Advanced, Honors, and Frost Summer Contemporary Songwriting Intensive Faculty
Bass: Marty Quinn
Drums: Jesus Gallimore, Max Marsillo
Guitar: Tim Watson
Honors Chamber Music: Inesa Gegprifti
Honors Jazz: Martin Bejerano
Honors Rock: Tim Watson, Marty Quinn, Max Marsillo
Jazz Arranging & Composition: Carolina Calvache
Music Biz: Brian Wilkins
Music Theory: Roxanna Amed, Hugh Gonglewski, Alex Sancho, Alexandra Biancoviso
Music Production: Camilo Salas
Musical Theater: Catherine Magarino
Orchestra Director: TBA
Piano: Inesa Gegprifti, Hugh Gonglewski, Carolina Calvache, Alex Sancho
Songwriting: Raina Murnak (Program Director), Stephen Gleason, Brian Wilkins
String: Brent Charran, Eva Ariza
Voice: Stephen Gleason, Roxana Amed, Catherine Magarino
Winds: Alexandra Biancoviso
BIOGRAPHY
Catherine Magarino
Soprano Catherine Magarino is a native of Miami, FL. She made her debut with Magic City Opera in 2019 portraying the Sandman and Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel. She was a 2022 BroadwayWorld Miami Metro Awards nominee for her portrayals of Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music. Most recently, she originated the lead role of Maria Elena Santos in the world premiere of Always Remember, the definitive musical about the Cuban-American experience by Marilyn Morales at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center (formerly SMDCAC). In February 2023, she will appear as Maria in West Side Story with Miami Acting Company.
As an independent singer-songwriter and producer, her songs have been featured in playlists worldwide and have amassed tens of thousands of listeners. Her most popular single "The Story of You and Me" has been streamed in over 50 countries. She recently released her first holiday single, "Winter Time Blues," co-written with her partner Sebastian Hernandez. Catherine is currently working on an EP of original music to be released in 2023 through her label, The Starry Eyed Muse.
An alumna of Florida International University, Catherine holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Wertheim School of Music & Performing Arts and a Master of Business Administration, specialized in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Chapman Graduate School of Business.
Marty Quinn
Marty Quinn is a bassist who actively tours and performs locally across multiple genres. Originally from Chicago, Marty completed his master's in Jazz Pedagogy from the Frost School of Music. He teaches and works equally on upright bass as well as electric. Marty has had the pleasure of performing with artists such as Arturo Sandoval, Adam Rogers, Shelly Berg, Nicole Yarling, and more.
Martin Bejerano
About Me: "To play music for a living is to be truly fortunate. I hope to impart this truth on my students as we work together to put them on the right path to becoming successful musicians.They inspire me and keep me excited about music, as I share my experiences and philosophy of learning and playing music to hopefully return the favor."
Biography: Martin Bejerano is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the FROST School of Music. As head of the jazz piano department, he teaches applied jazz piano instruction, advanced improvisation, undergraduate jazz composition, jazz accompanying, and Trio Ensemble. Jazz Times said of him, "Add Martin Bejerano to the expanding roster of hot young pianists that stretches from Hiromi Uehara and Eldar Djangirov to Robert Glasper and Taylor Eigsti..."
Professor Bejerano has been active as a professional musician from the age of fifteen. An internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer, he has been a member of Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Roy Hayne's Grammy-nominated quartet for fourteen years, and has performed and/or recorded with such jazz luminaries as Christian McBride, Dave Holland, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Russell Malone, Ron Carter, Roy Hargrove, Ignacio Berroa, Lonnie Plaxico, Arturo Sandoval, Brian Lynch, Marcus Strickland, E.J. Strickland, Adam Nussbaum, Joe Locke, Kate Kinhan, Kevin Mahogany, Armando Gola, and Jonathan Joseph.
Aside from performing at most of the major jazz clubs, festivals and venues around the world as well as on "Late Night With David Letterman," he is also featured on over fifteen albums, including the Grammy-nominated Fountain of Youth, and three albums as a leader of the award-winning Martin Bejerano Trio. His trio has performed at such notable venues as Symphony Space, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, The Jazz Gallery, Barquisimeto Jazz Festival, El Hatillo Jazz Festival, Lucerne Piano Off-Stage Festival, Festival Miami, South Dade Cultural Arts Center, and Arturo Sandoval's Jazz Club. The group was also featured on NPR's "Jazz Set," a nationally syndicated radio show that spotlights outstanding jazz artists.
