Rogelle Zamora Celebrates Philippine Musical Heritage

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Rogelle Zamora is a musician and educator based in Southern California. As a second-generation Filipino American, he is passionate about providing opportunities for community members to learn about the musical cultures and practices of the diverse peoples of the Philippine Islands.

Rogelle’s journey into Philippine music began in 2018 when he met Bernard Ellorin, Ph.D., a leading Southern California expert in Philippine music and musical director of the Samahan Filipino American Performing Arts & Education Center in San Diego. Building upon his experience playing violin with Mariachi Los Broncos, the premiere mariachi ensemble of Cal Poly Pomona, Rogelle developed a strong desire to learn about the musical practices of his own cultural heritage. After graduating with his B.A. in music education from Cal Poly, he moved to San Diego to study with Dr. Ellorin and pursue this interest.

In 2021, he received the Apprenticeship Program Award from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts in support of his study with Dr. Ellorin of Tagunggu’ gong ensemble music, unique to the cultures of the Sulu Archipelago. With this funding, he was also able to supplement his studies with Dr. Ellorin through participation in the 2023 edition of Tribu Tur, a cultural immersion trip in the Philippines organized by KULARTS, San Francisco.

Today, Rogelle performs regularly with the rondalla (string ensemble) of Samahan and the Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble. When opportunities arise, he also teaches private lessons and performs for weddings, anniversaries, and other special events. He most recently joined the Palomar Symphony Orchestra, maintaining connections with his Western classical upbringing as a violist. As an educator, he teaches students of all ages, serving as an instructional staff member with various school music programs and independent organizations across Southern California such as the Filipino Cultural School, Rancho Bernardo High School Royal Regiment, and Pulse Percussion Inc.

Rogelle is excited to further the CWM’s mission to foster intercultural awareness as a teaching artist for World Music in the Schools.

Kourosh Taghavi: Excellence in Persian Classical Music

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Kourosh Taghavi is a master of the Iranian setar, a prolific composer, and a teacher of Persian classical music. Based in San Diego since 1984, he has studied under the tutelage of world-renowned virtuosi Mohammad Reza Lotfi and Hossein Alizadeh. These studies have been the source of his unique approach to the art of Iranian music. Taghavi’s passionate and melodic approach to music is the foundation of his many collaborations and recordings with numerous artists, performing both traditional and modern forms of Iranian music. His collaborative projects with master musicians and international and local cultural organizations help fulfill his lifelong commitment to raising awareness of the importance of music in people’s lives.

Kourosh teaches setar and voice throughout California, as well as lecturing, composing original music for plays and pieces based on contemporary Iranian poetry, holding music workshops, and recording. These and numerous other endeavors are expressions of his passionate quest to promote Persian classical music.

Kourosh is a founding member of Namaad Ensemble, with which he has toured throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. His collaborations with renowned master artists such as Hossein Omoumi, poets Robert Bly and Coleman Barks, and prestigious cultural organizations such as the Konya Mystic Music Festival (Turkey), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Carlsbad and Del Mar Music festivals are a few highlights of his efforts to introduce Persian classical music and poetry to a broad audience.

As a San Diego State University faculty member, Kourosh taught a course in Persian classical music and oversaw a related thesis.

Kourosh Taghavi at Poway

Kourosh Taghavi teaches the Persian setar. UT hoto by Don Boomer

His ongoing collaboration with the Center for World Music as a teaching artist in residence brings Persian music to schools across San Diego through weekly classes and occasional performances. Kourosh’s curricula provide children with high-quality instruction in Persian classical music and singing. Through age-appropriate lessons, Mr. Taghavi introduces the world of music and rhythm through hands-on music-making in a fun, harmonious environment where children thrive musically and socially.

A parent of two children, Kourosh recognizes the significance of music in early childhood education. Fatherhood inspired Kourosh to explore and compose music for the youngest of audiences, as captured in the album Epiphany by the Namaad Ensemble.

For Further Reading and Viewing

The San Diego Participant Observer spotlights Persian Classical Musician, Kourosh Taghavi

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports on how Kouresh helps Poway Students Encounter a World of Music

Our friends at the Persian Cultural Center of San Diego have published a nice article about Kouresh’s work as CWM teaching artist at King-Chavez Academies in San Diego.

