Artists | Silicon Valley Artist Laureates

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Leah Halper

Literary Arts: Playwright

Leah Halper has worked as a journalist, activist, house-cleaner, translator, interpreter, file clerk, mediator, and freelance writer. She’s picked coffee in Nicaragua, studied disarmament at the UN, jogged in Romania, and interviewed cannery workers in Gilroy. Her literary non-fiction has been published in the Northwest Review, Trivia, Bad Subjects, and elsewhere. She teaches history and mediation at Gavilan College in Gilroy. She’s a member of writers pool for SF PlayGround at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (eight seasons), Pear Avenue Theatre Writers Guild (eight seasons), Dramatists Guild, Theatre Bay Area, and Playwrights Center San Francisco. She’s been the grateful recipient of two Arts Council Silicon Valley grants: in 2001, a Playwriting Fellowship, and in 2007, a grant administered through Calaveras Repertory Theatre to produce Scene Nights in the South Bay for Emerging Playwrights. Leah’s been a Heideman Award finalist, and participated by invitation in the Theatre for Higher Education play development workshop in 2012. Her short plays have been performed from Seattle to LA.

Cynthia Handel

Visual Artist: Sculptor

Cynthia Handel is an Oakland based artist using metal and fabric to create immersive experiences.

Dana Harris Seeger

Visual Artist: Painter, Print Maker

Dana Harris Seeger was born in El Granada, California. She received her MFA in Printmaking from San Jose State University in 2011 and her BA in Painting from Anderson University in 2004. She has been a member of the California Society of Printmakers since 2011, and a board member until 2014. In 2012, she was an Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California, and taught Lithography courses there. In 2014 she co-founded an art studio and school in San Jose called the School of Visual Philosophy. She currently runs the school with her husband, a sculptor, and holds her studio there. She exhibits her work nationally and has been published in Studio Visit Magazine. She has won awards for her work including 3rd Place Print for her lithograph “Toledo” at the Triton Museum’s Annual 2D Salon in 2017. She was recently named one of KQED’s 10 Bay Area Women to Watch. She resides in Ben Lomond, California with her husband Yori Seeger, daughter Lyla and twin boys Hayden and Esben.

Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian

Visual Artist: Painter, Print Maker

I was born in Bucharest, Romania, where I did my undergrad studies at University of Fine Arts. While in college I received a couple of scholarships in Italy (Instituto Romeno di Cultura-Venice) and France (under the tutelage of Association Culturelle de Saint Remy de Provence). In 1999 I came for the first time to the United States in an one-month student exchange program. I volunteered to assist and participate in opening a basic art program for the children of a Sioux Falls Reservation (South Dakota). In the summer of 2000, I returned to the United States on a scholarship offered by the University of Delaware, where I received my first MFA in Printmaking. In 2005, I received my second MFA in Painting at San Jose State University. Since I relocated to the Bay Area (2002), I have shown at various venues around the Bay, including: Jack Fischer Gallery, Frey & Norris Gallery, ArtSF, SoEX, (San Francisco), Swarm Gallery and ProArts (Oakland), Triton Museum, (Santa Clara), ICA, Works Gallery, Anno Domini (San Jose) to name just a few. I have also shown in New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Philadelphia, as well as Sweden, France, Canada, Austria, Italy and Romania. While in 2005 I was nominated for the SECA SFMOMA Award, in 2008 I was the recipient of the 2008ArtShift Award; the Artist’s Grant Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, and the AIR Program Grant from Works Gallery. In 2010 I was the recipient of the 2010 Silicon Valley Arts Council Award. Over the years I have been in several residencies (such as the Djerassi, Vermont Studio Center, Works, ICA-San Jose)

Kevin R. Hauge

Performing Artist: Producer, Set Designer, Sound Designer, Stage Director

Kevin R. Hauge has served as Artistic Director at Children’s Musical Theatre San Jose (CMT) for the past 20 years. Kevin’s artistic vision and commitment to the arts community in Silicon Valley has helped create an organization that is inclusive and strives for excellence in all they produce. Kevin’s innovative approach to productions includes incorporating modern techniques and technology, culminating in recognition of artistic excellence from the National Endowment for the Arts for nine consecutive years. Kevin’s passion, vision and spirit are a dynamic engine that inspires and motivates not only those who work with him but the community he serves. His work creates lasting bonds between people, creates a sense of community, and encourages a strong sense of engagement rooted in the place he lives and works. Over the past two decades, Kevin has worked with more than 10,000 young performers and reached more than 50,000 audience members. Some of Kevin’s most recent and noteworthy productions from CMT include American Idiot, Ragtime, Les Miserables, Rent, Miss Saigon, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, Disney’s Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid, among others, many of which CMT was the first amateur theater company to receive rights to produce. This season, he will direct the regional premiere of Billy Elliot. A recipient of the prestigious Lin Wright Special Recognition Award by the American Alliance for Theater and Education, Kevin has been the guest speaker at the International Association of Theater Educators Conference in Washington D.C., and the Education and Technology conference in New York City. He has collaborated on productions in a variety of venues all over the world.

