Explore Panels By Creative Discipline
Music
Performance
Previous Music Performance Panelists
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2024, 2025 Panelist
Amelie Anna is a percussionist, vocalist, composer, bandleader, and and Assistant Director of the Roots, Jazz and American Music Program (RJAM) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She graduated from the inaugural class of the RJAM program and studied with SFJAZZ Collective artists and jazz greats. Her studies brought her to the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans. Amelie has performed at major venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including SFJAZZ, The Black Cat and The Chapel, as well as in venues across Europe.
Amelie Anna
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2025 Panelist
Dr. Thomas Kurtz is an educator, researcher, cultural arts administrator, and performing artist dedicated to equity-driven initiatives in the arts. His research explores music's role in social justice, with a focus on LGBTQ+ communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a saxophonist, he has performed throughout the Bay Area and as a soloist at Carnegie Hall. He teaches at the University of San Francisco and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Mia Pixley
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2025 Panelist
Mia Pixley, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, mother, and multidisciplinary artist who blends cello, voice, and performance to explore themes of self, community, and nature. Trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she has opened for artists like Fantastic Negrito and Valerie June and collaborates with GRAMMY-nominated musicians such as Barbara Higbie. Known for her whimsical and melancholic music, Mia inspires wonder and reconnection through her artistry.
Thomas Kurtz
Valérie Sainte-Agathe
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2025 Panelist
Valérie Sainte-Agathe has prepared and conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013. Through transformative choral music training, education, and performance, Ms. Sainte-Agathe empowers young women and champions the music of today throughout the choral world. A native of Martinique, Ms. Sainte-Agathe received her Bachelor of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Universite Paul Valery in Montpellier, and her Diplome d’Etudes Musicales in Piano, Chamber Music and Theory from the Montpellier Conservatory.
Ruby Ibarra
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2023, 2024, 2025 Panelist
Ruby Ibarra is a rapper, songwriter, and spoken word artist from the Bay Area, CA. Her latest single, "Switch," featured on the new NBA2K24 video game and soundtrack. She was a songwriter on Seasons 1 and 2 of the Fox Network's hit show, The Cleaning Lady. In 2018, Ruby co-founded the Pinays Rising Scholarship program aimed to uplift Filipina American youth in the arts, education and activism, and in October 2023, she launched a new record label, Bolo Music Group, where she serves as co-founder and CEO.
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2025 Panelist
Crystal Pascucci-Clifford is a passionate member of the Bay Area music community. As a conservatory-trained cellist and composer, she's worked toward balancing a career in arts administration alongside curation, composing, performing and learning. Crystal is the Executive Director of InterMusic SF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining and nourishing the Bay Area creative environment for musicians and audience members.
Crystal Pascucci-Clifford
Mateo Campos-Seligman
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2024 Panelist
Mateo is an East Bay born-and-raised educator, audio engineer, musician, and lifelong learner. He earned his BA in Broadcast and Electronic Communications Arts from San Francisco State University, and more recently completed a Master's program in Library and Information Science through San Jose State University. Mateo previously worked with Women's Audio Mission managing their youth education program, exposing the SF Bay Area's young people of marginalized gender identities to the world of audio technology and production.
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2023, 2024 Panelist
Justin is a driven arts administrator with a passion for programs that encourage transformative experiences and cultivate personal growth through a commitment to artistic excellence. He received his Bachelor’s in Percussion Performance from California State University, Long Beach, and his Master’s in Percussion Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Justin currently serves as the Associate Dean & Executive Director of the Pre-College & Continuing Education Divisions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is a freelance percussionist and educator with over 15 years of experience working with students of all ages.
Justin Sun
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2023, 2024 Panelist
Jessica is the Founder and Music Director of the San Francisco Philharmonic, Curator and Scholar in Residence with the San Francisco Opera, Cover Conductor with San Francisco Symphony and serves as board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO). She has been featured on NBC's The Today Show, PBS News Hour Weekend, and KQED. More recently, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) named Jessica 1 of 100 Honorees for 2023 for her contribution to the arts in the Bay Area. She is publishing her first bilingual children's book with Lil' Libros (book company) in Winter 2024.
Jessica Bejarano
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2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Panelist
Costas is a Greek-American composer, director and sound designer based in San Francisco. Costas has had the opportunity to support youth creativity in film, theater and music through his work at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Art Institute, Young People's Symphony Orchestra, University of the Redlands, Festival Napa Valley, The Bay School of San Francisco, and the Berkeley Symphony.
Costas Dafnis
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2023 Panelist
Bisi Obateru is a Nigerian and American world music fusion artist using his sound as an intersection for movement and philosophy. He brings a unique presence to the stage whether he is performing live original tracks on guitar or singing over his Afropop/ Afrohouse beats. The melodies and rhythms captivate his audience on the dance floor or accompany a space as the soundtrack to your activity.
Bisi Obateru
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2022 Panelist
Amber Morris has been a performing vocalist for over 40 years and has taught voice in the SF Bay Area for the last 19+ years. She counts Grammy and Emmy Award Nominees, Winners, and Platinum Hit songwriters among her clientele and prepares clients for auditions, recroding sessions, festival stages, and tours. Amber is extremely passionate about the power of creativity and cultivating authentic individual expression in the artist.
Amber Morris
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2022 Panelist
Michael Roest earned his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music from The Julliard School. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the Executive Director of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra (NOYO), creating their first chamber music program and Young Composer's Program. Roest has also conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra and NOYO's full symphonic orchestra.
Michael Roest
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2021, 2022 Panelist
Bob Schleeter has performed with the top jazz, soul, rock, and blues artists in the SF Bay Area, and was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. From 1990 to 2017, he built and led the highly esteemed Marin Academy music program. Bob continues to be amazed and inspired by the work of young people and is happy to support them in their development.
Bob Schleeter
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2021, 2022 Panelist
Arkadi Serper is the Director of Piano and Composition and Music Theory at The Crowden School, and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory in the Preparatory Department. He has written and published choral music for Kairos Youth Choir and compositions in original musical theatre. Arkadi's compositions have been produced by several major orchestras, and he continues to perform as a pianist locally and internationally.
Arkadi Serper
Chris Sampson
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2021 Panelist
Chris Sampson has enjoyed a diverse career in music as an educator, songwriter, performer, producer, arts administrator and author. In 2009, Sampson founded the Popular Music program at the USC Thornton School of Music. He serves as the songwriting instructor for the GRAMMY Foundation education programs and the National YoungArts Foundation. Sampson is a lifetime voting member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a member of BMI and serves on the advisory board for the Orange County High School for the Arts and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
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2022 Panelist
Asher Witkin began singing with Kairos Music Academy in 3rd grade, and has been pursuing music ever since. He was cast in the West Coast Premier of School of Rock commissioned by Andrew Loyd Weber, and in 2017, he released his first album, Becoming Home, featuring the single ‘Sailing Away,’ co-written with Dan Wilson, grammy award winning songwriter for Adele and John Legend. Some of his personal creative projects include songwriting and production, creative nonfiction, theatre, and macro photography.
Asher Witkin