2008/2009 FELLOWS

Mani Bolouri is a composer and virtuoso player of the kamancheh (spiked fiddle) and gheychak (bowed fiddle). Mr. Bolouri began his musical studies at the age of ten under the guidance of his grandfather who was an ashough (a popular, traveling musician) and who taught him Armenian folk music.  He has also studied with many masters learning both Persian classical and Western classical music and received a M.A. in composition from Tehran Art University.  In 1994, Mr. Bolouri was invited to work in the National Radio and Television Orchestra of Iran where he performed for ten years as a composer and performer.  After moving to the U.S. in 2004, he began to perform extensively throughout the world.  Mr. Bolouri currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches Armenian folk music.  

César Castro both plays and builds the requinto jarocho or guitarra de son, the melodic lead instrument of traditional music from Veracruz Mexico known as son jarocho.  Son jarocho is a mix of indigenous Mexican, African, Spanish and Arabic sounds.  Mr. Castro began training in son jarocho at age 11, joining the pathbreaking group, Mono Blanco, at age 15.  For the next 11 years, he participated in fandangos, community-wide celebrations, throughout Mexico and toured the world with the group.  Recognized as an accomplished sonero, one who has to play various instruments within the tradition, sing and dance (zapateado), he then began teaching both in Mexico and in the US.  After moving to Los Angeles in 2004, Mr. Castro joined Quetzal, one of the premier Chicano fusion bands. Today he leads numerous son jarocho music workshops around the city.  

Ho Chan plays every instrument of the pin peat ensemble, a form of percussive Cambodian classical music.  He began to study at age 16 with his grandfather.  In 1975, under the Khmer Rouge regime, Chan was forced into slave labor camps; he fled to Thailand in 1979 where he joined a pin peat ensemble headed by master musician Yinn Ponn.  In 1986, he resettled in the U.S. and moved to California in 2000, where he joined the Arts of Apsara Ensemble, led by master dancer and singer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro.  He has received awards from the California Arts Council, the Public Corporation for the Arts, and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.

Djivan Gasparyan is an Armenian musician and composer, widely known as the master of the duduk, an Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood.  He has won four gold medal UNESCO competitions and in 1973 became the first musician to receive the honorary title of People’s Artist of Armenia.  A professor at the Yerevan State Musical Conservatory, he has instructed and nurtured many performers to professional levels of performance in the duduk.  Mr. Gasparyan has toured the world several times, and has performed and collaborated with artists from many musical genres. In 2002 he received the WOMEX lifetime achievement award.  

Dong Suk Kim plays and teaches the kayagum, a Korean zither-like, 12-stringed instrument.  Born in North Korea, Mr. Kim moved to South Korea when he was a year old and began his studies in kayagum, folk music, court and folk dance.  After graduating from Seoul National University in music theory and composition, he came to the United States to continue his studies. He teaches at UCLA as well as many other American colleges and has performed extensively throughout both the Los Angeles and Orange County school systems.  Mr. Kim is the founder of the Korean Classical Music Institute in America and the Korean Classical Music and Dance Company.  He and his music groups have performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Music Center, the White House, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, the 1988 Seoul Olympic Arts Center, in addition to performing nine times in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Jorge Lechuga is the founder and lead singer of the Wildhorse Singers and Dancers, a Native American northern traditional pow wow ensemble that performs and tours throughout Southern California, the United States and internationally.  Mr. Lechuga began singing and playing the traditional Native American drum over 25 years ago with the help of other community singers and elders. Mr. Lechuga and the Wildhorse Singers and Dancers perform traditional ceremonial songs at Native American events and gatherings, often singing in various indigenous languages as they keep cultural and spiritual traditions alive for the multi-tribal Native American community in the Los Angeles area.

Tom Sauber is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who is teaching traditional Southern fiddle.  In the 45 years that Mr. Sauber has devoted to playing traditional music, he has performed with extraordinary musicians in old-time, bluegrass and Cajun music.  He is particularly known for his long-time partnerships with Oklahoma fiddler Earl Collins and North Carolina banjo picker Eddie Lowe.  Mr. Sauber’s contributions to traditional music also include hosting a radio show for 12 years on KPFK in Los Angeles. He holds a masters degree in folklore and is a performer and teacher in demand at major traditional music festivals and workshops across the country and internationally.  

Tzvetanka Varimezova was born in Bulgaria and received a B.A. degree in choral conducting and folk instrument pedagogy from the Academy of Music and Dance in Plovdiv.  She was a soloist and assistant choral director for a number of professional women's choirs in Sofia, including the Bulgarian National Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance.  Ms. Varimezova has many solo recordings to her name and is well-known for her brilliant, high-pitched tone quality and her interpretations of the highly ornamented songs from her native Pazardzhik region.  She came to the U.S. in 2001 to teach at UCLA and has also conducted many workshops in Greece, Denmark, Japan and France.  In the summer of 2005, Ms. Varimezova, along with her husband Ivan, organized the first international tour for the UCLA Balkan Ensemble, which included concerts throughout Bulgaria and a performance in the International Folk Festival in Bourgas.

Ian Whitelaw plays the Great Highland bagpipe, an instrument deeply embedded in Scottish culture.  His teachers include Andrew Wright, president of the Piobaireachd Society, and Robert Nicol, former piper to King George VI.  Mr. Whitelaw has performed for many film and television programs, and has performed at the Mormon Tabernacle, at The Universal Amphitheatre with Sting, and with the Chieftains at the Hollywood Bowl, among many others.  He has received top awards at numerous piping championships including the United States Gold Medal for Piobaireachd and the Spokane Piper's Society Banner of the Mountains six times.  He is the musical director of the University of California-Riverside Pipe Band, and is also a senior judge for piping competitions in the U.S. and Canada.