Sunday, August 3rd

Strawberry Creek Park @ 12pm

Getting to the Event

Public Transportation

Strawberry Creek Park is a 13-minute walk from North Berkeley BART Station:

Take a right on Sacramento Street, then take a right on Addison Street, and the destination is to your left.

Strawberry Creek Park is also close to AC Transit lines, 51B and 800.

Driving and Parking Directions

Patrons can park at the BUSD West Campus Lot on Browning Street during the event. Look below to see where the parking lot is located:

Program

12-12:30 PM Melon Collective

12:30-1 PM Jem Sophia

1-1:30 PM Lizzie Burns

1:30-2 PM Collective Counterpoint Song Commission with Justine Sarmiento

2-2:30 PM Nahuel Bronzini

2:30-3 PM Juice and Friends

3-3:30 PM Aisha

3:30-4 PM Koh and Co

4-5 PM Collective Counterpoint

Performers

Bands and Solos

Nahuel Bronzini is a Grammy Award-winning music producer, arranger, and performer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He has worked with a diverse range of artists in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the globe, including Tony Toni Tone! and Fantastic Negrito, and countless others.

Nahuel’s production style is a true reflection of his musical journey, incorporating diverse influences from his years as a producer and his lifelong love of music. He blends raw, organic sounds like acoustic guitar, strings, and live drums with electronic elements like synths and programmed drums, creating a sound that is both rich and dynamic. The result is a unique and immersive listening experience that draws listeners in with a sonic embrace. Whether he’s working with live instruments or electronic elements, Nahuel has a way of creating a sound that is truly his own.

In 2021, Nahuel released his first single as a solo artist called “The Problem With Love,” which set the beginning of Nahuel’s songwriting journey.

Lizzie Burns is a muti-genre vocalist hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. With a passion for genres from classical to contemporary, Lizzie strives for a sound to showcase the many different eras of music. Blending choral technique, Jazz, Classical, Soul and Contemporary, Lizzie’s music bridges the gap between genres to create something unique and relatable to the audience. As a person living with a disability, advocacy is a deeply important theme and intention behind every song. Her motto is “turning adversity into art”.

Lizzie began training in Jazz at age 5 and never stopped. She studied Opera at the Lamont School of Music at University of Denver, where she was a member of the #1 Collegiate choir, the Lamont Chorale. Additionally, Lizzie studied voice abroad at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She trains in RnB/Soul under the direction of Amber Morris and has a passion for event planning. Lizzie’s style is ever-evolving, evocative and powerful. She is thrilled for this unique opportunity to blend genres and blur some of the rigidity between Contemporary and Classical Music.

Aisha Lately is a songwriter and producer who got her start in punk music. Noticing a lack of femme voices in a homogenous and exclusionary music scene around her, Aisha formed the punk project “TAAL” and made waves in the Providence DIY scene, hosting basement shows that centered marginalized perspectives and musicians. 

Aisha continued on to train at SF-based Women’s Audio Mission, studying audio production and engineering techniques under feminist greats like Terri Winston. Dedicated to the advancement of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in music production and the recording arts, Aisha taught courses in studio techniques and audio exploration.

Stepping through alternative and singer-songwriter genres, the project Aisha Lately was born. Rooted in a deep desire to create spaces where others feel understood, Aisha’s latest work is an invitation to navigate complexity, to feel detached, to feel deeply, to feel small. Drawing deeply from the natural world, Aisha’s lyrics are observational and frank, while their music drifts, dreamy and droning, grounded and weightless. 

Through love, loss, and the little things, Aisha Lately contends with the question: how do we carry grief through it all?

The Melon Collective is an improv jazz group of rotating East Bay musicians. Sometimes we play other stuff too! Hope you enjoy our variety of fresh jams!

Juice & Friends is an Oakland-based group comprising of Justine Sarmiento (“Juice”; piano and vocals) and friends (Alex Gao, Dominique Phan, and Sydney Trieu on drums, bass, and guitar, respectively). The music they play is based on a collective appreciation for art from around the world, especially the kind that inspires creation and the joy of sharing our dreams with each other. Outside of music, they are passionate about birds and soft-serve ice cream.

Jem Sophia is a singer, songwriter, producer and guitar babe creating progesterone power-ballads soundtracking your Heroine’s Journey A quintessential gemini, she lives to bridge worlds and find meaning in the gradients: excavating darkness & bathing in light; weaving ethereal dreamscapes & shredding instrumentals; techno-futurist and undeniably, soulfully human Her most recent self-produced single—a cathartic cover of Warren Zevon’s Keep Me in Your Heart—reimagines the classic track as an anthem for the uncertainty of a changing world In addition to her own music, you can catch her shredding with bands including San Francisco’s The Pivot Tables & Portland’s all-femme 90s pop supergroup Sideboob.

