Keynote Speakers
Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Marc Bamuthi Joseph is one of America's vital voices in performance, arts education, and artistic curation. He has developed several works for the stage, including the breaks, Scourge, and Word Becomes Flesh, which was remounted in December 2010 as part of the National Endowment for the Arts's American Masterpieces series. His next performance project, red black and GREEN: a blues, documents the eco-equity movement towards green collar jobs in Black neighborhoods. He recently received the 2011 Alpert Award in the Arts.
Joseph is the artistic director of the seven-part HBO documentary Russell Simmons presents Brave New Voices, an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, and the recipient of the 2011 Alpert Award in Theater. A gifted and nationally acclaimed educator and essayist, Joseph has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities. His proudest work has been with Youth Speaks where he mentors writers ages 13-19 and curates the Living Word Festival and Left Coast Leaning.
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Manuel Pastor
Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he also serves as Director of USC's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and co-Director of USC's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. A founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has received grants from The James Irvine Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the California Wellness Foundation, among others. In recent years, his research has focused on the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income urban communities in the U.S. He has also conducted research on Latin American economic conditions. Dr. Pastor writes and speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment.
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Mason Bates
Mason Bates is an American composer of symphonic music. Distinguished by his innovations in orchestration and large-scale form, Bates is best known for his expansion of the orchestra to include electronics. One of the most-performed composers of his generation, he has worked closely with the San Francisco Symphony and currently holds the position of composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony. In 2010, Bates was commissioned to write for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, an ensemble composed of musicians from around the world. His YouTube contribution, Mothership, was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
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Del Sol String Quartet
The San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet is a two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Quartet members Kate Stenberg, Rick Shinozaki, Charlton Lee, and Kathryn Bates Williams explore new ways to interact with audiences, composers, and artists across cultures and art forms, performing on prominent concert series nationwide, including the Kennedy Center, Symphony Space in New York City, and the Other Minds Festival of New Music in San Francisco. Deeply committed to education, Del Sol has reached thousands of K-12 and university students through inventive school performances, workshops, coaching, and residencies.
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Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt has earned ten Grammy Awards; two Academy of Country Music awards; an Emmy Award; an ALMA Award; numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums; as well as Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. In 2008, she was appointed artistic director of the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. A political activist and arts advocate, Ronstadt spoke in 2009 to the United States Congress' House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies about the importance of funding the National Endowment of the Arts.
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Eugene Rodriguez
Eugene Rodriguez is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1989, he founded what was to become the Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center (San Pablo, CA) by creating an environment where area youth could explore and play Mexican folk music. Rodriguez continues to find new, direct ways to advance traditional Latino music and to create bridges to other musical genres. In 1994, Eugene was nominated for a Grammy Award for his production of Papa's Dream with Los Lobos and Lalo Guerrero.
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David Hidalgo
David Hidalgo is a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Best known for his work with the band Los Lobos--one of the most inventive and durable bands of the past few decades--his other primary projects, Los Super Seven and the Latin Playboys, are equally well regarded. In addition to his work with these projects, Hidalgo frequently plays accordion, violin, 6-string banjo, cello, requinto jarocho, percussion, drums and guitar as a session musician for other artists' releases. He collaborated with Los Cenzontles on two recent records: Songs of Wood and Steel (2008) and American Horizon (2009).
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Los Cenzontles
Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds) are musicians and dancers based at Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center. Under the direction of Eugene Rodriguez and a host of master folk artists, the group researches, documents, performs, and transforms various regional Mexican folk genres in a manner that is both traditional and relevant to contemporary issues and aesthetics. Los Cenzontles have toured throughout the U.S. and Mexico, recorded numerous albums, and produced documentaries and cultural online videos.
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