School of Music

Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro, is active as an oboist and a music historian. As a music historian, she received her Masters and PhD degrees in musicology at Northwestern University, with a dissertation on experimental music in Britain in the 1960s.  She regularly presents papers at national and... Continue reading »

Michael Pisaro-Liu (born, Michael Pisaro) is a guitarist and composer and a long-time member of the Wandelweiser collective. While, like other members of Wandelweiser, Pisaro-Liu is known for pieces of long duration with periods of silence, in the past fifteen years his work has branched out in... Continue reading »

Houman Pourmehdi is a master percussionist, well known for his diverse abilities as a musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, performing and recording in numerous ensembles and at a variety of venues. He was introduced to Persian music by his father, and received his first Tonbak at the... Continue reading »

Simon Reynolds is the author of eight books about music and popular culture, including Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84, Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past, and most recently a study of... Continue reading »

Def Sound is an Afro-Caribbean multi-hyphenate artist (parents from Belize & Panama) born and based in South Central LA. Def (mom given name Emmanuel Ricketts) is a non binary (pronouns they/them) Grammy Award considered contemporary hip-hop artist, producer, poet, and award winning... Continue reading »

Pianist and composer David Roitstein is the Jazz Program Director at California Institute of the Arts.  He received his degrees from the University of Miami.  As a young musician in the culturally diverse Florida city, Roitstein performed and recorded with a wide variety of... Continue reading »