Women Musicians Network Presents Concert Ranging from Afro-Pop to Political Rock, March 15

February 27, 2007

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	Women's Musician Network

The Women Musicians Network concert is Thursday, March 15, at the Berklee Performance Center, located at 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. The concert is $5 and begins at 8:15 p.m. Please call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com for more information.    

This landmark show is the only annual concert at the Berklee Performance Center presented by a student club. The varied music will include original songs by Berklee students Yuko Yamamura, Emily Greene, Hanna Kloetzer, Stephanie Johnson, Manami Morita, Mary Elizabeth Lobb, Emily Shackelton, Chesca Santos, Bronwyn Bird, Jenna Hardy, and Lisa Fazenbaker; faculty advisor Lucy Holstedt; a new arrangement of a traditional Japanese song by student Keiko Ueda; and a traditional Haitian song set to new original composition by the group Zili Misik, featuring students and alumnae.

Lending their considerable talents to the evening will be alumnae faculty members, trumpeter Christine Fawson, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, pianist Holstedt, and vocalist Diane Richardson; and alumnae, guitarist Lexi Havlin, saxophonist Joy Roster, drummer Jobeth Umali, and sound engineer Stephanie Planchart. In addition, this concert will serve as an introduction to players who will be performing in the ROCKRGRL Women of Valor Award evening honoring Fanny, at the Berklee Performance Center on April 20. 

About the performers:

Emily Greene gives songwriting an unconventional twist with her colorful range and expressive vocal style. Her marriage of unorthodox vocal techniques and honest lyrics offer a rawness rare in pop culture today. Noted for her creativity and originality, this up-and-coming young artist hails from Miami, FL, and is slowly, one fan at a time, making her mark in the Northeast. Greene is a pianist majoring in music business/management.

Stephanie Johnson has played harp since saw a picture of one in the newspaper at age 7. Johnson has gone through phases over the years with playing percussion, piano, and guitar, but always stuck with the harp. She counts among her proudest moments playing harp with the Boise Philharmonic at 16, playing with the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, singing in the ACDA and MENC All Northwest choirs in high school, and winning an impromptu scatting competition at Columbian Basin College.

Manami Morita started playing classical piano at age 4. At that time, she hated piano lessons because she wasn't attracted to the classical piano. On the other hand, she loved to play just as she liked and felt. At 13, Morita discovered jazz and became addicted, even learning improvisation on her own. In 2004, she received a scholarship to study at Berklee, and decided to come to the United States from her native Japan in 2006 to attend the college.

Mary Elizabeth Lobb calls New York City home but has lived in Rochester; Detroit; Asheville, NC; Ireland, Boston, and Chile. Lobb's unique songwriting style reflects her Celtic roots, as well as the sounds of the Appalachian mountains and the vibrant melodies of South America. A poet in both Spanish and English, Lobb creates a fusion of jazz, folk, blues, Latin, and pop music. She is performer whose voice can send shivers down your spine. Currently a performance and composition major, she recently spent a semester in Athens, Greece, studying at the Phillipos Nakas Conservatory.

Zili Misik - Reconnecting Haitian mizik rasin, Jamaican roots reggae, Afro-Brazilian samba, Afro-Cuban son, and African American spirituals, blues, jazz and neo-soul, Zili Misik – led by Kera Washington, and including students Rajdulari Barnes, Krystal Johnson, Hinako Sato, and alumnae Joy Roster, Lexi Havlin and Jobeth Umali – honors its influences while creating a sound that is uniquely its own. The group takes its name from the Haitian spiritual entity " Ezili," who is envisaged as mother, lover, and warrior. Zili Misik's songs are sensual, political, self-reflective, positive, and the lyrics invoking love glide seamlessly from English to Kreyòl to Portuguese to Spanish.

Emily Shackelton, a vocalist from Biwabik, MN, is studying songwriting and performance. She made her stage debut in community theater at 4, (and has continued to perform in local theater) studied piano, tap dance, and ballet, and won several voice scholarships. At 10, she took first place in A Prairie Home Companion's "Talent from Towns Under 2,000" (T-TUTT) competition. She can be seen singing and dancing on the Spirit of Boston Cruise Ship during the week, or at the Encore Piano Bar in the Boston Marriott on Thursday nights.

Keiko Ueda, a native of Kumamoto, Japan, acquired a B.A. in international economics from Kumamoto Gakuen University before coming to Berklee, where she is pursuing film scoring and composition. She started playing piano at 5, and soon began composing. After playing keyboards in several local Kumamoto rock bands, she felt a desire to express herself on a more individual level. With the development of her own artistic style came the calling to become a professional musician and composer. In 2002, she started composing short pieces for the radio station FMK in Kumamoto. Other projects include work for festivals, events, and nature conservation campaigns.  

Bronwyn Brown's love of music and acting began with roles ranging from a ditzy dancing duck to a singing swan in community theater productions in her native Pennsylvania. One of her biggest thrills was "busking," or street performing, for eight months in Lyon, France. When not on stage, she is busy writing songs on the guitar, playing the nyckelharpa (a Swedish stringed instrument), and dancing. Brown is currently studying jazz on the nyckelharpa. Determined to make music and theater the main part of her life, her motto is, "I get up, I walk, I fall down . . . meanwhile I keep dancing!"

Lucy Holstedt is an associate professor in Berklee's Harmony Department. She also teaches in the Ear Training and Piano Departments. Holstedt has degrees from Berklee and Emerson colleges, and a Chemistry degree from Vassar. Her professional experience includes writing, directing, and performing choral music, musical theater, and comedy. She has performed with Improv Boston, Planet Girl, and The Mrs. Potato Head Show, and appeared in theater festivals in New York and Edinburgh. Holstedt was coordinator of Berklee's College Diversity Committee from 1992–2002, and has served on the GLBT Allies group, the Faculty Union, and is a member of the Faculty Coalition for Music and Activism

For editorial information or digital photos, the media may contact:

Margot Edwards
Office of Public Information
(617) 747-2004
medwards@berklee.edu