Tom Heasley

Performing Artist: Composer

Tom Heasley is in possession of – or possessed by – a very distinctive musical persona. He is an internationally-acclaimed composer, performer and recording artist whose music creates “a rich and sonorous aural experience that flies in the face of all the dumb cliches about what tuba music is” whose work achieves a unique synthesis of composition and improvisation. Heasley conjures music of great individuality, originality and power, which is deceptively meditative, calm and tranquil. His music speaks to a wide variety of listeners, as diverse as conservatory students at Oberlin and inmates of San Quentin. He is a true “father of invention,” who finally turned his albatross – the tuba – into a strength through the development of a unique musical voice. Heasley has recorded for Tzadik, Leo, Hypnos, Innova, Music and Arts, New Albion, Old Gold and Farfield Records, among others. With the release of his first solo CD, Where the Earth Meets the Sky (Hypnos 2001), Mr. Heasley brought the tuba into the 21st Century. On his second CD, On the Sensations of Tone (Innova 2002), Heasley continued to redefine one of the world’s least appreciated instruments. His music has been featured on National Public Radio, BBC Radio 3, Public Radio International, Carl Stone’s Ears Wide Open, Kalvos and Damian’s New Music Bazaar and many other radio programs throughout the world, from Silicon Valley to Siberia. In 2001, Mr. Heasley toured North America for three months, performing over 30 solo concerts. In 2002, he toured the East Coast, concentrating on New York City, where he performed at Roulette, the Knitting Factory and CBGB’s, as well as making an appearance on John Schaefer’s long-running New Sounds program on WNYC. In 2003, Heasley relocated to Los Angeles and made an appearance at the CEAIT Festival at Cal Arts. His summer/fall tour that year began with Two Meet The Composer concerts – in San Francisco and Brooklyn – and included The American Composer’s Forum’s Sonic Circuits Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as concerts throughout the south. In the summer of 2004, Mr. Heasley was invited to London by the BBC, where he recorded a live session and interview for the BBC Radio 3 program Mixing It. Since that time, Mr. Heasley’s music has been licensed for a BBC documentary currently in production for a fall release. That one appearance brought Heasley many new fans in the UK. Following a recent appearance on KPFK radio in Los Angeles, film directors, choreographers and others have begun to approach Heasley regarding potential projects. This fall, Heasley will be a visiting artist at Cal Arts. Heasley’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Composers Forum, Meet The Composer, the McKnight Foundation and ASCAP. In 2002 the Arts Council of Silicon Valley awarded Tom Heasley an Artist Fellowship in Musical Composition. In the past, Mr. Heasley has enjoyed collaborating with many artists of note, including Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, Malcolm Mooney, Eugene Chadbourne, Bobby Bradford, Alvin Curran, Don Preston, Daniel Lentz, Pauline Oliveros, Frederic Rzewski, Glenn Spearman, Gerry Hemingway, Stuart Dempster and many others. Most recently, he brushed two years of dust off of his collaborator hat in order to be a featured musician for Anne LeBaron’s new opera, WET. Heasley performed on tuba, didjeridu and voice, and created real-time loops for the workshop production, which will have its full premiere in December 2005 at REDCAT in Los Angeles. Heasley recently premiered his latest work for tuba, Dream of Zatoichi, at a Meet The Composer concert in Santa Monica, California. Mr. Heasley’s third solo recording – DESERT TRIPTYCH – was released in 2005 by Southampton-based Farfield Records. It is his first recording to feature the didjeridu, along with voice and electronics. Tom’s music was used extensively throughout a documentary produced for BBC Television in “Tough Kids, Tough Love” (2005), directed by Lynn Alleway. Western Sky is used twice and Ground Zero once in the 60 Min. film. It has played at a number of festivals in Europe.

