Click here to get the file - UC Davis: Department of Music

8
aBoUt the artists
Festival director Chris froh is a percussionist principally committed to influencing and expanding
the repertoire through commissions and premieres. He began his training as a fellow with the
National Symphony Orchestra, then continued at the Eastman School of Music with percussionist
John Beck before moving to Japan to study and perform with marimba pioneer and composer
Keiko Abe. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan with
percussionist Michael Udow and marimbist Julie Spencer. He is currently on the faculty at UC Davis.
Froh is a former founding director of the Ann Arbor-based new music group and series Brave New
Works. Currently he is a core member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Empyrean
Ensemble, the ADORNO Ensemble, and sfSound Group and is principal percussionist with the
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. As a guest artist, he has performed with a broad array of ensembles,
including Alarm Will Sound, the Honolulu Symphony, and Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Solo festival
appearances include performances at the Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali, Music@Menlo, Festival of
New American Music, Pacific Rim Festival, and Other Minds Festival.
In addition to participating in commissions of chamber works through his various membership
ensembles, Froh actively commissions solo works from renowned composers through his own Sixpack
program. To date, the Six-pack is responsible for a dozen new pieces for solo multi-percussion,
marimba, and vibraphone by composers across the aesthetic spectrum, with premieres at the Villa
Aurelia in Rome, Mondavi Center for the Arts in Davis, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San
Francisco, among others. An upcoming recording of Six-pack commissions is forthcoming.
Froh continues his close ties to Japan, touring with marimbist Mayumi Hama and as a soloist with
Keiko Abe and the Galaxy Percussion Group. He has performed regularly at the Percussive Arts Society
International Convention and appeared as the solo percussionist for the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s
production of Aeschylus’s The Oresteia. He is recorded as a soloist on the Albany, Equilibrium, and
Innova labels.
Music writer Derk Richardson’s oft-quoted observation, “If scott amendola didn’t exist the
San Francisco music scene would have to invent him,” is truer than ever. But what’s become evident
in recent years is that the extraordinarily resourceful drummer has evolved into a paragon of selfinvention,
a bandleader, composer, and invaluable creative collaborator at the center of a vast array of
improvisational ensembles. While rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area scene, Amendola has woven
a dense and far reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to influential figures in jazz,
blues, groove, rock, and new music. An organizer by nature, he has become a creative nexus for a
community of musicians stretching from Los Angeles and Seattle to Chicago and New York. While
he first gained widespread notice a decade ago for his work in eight-string guitar ace Charlie Hunter’s
trio, in recent years Amendola has stepped forward as the leader of several compelling bands that
showcase his supremely supple trap work. He continues to work as a sideman, accompanying artists
such as the tart-toned vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, guitarist and singer/songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps,
and the Nels Cline Singers, a volatile instrumental trio without a vocalist.
mayumi hama completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in percussion performance
(marimba) at the Toho Gakuen Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Keiko Abe and
Kyoichi Sano. In 1998 she was admitted to the University of Michigan for a special post-master’s
research course and studied the marimba with Michael Udow and the drum set with Michael Gould.
Hama was awarded second prize at the Second World Marimba Competition in Okaya, Japan (1999).
Her career as a marimbist includes performances with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, at the
Yomiuri concert for noteworthy new players on the recommendation of the dean of the Toho Gakuen
Conservatory of Music, and in China as a member of a goodwill mission. She also performed at the
Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in 1998 (Florida) and 2000 (Texas). Currently
Hama is pursuing a career as an international solo marimbist and has performed in the United States,
Belgium, China, Ireland, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. She released her first CD, Soundscapes, in 2000
to high praise from many critics.