UCR Department of Music

Graduate Students

	Jacqueline Avila javil005@student.ucr.edu Jacky received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in music in 2005, specializing in music education and French horn performance. In June 2007, she received her M.A. from UCR. Her thesis was titled "The Influence of the Cinematic in the Music of Silvestre Revueltas." She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in musicology at UCR, researching Mexican music and film. Jacky has received the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts fellowship for three consecutive years at UCR. In the fall of 2005, she received the Cultural Diversity Travel Fund given by the American Musicological Society enabling her to attend the national conference in Washington D.C. and in 2007 the UCR Graduate Division awarded her a travel grant to San Antonio in order for her to conduct research. Jacky was also recognized as the Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year (2006-2007) for the Department of Music. Jacky currently performs with the Latin American Ensemble, Mayupatapi at UCR.
	Brett Banducci brettviola@yahoo.com Violist and composer Brett Banducci graduated with a degree in viola performance from California State University Northridge; having studied with Pamela Goldsmith and Keith Greene. An active freelance musician he has recently played with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale along with the Pasadena Pops Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, the Bach Festival Orchestra, the Ojai Festival Orchestra, Jacaranda and the recently formed Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. He is a founding member of Mládí, one of Los Angeles' most unique ensembles, which performs in a variety of guises, from conductor-less chamber orchestra to concerts of innovative chamber music. Through this ensemble he has performed chamber works at the Bruman chamber music series, the Jacaranda chamber music series and on live radio broadcasts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art via the K-Mozart Sunday's live series. Brett began composing at the age of 10 and is currently under the mentorship of Dr. Byron Adams. 2004 marked the first year that his works were heard in public, including a recital by soprano Duana Demus of his Trois poèmes d'Apollinaire (2004) and a world premiere performance of Threnody (2004) for flute, harp and string quintet, a work composed for and premiered by Mládí. In 2006 Project Accidental gave the world premiere performance of Fourmis sans ombre (2005/06) for soprano, flute, harp and string trio; a work based on Japanese Haiku translated into the French. Brett is a founding member of the Ascher String Quartet, which performs regularly in the Los Angeles area, and is on the faculty of Fullerton College, where he teaches four courses on various levels of string instrument techniques. His students have gone on to study at top studios, including the University Of Southern California and CSU, San Francisco. He is currently on the Executive Committee of Mládí, on the Advisory Board of The Creative Kids Foundation and a board member of the Southern California Viola Society. Brett was the recipient of the 2005 Composer in Residence award given by the Creative Kids Foundation and continues to hold that title with the Foundation.
	MaryLouise Beck mlbeck@earthlink.net MaryLouise Beck graduated magna cum laude with her B.A. in Music (2004) and is now pursuing her M.A. in Music Composition at UCR. MaryLouise transferred to UCR from Riverside Community College where she was the President of the Piano Club and tutored students in piano, music history, and basic musicianship. She was also a member of RCC's vocal jazz group, then called Riverside Jazz Showcase, and can be heard on their CD Groovin' Hard which made the Grammy nomination ballot in 2005. As an undergrad at UCR, MaryLouise was a member of the Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Ruth Charloff and is currently a member of Dr. Jonathan Ritter's Andean Ensemble, Mayupatapi. In January 2008, Three Prisms was selected as one of the winning compositions in ERMMedia's "Masterworks of the New Era" competition. ERMMedia is one of the few recording labels dedicated to the music of living composers, promoting and retailing their recordings to over 625 media outlets world-wide. Three Prisms will be one of several outstanding works featured in Volume 18 of their series of notable commercial CD releases. Beck's quartet will be conducted by the award-winning conductor-composer Robert Ian Winstin and recorded by professional musicians from one of ERMMedia's contracted orchestras, which include the Philharmonia Bulgaria, the National Symphony of Ukraine, the Prague Radio Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, and others. MaryLouise made her debut as a composer with the premiere of her String Quartet Three Prisms (second movement) which was performed by the Ascher String Quartet in UCR is Composing in Spring 2007. She is currently working on a Wind Quintet under the instruction of her thesis advisor Dr. Byron Adams and focusing on Karl Amadeus Hartmann's "inner exile and protest" against Hitler and WWII through the investigation of his wartime scores. MaryLouise is also studying composition with Dr. Tim Labor and advanced theory and analysis with Dr. Renee Coulombe.