Koh & Co. is a taiko ensemble made of artists based out of the East Bay who specialize in the art of Japanese drumming, Taiko. 

Koh Yamakawa is a Taiko artist, composer, and educator based in Berkeley, CA.  Alongside performing around the SF Bay Area and exploring new avenues of creative expression through Taiko, he is the head Taiko instructor at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple and founder of Club Hachijo, an Oakland-based group practicing the traditional style of drumming found on the island of Hachijo, Japan.

MJ Johnson is a taiko performer and filmmaker based in Oakland. While growing up in Japan, her love of taiko blossomed when she played during Obon and Summer Matsuri. She currently practices with Oakland Taiko and Club Hachijo. MJ uses taiko to connect to her cultural heritage and explore her mixed race identity through musical expression.

Kirin Chanteloup is a taiko performer based in Berkeley, CA. Since joining San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 2010, he has traveled the country to perform and promote the artform to as many people as he can. He is currently a performing member of both SF Taiko Dojo and Cal Raijin Taiko of UC Berkeley.

UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund String Quartet

Elliot Kim is a violist from Orange County, California, who has been playing for 11 years starting in 5th grade. He has participated in numerous competitions with both solo and chamber performances in Orange County and notably performed the Forsyth Viola Concerto with his youth orchestra. His favorite composers include Maurice Ravel, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Antonin Dvorak. Currently a rising junior at UC Berkeley, he is pursuing a double major in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) and Music. Elliot is a member of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra but especially enjoys being an avid chamber musician, with a deep appreciation for the intimacy and collaboration that playing with other musicians offers. 

Outside of rehearsals and coursework, Elliot’s hobbies include attending various concerts in the Bay Area such as the SF Symphony, SF Jazz, and R&B shows. Outside of music, he also enjoys playing video games, watching movies, and feeding the campus squirrels.

Bio coming soon!

Natalie Oh is a 4th-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley, pursuing majors in Molecular and Cell Biology, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, and a minor in Chemistry. Natalie is currently a cellist in the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, which recently embarked on their 2025 European Tour. She also helps lead Celli@Berkeley, an all-cello ensemble, which was featured at Chancellor Lyons’ inauguration and Chancellor Christ’s Light the Way events. Natalie was a 2021 and 2022 recipient of the Marin Music Chest Scholarship and Mill Valley Chamber Music Society Young Artist Award, and she performed with the Marin Symphony as the winner of the 2021 Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. When she isn’t studying (or practicing), Natalie enjoys hiking, baking elaborate cakes for friends and family, and trying to keep her plants happy.

Carolyn is a rising junior at UC Berkeley studying applied math. She describes herself as having first touched a violin during 3rd-grade music class. She started learning how to play it in the 5th grade as a way to find community during her transition of moving to the US from Korea. When she stumbled into an orchestra class playing Sleigh Ride in the 6th grade, she fell in love with the orchestra community. Since then, she’s been part of an orchestra from Saratoga Symphony Orchestra (2019-2023), California All-State Orchestra (2020-2023), to the current UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (2024-?). She was also part of smaller ensembles such as Music and Us Serving Everyone (2021-2023), where benefit concerts would be held to raise money for non-profit organizations. In solo repertoire, she won the American Fine Arts Festival International Competition (2022), Concerto Competition (2022), Bay Area Music Association San Francisco International Innovative Music Competition (2022), and the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition (2022), with the latter leading to the honor to perform at Carnegie Hall (2023). When she is not studying or trying to play her violin in tune, you can find her walking with her wired earbuds in, plucking the guitar, running on nature-filled trails, or cafe-hopping with friends.

Collective Counterpoint String Ensemble

Emma Hill is an accomplished cellist with rich experience as a chamber musician,
orchestral player, and educator. Raised in Fresno, she began taking cello lessons at age 9. Her primary teachers include Dr. Thomas Loewenheim, cello, and Dr. Limor Toren-Immerman, chamber music. Ms. Hill graduated Summa Cum Laude from Fresno State in May 2021 and earned her master’s degree in cello performance from Fresno State in May 2023.

Ms. Hill has participated in many summer festivals including Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, Borromeo, Cremona International Music Academy, Cello | Fresno, and FOOSA. She has performed in masterclasses for the Alexander String Quartet, Brinton Smith, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Johannes Moser, Lynn Harrell, and more. Ms. Hill won the senior division of the California ASTA 2018 State Solo Competition and made her solo debut performing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 as winner of the 2018-2019 Fresno State Concerto Competition.

