Featured Performers | Dirty, Stupid Music
Photo Credit: Rachel Hadiashar
Cecille Elliott
Cecille is a multifaceted musician specializing in voice, violin, and viola. A prolific songwriter, she has recently begun sharing her strikingly raw and deeply captivating compositions with public audiences - including the world premiere of We Are Murmurs at the Resonance Ensemble showcase, Dirty Stupid Music. Throughout her music career she has taken on various avenues from orchestra halls and auditoriums to pubs and open mics Her passion lies in the diversity of music, and how her instruments find voices around the world and in various genres. As a performer and creator, she has collaborated with various artists across the country to bring their projects to life. She spends much of her free time buried in various forms of creative writing, and building her skills as a visual artist, with film, photography, drawing, and painting as her mediums of choice.
Photo Credit: Kenton Waltz
Erik Hundtoft
Erik Hundtoft has been a baritone singer and performer in Portland over the last twenty years. He has appeared with Portland Opera, Portland Concert Opera, Resonance Ensemble, The Ensemble, Opera Theater Oregon, Capella Romana, and other ensembles and companies across the greater Pacific Northwest. Erik also sang the role of Marcello in the Beaverton Symphony's 2014 concert presentation of La Bohème. He maintains positions with the Portland Opera Chorus and as section leader at St. Mary's cathedral, as well as a vocal studio in southeast Portland.
Photo Credit: Rachel Hadiashar
Shohei Kobayashi
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Japanese-American conductor Shohei Kobayashi aspires to synthesize their insights as singer/songwriter, multi-genre bandmate, choral musician, and art song interpreter to inspire deeply personal musical experiences. Also an Assistant Professor of Music at Reed College, they direct the Reed Chorus and Collegium Musicum and teach courses in music theory and musicianship. They are a member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, Chorus America, and American Choral Directors Association.
Brandon Michael
Brandon’s warm and burnished tenor voice has been praised by audiences and critics for its richness, ease and versatility. Locally Brandon sings with the Portland Opera and Orpheus PDX, Portland Symphonic choir, Inland Northwest Opera as well as Resonance Ensemble and the new vocal jazz ensemble, Jecca Jazz. Brandon recently sang the tenor solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Spokane Symphony. Brandon has sung many opera roles including Fenton, Goro, Don Basilio and Der Kunsperhexe. Brandon is equally at home on the musical theater stage, where he has a wide variety of roles, from the Emcee in Cabaret, to Pirelli in Sweeney Todd, to Emile DeBecque in South Pacific. Brandon is proud of his Asian American heritage.
Photo provided by Brandon Michael
Photo Credit: Rachel Tine
Madeline Ross
Madeline Ross made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a jazz soloist where she “scatt[ed] to beat the band” (NY Concert Review). She has performed with Portland Opera, The Oregon Symphony, 45th Parallel, Portland Opera To Go, Resonance Ensemble, and Opera Theater Oregon, and was recently hailed for “effortlessly nailing” her performance as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Oregon ArtsWatch). She is the Founder and Executive Director of Renegade Opera, Portland’s unconventional opera company. Upcoming engagements include the role debut of First Wood Sprite in Dvorak’s Rusalka with Portland Opera (Spring 2023).
David Saffert
David is a classically-trained pianist from Wisconsin. He has played piano locally for the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Resonance Ensemble, Portland Center Stage, and has been featured on All Classical Portland radio. He has been seen on stage in sketch comedy, improv, solo piano concerts, and in his very own music & comedy variety shows (including his incredible duo tribute act, Liberace and Liza which has most recently played Portland Center Stage, 54 Below in New York and Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco). As an actor, David has been nominated for a PAMTA and Broadway World’s “Performer of the Decade” for his performance in Murder for Two at Broadway Rose Theatre.
Photo Credit: Rachel Hadiashar
SPECIAL GUEST PERFORMERS
Jessica Israels
Jessica Israels (soprano) is an accomplished singer who has captivated audiences in both jazz and classical music throughout the United States. She performs with her jazz trio and the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, which has been featured at The Detroit Jazz Festival, The Portland Jazz Festival, and Dizzy’s Jazz Club. She is also a member of several local professional vocal ensembles, including Resonance Ensemble, Cappella Romana, and Jecca Jazz Ensemble.
Jessica is currently the Music Director at St. Gabriel Episcopal Church in Portland. She also teaches Voice at Clackamas Community College, and is the founder and conductor of the Multnomah Women’s Chorus. She is excited to add Vibraslap to her list of credits with today’s performances!
Chuck Israels
Chuck Israels is a composer/arranger/bassist who has worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J.J. Johnson, John Coltrane, and many others. He is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1961 through 1966 and for his pioneering accomplishments in Jazz Repertory as Director of the National Jazz Ensemble from 1973 to 1981. He directed the jazz studies program at Western Washington University from 1986 to 2009 when he retired from that position and moved to Portland, to return to full time professional musical life forming the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.
Among Chuck's many recordings as a bassist, some outstanding ones include: Coltrane Time with John Coltrane; My Point of View with Herbie Hancock; Getz au Go-Go with Stan Getz; and many recordings with the Bill Evans Trio, including The Town Hall Concert, The Second Trio, Trio '65, Live at the Trident, Time Remembered, and Live at Shelley's Manne Hole. In 2018, Chuck won a Grammy Award for his participation on soprano Joyce DiDonato’s Songplay recording.
More information, photos, videos, music and reviews can be found at www.chuckisraelsjazz.com
Donnatella nobody (Tyler Buswell)
Tyler Buswell (He/Him) is a proud drag queen (Donatella Nobody), actor, freelance designer and educator based in Portland, OR where he has designed for Portland Opera, Artists Rep, Bag&Baggage, Theatre Vertigo, Post5, ETP, and Corrib among others.
He has worked extensively as a scenic painter/carpenter for ART, Portland Center Stage, Third Rail, and Oregon Children’s Theatre. He has ten Broadwayworld nominations for Outstanding Scenic Design, winning recently for the play Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara with Fuse Ensemble. He currently serves as the Technical Director/Designer for Northwest Academy (grades 6-12) where he teaches Tech. Theater, Costume and Makeup Design to an incredible and talented group of young artists who inspire him daily.
In drag he performed in the original musical Bite Me A Little at Post 5 Theatre, Murder At Checkmate Manor at Bag&Baggage, Neighbors in Seattle and many other bars in venues in the PNW. He designed the set for the rolling world premiere of American Fast by Kareem Fahmy with ART—playing now through January 29th at Portland Center Stage.