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

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.

As a U.S. Intelligence Asset, Susan Lindauer covered anti-terrorism at the Iraqi Embassy in New York from 1996 up to the invasion. Independent sources have confirmed that she gave advance warning about the 9/11 attack. She also started talks for the Lockerbie Trial with Libyan diplomats. Shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about successful elements of Pre-War Intelligence, Lindauer became one of the first non-Arab Americans arrested on the Patriot Act as an “Iraqi Agent.” She was accused of warning her second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Secretary of State Colin Powell that War with Iraq would have catastrophic consequences. Gratis of the Patriot Act, her indictment was loaded with “secret charges” and “secret evidence.” She was subjected to one year in prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas without a trial or hearing, and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging to shut her up. After five years of indictment without a conviction or guilty plea, the Justice Department dismissed all charges five days before President Obama’s inauguration.

Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq

NEW SECOND EDITION. What if the government decided to invent a great lie to justify a disastrous war? What would happen to the people who know the truth? EXTREME PREJUDICE delivers an explosive, high tension expose of the real facts surrounding the CIA's advance warning of 9/11 and an insider's look at Iraqi Pre-War Intelligence, told by one of the very few U.S. Assets covering Iraq before the War. It reveals the depths of deception by leaders in Washington and London to promote a successful image of their terrorism policy, and the shocking brutality to suppress the truth of their failures from Americans and the world community.

Former Congressional staffer Susan Lindauer covered Iraq and Libya at the United Nations, as a U.S. Intelligence Asset and back door channel on anti-terrorism from 1993 to 2003. Most notoriously, in the summer of 2001, her team warned about a major terrorist attack involving airplane hijackings and a strike on the World Trade Center. Lindauer also campaigned heavily against the War in Iraq, and developed a comprehensive peace framework through her back-channel in the run up to War. This is the story of what happened when Lindauer tried to disclose the true facts of Iraqi Pre-War Intelligence and the 9/11 warning to Congress and the American people. It details the nightmare of her arrest on the Patriot Act and her imprisonment without a trial at the notorious prison inside Carswell Air Force Base in Texas. EXTREME PREJUDICE is a true life spy thriller.

JP SOTTILE is a freelance journalist, published historian, radio co-host and documentary filmmaker. His credits include a stint on the NewsHour news desk, C-SPAN, and as a newsmagazine producer for ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington. Joseph “JP” Sottile is a two-time Washington Regional Emmy Award Winner. Documentary film credits include: writer, director, producer of The Warning and various production and photography credits on other public interest films. His weekly show, Inside the Headlines w/ The Newsvandal, co-hosted by James Moore, airs every Friday on KRUU-FM in Fairfield, Iowa. He is the Newsvandal.

JP SOTTILE is a freelance journalist, published historian, radio co-host and documentary filmmaker. His credits include a stint on the NewsHour news desk, C-SPAN, and as a newsmagazine producer for ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington. Joseph “JP” Sottile is a two-time Washington Regional Emmy Award Winner. Documentary film credits include: writer, director, producer of The Warning and various production and photography credits on other public interest films. His weekly show, Inside the Headlines w/ The Newsvandal, co-hosted by James Moore, airs every Friday on KRUU-FM in Fairfield, Iowa. He is the Newsvandal.

Frank St. James is well known for his work with many local police and investigative authorities. He appeared on The Psychic Detectives, as well as the Bio Show on A&E Cable, and is also a top radio personality. He was once a detective, has worked with the FBI, and the answers he gives are usually spot on! Frank is very popular at the New Jersey Psychic Fairs and books out quickly.

A native Californian, María Sánchez holds a Ph.D. in Psychology (Fielding Graduate University, 2021) a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology (Pepperdine University, 2017) and a Master’s degree in Media Psychology (Fielding Graduate University, 2019).

María was elected to Fielding Graduate University’s Board of Trustees in 2019, as a full voting member and still serves, and she served as Fielding’s Student Body President from 2018 – 2020.

María’s doctoral dissertation was on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and it is entitled, “USING THE BYSTANDER INTERVENTION MODEL TO IMPROVE EFFORTS TO REDUCE FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION.”

She has become an activist in the eradication of the procedure which affects 200 MILLION girls and women who are alive today and this is the reason that she founded STOP THE CUT! Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation.

María attended the United Nations’ “International Day of Zero Tolerance” for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6, 2020, in New York. She also attended virtually in February 2021.

She was a member of a two-day conference in the United Kingdom on April 2019 about genital integrity. She also attended a United Nations event in June 2019 as well as traveling to London, November 2019 to personally interview global eradication activists.

María was a presenter at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in August 2019. She spoke on a three-member panel, “Giving Psychology Away: Using Media to Your Advantage.”

A native Californian, Maria Sanchez graduated from the University of California, Davis where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in the double major of Public Relations and Human Resources.  Ms. Sanchez also served as the Commencement Speaker at her graduation ceremonies.  After taking some time off, she decided to continue her education at Portland State University’s Master’s Program in Theatre Arts with an emphasis on Scriptwriting.

Ms. Sanchez began her professional broadcasting career as the producer for 103.5 FM KOST’s “Mark & Kim Show” at the time the longest running morning broadcasting team in LA radio history. While producing for the perennially popular Mark & Kim, she interviewed hundreds of guests covering numerous topics as the host of an uninterrupted half hour Public Affairs program.



Having found her calling as an interviewer, Ms. Sanchez transitioned from being the producer of the highly rated “Mark and Kim Show” to the most listened to talk radio station in America – KFI AM 640, Los Angeles.  During her stint at KFI, she was a permanent weekend host and often served as the substitute host for such talk radio favorites as Bill Handel, John & Ken, Phil Hendrie and Wayne Resnick.

 

Having gained invaluable professional experience in the largest market in the country, it was only a matter of time before she developed “The Maria Sanchez Show.” A topical, sometimes controversial, occasionally eclectic, always listener friendly, audience pleasing talk show heard on TALK 650 KSTE. It was not long before “The Maria Sanchez Show” was considered Sacramento’s must hear radio from 9am to noon, Monday through Friday.



With a desire to pursue opportunities in the television industry, the resourceful Ms. Sanchez returned to the metropolitan Los Angeles area and produced a sit-com pilot for NBC TELEVISION. Currently she can be seen moderating infomercials for a variety of products. During this time also co-created and anchored the debate oriented call-in participation show “Cross Talk” for the local NPR affiliate, KCLU 88.3 FM.



A civic-minded mother of four, Maria is also a founder of both the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and Oaks Christian Schools and served on the Founding Board of Directors of My Friend's Place, a resource center for at-risk youth in Hollywood for nine years. Ms. Sánchez was the campaign manager for the Mayor of Thousand Oaks who was successfully re-elected in November 2014 and was the campaign manager for a candidate in the Thousand Oaks City Council special election in June 2015.



She has served on the board of directors of the Girl Scouts of the California Central Coast and the Public Relations Society of America-Gold Coast Chapter and is the co-founder, past president and current 1st vice president of the Westlake Village Republican Women, Federated.



Maria Sánchez has been the co-host of SHADOW POLITICS with United States Senator Michael D. Brown on BBS Radio since October 25, 2015.