Apprenticeship Program Participants
Round 8 (2008)
Master Artist Kawika Keikiali’ihiwahiwa Alfiche (South San Francisco)
will conduct an apprenticeship with Eileen Maka
Aniciete (San Bruno)
in Hawai’ian hula kahiko. Alfiche’s twenty years
of learning hula include studying with Kumu Hula including Tiare Maka
Olanolan Clifford, Aunty Harriet Keahilihau-Spalding, and Rae Kahikilaulani
Fonseca. Aniciete also studied with Clifford, and subsequently
has been studying under Alfiche for over twelve years. Their
apprenticeship will involve in-depth study of several hula, including
puniu (coconut knee drum), ‘uli’uli (featherless gourd
rattle), and the rare ‘ulili (triple gourd top) and lapaiki (small
skinned drum). Additionally, they will also focus on the accompanying ‘oli
(chant) and mele (song) for each hula, exploring their layered meanings
and symbolism.
Master Artist Yuriko Doi (Portola Valley) will conduct
an Apprenticeship with Lluis Valls (San Francisco) in Japanese
Kyogen theatre. Doi
has practiced Kyogen for over forty years, studying under National
Living Treasure of Japan, Mansaku Nomura, and Nomura’s main disciple,
Yukio Ishida. Valls, who has studied Kyogen with Doi for over
fifteen years, began working with Ishida five years ago, and serves
as Joint Artistic Director of Theatre of Yugen, a Noh, Kyogen, and
experimental theatre ensemble founded by Doi in 1978. During
the apprenticeship, lessons will focus on traditional songs and dances
which constitute Kyogen performance training, and Doi and Valls will
work on new translations of Kyogen plays Shuron and Nukegara, to debut
in 2008.
Master artist John Kloss (San Francisco) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Charles Grant (South San Francisco) in American
tap dance. Kloss
started his tap dancing studies in the Chicago area with tap luminaries
including Savion Glover, Dianne Walker, Ted Levy, Robert Reed, Lane
Alexander, Sam Weber, and Gregory Hines; has performed alongside Weber,
Walker, Arthur Duncan and Channing Cook-Holmes; and is the founder
and director of the San Francisco Bay Area Tap Festival and the nonprofit
STEPOLOGY, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of tap dance. Grant
met Kloss in 2005 as a young participant in Kloss’ festival,
and has studied at Schumacher’s School of Dance in South San
Francisco since 2001. The apprenticeship will include technical
studies, traditional and new choreographies, improvisation, tap notation
developed by Leon Collins and Stanley Kahn, and study of tap dance
on film and in performances.
Master artist Weishan Liu (left) offers apprentice Regina Ngo instruction in the Chinese guzheng.
Photo courtesy of Regina Ngo.
Master artist Weishan Liu (San Francisco) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Regina Ngo (San Francisco) in Chinese
guzheng (zither) music,
focusing on two important compositions from the ancient musical repertoire
and practicing playing techniques, posture breathing, and developing
stylistic interpretation. Liu began her studies in 1949 studying
under Master Cao Zheng at the Shen Yang Music Conservatory in China. Ngo
began her studies seven years ago with Liu in San Francisco.
The "family car," an example of Magu Lujan's custom renovated Chicano
lowriders. He will complete a similar project with Apprentice Rey
Mora.
Photo courtesy of Magu Lujan.
Master artist Gilbert Sanchez Lujan (Ontario), aka Magu, will conduct
an apprenticeship with Rey Mora (Rancho Cucamonga) in Chicano
lowrider custom automobile renovation. Magu has fostered a relationship
with car enthusiasts and renovation applications for decades, and also
incorporates Chicano car culture and imagery in his work as a fine
artist, in addition to his work in renovating lowriders. Mora
has mentored with Magu for the past year, and the apprenticeship will
focus on their work together on Mora’s own vehicle, lowrider
sculptures, and the Limoztlán, Magu’s renovation of a
limousine cruiser into a turn-key Chicano art parade car.
Master luthier Jorge Bonifax Mijangos and a
guitarra
de son under construction.
Photo courtesy of Jorge Bonifax Mijangos.
Master artist Jorge Bonifaz Mijangos (Ventura) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Juan Francisco Parroquin (Los Angeles) in Mexican
Son Jarocho luthiery, teaching Parroquin ancient and contemporary methods to construct guitarra
de son, including planning and design of the instrument, selection
of wood and materials, hands on woodworking techniques, and constructing
or “voicing” the sound board. Mijangos came to luthiery
by way of his role as a Son Jarocho musician, and has been influenced
by recognized jarocho luthiers Carlos Carbajal and long-term teacher
Daniel Lopez Romero. Parroquin began playing jarana ten years
ago at age seven at the cultural house of Otatitlan in Veracruz, taught
by his grand uncle, and later in Los Angeles by Honorio Robledo and
others.