An award-wining composer, Professor Bejerano was awarded the prestigious New Jazz Works composition/ensemble development grant from Chamber Music America in 2010, and, in 2014, he was awarded the "Bacardi Choice" Commission by Bacardi and the Dranoff International 2 Piano Foundation to compose a piece for two pianos. His piece "Fantasia de Tres Mundos", a fusion of classical, jazz, and Afro-Cuban influences, premiered in April 2014 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center and has been performed and recorded internationally. In 2016, he was commissioned to compose a Latin jazz arrangement of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony for chamber orchestra, as part of the New York Philharmonic's "New World Initiative".
As an educator, Professor Bejerano has presented numerous masterclasses and clinics all over the world, and has adjudicated for the National Young Arts Foundation, the Jazz Educators Network, and numerous other institutions. He has been published in Keyboard magazine, and in August 2016, he released a one of a kind multi-media iBook on jazz improvisation, Practicing Jazz Improvisation.
Jesus Gallimore
Born and raised in Miami, drummer, author, and composer Jesus Gallimore
comes from a family of musicians. He began to play drums at age 13, later attending Miami Dade College, and Florida International University. In 2022, Jesus received a masters in Jazz Performance from FIU.
Besides being a bandleader and performer around South Florida, Jesus is also a dedicated teacher.
He has a special gift of reaching out to children of all ages with music. This is his 2nd year as a faculty member of the Frost Young Musicians' Camp and we are very happy to have him back!
Max Marsillo
Max Marsillo is a musician, educator and composer performing with artists, teaching in a variety of settings, and composing in several styles of music. Max Marsillo attended Capital University in Columbus, Ohio and earned a B.M. in music education. Max is currently earning a master's degree in jazz performance from the University of Miami.
Tim Watson
Tim Watson is a guitarist, producer, and composer, based in Miami, Florida. He has experience working professionallyin a broad range of musical styles including jazz, Carnatic music, indie pop, "contemporary classical", and avant-garde. He has performed at many of the premier jazz clubs in the US, including
Dizzy's Club (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Nublu, the Blue Whale, and more. He has studied and performed with many jazz greats, including the Dean of the Frost School of Music – Shelly Berg!
Fabian Carrera
Born in Cuenca, Ecuador, Fabian Carrera is a professional guitarist and music teacher who plays and teaches many different styles of music from Classical to Jazz to Rock and Blues. He is currently at the UM Frost School of Music pursuing a Doctorate with an emphasis in classical guitar.
Hugh Gonglewski
Hugh Gonglewski is a pianist and instructor in the Miami area. He received his Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance from the Philadelphia college of the Performing Arts where he studied with Susan Starr and his Masters in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University. He taught piano and jazz history at Lake Forest College where he also directed the jazz and blues ensembles. He played for ten years in the Chicago area with his own trio and septet before coming to the University of Miami for his Doctoral work. He is instructor of the University of Miami's Computer/Keyboards & Music courses and teaches jazz, theory, and piano ensembles for the university's Piano Preparatory programs as well as improvisation, jazz ensembles and advanced theory for the university's young Musician's Camp. He has played with such diverse artists as Sugar Blue, Sandra Bernhardt, Tom McCormick, Nicole Yarling and Mark Colby. He frequently performs in the Miami area as a solo pianist and with the eclectic group LEGM. His private piano students have received numerous prizes and awards from such groups as Ars Flores, Music Teachers National Association, and Florida Federation of Music Teachers.
Carolina Calvache
Critically acclaimed pianist and composer Carolina Calvache articulates spontaneous ideas as skillfully as she composes. The Colombia native's appetite for harmonic exploration across a range of musical styles has prompted collaborations with such pioneering voices as Jaleel Shaw, Michael Rodriguez, David Binney, Hans Glawischnig, Johnathan Blake, Claudia Acuña, Marta Gomez, Juan Andrès Ospina, Achilles Liarmakopoulos, Samuel Torres and Camila Meza, whose single "La Ultima Vez," that won Best Love Song at the Independent Music Awards, features integral contributions from Calvache. Her composition Trombonsillo, which appears on Liarmakopoulos' 2017 released Ethereal, has emerged as a modern standard for trombone, enjoyed worldwide.
