ROBIN CECIL

Robin Cecil, Violinist, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance at California State University, Long Beach, and was a member of the honored University String Quartet and American Youth Symphony under the baton of Mehli and Zubin Mehta.

Because of her versatile playing ability, Robin has been chosen to perform on stage with many celebrities such as Elton John, Josh Groban, Luciano Pavarotti, Reba McEntire, and Yo Yo Ma. As a studio musician, she can also be seen and heard on television commercials and movie soundtracks such as “Spiderman”, “The Soloist”, and on several Rock/Pop/Country CDs with Vitamin String Quartet. Robin lives in Garden Grove, California with Todd, her husband and 5 chickens and 2 turtles.

In 2013, Robin was invited to Anyang, South Korea as Artistic Ambassador to perform with her harpist-daughter in celebration of Anyang’s 40th Anniversary of Peace and Freedom.

MICHAEL KAUFMAN

Michael Kaufman, explores sounds the cello isn’t supposed to make, be they ethereal scraping of the strings or industrial level strumming and banging,” said Mark Swed, LA Times. Passionately involved in contemporary music, Michael has premiered works written for him by composers such as BMI Competition winner Justin Hoke, Daniel Silliman, Jeffrey Parola and many others. He has worked with composers such as Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, John Adams, Donald Crockett and Stephen Hartke in interpreting their own music. After hearing Michael’s performance of Lieux retrouvés, Thomas Adès (the composer) declared it to be “breathtakingly good.” In April 2013, Michael participated in a Carnegie Hall professional training workshop with John Adams and David Robertson called American Soundscapes. In June 2014, he gave the west coast premiere of Sean Friar’s piece Teaser. He has performed in the concert series Jacaranda, the what’s next? ensemble, and in the Callings out of Context series at RedCat.

Michael is a regular and avid chamber musician. He is a founding member of SAKURA, an ensemble of five cellists which has been described by the LA Times as “brilliant” and “superb.” SAKURA has performed in Disney Hall as part of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival and is currently Young Ensemble in Residence at the Da Camera Society. This season, it is performing concerts in LA, Sedona, Cleveland, and St. Louis. In addition to the quintet, Michael regularly plays with pianist Brendan White in a duo.

In addition to regular chamber music groups, Michael has collaborated in concert with artists such as Leon Fleisher, Midori, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, Steven Tenenbom, Roger Tapping, and the Calder Quartet. He has participated in music festivals such as Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, Yellow Barn, Music@Menlo, Verbier, Kneisel Hall, Norfolk and Sarasota. Michael is the founder and artistic director of Sunset ChamberFest, which looks forward to its fourth season in June 2017.

Michael loves teaching and recently became cello faculty at Loyola Marymount University. He also works for the Harmony Project, an El Sistema program that serves low-income communities of Los Angeles. Additionally, he teaches privately in LA and has taught masterclasses at schools such as Bowling Green, Cal State Long Beach, UC Irvine, Caltech, and Saddleback College. He served on the USC faculty of student instructors from 2011 to 2014.

In an orchestral setting, Michael is the Associate Principal Cellist of the Redlands Symphony and has performed as guest Principal Cellist of La Monnaie in Brussels. He also subs with the Los Angeles Opera and has played in the section of the San Diego Symphony. He was a founding member of the LA-based conductorless orchestra Kaleidoscope.

Michael is also passionate about baroque cello, for which he received a minor at USC, studying with William Skeen. He frequently plays principal cello with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra of Los Angeles and enjoys other small projects on period instruments.

