#CPPMusicCouches

Welcome to the season finale of #CPPMusicCouches! This week’s guest is our very own podcast editor, Sarah Wallin Huff! Sarah is a composer and violinist. At Cal Poly Pomona, she is the lecturer of the History of Music Technology courses. She is also a graduate of Cal Poly! In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we will explore how musicians used technology to create music during the pandemic. We will also be taking a look into Sarah’s recent music projects, including the new album “Tonal Eclipse” and a soundtrack for the independent film “I Spy A Foodie”.

Tom Luer is an adjunct professor of jazz and saxophone studies at Cal Poly Pomona. He is the director the jazz band and woodwind ensembles. In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we catch up on how life’s been through the pandemic, the obstacles of recording music remotely, and Tom’s “Project Popular”.

Kevin Lyman is the founder of the Kevin Lyman Group, an event production and brand strategy firm. His most notable productions include the Vans Warped Tour and Lollapalooza. Kevin is a CPP alumni, having graduated with a degree in Recreational Administration.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut live events down in March 2020, Kevin was in the midst of producing the 320festival, a mental health awareness and music festival set to be held in May 2020 at Los Angeles. Despite this, the show must go on. In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we look into how Kevin transitioned the remainder of the 320festival into an online festival, an anomaly within his career of event production.

With the 63rd GRAMMY Awards® show coming up, you might be wondering how does an artist win an award. In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we’re sitting down with Dr. Shpachenko, the Department of Music’s piano professor in a discussion of becoming a GRAMMY® award-winning artist. Her 2019 piano album “The Poetry of Places” was awarded for Best Classical Compendium at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards®.

Nadia Shpachenko is a concert pianist, Steinway artist, and piano educator at Cal Poly Pomona and Claremont Graduate University. An enthusiast of contemporary music, she has premiered over 70 works by various composers including Elliott Carter, Isaac Schankler, and Peter Yates (the latter was interviewed in the first #CPPMusicCouches episode). Prior to “The Poetry of Places”, her 2014 piano album “Woman at the New Piano” was nominated in the 58th GRAMMY Awards® in 3 categories.

Dr. Jessie M. Vallejo is a musicologist, violinist, and mariachi musician. Dr. Vallejo is the Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Director of Mariachi Ensembles (Los Broncos y Los Caballeros) in Cal Poly Pomona’s Music Department. In this episode, we went over how to approach fieldwork in music, how she kept the school mariachis active during the fall semester, and baking pies!

Featured Works:

Don’t fret! Go fretless with Buzz!

Dr. Darren “Buzz” Gravelle is a fretless guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. At Cal Poly Pomona, Buzz is a music theory professor and coordinator of the guitar studies program. In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we discuss the art of playing fretless guitar and how Buzz gained a following among guitar enthusiasts across social media.

Goodbye, Dr. Yates!

Dr. Peter Yates is a chamber guitarist, composer, and a multi-media artist. Yates is formerly a music educator and the chair of the Cal Poly Pomona Department of Music. In this episode of #CPPMusicCouches, we reflect his years of being the music department chair at CPP, being a chamber musician, and keeping the art of playing the arppegione alive!

After 39 years of service, Peter Yates retired from Cal Poly Pomona on December 2020. He has celebrated remotely with his peers and students on December 11th, 2020. 

The Cal Poly Pomona Department of Music would like to thank Dr. Peter Yates for his dedication of serving the music department, leading faculty and staff, and educating students from guitar to composition.