Kourosh’s lecture and performance at the 2012 Baraka Retreat in Santa Barbara.

Graphic Image of Music on the Move

Music on The Move

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Music on the Move is a special FREE event series that explores the role of music, dance, and other performative arts in San Diego’s vibrant and diverse refugee, asylee, and migrant communities.* Our events showcase the inspiring stories of individuals and groups who have left their homelands due to political and religious persecution, war, climate change, human rights violations, hunger, financial hardship, and other challenges.

Musical Journey (RSVP Required)
Saturday, June 3, 2023, @ 2 PM at Mingei International Museum

Border Stories
Saturday, June 10, 2023, @ 2 PM at the Front Arte Cultura Gallery in San Ysidro

Strength in Community
Saturday, June 17, 2023, @ 2 PM at the City Heights Performing Annex

Drawing on the research methods of ethnomusicology, we focus on the experiences of diaspora communities as they navigate their new home and strive to preserve their cultural values. Our events provide a platform for cultural communities to share their stories through music, dance, and other forms of artistic expression.

Since June 2022, Pablo Dodero and Monica Emery have reached into San Diego’s diverse communities to identify and have conversations with musicians and dancers. Through countless interviews, they explored the vital role of the performing arts in recreating a sense of home and belonging.

By providing a space for communities to speak about their experiences and ways of honoring their heritage, we aim to honor their desire to cultivate new narratives around their identities. After identifying cross-cutting themes and similarities among certain groups, we have planned an event series that amplifies the voices of these individuals and communities and strengthens the ties among them.

We are excited to present a series of three events on June 3, 10, and 17 in recognition of World Refugee Day (June 20) and World Music Day (June 21). Join us for an unforgettable experience featuring live music and dance performances, testimonials, and thought-provoking discussion panels with community members and artists.

Come and be part of the celebration as we honor the rich cultural diversity of San Diego’s refugee, asylee, and migrant communities through the power of music and the performing arts.

Project Coordinator: Pablo Dodero

This program was made possible by the City of San Diego, the Commission for Arts and Culture, the Peacemakers Fund, U.S. Congress Member Juan Vargas, Julie and Matt Harelson, Larry Cohen, and Tim Paradise.

*Amnesty International defines refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant as terms used to “describe people who are on the move, who have left their countries and have crossed borders.” For more information, please visit www.amnesty.org.

KUSI TV Visits CWM Schools Program Classroom

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Teaching artist Silvio Diaz was happy to have a visit from a KUSI TV crew during a recent CWM World Music in the Schools percussion class at Balboa Elementary School. Stefanie Schmitz, our program director, was on hand to chat with KUSI’s Allie Wagner about what was going on.

Through a generous grant from the California Arts Council, the nonprofit VAPA Foundation has provided funding for 7 such World Music residencies in San Diego. All are specifically aimed at schools in underserved communities with high Latino and Hispanic populations.

Here’s the video, which aired on April 26:

Read a related article from our friends at the Times of San Diego.

CWM Teaching Artist

San Diego 4th Graders Take Musical Journey

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The Times of San Diego has a nice write-up this week on our World Music in the Schools program and the State and local partners whose help is so much appreciated:

With support from a California Arts Council education program that places artists in schools, the VAPA Foundation and the Center for World Music has provided support to give each fourth-grade class 12 visits from a teaching artist.

Students will sing, play instruments, use music vocabulary, collaborate with their peers and analyze auditory examples as they explore the geography, history, culture, language and traditions of Mexico, Cuba and/or Brazil.

Read the full article on the Times of San Diego website.

View a KUSI TV report on this same program.

Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Drumming: Teaching Artist Monette Marino

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Monette Marino is an accomplished percussionist, well-versed in several drumming traditions from around the world, including those of West Africa (Guinea and Mali), Cuba, Brazil, and Korea. She has studied with a multitude of revered master teachers, including Malian drummer Yaya Diallo, Korean drummer Kim Duk Soo, and particularly Guinean Master drummer Mamady Keïta.