Born in 1987 in New York City, Michael moved to Cleveland at the age of three. One year later, he began cello lessons with teacher Pamela Kelly, and continued with her into his teens. By the age of seventeen, he was already participating in music festivals in Sarasota and Norfolk. In 2004, he was the only cellist to be accepted to the Young Artist Program of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Alison Wells. He then received a Bachelor of Music Degree with distinction and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Steven Doane. During this time, he had masterclasses with cellists such as Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Pieter Wispelwey and Miklós Perényi and chamber music coachings with Robert Levin, Pamela Frank, Daniel Hope and members of the Tokyo, Emerson and Orion String Quartets. Michael earned his Master’s Degree and Doctorate from the University of Southern California, studying with Ralph Kirshbaum.

BENJAMIN LASH

Cellist Benjamin Lash was a top prizewinner in the Washington International Competition. Recent concerto performances include Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto with the Colburn Orchestra, and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Brentwood Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Benjamin has participated in summer festivals including the Sarasota Music Festival, Taos, Aspen, Holland International Music Sessions, Fortissimo Fest in Bulgaria, and 2016 Franco-American Chamber Music Festival in Missillac, France.

Benjamin began studying cello at the age of six. In his early teens, as a first place winner of multiple Chicago area competitions, he performed concertos by Saint-Saens, Shostakovich, Hindemith, and Haydn. Benjamin received his Bachelors of Music from the Colburn Conservatory of Music where he studied with Ronald Leonard. He completed a Master of Music degree at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and is currently pursuing a Doctorate degree in cello performance. He is a recipient of the USC Music Faculty Endowed Scholarship and studies with Ralph Kirshbaum.

PETER MYERS

Praised for the warmth of his sound and range of color, American cellist Peter Myers (b. 1985) is internationally known as a chamber musician. A founding member of the Saguaro Piano Trio, which won first prize in the 2009 International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg, as well as SAKURA, a unique and innovative quintet of cellos (both currently Young-Ensembles-in-Residence with the Da Camera Society, Los Angeles).

Mr. Myers has appeared at the Marlboro, La Jolla, and Mozaic festivals, on tour with Musicians from Marlboro, and abroad in Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Laos, and Pakistan. Since 2017, he has held the position of Assistant Principal Cello with the San Francisco Opera; he has also performed as guest principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His mentors have included Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory and Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California. He plays on an 1876 cello by Claude-Augustin Miremont.

JULIA WAGENBAUER

ORION BRUTOCO

Orion Brutoco is the Founder and Executive Director at the Social Justice Team, where he is on a mission to help others rediscover their passions and life’s purpose. After graduating from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science in Advertising/Public Relations, Orion established himself in the sales and marketing field. Throughout his life he has always had a passion for helping others. He’s done this through volunteering with youth, at-risk youth, and other nonprofits concerned with raising advocating for social justice.

Orion began speaking in prisons and gravitated to a central role in managing volunteers at a juvenile rehabilitation camp for male youth offenders. It was here where he began the journey of his life’s purpose. In 2016 Orion began studying for his Master of Social Work at the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck’s School of Social Work.

The mission of the Social Justice Team is to provide underserved populations in Los Angeles with free mental healthcare and diverse supportive services. These include classes in health, exercise, mindfulness, meditation, music and art.

M    A    R    K      A    N    D    E    S

LEGENDARY BASSIST FOR

S  P  I  R  I  T

JO JO GUNNE

HEART

AND FIREFALL

​SPECIAL GUEST ON THE RAY SHASHO SHOW

Heart, Spirit, Firefall, Canned Heat, Stevie Nicks, Dan Fogelberg, Whitesnake, Jo Jo Gunne, Chris Hillman, Kim Carnes, John Fahey, Iain Matthews, Kelly Willis, Jim Lauderdale, Eliza Gilkyson, Ian McLagan and Joe Walsh.  …All have relied on the brilliant musicianship of MARK ANDES to punctuate their songs and elevate their musical visions to chart-topping status.  Andes has been the rock-solid support on bass guitar, songwriting and vocals for all the above. and others too. 