	William Beuche wbeuche@gmail.com Composer and guitarist William Beuche graduated with a degree in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2005. During his time at UC Santa Cruz, William studied classical guitar with William Coulter, jazz improvisation with Ray Brown and North Indian classical music with Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. William is pursuing his Master's in Composition at UC Riverside and is a recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship Award. He currently studies with Dr. Timothy Labor. William's musical interests are quite diverse. During his time at UC Santa Cruz he performed with the UCSC Early Music Consort, Contemporary Music Ensemble and Balinese Gamelan Ensemble. William also has a passionate interest in the music of Latin America. He is currently a member of Mayupatapi, the UCR Andean Music ensemble and is a founding member of Choro de Serra, a UCR based ensemble which performs Brazilian choro music. William is also a talented classical guitarists who performs and teaches in the Riverside area. His classical guitar repertoire includes the works of J.S. Bach, Dionisio Aguado, Isaac Albéniz and Agustín Barrios Mangoré. William has been composing for over five years. His diverse body of work includes pieces for solo instruments, works for chamber ensemble and music for film. In 2006 William composed music for the underscore of the film Timmy, The Bag Boy, a comedic short directed by Randy Kent. His pieces The Labor Suite for solo piano and Come Heavy Sleep from Three Nocturnes were performed at the "UCR is Composing: Fall Premieres Edition" concert in November of 2007.
	Ron Conner rconn002@ucr.edu Ron received his B.A. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA and is pursuing graduate studies in Ethnomusicology at UCR. His research focuses on Afro-Brazilian batucada and festival musics from Brazil's Northeast, with interests extending to politics and media in the birth of MPB (música popular brasileira), authenticity and sexuality in "camp" performance, and technology in the mediation of musical affect in the digital age. Before pursuing an academic career, Ron composed the music and wrote the book for the musical drama, The Fall of Ceauşescu, which premiered at the Los Angeles Theater Center in 1995 (about the last days of Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu), and co-produced the independent 1991 documentary, Art Without Walls (comprised of interviews of fifty artists in post-Communist Europe, including Heine Muller, Andrei Şerban and Andrzej Wajda). Additionally, Ron researched and designed the companion web site for the 2000 PBS world premiere broadcast of Wim Wenders' Academy Award-nominated Cuban music documentary, Buena Vista Social Club. (http://www.pbs.org/buenavista/) Ron regularly performs with the UCLA-based BatUCLAda, one of the only Bahian-style drumming organizations in Southern California, and is a 2007-08 recipient of UCR's Gluck Fellowship.
	Robert Giracello rgira001@student.ucr.edu Robert graduated from California State University, San Marcos, where he studied with Dr. William Bradbury. He has also studied with Dr. Martin Herman, Dr. Bruce Miller, and Dr. Cindy McTee. His work has been performed throughout the southern United States and Europe, most recently in Italy, England, and Ireland. He has written music for various ensembles and performers, such as Nancy Zeltsman, Tzimon Barto, the Lunar Saxophone Quartet, the Robin Cox Ensemble, Nova Ensemble, and the San Rafael Festival Choir. He is also Director of Music for Church of the Resurrection in Escondido, CA. He currently lives in Perris with his wife Rebecca and a hyperactive dog.
	David Kendall davikend@gmail.com David Joseph Kendall is pursuing his Ph.D. in Musicology at UCR, focusing on sacred church music in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. David earned a B.Mus. in Brass Performance (2002) at La Sierra University and an M.A. in Musicology at UCR (2007), with a thesis on the "Bach" trumpet and its role in the late nineteenth-century Baroque revivals in Europe and the United States. David completed his master's work at UCR under a Chancellor's Fellowship and also received a Gribbon Award from the American Musical Instrument Society (2007) as well as scholarships for student travel from the Historic Brass Society. David served as an English and Music teacher in Pingtung, Taiwan from 2002-2003, and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Music at La Sierra University, teaching a two-year music theory sequence. He has held this position since 2003. David has also has held the position of Director of Recording Services in the Music Technology Program at La Sierra University since 2004. He serves as Music Minister at Immanuel Lutheran Church and assistant conductor of the La Sierra University Church Chancel Choir.