Monette has performed globally for decades with elite folkloric drum and dance ensembles, including Mamady Keïta’s Sewa Kan, Sabougnouma GPS, Les Amazones, Omo Aché, Afrekete, Zinco, and Sol e Mar. Additionally, she has performed in the popular music arena with many notable local musicians as well as international stars. Appearing on American Idol and The Voice, she has played everything from jazz to salsa, samba, reggae, funk, disco, soul, R&B, rock, and even country music.

Monette continues to explore many drumming traditions and disciplines from around the world. She has a deep respect for the cultural heritage preserved and passed on through the language of the drum.

In addition to her robust performance career, Monette is a sought-after teacher. In 1995 she founded Baraka International Arts, since renamed the MO’RHYTHM School of Percussion. A non-profit organization, the school fosters participation in traditional West African drumming and dance, and seeks to preserve and transmit the Mandingue musical tradition, as a way of promoting tolerance, understanding, equality, and international peace.

Monette has extensive experience teaching West African djembe drumming in both private and group lessons to students young and old. In her World Music in the Schools drumming classes, students are inspired to take risks and express themselves. A patient and amiable instructor, Monette is passionate about bringing people together through music and seeing them smile.

Andrew Acquista’s Lifelong Rhythmic Journey

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Drumming for dance classes while a student at Humbolt State University inspired Andrew Acquista to pursue a lifelong journey into world music and percussion. Born in Brooklyn, New York, and a musician since the age of five, Andrew’s rhythmic journey has taken him from developing his skills on the distinctly American drum set to delving deeply into the percussion instruments of Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and the Caribbean. Nowadays, he shares his passion for performance and education with audiences and students all over Southern California.

While earning dual Bachelor of Music degrees in performance and education at Humboldt State, Andrew studied world music concepts with Dr. Eugene Novotney. Through him, Andrew met world-renowned griot and master drummer CK Ladzekpo. Ladzekpo’s lessons in the cornerstone concepts of African music captivated Andrew. Moreover, they provided him with the tools he would need to decipher any type of music in the coming years. Andrew went on to further his musical education with a masters degree in music performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Long Beach State.

In 2022, thanks to his longtime teacher and friend, West African master drummer Dramane Kone, Andrew was invited to perform live on stage at the LA Forum  with Latin rock supergroup Maná in four sold-out performances. He was also featured performing percussion and mbira for the soundtrack of the movie “Black Panther” in 2017.

In Andrew’s high-energy World Music in the Schools drumming classes, students learn the history and background of the music, and are inspired to come together as a community to play West African and Brazilian rhythms with their hearts and souls.

Instruments of the Central Javanese Gamelan: Peking

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This is the second in a series of articles exploring the various instruments of the Javanese gamelan.

The peking is one instrument in a family group called balungan instruments. In the Javanese gamelan ensemble, these instruments all utilize similar performance techniques and play the balungan, or melodic line, in unison or with slight embellishments. Within this larger balungan family, there is a sub-group of instruments: the saron family. These three instruments—the peking, the saron, and the demung—together cover a range of three octaves, from high to low. The peking, also referred to as the saron panerus, covers the highest range in this family. The saron represents the middle of the range, and the demung renders the lowest part of the range. The latter is also referred to as saron barung.

Top view of the demung, saron, and peking, each with its mallet

Like the other instruments in this family, the peking is a struck metallophone made from bronze keys suspended over a hollow, ornately decorated wooden box, which serves both to support the keys and as a resonator. A peking has 7 keys in both the sléndro (5 note scale, with an additional note above and below the octave) and pélog (7 note scale) tunings. A small ensemble might only have two peking, one in each scale, and likewise two saron and two demung, one in each scale, whereas a larger ensemble might have as many as eight peking, four in each scale.

Peking are struck with a small mallet made of water buffalo horn, which produces a loud and bright sound. This, along with their high pitch, allows their sound to rise above that of the other instruments in the ensemble to be heard clearly by the other players and the audience. However, when required, peking are also capable of producing tones with a soft and dynamic sensibility. The bronze keys resonate freely and have a long decay. Because of this, when the mallet strikes one key, the player’s other hand grasps the key previously struck so it doesn’t continue to sound. This allows notes to sustain freely for a short time until the following note is played. A similar “damping” technique is used with other members of this family of instruments.