MARK ANDES has enjoyed a musical career spanning over four decades of groups generating gold and platinum albums and world-wide impact!  He is one of the most respected and loved bass players on the planet.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Mark was a founding member of such cutting-edge bands as Canned Heat and Spirit while still a teenager.  Spirit is still considered by many in the U.S and abroad, to be the first band to successfully fuse jazz and rock with protest, folk-like lyrics and is known as a progressive rock innovator.  Their four albums (Spirit, The Family That Plays Together, Clear, and The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus released from 1967-1970) all are propelled by the visionary rhythm section of Mark Andes and Ed “Cass” Cassidy and include radio staples such as “Got A Line On You” and “Nature’s Way.”  Spirit toured with top 1960s bands including Led Zeppelin (who were heavily influenced by Spirit), Jimi Hendrix (who played with guitarist Randy California in the group ‘Jimmy and the Blue Flames’), The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Steppenwolf, Janis Joplin and so many others.

Mark and Spirit’s lead vocalist Jay Ferguson went on to form the hard rockin’ Jo Jo Gunne (which also included Mark's brother, Matt Andes) and quickly scored a top-30 hit with the infectious “Run Run Run”.

Mark then moved on to the mountains above Boulder, Colorado and for a short time was in two bands there, Firefall and Navarro (soon to be Carole King’s backup band).  During a brief tour with the Chris Hillman Band (that included Rick Roberts & Jock Bartley), Chris became ill and Firefall finished the 3-day stint in NYC where Atlantic Records heard the band; within the month, they signed band to a long-term recording contract and it was off to the races.  In Firefall, Mark was paired with drummer Michael Clarke (from the Byrds and Flying Burrito Bros.) and a very solid and distinctive rhythm section was formed: Mark’s progressive and melodic bass style enhanced Michael’s straight-ahead drumming.  Playing with guitarist Jock Bartley and multi-instrumentalist, David Muse, Firefall’s sound became much more than the ‘country rock’ style they were often cast as.  The Colorado-based group enjoyed huge success right from the start in 1976, receiving nationwide saturation radio airplay and touring with the top bands of the day: Fleetwood Mac Rumors Tour, The Band (on their final tour before making ‘The Last Waltz’ and breaking up), Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Doobie Brothers (with Michael McDonald), Loggins and Messina, Heart, Cheap Trick, The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, America, Kenny Loggins and many others.  Mark also worked with expatriate Californians such as Joe Walsh, Richie Furay, Chris Hillman, and the late Dan Fogelberg.  He left Firefall in 1979. nationwide

In 1982, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson recruited Mark where he co-wrote their return-to-radio hit “How Can I Refuse” in 1983 infusing creative bass rhythm and vocals.  Mark Andes’ musical talent, as well as his good looks, made the group one of the original MTV darlings.  Heart’s vibrant comeback to industry prominence was on!  After the band moved to Capitol Records in 1985, they made the album simply called ‘Heart’ That album reached Number One, sold five million copies and launched four Top Ten hit songs: “What About Love” (#10), “Never” (#4), “These Dreams” (#1) and “Nothin’ At All” (#10).  A fifth single, “If Looks Could Kill” also charted making five hit singles from the same album for the first time.  Mark Andes' 10-year stint with Heart from 1982 to 1992, was dotted with multi-platinum albums, No. 1 chart topping hit singles, award winning videos and non-stop arena headlining tours worldwide.  During this period with Heart, Mark also did studio work with Kim Carnes, Joe Walsh (“The Confessor”) and Whitesnake.

In the late 1990s, Mark relocated to Austin, Texas and contributed to the artistry of Kelly Willis, Iain Matthews, Jon Dee Graham, Eliza Gilkyson, Jim Lauderdale, and Alejandro Escovedo and Ian McLagan. 

MARK ANDES rejoined Firefall in January 2014 and looks forward to helping Firefall play relevant, compelling shows and recording new records.  On January 9, 2015 in Denver, CO, FIREFALL and MARK ANDES were inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, along with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Poco and Stephen Stills and Manassas.