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As a benefit of membership, the Musicians Union offers dental insurance for an additional charge.

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News, Events, Opinion

Archives: MU Members

Kareem Kandi

Kareem Kandi

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: October 26, 2022

Kareem is a versatile saxophonist and composer with strong roots in the traditions of Jazz, Blues, Classical and Funk, and has been performing throughout the U.S. and abroad for years, gaining attention from critics and audiences alike. While staying true to musical styles of the past, he also keeps an eye towards the future by composing original music as well as new arrangements of timeless songs from the great American songbook.

kareemkandi@hotmail.com

www.kkworldorchestra.org

Cynthia Swenson

Cynthia Swenson

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: October 25, 2022

Cynthia Swenson is an experienced cello teacher and performer, recently moved up to Port Orchard from the San Francisco area.  She has played cello since age 9, after/while also studying piano and flute, and completed her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University while under music scholarship.  She studied with the esteemed cello instructors Irene Sharp, Irving Klein, Bonnie Hampton and Gabor Rejto, and has performed as principal cellist with numerous professional and community symphonies and chamber groups.  Cynthia also ran and performed in a professional string trio for many years, along with various gigs in musical theatre, choral and church ensembles, opera and ballet pit orchestras, and accompanying some rock, pop and fiddling groups!  Her award, exam and competition winning students have successfully auditioned into many youth orchestras and summer programs; one was even selected to play on NPR’s radio “From the Top” program.  Cynthia teaches all levels and commitments of playing; ages 4 through mature adult.  She is also available as a performer with orchestras, chamber and choir ensembles, and solo events.

Available for Weddings and Events!

website:   cellogirl.me
email:   cswenson@stanfordalumni.org
phone/text: 650-387-2106

Jason Gray

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: July 15, 2022

Guitarist with background in theater, rock/pop, classical, and jazz. Held guitar chair in Waitress the Musical, as well as the National Tour for 3 years. Also served as guitarist in the U.S. Army Band for 3 years. Degrees in Music Composition and Guitar Performance.

Briana Bui

Briana Bui

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: April 7, 2022

Briana Bui is a freelance pianist and vocalist based between Seattle and New York. A native Californian, she studied classical piano under Dr. Naira Shahsouvarian at Fresno State for nearly a decade and choral arts under Dr. Tonya Florer. In addition, she studied opera under Sherah Moore Burdick at Fresno Pacific University. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she relocated to the Seattle area where she expanded on her artistic repertoire by collaborating with local artists and the Densho. Highly involved in the Vietnamese community in Seattle, Briana believes that the best way to learn a language is through music and can sing in Vietnamese, Spanish, and Italian. As a multi-faceted musician, dancer, and actor, Briana plans to pursue her master’s in fine arts in order to further hone her craft.

Mary Manning

Mary Manning

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: December 23, 2021

Mary Manning, violinist and violist, is a Tacoma native and a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she studied both modern and baroque violin performance with Marilyn McDonald. She is longtime Principal Second Violin of Northwest Sinfonietta as well as the Vashon and Tacoma Opera Orchestras. She has served as guest concertmaster for Northwest Sinfonietta, Seattle Pro Musica, Olympia and Bremerton Symphonies. As a chamber music player she has been a member of the Regency, Tomasini, and Bravura String Quartets, the Chinook Trio, and the Puget Sound Consort. Her extensive work as a baroque orchestral musician has included membership in the Seattle, Portland, and Pacific Baroque Orchestras, Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. More unique work has included appearing, as a violinist, in a television commercial for Folgers coffee, recording a soundtrack for a silent movie (The Showoff, Turner Classic Movies) and playing backup for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on their 1995 tour. She taught violin at Pacific Lutheran University and was a member of the faculty string quartet from 2008-2019. Mary lives in Gig Harbor and is a private violin and viola teacher.

Richard Reed

Category:
Author: nateomdal
Posted: September 6, 2021
Judith Hanna

Judith Hanna

Category:
Author: nateomdal
Posted: May 28, 2021

Judith Hanna is an accomplished pianist, orchestral bassist and educator. Ms. Hanna is a native of New York and received her Bachelor of Music degree in both performance and education from Ithaca College, School of Music. She completed her degree in the spring of 1981 at which time she relocated to the Chicago area where she continued her studies with members of the Chicago Symphony.

Since that time she has performed extensively throughout the midwest with such organizations as The Chautauqua Ensemble, Rosewood Trio, Lake Forest Symphony, Illinois Chamber Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Elgin Symphony and Fort Wayne Philharmonic and is currently a substitute with the Milwaukee Symphony. Through a recent Civic Orchestra fellowship Judith has just completed her masters of music degree at Northwestern University.

Ms. Hanna, principal bassist with the Civic Orchestra from 1994-96, has had the pleasure of working with such distinguished conductors as Daniel Barenboim, George Solti, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Neemi Yarvi and has recently performed as an extra with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She also performs for the International Music Foundation (supplies programs for the Chicago Public Schools), is on the faculty of the Merit Music Program, teaching Orchestral Bass and Music Theory, the Sherwood Conservatory and has a private studio in Oak Park. She has taught at Concordia College, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Birch Creek Music Farm and Lagrange School District as a string specialist and was the conductor of the West Suburban Youth Orchestra for seven seasons.

Her teachers include Warren Benfield, Joseph Guastefeste, Jeff Bradetich and Mike Hovnanian. Ms. Hanna was on the faculty of the Double Bass at Illinois Wesleyan University from 1995-2013 and is currently on the faculty at Concordia University 1995-2019.