Las Positas College Music Department Welcomes 8 New Instructors

From LPC: Eight new instructors have joined the Las Positas College (LPC) Music Department adding additional depth and experience to the college's already stellar roster of industry professionals. Each of the new faculty members currently performs and teaches throughout California and brings a vibrant performance and instructional career to LPC.

Three new faces have become part of LPC's brass faculty: Mario Silva, Will Baker and Sadie Glass.

Silva, an American trumpeter, composer and arranger, earned a Grammy Award certificate for his performance with Morgan Hertiage on "Strictly Roots," the 2015 Reggae album of the year and can be heard on the soundtrack for "Sorry to Bother You," the 2018 psychedelic comedy written and directed by Boots Riley. He holds a master's in jazz performance from California State University East Bay where he was awarded the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation and Music Department scholarships.

Baker is one of the most sought after young bass trombonists working today. He is currently the principal bass trombonist for the Monterey Symphony and has performed with the San Francisco, Detroit and San Diego symphonies and Malaysian Philharmonic within the past year. A graduate of University of California Los Angeles and Northwestern University, Baker is an Edwards Instrument Company Performing Artist and Clinician.

LPC's third new bass instructor is hornist Sadie Glass. In January 2017, Glass was featured in Early Music America's Early to Rise Series and currently holds the fourth horn position with the Monterey Symphony. Additionally, she is the marketing director for the Valley of the Moon Music Festival and holds an adjunct professor position at Pacific Union College in Angwin.

In the strings department, LPC has added two faculty members, violinist Rebecca Wishnia and cellist Jessica Ivry.

Wishnia is the violin/viola instructor at New World Music Academy where she also serves as the director for the academy's SoundArts Chamber Music Program and teaches chamber and orchestral music with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and Villa Sinfonia. In 2017, she was the subject of a short documentary produced by SFGovTv. Additionally Wishnia is a music critic for San Francisco Classical Voice and her writing has been featured in VAN Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ivry is the incoming orchestra teacher of the Piedmont Unified School District and has previously taught at the College of Marin, Ross Valley School District and San Francisco Unified School District. She is the founding cellist for world music string and vocal ensemble, Real Vocal String Quartet, and has toured overseas as a musical ambassador for the United States State Department program. Ivry additionally recorded on the Grammy nominated album, "Blueprint of a Lady," by jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelo and holds a bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and master's from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Longy School of Music at Bard College.

LPC's percussion faculty has grown by two this fall with the inclusion of Michael Downing, a professor of percussion at Fresno Pacific University and University of the Pacific in Stockton, and Vinnie Rodriguez, an elementary school teacher.

Downing, the section percussionist with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Stockton Symphony, was a founding member of Orphiq Percussion Quartest and master's and bachelor's degrees from California State University, Fresno, while Rodriguez, who will be LPC's jazz drums professor, has played in John Maltester's jazz ensemble and was nominated "Outstanding Music Graduate Student" while completing his master's degree at San Jose State University.

Finally, LPC has added one new member to its woodwind faculty. Katie Brunner has been named the college's new bassoon instructor. Brunner, a member of the Livermore-Amador Symphony and graduate of Indiana University, coaches the bassoon students at Amador Valley and Foothill high schools in Pleasanton and is the bassoon teacher at Hayward-La Honda Music Camp.

Visit http://laspositascollege.edu/m... more information.

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