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Hello and welcome to this "gallery" of musician performances and bios! I hope this site can serve as a dialogue between musicians and members of the Urban College community. Listen to their stories, watch their performances, and get to know our diverse group of panelists. We welcome your thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams, and stories as you reflect on this celebrate of heritage and hope.
~Kendall Driscoll
Online Learning Program Coordinator at UCB

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Dr. Sonya White Hope, violinist and violist, has been performing and teaching strings and related music courses in and around Boston for over 30 years. Concertizing internationally and locally, Dr. White Hope has been a member of the Boston Classical Orchestra, Portland Symphony, and other local ensembles. She graduated from Boston University with her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Viola Performance and her doctorate in Music Education. Centering scholarship on Arts Education as Cultural Emancipation philosophy, Dr. White Hope examines topics at the intersection of music/arts education, Africa-descended students, and the arts of the African Diaspora. Most recently, Dr. White Hope co-founded SankofaSongs, a non profit organization dedicated to producing events and projects that nurture and support K-12 music teachers and their instruction in order to cultivate outstanding Africentric music education practice. When she isn’t performing, teaching, or researching, Dr. White Hope enjoys making all sorts of art, cycling and swimming.

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Sonya White Hope Demonstration and Performance

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Originally from Miami FL, Cuban-American trombonist Gil Cruz is a multi-genre performing artist that spends most of his time on the US east coast. Currently a doctoral music performance student at the University of Maryland, Gil previously attended the New England Conservatory of Music and the Longy  School of music while living in Boston, MA and for the last ten years has served as the Principal Trombonist of Symphony of the Americas, an orchestral in Fort Lauderdale, FL. In addition, Gil has performed and collaborated with many performing artists such as Idina Menzel, Audra McDonald, Nelly, Pit Bull, Andrea Bocelli and more.

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Northern Michigan-based fiddler, Hannah Harris Graham, has a mission to give her audience an honest representation of Irish traditional music by sharing how it fits into culture, history, and social life. She is also an online fiddle instructor, with a variety of learning opportunities from Zoom "house" concerts to her private studio to online courses. In August 2020, she released her debut album, Tea for Tune, which is a celebration of the community surrounding Irish music and emulates the energizing, yet calming experience of enjoying a refreshing cup of tea. Hannah has her Masters in Ethnomusicology from University College Cork.

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Hannah Performing on the Fiddle at Petoskey Farmer's Market

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I was born in the Brighton area of Boston to Irish immigrant parents and began lessons on the diatonic button accordion at age 7, taught by my father.  Later I studied piano accordion at the Cambridge Conservatory of Music, but the diatonic accordion was my primary instrument.  I was exposed to Irish traditional via frequent house parties with local and visiting musicians.  As I got older, I expanded into popular dance music, playing at dances and all manner of social and concert venues.  Since the dance venues largely disappeared in the 1990’s, I’ve concentrated on playing at Irish traditional sessions.  This exposes me to the exceptionally talented younger musicians and allows me to share my experiences from my years of playing.  Although my current performances are primarily Irish, Cape Breton, and Scottish, my musical interests go from classical, popular, and world ethnic genres.

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Akari Ogawa is currently an Artist Diploma student at Duquesne University studying Flute Performance. She holds her Master’s Degree from Chicago College of Performing Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree from Furman University. Akari’s notable teachers include Jennifer Steele from the Pittsburgh Symphony and Mimi Tachouet from Lyric Opera of Chicago. In addition to her studies, Akari is an active freelancing flutist in the Pittsburgh area.

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Ralph White III is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Currently, his research is focused on evaluating the synergy of combination therapy involving select kinase inhibitors and the standard of care for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. He received his B.S in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry from Furman University in 2017. While pursuing his degree, he actively played trumpet in multiple musical ensembles at Furman (symphonic band, jazz, orchestra, marching/pep) and continues to play independently today. In addition to his research and music endeavors, Ralph is involved in STEM outreach within the Twin Cities community, engaging all with his love of science and music through his podcast "Scientifically Sound".

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Alyssa San Pedro is a K-8 general music teacher who works with a community of bilingual and bicultural learners at the Rafael Hernández Dual Language School in Roxbury, MA. Alyssa believes that it is her responsibility to create a classroom culture in which all students feel safe and encouraged to bring their whole selves to school. She has worked with the Arts Department at the Hernández School to create an interdisciplinary arts curriculum that allows students to see and respect their own cultures and cultural wealth by learning about other cultures from around the world. Alyssa is fluent in English and Spanish and holds a Master of Music in Music Education from Boston University, as well as a Bachelor’s in Music & Spanish from Tufts University.

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Peruvian immigrant Anaís Azul (they/them) is a California based bilingual singer-songwriter, composer, and teaching artist. Their music is bilingual (Spanish and English) and is in dialogue with vocal looping, western classical music, and Latin American singer-songwriter traditions. Described as “stunningly honest and vulnerable,” their artistry engages with music as a tool for community building, cross-genre collaboration, and collective healing.

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Something Radical"- Anaís Azul [NPR Tiny Desk Contest Entry 2021]

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My name is Phil Saines and I am from the Boston area. My musical training started when I was five years old, on piano, and then I switched to guitar a few years later.   I have been playing guitar for over fifty years now, starting with classical guitar and then learning more folk/rock/ethnic styles.   Nowadays I play a bit of folk, bluegrass, Irish, Klezmer and have begun learning some Scandinavian tunes.   There are many jams/sessions in the area that have opened up again since the pandemic started and I am very fortunate to be able to participate in these again.   My wife Catherine, who plays the flute, practice dues regularly and last year I started teaching guitar to my son Brad.   He has shown great interest in it and practices regularly.

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Russian Schottische performed by Phil Saines

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Yui Narita is a pianist and music educator based in Yokohama, Japan. After graduating from Boston University, she taught music at Page Music Lessons & Belmont Day School as well as performed in various venues around the Greater Boston Area. Yui loves to collaborate with musicians, and she recently did a duo recording project with soprano Angie Grau from works by Irving Fine, Florence Price, and Francis Poulenc. She is currently a piano and eurhythmics instructor at the Colorful Tone Music Academy in Tokyo, Japan where she hopes to continue performing and teaching toddlers and beyond.

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El Puerto from Iberia (Book 1) by Issac Albeniz, featuring pianist, Yui Tiffany Narita

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Vincent Izzo is a percussionist living in Columbus, OH, masquerading as an accountant for MedVet. He received his bachelor’s degree from Furman University in accounting and music and his master’s degree from the Ohio State University in accounting. Born in Babylon, NY, he grew up in Fort Mill, SC, where he discovered his passion for beating on inanimate objects with wooden sticks. After graduating from OSU, he discovered another passion of learning languages whenever traveling abroad; he has so far studied nine languages at a basic level: Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, Mandarin, Japanese, Tagalog, Hebrew, and Esperanto. He currently lives with his pet chinchilla, Dusty, his sister, Alicia, and her pet cat, Willow.