Brent Heisinger

Performing Artist: Composer

San Francisco Bay Area composer, Brent Heisinger (1937), was born and raised in Stockton, California, began piano study at five and trombone lessons at seven. He and his physician brother Dale received musical training from their father, an exceptional band director, and both were highly influenced by their mother, a patron of literary and musical arts. At the age of 16, he studied piano at the Music Conservatory of College of the Pacific where his father was Director of Bands. After his schooling in the Stockton public schools where he played trombone in bands and orchestras, he attended Stockton Junior College (now San Joaquin Delta College) and transferred to San José State University where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. As an undergraduate, he continued his piano and trombone studies, formed a quartet to play for dances, and arranged for the marching band. He began serious composition studies with Frank Erickson and Stanley Hollingsworth during his graduate years there. After teaching music in elementary and secondary schools for four years, he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stanford University where he studied composition with Leland Smith and Humphrey Searle. He joined the music faculty at San José State University and during his tenure conducted choral and wind ensembles, taught trombone, piano, conducting and composition, and served as Theory/Musicianship Area Coordinator. Heisinger also was active as a clinician, speaker, and consultant for the Contemporary Music Project (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Music Educators National Conference), which promoted the idea of comprehensive musicianship; he authored several articles and three textbooks on the topic. Among his most significant writings are the articles “American Minimalism in the 80s” published in The Journal of American Music and “Compositional Devices in Steve Reich’s Octet” which appeared in Ex Tempore. While at San José State University, he was presented the School of Humanities and Arts Certificate of Distinction, selected as a Teacher Scholar, named Outstanding San José State University Music Alumnus, nominated for the Carnegie Foundation United States Outstanding Professor Award, and awarded the distinguished President’s Scholar Award. Influenced by the likes of Stravinsky, Bartók, Gershwin, Lou Harrison, Steve Reich, and great jazz performers, Heisinger says about his music, “My works bounce from one palette to another. I have no desire to own a style.” This is evidenced in the diversity of his music much of which has been published and performed throughout the world. Nubes Aztecas (Invocación y Canto) commissioned by The Choral Project of San José, received performances in Mexico and Costa Rica, Essay for Band and March for Timpani and Brass are popular in western Europe, Eklektikos— In Five Pieces, has seen performances throughout the U.S., and by French pianist Voya Toncitch in Israel, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Singapore, Manila, and India. Also, A Walk Within Winter (composed for pianist Donna Stoering) has been heard in Russia, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, England, Brazil, and Germany. Heisinger’s Concerto No.2 for Piano and Wind Ensemble has received two first prize awards and 2nd prize at the 5th International Composition Competition (“Coups de Vent”) in Le Havre, France. Both the United States Air Force and Navy Bands have performed his symphonic band music. In a new direction involving considerable improvisation, Ekta (“oneness”), commissioned by the San José Chamber Orchestra and scored for solo piano, jazz rhythm section, tabla, string orchestra with two percussionists, was premiered in 2005. The unusual integration of an Indian raga and tals, American jazz in a “classical” setting, was enthusiastically received. Soulscape, his most recent work, (2010) was commissioned and premiered by The Ohlone Wind Orchestra of California. As Emeritus Professor of Music, Brent Heisinger is active composing and supporting the San José State University School of Music and Dance and oversees his own HBH Publishing. He and his wife Barbara reside in San José and enjoy the families of their three sons Dean, Doug, and Kurt.