Master artist Bahram Osqueezadeh (left) and apprenticeh Areo Saffarzadeh with their Persian santurs.
Photo: Lee DeAnda.
Master artist Bahram Osqueezadeh (Goleta) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Areo Saffarzadeh (Goleta) in Persian
santur music. Osqueezadeh
started playing santur as a teenager over twenty years ago under Pashang
Kamakar at the Chavosh Institute of Art and Culture in Tehran, later
continuing studies with Faramarz Payver, Parviz Meshkatian, Masoud
Shenasa and Majid Kiani. Two years ago, Saffarzadeh shifted his
musical training from Persian percussion instruments to santur in order
to work with Osqueezadeh as a student at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. The apprenticeship will focus on expanding Saffarzadeh’s
knowledge of the Radif, or the repertoire of Persian music, and improving
his playing and improvisation techniques.
Master artist Özden Öztoprak (left) and her daughter
and apprentice Berfin Ozsoy on the bağlama saz.
Photo courtesy of Özden Öztoprak
Master artist Özden Öztoprak (San Francisco) will conduct
an apprenticeship with her daughter Berfin Ozsoy (San Francisco) in
traditional Kurdish Zaza Alevi folk music. Öztoprak’s
grandfather was a bağlama saz (seven-stringed fretted
lute) maker, and she learned playing and singing at a very early age,
performing in her hometown in Turkey’s Tunceli region and surrounding regions
by the time she was eleven years old. Currently eleven years
old, Ozsoy was exposed to singing from both her uncle and Öztoprak,
learning to sing early in her life, publicly singing with her mother
two years ago and playing the bağlama saz in the past year. The
apprenticeship will focus on Ozsoy’s ability to play the bağlama
saz to accompany her learning of the traditional Kurdish Zaza Alevi
repertoire, which is rooted in the pair’s family lineage.
Master artist Viji Prakash (left) and apprentice Kasi Aysola
will complete an apprenticeship in
South Indian Bharata Natyam
dance.
Master artist photo courtesy of Viji Prakash.
Apprentice photo by Nagesh
P. Rao
Master artist Viji Prakash (Los Angeles) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Kasi Aysola (Reseda) in South
Indian Bharata Natyam dance. Prakash
studied dance since she was four years old, and studied with Guru Kalyanasundaram
in the Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharata Natya Kalamandir, in addition to
teaching, performing, and choreographing over the past forty years. Aysola
has studied for almost ten years under Prakash’s instruction,
and has toured with Prakash’s Shakti Dance Company in the past
three years. The apprenticeship will focus on developing Aysola’s
solo repertoire suitable to his ability and physicality in Bharatya
Natyam, a predominantly female-performed art form.
Master artist Nestor Raul Ruiz (San Carlos) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Stephan Rolf Sester (San Carlos) in Peruvian
Marinera Norteña dance, refining Sester’s technical ability, musicality, and virtuosity
in order to compete in the annual national competition in Peru. Ruiz,
the founder and director of El Tunante Dance Ensemble, came from a
dancing family, and was recognized as a Peruvian national dance champion
in 1978, further developing other national champions amongst his thousands
of students. Sester began working with Ruiz almost ten years
ago at the age of six, and has garnered recognition for his Marinera
dancing in Peru and the United States.
Master artist Ernest Siva (Banning) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Arkamez Blankenship (Banning) in Serrano
Big Horn Sheep songs and language, which Siva learned from family member Lloyd Marcus almost
thirty years ago while on the Morongo Reservation and is currently
the only retainer of this song knowledge. As an instrumentalist,
singer, and the tribal historian and cultural advisor of the Morongo
Band of Mission Indians, Siva has dedicated his life and work to the
retention and perpetuation of endangered Serrano language, traditions,
and song knowledge. Blankenship has learned Bird songs and Big
Horn Sheep songs at the Morongo Reservation and surrounding reservations,
from Siva, Biff Andreas, Robert Levi, Alvino Siva, Wally Antone, and
Walter Holmes, and has studied Morongo language and songs with Siva
for six years.
Master artist Parasuraman SunderRajan (left) and apprentice
Kiran Athreya will complete an apprenticeship in
South Indian Carnatic
violin music.
Photo courtesy of Parasuraman SunderRajan
Master artist Parasuraman SunderRajan (Lake Forest) will conduct an
apprenticeship with Kiran Athreya (Lake Forest) in South
Indian Carnatic violin music. SunderRajan studied under V. Janaki Raman in New
Dehli, India, and frequently teaches and performs as a soloist and
concert accompanist throughout the country. Athreya started
playing violin under SunderRajan in 2001 at age nine and participates
in numerous music festivals and Bharatha Natyam performances in Southern
California. The apprenticeship will focus on solo playing for
concerts, accompaniment for vocal concerts, playing the Raga-Malike
(Garland of Tunes), expansion of select Ragas, and creative aspects
of Carnatic music.