	Shawn Mollenhauer smoll001@student.ucr.edu Shawn Mollenhauer received his B.A. in Music History and Theory from Cal State Fullerton, and his M.A. in Ethnomusicology from UC Riverside in 2007. His M.A. thesis was entitled "Memory and Identity: The Sacred Music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Diaspora." He is currently a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology studying Ethiopian music in relation to political violence, and Rastafarian sacred music. Shawn has been a Gluck fellow numerous times, and has performed regularly with UCR's Taiko and Mayupatapi ensembles.
	Mindy O'Brien mobri001@ucr.edu Mindy is pursuing an M.A. in Ethnomusicology at UCR. A current recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship Award, she holds a B.A. in Music (2002) from the University of California, Berkeley where she graduated with high honors. At Berkeley, she won the Joan C. Reutinger Prize for Piano Performance in 2000. She has performed in the U.S. and abroad as the violinist for rising worship leader, Amy Nobles, and her fiddling was featured on the short film Back at the Ranch (2005). A world traveler, Mindy has spent time in fourteen different countries, including India, China, Thailand, Turkey, Ireland, and Brazil. She currently plays in Mayaputapi and the UCR Mariachi ensemble.
	Jacob Rekedal jakerek@yahoo.com Jake is a graduate student in ethnomusicology. His primary academic and performance focuses include Latin American musics, specifically of Brazil and the Andes, as well as bluegrass. Jake's in-progress MA thesis, entitled "Bluegrass: Performance and Politics of a Contemporary Popular Music," deconstructs racial and historical imaginaries, emphasizing improvisation, music industry engagement, and ethnographic work in the southern California bluegrass scene. Jake has been a member of Mayupatapi, UCR's Andean ensemble, since 2006, and he regularly performs bluegrass in San Diego and Los Angeles.
	Miles Shrewsbery jumusic@hotmail.com Miles Shrewsbery began his ongoing study of the tabla with maestro Abhiman Kaushalji at the age of nineteen. From 2003-2007 Miles toured and played music professionally visiting such countries like Iraq, Kuwait, Greece, Spain, Morocco and France. Immersing himself in the musical culture of India, Miles lived and studied in Hyderabad from Pandit Nankumar Bhatlouande for 6 months in 2001. In another stint abroad, Miles also lived in Sevilla, Spain studying flamenco in 2003. Soon after, in 2004, he graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in ethnomusicology. Shrewsbery has performed with many world-renowned musicians including Ustad Shujaat Khan, Yusef Lateef, Bennie Maupin, and Hassan Hakmoun.
	Russ Skelchy rskel001@ucr.edu Russ is currently pursuing a dual M.A. in Ethnomusicology and Southeast Asian Studies at UCR and received a B.A in Behavioral Science and Law from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His research explores cultural hybridity found in the music of Malaysian Straits Settlements communities. Russ is currently learning to speak Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia and also re-learning the art of skateboarding. Prior to attending UCR, Russ worked for three years as a special education teacher at a school for autistic and emotionally challenged children in Richmond, California, where he established curriculum linking music and non-verbal communication. He is a recipient of a Gluck Fellowship.
	Robert Winokur MingusMiles@verizon.net myspace.com/oldstarking Robert Winokur is a performing musician and composer pursuing a Ph.D. in music composition at UCR. His personal interests and studies include electro-acoustic hybridity, jazz and eclecticism, and literature. His pieces Arch of Time (for chamber orchestra) and Thomas and Linden (for piano and string quartet) were inspired by the science fiction/fantasy writings of Stephen R. Donaldson and were premiered at UCR in 2007. Robert earned his M.A. in music composition from UCR and his B.A. in music composition from CSU San Bernardino. Mr. Winokur's M.A. thesis, titled "And Who Care about Convenient Labels: A Stylistic Analysis of the Music of Charles Mingus," analyzed the music of Charles Mingus for stylistic indicators and made available facsimiles of previously unavailable scores and notes in the composer's hand, in addition to critical analyses and commentary by Mr. Winokur. Robert performs regularly with his group Old Star King which is a 4-piece ensemble (saxophone, bass, drums, and piano/guitar) that mixes free improvisation with highly-detailed arrangements of original music – all composed by Mr. Winokur. The group has performed on PBS and around California. Old Star King has recorded 3 CDs of music and filmed 1 DVD. In addition to his work with Old Star King, Robert also performs regularly in the Southern California area as a freelance musician and private lesson instructor.

Graduate Students