Heidi Swedberg
When she was 5 years old Heidi received her first ukulele from the Hawaiian Easter bunny while living in Kailua, HI. She has fond memories of teaching herself chords and writing songs in her room in Albuquerque NM, the place she thinks of as home. She picked the instrument up again in 1992 in Hollywood, CA while playing a singer-songwriter for a network TV pilot. Now life imitates art, and she plays music full time.
Chris Symer
Vocal Accompanist
Bass
Born and raised in Southern California, bassist relocated to the Northwest in 2002 where he continues to make his living as a freelance musician. Equally comfortable in the classroom, stage or recording studio, Chris has stayed busy doing everything from teaching to playing on feature films. Notable projects have included recordings with Bill Anschell (“Rumbler” 2017), Johnaye Kendrick (“Here” 2014), James Knapp (“Scrape” 2013), and Nelda Swiggett (“Stringtet” 2014) as well as tours to South America with Anschell (2012, 2014) and Kendrick (2013).…
Angie Tabor
Faculty
Angie Tabor (they/them) is a performing musician, music educator and composer based in Port Townsend, WA. They are known for being highly versatile, performing with jazz ensembles, symphony orchestras, music theater productions, and Top 40 & tribute acts. They can also be heard performing on steelpans with their Caribbean-infused trio, Caribe. As a music educator, they have taught grades K-12 and college.…
Jo-ey Tang
Jo-ey Tang is an artist, writer, and curator who experiments with the formats of versions, repetitions, and iterations as an ongoing engagement with time and its potential. As an artist, he has exhibited at Kunsthalle Zürich; Musée d’art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne; IAC – Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes. His writing on art has appeared in Brooklyn Rail, Flash Art, Paper Monument, and artforum.com, and for exhibitions and publications at Centre Pompidou, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Baxter Street / Camera Club of New York.…
Miss Tess
Miss Tess has always been known for creating an eclectic array of vintage blues, country, and jazz sounds. Currently residing in Nashville, she finds no shortage of inspiration in the roots scene there. However varied Tess’ music can be, front and center sits her voice that has been described as “alternately seductive and sexy, and a pure joy to listen to” (Pop Matters).…
Katie Thiroux
Faculty
Bass
Los Angeles-based bassist and vocalist Katie Thiroux has clearly established herself as one of the most exciting and in demand musicians today. Thiroux’s unique gift of simultaneously balancing sultry vocals and virtuosic bass playing leaves audiences worldwide in awe. Her most recent album, “Off Beat,” was awarded a “Best Album Of 2018” by Downbeat Magazine as well as “Rising Star” 2018 & 2019.…
Jay Thomas
Faculty
Trumpet & Sax
Jay Thomas is a multi-instrumentalist, appearing on more than 60 recordings that run the gamut from hip-hop to acid-jazz, rock, Latin, and big band. Jay has performed in concert with numerous prominent musicians, including Mel Lewis, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton, Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, Bob Florence, and Frank Wess. He has also played at the Wolf Trap, Aspen, and duMaurier Jazz Festivals.…
Elizabeth Thorpe
Editing Workshop Faculty
Elizabeth Thorpe teaches writing at Drexel University and Olympic College. She earned an MFA in Fiction from Goddard College, and is a literary editor for freelance clients and a proofreader for design company 160over90. Her short fiction collection, Cities, was published by Texture Press in 2015. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Per Contra, escarp, Kahini, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Maine Review, among others.…
Bryan Tolentino
‘Ukulele player, Bryan Tolentino has been known for the past forty plus years as an accompanist and soloist who has performed locally and abroad with some of Hawaiʻi’s most well known and accomplished music artists. Bryan’s recorded on over 60 CD’s for other artists as well as compilations adding his unique “fairy dusting”, as he calls it.…
Meghan Trainor
Meghan Elizabeth Trainor is a Seattle-based artist, writer, lecturer, performer and curator. Trainor’s practice centers her scholarship in the throughlines between computer science, technology, and esoterica. She frames this through storytelling around bogs, logic and digital witchcraft, and the use and histories of electronics and electricity. Trainor is the Curator of the M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery at Seattle Central College.…