Master artist Arshad Syed (right) and apprentice Vikas Yendluri
will complete an apprenticeship in
North Indian Hindustani tabla
music.
Photo: Vikas Yendluri
Master artist Arshad Syed (Fremont) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Vikas Yendluri (San Jose) in North
Indian Hindustani tabla music,
developing Yendluri’s technical proficiency, skills in accompaniment,
understanding of ancient and modern taals (rhythmic cycles),
and ability as a soloist. In Bombay from age seven, Syed studied with Ustad
Allah Rakha of the Punjab Gharana lineage of tabla playing. Yendluri
has worked with Syed in California for eleven years, since he was five
years old, and performs as a solo and accompaniment artist with U.S.
and India-based musicians.
Master artist Bounseung Synanonh (Fresno) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Monty Bouasone (Fresno) in Lao
kaen (free-reed bamboo mouth organ) music. Synanonh learned kaen from village elders in Savannakhet,
Laos, when he was a teenager and has been playing for over forty years,
teaching students locally and out-of-state, recording with the World
Music Institute, and recently performing at the Smithsonian Folklife
Festival. Bouasone began learning kaen from Synanonh in 2006
during lessons offered by the Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries
(FIRM), and now performs and assists younger students. The apprenticeship
will focus on various playing techniques from different regions in
Laos and will develop Bouasone’s skill level.
Master artist Kourosh Taghavi (left) and apprentice Emad
Borjian will
complete an apprenticeship in
Persian setar music.
Photos courtesy of Kourosh Taghavi
Master artist Kourosh Taghavi (San Diego) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Emad Borjian (Novato) in Persian
setar (four-stringed lute) music. Taghavi
studied with maestros M.R. Lofti and H. Alizadeh in Berkeley in 1989
and is one of their few students outside of Iran who has studied extensively
with them. Four years into his studies, Borjian studied with
Nasser Ezadi in Iran and Lofti in the U.S. and has been working with
Taghavi to learn the Radif, the repertoire of Persian music. The
apprenticeship will focus on the entire Dastgah Shur, including traditional
compositions and improvisational approaches related to it.
Master artist Sam Weber (right) and apprentice Tal Oppenheimer
will complete an apprenticeship in
American rhythm tap dance.
Photo:
Ido Ippenheimer
Master artist Sam Weber (San Francisco) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Tal Oppenheimer (Berkeley) in American
rhythm tap dance. Weber
began dancing when he was four in Washington D.C. with Fred Nathan,
and subsequently for many years with Bay Area-based Stan Kahn, while
also studying and performing with tap artists including Charles “Honi” Coles,
Eddie Brown, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Gregory Hines. Oppenheimer
has tap danced for ten years since she started at age six, and currently
studies with Debbie Strenbach, Gregg Geoggroy, and Pamm Drake. The
apprenticeship will focus on honing skills including working in and
alternating between time signatures, improving the sound and form of
the dancing, improvisation, and studying new and historic choreographies.
Master artist Ian Whitelaw (Redondo Beach) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Earl Braten (Tracy) in Scottish
Great Highland bagpipe music, emphasizing the study of Piobaireachd, the native music of the Scottish
Highlands, and the traditional oral language of the music. Emphasis
will also be on the art, craft, and mechanism of the instrument and
maximizing sound quality. Whitelaw studied with piper Bob Nicol
and Andrew Wright, and has played bagpipes for 40 years. Earl
has been playing pipes for thirty years, having studied with William
J. Merriman. Braten has worked with Whitelaw since 2003.
Master artist Ju Yang (Fresno) will conduct an apprenticeship with
her daughter-in-law Pao Ge Vue (Fresno) in White
Hmong tiab dawb (hand-pleated
ceremonial hemp skirt), using traditional measurement techniques, standard-marking
and scoring by hand, and learning to prepare the skirt for storage
by securing the pleats with thread. Yang learned weaving hemp
fabric on a back-strap loom, sewing, and embroidery from her mother
and her aunt in Laos. Vue learned how to make paj
ntaub (reverse
appliqué and embroidered story cloths, pronounced “pan
dau”) from her mother while growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand. The
apprenticeship will yield the first skirt Vue has made on her own.
Hmong paj ntaub reverse appliqué embroidery by
master
artist Ying Yang.
Photo courtesy of Ying Yang
Master artist Ying Yang (Signal Hill) will conduct an apprenticeship
with Xong Lee (Riverside) in White
Hmong paj ntaub (reverse appliqué and
embroidered story cloths, pronounced “pan dau”). Yang
learned to sew from her grandmother and mother, and taught herself
over thirty years ago how to make paj ntaub from observing other women
while living with her family in a refugee camp in Thailand for several
years. Lee began studying needlework with Yang in the late 1990’s,
and during their apprenticeship, she will be practicing her skill in
designing, folding, and cutting progressively intricate designs in
her pieces.
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