Daniel Helfgot

Performing Artist: Stage Director

Daniel Helfgot’s credits include well over 200 productions of over 100 operas, operettas and zarzuelas from the Baroque to the contemporary, including several world premieres. His international credits include shows in Argentina (both at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires and the Teatro Argentino, La Plata), Albania (National Opera), Austria, Canada, Costa Rica (Opera Nacional), Finland, Germany, Mexico (Bellas Artes), and Sweden. In the US he has directed for such companies as Baltimore; Billings (Montana), Festival Opera (California), Chattanooga, Eugene, Knoxville, Memphis, Orlando, Shreveport, Pennsylvania Festival, Sacramento, Spring Opera and Western Opera Theater of San Francisco, Utah Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Virginia Opera, etc. From 1982 to 2000 Mr. Helfgot was the Resident Director and Director of Production for Opera San José where he created 60 productions defining the company’s artistic output, established all its production departments and led the design process for the renovation of its performing venues, the Montgomery and the California Theaters of San José. From 2995 to 2005, he produced and directed most of the main repertoire of zarzuelas for the Zarzuela Festival in Napa, CA and since 2006 he has directed for every season of the Utah’s Opera Festival. He was also Producer and Director for the Pennsylvania Opera Theater in Pittsburgh, PA. And in Argentina, he was Production Director and Artistic Coordinator for the Opera, Ballet and Symphony seasons at the Teatro Argentino and directed the Project for the Design and Development of the Center for Performing Arts in La Plata, where he also founded the Teatro Musical de Cámara and the Festival Musical de Noviembre, and was Resident Assistant Director and Rehearsals Coordinator for the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. His directorial work also includes tango and cabaret shows and he has written and perform scripts and narrations for different stage genres. Helfgot produced several opera radio programs and directed opera broadcasts of his own operatic productions for television in Argentina and an award winning production for PBS in the US. As a journalist, also in Argentina, he was the editor of the Sunday’s edition of the daily El Día where he wrote extensively about music and the arts and also founded and directed the by-monthly Ritmo, a magazine dedicated to the performing arts and architecture. Helfgot translates opera libretti from Italian, Spanish, German and French for English and Spanish supertitles and writes operatic dialogue versions for the English, Spanish and German repertoire. He is also the author of the libretto for the opera The Tale of the Nutcracker with music by Craig Bohmler premiered in 1999. He has received the Opera Director of the Year 2009 award from the Classical Singer Magazine, an award from the Arts Council Silicon Valley and has been honored with the Koret Israel Prize. Mr. Helfgot is the author of The Third Line: The Opera Performer as Interpreter, a definitive book on the training of singers, originally published by Schirmer Books followed by a revised edition titled The Third Line: The Singer as Interpreter, a book widely used by individuals, universities and conservatories. His teaching experience includes a guest professorship at the Musikhochschule of the Vienna University, Austria and the leadership of the Vocal and Vocal Accompanying Programs at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, California. He is constantly in demand throughout US campuses, with guest appearances at the National Academy of the Arts in Taipei, Taiwan; the Instituto Superior de Arte, Teatro Colón, Argentina; the Academy of Music in Åland, Finland, etc. Helfgot maintains a private coaching studio in San José, CA, is an adviser and lecturer for OperaNeo of San Diego, CA. and serves on the advisory boards of OperaWorks, Los Angeles, CA. and the San José Chamber Orchestra.

Sam Hernandez

Visual Artist: Sculptor

Sam Hernández is a sculptor primarily known for his innovative work in wood. Hernández achieves poetic yet vigorous free-standing abstractions through such widely-varying tools as African adzes, Japanese saws, Native American crook knives, and high-powered sandblasters. From early work referencing the totemic, his more recent sculpture has moved in a looser, more lyrical direction as it simultaneously moves towards a powerful asymmetry and a more intuitively based manner of working. Although the work remains characteristically based in abstraction, the direction is being nourished by a more expressionist tone; works in steel and bronze, as well as inks and acrylics on paper, and oils on canvas and board, round out his current explorations. Recipient of numerous honors including a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship, a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award, and Silicon Valley’s Artist Laureate, Hernandez’s work has been featured in numerous books, exhibition catalogues, and articles, and has been shown in museum and gallery exhibitions internationally. It is included in numerous public collections including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Macedonia, the Cantor Center at Stanford University, the Oakland Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Professor of Art at Santa Clara University 1977-2013, Hernandez divides his time between California and Spanish Catalunya.

Parthenia Hicks

Literary Arts: Writer

Parthenia M. Hicks is the Poet Laureate Emerita of Los Gatos, CA. and a freelance writer and editor with a Masters of Divinity in Kriya Yoga. She teaches privately and performs and reads poetry in the Bay Area. Her recent work is featured in Song of Los Gatos/Poems of the Gem City; The Call: An Anthology of Women’s Writing; Remembering: An Anthology of Poems; Sweet Obsession: The Art of Lynn Powers, and Local Habitations, featuring the poetry of five Bay Area Poets Laureate; and in The Red Wheelbarrow and CHEST medical journal.

PJ Hirabayashi

Performing Artist: Musician

PJ Hirabayashi is the Artistic Director Emeritus, former Artistic Director, and founding member of San Jose Taiko (SJT), a world-class performing ensemble of taiko drummers. She is a pioneer of North American taiko, recognized in the international taiko community for her distinctive performance and teaching style that combines movement, dance, drumming, fluidity, joy, and energy. PJ’s current project is TaikoPeace, an extension of Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion. As a certified Peace Ambassador for the Shift Network’s Summer of Peace 2012, PJ seeks to inspire personal, social, and global change through the music and art of taiko drumming.

