School of Music

Michele DeJesus, Administrative Assistant in the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, has worked within the School of Music since 2006.  She holds a B.S. in International Business from California State University Los Angeles. She works closely with our faculty and students.  One... Continue reading »

Jack Dettling is a pianist, composer, and multimedia artist. He uses player pianos, traditional instruments, text, video, and a variety of electro-acoustic tools to create concert pieces, video works, and non-linear multimedia environments; he addresses the piano, music-making, tuning-systems,... Continue reading »

Nicholas Deyoe is a Los Angeles based composer, conductor, and guitarist, and is the Co–Founder of the wasteLAnd ensemble and concert series. His music has been called “intriguingly complex and excitedly lush” by the LA Times. The New York Times wrote that Deyoe’s a... Continue reading »

Ryan Dragon is a trombonist and a fixture on the LA jazz and studio scenes and avant-garde community.  After spending a number of years performing on the east coast where he attended the Berklee school of music and performed with Cirque du Soleil, Ryan moved to Los Angeles where he quickly... Continue reading »

Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, a member of the CalArts faculty since 1987, currently holds the Larry Levine Chair in Contemporary Music. She has worked with composers including; Louis Andreissen, Earle Brown, Jason Robert Brown, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Brian Ferneyhough, Sofia... Continue reading »

In keeping with our commitment to provide the best possible facilities to CalArts students, the Herb Alpert School of Music has had a full-time, year-round piano technician since it opened its doors over forty years ago. For the last twenty-eight years, Alan Eder has cared for our many pianos. A... Continue reading »

Meltem Ege is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, composer, and educator. Whether breathing new life into a standard or conducting one of her performance explorations through scene-based improvisation, Meltem enjoys taking a deep dive into the power of live performance. She has received... Continue reading »