Known for her technical approach and commitment to excellence, Ms. Hill is in demand as both a performer and teacher. An active chamber musician, Ms. Hill performed with the Fresno State Piano Quartet and was appointed cellist of Fresno’s Tower Quartet in December 2022. As an orchestral player, she has served as principal cellist of the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with the Fresno Philharmonic and Sequoia Symphony. She began teaching privately in 2019 and works as a cello coach in five middle and high schools across Clovis. She has been Professor of Cello at Fresno City College since August 2023.

Kana Luzmoor is a Japanese-American violinist from the San Francisco Bay Area, and is passionate about redefining the traditional concert experience and elevating all historic art for all. Kana began frequenting the Hidden Cafe during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Having lost the outlet to perform due to the pandemic, The Hidden Cafe community inspired her to share her ideas and talents, which led up to the first installation of Summer at The Hidden Cafe in which featured her colleagues, friends, and former classmates. She hopes that this concert series is a step towards progress in Western Classical music, which is often rigid and exclusive.

Kana recently received her Master’s of Music from University of Cincinnati (CCM) under the tutelage of Timothy Lees, Kana has also attended the National Orchestral Institute and Festival (2020-2022), Brevard Music Festival (2019) and the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony (2016, 2018). She graduated from California State University Long Beach for a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Moni Simeonov. She is also a former student of The Crowden School in West Berkeley, graduating back in 2014.

Violist Melissa McGlumphy is an active performer from Bakersfield, California. Her sound has been heard across the world in Japan, Canada, the Czech Republic, and Italy, and across the United States in California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Currently, she performs regularly with the Sequoia Symphony and the Bakersfield Symphony in addition to freelance work.

As an educator, Melissa teaches strings at Patrick’s Music in Fresno, CA and as a string specialist for schools in the Clovis Unified School District.

Melissa holds an M.A. from Fresno State and a B.M. from University of the Pacific. Her primary instructors were Limor Toren-Immerman, Jason Bonham, and Igor Veligan.

Hi! My name is Theodora, and I’ve been playing cello for almost 14 years. I grew up in Oakland, and I am now a student at Wesleyan University. I am excited to participate in Summer at the Hidden Cafe for the second summer in a row!

Born in Japan and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Yuki Nagase is a New York City-based double bassist. Yuki has performed with orchestras such as the New World Symphony, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic, Symphony San Jose, Santa Cruz Symphony, and Fresno Philharmonic, and has appeared at venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Davies Symphony Hall, Slovak Radio Hall, and Smetana Hall. She has also performed with renowned musicians such as Augustin Hadelich, Meredith Monk, and Tai Murray, and has performed in recital halls in California, Connecticut, and Maine as a soloist and chamber musician.

Yuki graduated with a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, where she was principal of the Yale Philharmonia and New Music New Haven Contemporary Ensemble and, in addition to studying music, spent two years as a Wurtele Gallery Teacher at the Yale University Art Gallery. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific where she graduated summa cum laude, was principal of the University of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, was chosen to be a performer on the annual Honors Recital, and received the Woman of Distinction Undergraduate Award for spearheading and curating an International Women’s Day Recital. Yuki is proud to have been taught and mentored by Don Palma, Jessica Sack, Sebastian Ruth, Steve Tramontozzi, Thomas Derthick, and Andy Butler.

Jackson Snead is an international performer, graduated with a Master degree from Fresno State University under the tutelage of Dr. Limor Toren-Immerman. During his studies, Jackson has been fortunate to study under world renowned teachers such as Moni Simeonov, Midori Goto, and Hiroaki Watarai. He actively teaches privately as well as coaches music classes for most schools in his Area. He currently performs for the Bakersfield Symphony as principal 2nd, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sequoia Symphony Orchestra.

Multi-faceted musician Ryan Villahermosa strives to expand the boundaries of classical music to better connect to audiences, ensembles and students.

Trained as a violist, violinist, and conductor, Ryan has performed in Nevada, California, Washington, Montana, and Hawaii. Ryan appeared as a soloist with the University of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in 2018 and conducted the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra for their 2019 cycle of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. As an orchestral violist, Ryan has performed with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Bakersfield Symphony, Bozeman Symphony, and the Henderson Symphony. He currently serves as the Instructional Assistant specializing in Orchestral Strings at Del Sol Academy of the Performing Arts. He also teaches violin, viola, music theory, and guitar privately in the Las Vegas area.