Jason Ricci
Harmonica
Jason Ricci born in Portland Maine USA is an award winning and decorated american singer and harmonica player. In his youth, Jason’s mother brought him to many live Blues shows in his early teens to witness performances of James Cotton, Charlie Musslewhite, Eddie Clearwater, Rod Piazza, Buckwheat Zydeco, Marcia Ball and many more.
In 1995 Ricci moved to Memphis Tennessee to be near and informally study with Johnny Winter sideman, harmonica player and singer Pat Ramsey.…
Jonathan Rizzardi
Faculty
Jonathan M. Rizzardi (they/he) is a Seattle-area performing artist and theatre historian. After moving from Washington, D.C. to complete their PhD in Theatre History and Theory at the University of Washington School of Drama, Jonathan has continued to teach youth theatre, act, facilitate arts educator training programs, and develop social activist-focused curriculum here in the PNW.…
George Rodriguez
Faculty
George Rodriguez received a BFA in ceramics from the University of Texas El Paso and an MFA from the University of Washington. As a recipient of a Bonderman Travel Fellowship he traveled the world through most of 2010 visiting 26 countries in the span of 10 months. The Museum of Northwest Art recently recognized him as an Emerging Artist Luminary.…
Michelle J. Rodriguez
Michelle J. Rodriguez is an artist who performs and writes in the worlds of music and theater. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and Kentucky by her Puerto Rican parents, Ms. Rodriguez was raised in Vermont, Chicago and NYC by her communities, inspiring her to explore kids-of-immigrants stories, divine femininity, intuition, healing and spaces in-between. Her music project MICHA became a finalist for NPR’s 2018 Tiny Desk Contest with her song “Nena Nena Nena,” praised for a “bilingual set spanning laid-back southern soul and Latin pop flare” (NPR).
Pharis Romero
Artistic Director, Voice Works
Pharis has been singing and playing music her whole life. An early student of classical and country, she grew up performing with her family’s band and learning the songs and stories that made her want to dig deeper. These days she performs mostly with her husband Jason, and is equally at home disappearing into an old-time jam as she is singing on stage or teaching the joy of song and sound.
Reuben Roqueñi
Reuben is a nationally respected arts administrator with over 20 years in progressive program development, management, artist-centric support systems and grantmaking experience. He is currently Executive Director at Portland Institute for Contemporary’s (PICA) whose programming supports the experiments of the most vital and provocative artists of our time. Previously, he was Director of Transformative Change Programs at Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, serving Indigenous artists across the US.…
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro
Faculty
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro is a New York and Seattle-based performer, director, teaching artist, and creator of original works of theater. She is a graduate of Princeton University and of Giovanni Fusetti’s Lecoq-based Helikos School of Theatre Creation in Florence, Italy. Her specialties include mask theater, mime, clown, commedia dell’arte, improvisation, physical comedy, movement-and ensemble-based creation and more.…
Gerald Ross
Faculty
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross is one of the finest instrumentalists on the scene today and his music expresses a sense of rhythm and melody that is rare in contemporary music.…
Anisha Rush
Faculty
Saxophone
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO, saxophonist, composer, and educator Anisha Rush began playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and went on to study music and psychology, earning a BM in Jazz Studies from the Thompson Jazz Studies Program and a BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.…
Bobby Rush
Faculty
Bobby Rush was born Emmett Ellis, Jr. outside Homer, Louisiana, in 1933. He twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11, and his preacher father knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny. The family relocated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1948.
While still a teenager, Rush became a professional blues musician, adopting his stage name so as not to disrespect his devout dad.…