10 commissioned composers of color to participate in the inaugural Composing Inclusion program, a joint collaboration between The Juilliard School, New York Philharmonic, and American Composers Forum and powered by the Sphinx Venture Fund (2022). In May 2022, he became Musical Director of the global street band performance organization Honk NYC!, whose mission is to “make events that reclaim, reuse, and redefine public space and connect communities through music-making, pageantry, audience participation, and education.”