The peking players are seated near the ensemble’s director, who signals tempo changes and gives other cues to the musicians via the kendang (drum). Because they can thus see and hear the drummer’s signals more readily, and also because the sound of the peking can be heard clearly by the other players, the peking players have a special role: to reinforce the signals from the drummer, serving as a bridge between the drummer and the rest of the saron and other balungan instruments.

Series: Instruments of the Central Javanese Gamelan

Teaching Artist Matthew Clough-Hunter

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The Center for World Music is delighted to profile World Music in the Schools teaching artist Matthew Clough-Hunter.

Matthew Clough-Hunter is a Los Angeles-based performer, composer, and educator who specializes in several Balinese gamelan traditions including angklung, gong kebyar, gendèr wayang, gambuh, kecak, and gamut. He is a member of several gamelan ensembles based in Southern California: Burat Wangi, a community-based gamelan at CalArts directed by I Nyoman Wenten; Merdu Kumala, a community-based gamelan founded by Hirotaka Inuzuka and directed by Matthew that teaches gamelan workshops and performs throughout the country; Giri Kusuma, a gong kebyar ensemble affiliated with Pomona College; and Sekaa Gambuh, an ensemble that specializes in an ancient repertoire played with meter-long bamboo flutes.

Recently, Matthew taught gamelan at Opus 6 (a summer camp program organized by the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra), participated in Performing Indonesia at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., and performed with renowned Indonesian guitarist Balawan.

Matthew earned an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in World Music with a focus on Indonesian music and composition, and a BFA from Denison University in Music Performance on jazz guitar. Outside of his work in the realm of gamelan, Matthew enjoys songwriting and performing. His songs can be found under the artist name “Cloudhopper” on streaming sites such as Spotify. Music composition, performance, and education are among the strongest driving forces in Matthew’s life, and he feels “so happy when [he] can excite someone about the possibilities of their input in music.”

Matthew Clough-Hunter and Hirotaka Inuzuka performing gender wayang

Gamelan Merdu Kumala performing at the 2022 Balinese Gamelan Festival in Colorado

Idrissa Bangoura: Drumming, Song, and Movement from Guinea

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Idrissa Bangoura was born in the Mande region of Guinea and is part of the Susu culture group of West Africa. He speaks Susu, French, and English. Coming from a family of performers, he first learned djembe drumming from his two older brothers, Bengaly and Mohamed. The latter were both soloists for the Ballet Africain de Guinée, based in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. From them, Idrissa learned about proper playing techniques, drum repair, and goat-skin drum head replacement. They also introduced him to the traditional rhythms of Guinea and gave him the knowledge, techniques, and insight necessary to truly enjoy playing the djembe, among the most sophisticated rhythm instruments of Africa. 

In addition to being a skillful percussionist, Idrissa is an accomplished athlete and acrobat, formally trained at the Keita Fodeba Centre for Acrobatic Arts, also located in Conakry. He has worked as an instructor, performing artist, dancer, and acrobat, and has toured with the prestigious Montreal, Canada-based equestrian performing company Cavalia in their show Odysseo, which highlights a diverse cast of acrobats, aerialists, riders, and horses from all over the world.

Based in San Diego since 2017, Idrissa teaches acrobatic arts to children and frequently performs with the Fern Street Circus, a local community circus for underserved youth. In the fall of 2021, he joined the CWM’s World Music in the Schools program as a distinguished teaching artist. Students at the Monarch School in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood and at Bird Rock Elementary in La Jolla have been happily immersed in traditional djembe drumming, song, and movement under Idrissa’s able guidance. The Monarch School program is being funded by the Jason Mraz Foundation and Macy’s Foundation.

Because of his diverse training and performance background, Idrissa is able to incorporate aspects of song, movement, dance, and instrumental music performance that offer students in our World Music in the Schools program a view of the culture and the language of the Susu people of Guinea. Idrissa’s passion for teaching is driven by the excitement his students express in learning about cultural traditions and the history of his native country. 

We are delighted and proud to have Idrissa Bangoura on our roster of distinguished teaching artists.

Learn more on Idrissa Bangoura’s website.  Here’s a YouTube video of Idrissa and daughter Adama performing for the San Diego Unified School District and the Fern Street Circus.