Roy Hirabayashi

Performing Artist: Musician

Roy Hirabayashi has been playing taiko and shinobue since 1973 and is one of the original founders of SJT. He has led master classes and workshops throughout the country, composed original works for SJT and other taiko groups, toured with Kodo and Ondekoza, and performed with various jazz musicians, dancers, actors, and performance artists. Roy is the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the North American Taiko Conference and has been a judge for the International Taiko Contest in Tokyo, Japan. Roy is one of the founders of 1stACT, and is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow and Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute Senior Fellow. He is on the boards of First Voice, Japanese Community Congress of San Jose, and Artsopolis. Roy, along with his wife PJ, received the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award for their lifelong contributions to the art form of North American taiko. Roy is a native of Oakland, California.

Daniel Hughes

Performing Artist: Conductor

Daniel Hughes founded The Choral Project in 1996. He is in constant demand as a conductor, accompanist, coach and choral clinician. Mr. Hughes also serves as the interim Artistic Director for the Stockton Chorale, where he conducts a symphonic chorus, a chamber choir, and oversees a youth and children’s choir program. In addition to his work with these two choirs, Hughes is the Chancel Choir Director for Los Altos United Methodist Church. Hughes has directed sessions in Vocal Pedagogy and Conducting Technique for the American Choral Directors Association, the California Music Educators’ Association, and GALA Choruses. He has been a regular adjudicator for the California Golden State Choral Competitions, and has conducted honor choirs throughout the West Coast. He regularly conducts the San José Chamber Orchestra and The Choral Project in an annual winter-themed program. Other collaborations include international performances with well-known ensembles such as Costa Rica’s Café Chorale, and creative work with award-winning Broadway composer & lyricist Stephen Schwartz. His concert appearances include performances at Lincoln Center (New York City), Gusman Concert Hall (Miami), and Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco). Hughes began studying piano and composition at the age of four. He has extensive training in piano and voice, and holds a Master of Arts degree in Conducting. In addition to his awards with The Choral Project, he is the recipient of the 2013 Arts Council Silicon Valley Artist Laureate Award in the “On Stage” category for his ground-breaking contributions to the arts in Santa Clara County; a 2010 Silicon Valley Arts & Business Award; the 4th place award ~ Small Ensemble Category (35th International Choral Competition, Gorizia, Italy); the 2nd place award (ACDA National Student Conducting Competition); the Christina Cadena Memorial Accompanying Scholarship; and the California Arts Scholar Awards for piano and composition. He is an accomplished composer & arranger, and has his own choral series through Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Mr. Hughes’s biography is featured in Who’s Who in America. He maintains a private music studio in the Bay Area.

Melissa Hui

Performing Artist: Composer, Musician

Melissa Hui was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She received her D.M.A. from Yale University and M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Her mentors include Jacob Druckman, Earl Kim and Mel Powell. Initially inspired by the haunting music of the African pygmies and Japanese gagaku court orchestra, she strives to create a personal music of ethereal beauty, intimate lyricism, and raucous violence. Her commissions include works for the Oregon Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, New Millennium Ensemble and Essential Music (NYC), Ensemble Antipodes (Switzerland), Dogs of Desire (of Albany Symphony), Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal), Melody of China/Citywinds (San Francisco), Tapestry New Opera Works, and a soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square. Her works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including performances by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, California EAR Unit, Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and at International Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), ISCM festivals in Switzerland and Croatia, Théatre de la Ville (Paris), Festival Sons d’Hiver (France), Merkin Hall, Focus Festival, and Music at the Anthology in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival, and L.A. Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series, among others. She is a founding member of the Common Sense Composers Collective. Her compositions have been released on CRI, UMMUS, Santa Fe New Music, Nisapa and Centredisc, including a CD of her solo and chamber works in 2006. Current projects include commissioned works for Ensemble Sospeso (NYC) and an oratorio based on a Cree myth with librettist Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship (1997) and a Fromm Foundation commission (2000) as well as numerous grants and awards that include the Grand Prize of both the CBC and du Maurier/WSO Young Composers Competitions in Canada and finalist at the International Gaudeamus competition in Amsterdam. Now living in Montreal, she was a member of the composition faculty at Stanford University from 1994-2004.

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