The New York-based artist-composer has headlined such institutional venues as The Kennedy Center, Dizzy's Club Coca-cola and The Jazz Gallery, and shared the stage at Smalls and Smoke. Her touring projects comprise Carolina Calvache Quartet and Poems & Strings. She has toured internationally and regularly receives invitations to appear at iconic festivals, including Denton Arts Jazz Fest, Crested Butte Music Festival and Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. Calvache receives frequent commissions to render master-level projects which have included art songs, and arrangement for the NY Phill Harmonic, and pieces "Transitions" and "Encuentros" for world premiere at the Trombone International Festival.
Following her widely praised debut release Sotareño (Sunnyside, 2014), Calvache unleashes the resonating extent of her talent as a composer, orchestrator and songwriter on her sophomore album Vida Profunda, released in 2020. Engaging a range of guest artists, Calvache stretches her own mastery as a player and leader across 10 original tracks. Calvache holds a Master of Arts from University of North Texas and currently enjoys a faculty lecturer position at LaGuardia College.
Brian Wilkins
Wilkins built a successful 18-year career utilizing his passion for music, technology, creative partnership building, and artist relations to help clients grow their businesses and brands. He is the founder and president of 137 Entertainment, an innovative music management agency specializing in artist development, digital marketing, business development consulting, and artist-label relations. Most recently, he served as strategic advisor and business development director for leading music companies PledgeMusic and Cyber PR where he helped establish music business curriculums at the Berklee School of Music and Middle Tennessee State University. As an entrepreneur, he helped create, launch, and build a client base of over 75 artists and 100,000 users for the music mobile social application, CrowdStream. Wilkins has held positions with major and independent music label partners including Sony/BMG Entertainment, RED Music, and INgrooves. He was also an artist manager and director of new media for Rebel-One Management, where he helped guide the careers of top-tier artists and producers including Rihanna and Alex Da Kid.
Inesa Gegprifti
Pianist Inesa Gegprifti was born in Tirana, Albania, where she began her piano studies at the National Arts School "Jordan Misja" under the guidance of Valbona Kasaj. She left her home country in 2006 to continue her studies abroad. Over the years, Dr. Gegprifti has pursued her piano studies under the guidance of Dario de Rosa, Maureen Jones, Alberto Miodini, Igor Cognolato, Max Levinson, Evelyne Brancart, Santiago Rodriguez, and Naoko Takao. A graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee (B.M.) and Jacobs School of Music - Indiana University (M.M.), she completed her D.M.A. at the Frost School of Music - University of Miami in 2017.
As a soloist and chamber musician Dr. Gegprifti has appeared in concerts across the U.S.A., Europe, and South America. Of note are the performances with the National Radio Television Orchestra of Albania and the Indian Hill Orchestra, chamber concerts in Italy, Slovenia, and Puerto Rico, as well as artist residencies at the "Vivace Vilnius International Summer Festival," International Portogruaro Festival "A tempo," the Conservatory of Cuenca, and the Museo de Arte Contempor√°neo in Ecuador. Dr. Gegprifti has also appeared as a guest speaker at the University of North Texas, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico - San Juan, and Heidelberg University - Ohio. Most recently, her performance of Michael Coleman's Four Bagatelles was selected by RMN Classics for production and release in their upcoming collection Modern Music for Piano 4.
Dr. Gegprifti is one of the founding members and current president of Kaleidoscope MusArt, a non-profit organization based in Miami, dedicated to bridging the gap between canonical classical music and rarely heard or recently composed works while prominently featuring living composers and emerging artists. She is on the faculty of the Frost Preparatory Program, the Frost Young Musicians Camp, and an Adjunct Faculty member for the Keyboard Department at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami.
Brent Charran
Brent Charran is a cellist from Miami, Florida. An active member of the Miami music community, Brent has performed and recorded across the Classical, Jazz, R&B, Latin, Modern, and Rock genres. Brent won the NWSA Concerto Competition with the Dvorak Cello Concerto (2007) and also received a full scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival (2009). Recent collaborations include a solo performance for the corporate reveal of Ralph Lauren's Love fragrance line and an appearance with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Miami during their Lost Christmas Eve concert tour.
