School of Music

Reggie Watts is an internationally renowned Musician/Comedian/Writer/Actor who most recently starred as the bandleader on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden. Using his formidable voice, looping pedals, and his vast imagination, Watts blends and blurs the lines between music and comedy, wowing audiences with performances that are 100% improvised. He was the DJ at the 2021 Emmy Awards, which saw a 15% ratings boost from 2020. Reggie’s memoir, Great Falls, MT will be published on October 17th 2023 by Penguin’s highly curated Tiny Reparations imprint, founded by Phoebe Robinson. Watts’ first Netflix special Spatial released to massive critical acclaim, with the New York Times calling it “a giddy rush of escapist nonsense” and dubbing Watts “the most influential absurdist in comedy today.” The A.V. Club described Spatial as “signature Watts, meaning it’s alternately exhilarating, silly, exhausting and transcendent,” and Exclaim! Magazine called his performance “engaging, absurd, thoughtful and, most importantly, wholly unpredictable.” As a solo performer, Watts brand of musical/comedy fusion has led to sold out headlining tours in the U.S. and Europe, including festivals such as Bonnaroo, SXSW, Bumbershoot, Just For Laughs, Pemberton and more.

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This week, Wednesday thru Friday, 1–3 November, the School of Music will host a group of artists from Czechia, many of whom are affiliated with the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU), with which CalArts has an exchange program. Our visitors will offer lessons, presentations, performances, and information sessions on the exchange program, and their visit will culminate on Friday night with a performance of their collaboratively composed and created opera, TiAmo, at 8:00 p.m. in the Wild Beast. Artists are Ivo Medek, Vít Zouhar, Sára Medková, Rocc, Lukáš Medek, Hana Hána, Lucie Rozsnyó, Michal Indrák.

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Pamela Madsen is a composer, performer, theorist and curator of new music. From massive landscape inspired projects, intimate chamber music creations to multimedia opera collaborations and immersive deep listening works her work focuses on image, music, text and the environment. With a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCSD, Mellon Foundation Doctoral Research Award at Yale University, Post-Doctoral researcher at IRCAM, Paris, and Deep Listening Certificate with Pauline Oliveros, her works have been commissioned and premiered world-wide. Selected as an Alpert Award Panelist, Creative Capital artist “on the radar” with awards from Opera America, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, Meet the Composer, American Scandinavian Foundation, Fellowships from MacDowell, UCross, Women’s International Studies Center, Santa Fe, and Wurlitzer Foundation Residency, Taos, she is a frequent guest lecturer, composer-performer-improviser and at festivals and universities. She is currently a Mellon Foundation Fellow at Huntington Library researching Why Women Went West: Women, Creativity and the Idea of the west. She is Director  of the CSUF New Music Series, CSUF New Music Ensemble and InterArts Collaborative Projects at Cal State Fullerton where she is Professor of Music Composition.
 

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Miles Okazaki is a trailblazing NYC-based guitarist known for defying musical conventions. With a diverse sideman experience spanning jazz standards to experimental music, he's collaborated with luminaries like Kenny Barron and John Zorn. Okazaki has released nine albums of original compositions, including a groundbreaking solo project featuring Thelonious Monk's complete works. Voted the #1 rising star guitarist by Downbeat Magazine, he's also authored a guitar fundamentals book. A distinguished educator, Okazaki has taught at leading institutions and holds degrees from Harvard, Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard.

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Dan Weiss is a highly acclaimed jazz drummer and composer, known for pushing musical boundaries with his innovative approach. He has received recognition from The New York Times and was twice awarded the Shifting Foundation Grant. Weiss's musical foundation spans jazz, classical Indian, contemporary classical, West African, and metal, resulting in a unique sound that defies conventional genres. Weiss has devoted over two decades to studying tabla under Samir Chatterjee and has collaborated with notable figures in classical Indian music. He leads various ensembles, including a trio with Jacob Sacks and Thomas Morgan, and a sixteen-piece large ensemble featuring accomplished NYC musicians. Additionally, his project 'Starebaby' combines elements of metallic jazz, prog, and post-rock.

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Davíð Brynjar Franzson is a freelancing composer based in Los Angeles. Recent projects include an Urban Archive as an English Garden, developed in collaboration with Halla Steinunn Stefansdottir (Nordic Affect), Ryan Muncy (ICE), Russell Greenberg (Yarn/Wire), and Matt Barbier (Gnarwhallaby); Particular Forms of Forgetting, developed in collaboration with Yarn|Wire, both of which are developed through a joint artist research residency at Ircam and Zenter fur Kunst und Medientechnology.

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Tom Paige is an accomplished Film Producer and Director known for "The Gathering: Roots & Branches of Los Angeles Jazz." The documentary traces a multi-generational music project from Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra to the LA jazz scene. In 2021, Tom successfully managed its festival run. With a diverse background in facilities management, construction, and project management, Tom excels in team building and providing cost-effective solutions under pressure.

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