Camilo Salas
Camilo Salas is a composer, arranger, producer and music educator from Colombia. He graduated with a Mention of Honor from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogot√° with a Bachelor of Music in Comercial Composition. Before his arrival in the US, Camilo studied and teached Braille to share his musical knowledge with people who have visual limitations, and was the music producer of Barranquilla's Carnival, one of the biggest carnivals in the world and declared as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. With a short stay in the city of Miami, Camilo has been recently invited to teach production master classes at the prestigious Abbey Road Institut of Miami. He's currently pursuing his Master of Music in Media Writing and Production at the acclaimed Frost School of Music, where he's also a Teaching Assistant and expects to graduate in Spring, 2023.
Alex Sancho
Alexander Sancho was born of Filipino descent on February 18, 1989. Raised in Miami, he started playing piano at the age of 12 and was self-taught in theory/music history.Though having a late start, Alex was determined to pursue a music career. He had played with many different orchestras/ensembles across South Florida. Some awards won are 1st Prize in Florida Federation of Music Clubs (Composition), 2nd Prize in the FIU Concerto Competition, 2009 and 2011, the Undergraduate Performance award from the FIU School of Music, 2011, as well as the Teaching Assistant position in Piano. In 2012, he was awarded the Philippine Consulate of South Florida Leadership Distinction Award for Outstanding Achievement and Performance in Music. Though coming from a classical background, Alex takes a musically-eclectic approach in his endeavors, with influences from Hip-Hop to Electronica that help shape his understanding of music. Alex plays regularly for Dr. Rosenberg, President of Florida International University, and graduated from FIU with his B.M. (2011) and M.M. (2013) in Piano Performance, under Professor Kemal Gekic and Dr. Jose Lopez. He is currently a piano instructor at SharpMinds Music Academy where he teaches piano and composition.
Raina Murnak
Dr. Raina Murnak is Assistant Professor and Head of Contemporary Voice & Performance Artistry department at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in the Music Media and Entertainment Industries Department. She has served as the Artistic Director of the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music Pop Ensembles, co-founder of the renowned Frost Method of Experiential Musicianship, the founder and director of Frost Summer Institute of Contemporary Songwriting and a co-creator of the widely successful MADE program at Frost where she has been innovating in higher education for the last 17 years.
She is a sought-after vocalist and performance coach with over 20 years of experience on stage, television and in the studio. Her extensive training in both classical and pop/contemporary voice has afforded her the rare ability to fluently perform/coach a vast array of styles and genres from opera to classical avant-garde to theater to rock. Her gift is her ability to unleash performers and help them create compelling honest performances grounded in freedom and expression.
Dr. Murnak is a multi-talented artist well versed in not only music, but also in dance and the visual arts. She holds a BM and MA degree in Vocal Performance and Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a DMA in Music Theory and Composition and Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Miami. She remains active as an online educator for Frost Graduate programs, Continuing Education and the Top Hat platform in music theory and peak performance.
https://people.miami.edu/profile/r.murnak@umiami.edu
Stephen Gleason
Stephen Gleason is a New York-born musician, artist, and educator. With heavy roots in both jazz and popular music - a unique career of performing, composing, producing, and teaching music has been curated. For over fifteen years he has been a highly sought-after guitarist, vocalist, and conductor, performing for major network television, corporate, and political affairs including Rachael Ray, The Food Network, and The Presidential Inaugural Ball. As a studio musician, he has been featured on many recordings, including the likes of Carly Simon, and appeared as a sideman on various recording label sessions.
As an award-winning ensemble director, his original vocal arrangements are heralded as a "modern and vibrant interpretation of classic jazz and the Great American Songbook", garnering attention from the likes of Manhattan Transfer and Phil Mattson from the renowned A cappella quartet, Singers Unlimited. He has since gone on to arrange and sing in the CASA nominated, award winning vocal jazz ensemble, Quintet, as well as direct the Contemporary A cappella ensemble at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami.
Roxana Amed
Latin GRAMMY nominee and LARAS member Roxana Amed is an Argentine-American jazz artist born in Buenos Aires. Amed is an award-winning vocalist, songwriter, producer, and educator considered by colleagues, audiences and critics as one of the most important voices in South American music.
Amed, exclusive author for Sony Music Publishing and worldwide licensed artist by Sony Music Latin, released seven critically acclaimed albums and one DVD concert as a leader. She has written for different artists in various genres. For ten years she has led a memorable vocal workshop for hundreds of jazz vocalists at the Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival and she is currently voice professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, as well as in her private studio, working on her training method for popular music singers.
In 2021, was recipient of the the "New Jazz Works" grant supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through Chamber Music America to write new music to be performed and recorded in 2022.