MEET THE PERFORMERS AND PRESENTERS
Ben Bath
Singer / Tenor
Ben is a musical polymath with backgrounds in both classical music and ethnomusicology. In addition to his training on the piano, on the cello, in composition, and in conducting, Ben is an independent research scholar of early American hymnody and continues to do work in the contemporary experimental music scene in New York City. He studied vocal performance, composition, and choral conducting at Bard College.
Ben seeks to connect his music practices with social and political commitments. To this end, he has formed and led multiple movement-based choirs and ensembles with the goal of uplifting working-class and left-wing musical traditions from around the world. He is currently a member of the People’s Music Network's Steering Committee, and he is currently developing a labor movement/hip-hop project with the New York City Labor Chorus (www.nyclc.org).
Tamara Fish
Presenter
"The Once and Future King: What Allyship Really Means and Why We Should Pursue It"
Tamara is the Co-founding Director of KHAZBAR: An Oasis in Deserts of Jewish Diversity for JOCISM and Serious Allies (https://www.khazbar.org/).
KHAZBAR's dual mission is:
1) to serve as a network, resource, and culture incubator for Jew of Color, including Indigenous, Sephardi, and Mitzrachi Jews (JOCISM), and
2) to disrupt traditional Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice / Belonging (DEI/J/B) training in order to serve these ends constructively and compassionately without shaming or blaming.
Tamara (Harvard U., AB; Union Theo. Sem., MA; Columbia U., MPhil, ABD) served as president of the Jewish Multiracial Network, president and board member of Congregation Tehillah, Riverdale, NY, and Assistant Director of the Office of the University Chaplain at Columbia University. Prior to that, she was a professor of religion at Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY.
A proud African-American Jew, she is currently a board member of the Academy for Jewish Religion, the nation's first pluralistic Jewish seminary.
Barbara Frankel
Flute
Barbara, a classically trained flutist & pianist with eclectic tastes, performs jazz, classical, and world musics, as well as improvisations on flutes from different cultures. She also enjoys cross-arts music collaborations with dance, theatre, film, and visual arts.
As a music educator, Barbara created and implemented original children’s music and arts programs, taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and has a private piano & flute lesson studio.
Dan Furman
piano/keys
Dan hails from Old Hickory, Tennessee (just outside Nashville).
He began playing piano and composing music at an early age and went on to study composition and jazz piano at Oberlin Conservatory.
After moving to New York in 2003 to play jazz, he began writing for music theater as well. He spent four years in the BMI Lehman Engels Musical Theater Workshop.
Dan is the Director of the Brooklyn Tavern Theater, which puts on original musicals in Brooklyn’s taverns and beyond. He is the composer/lyricist/bookwriter of Impossible But True, and the composer and lyricist for Ybor City (with Anita Gonzalez, bookwriter) and Sign In the Six O'Clock Sky (with bookwriter Arnold Schulman). He is currently developing The Proust Virus, a musical about video game characters who come to life when Proust is uploaded into their game and has presented The Joe Hill Revival, an updated vision of the legacy of labor activist Joe Hill. The Joe Hill Revival premiered in Sept/Oct 2021 at Rustik Tavern in Brooklyn.
Dan lives in Brooklyn with his wife, neuroscientist Kim Allen. He works in Manhattan as a jazz pianist and music director/accompanist.
Chris Oledude and Dan met in 2021 when Dan accompanied Chris at the memorial service for Chris’ mother, the late Ethel Werfel Owens. Dan also performed with Chris at the Chris Oledude 2022 Birthday Bash.
Learn more about Dan and his work: www.danfurman.com
Canary L
Singer / Alto
Canary L is a Detroit-born creative living in Brooklyn, New York. They engage in a multidisciplinary art practice involving sound, writing, research, synthesis, visual aesthetics, and space-making.
L’s work is driven by the belief that the individual’s intrinsic voice, unmarred by external forces, is the greatest contribution to the self and the collective and should be uplifted. Some of their inspirations include Rachelle Ferrell, James Baldwin, Stevie Wonder, Audre Lorde, André Leon Talley, Kamau Daáood, Alice Coltrane, Sylvester, Beauford Delaney, Eddie Harris, Aretha Franklin, Alok Vaid-Menon, bell hooks, and Yétúndé Olagbaju.
They completed undergraduate studies in Jazz Voice and Africana Studies at Oberlin College and Conservatory.
Pam Hamilton
Singer / Alto
Pamela has been a teacher and performing artist in New York City for 37 years. As a music educator, she has been a teaching artist for the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance (BELONGÓ), Promise Academy, and JALC Middle School Academy.
Pamela has performed and recorded with several noted jazz, gospel, classical, inspirational, and R&B groups over her over 50 years as a vocalist, violist, and violinist. She also performs with her own jazz ensemble, “The Pamela Hamilton Group”.
Pam met Chris in 2022 when performed on viola with Chris at the Chris Oledude 2022 Birthday Bash. “Mostly, however, I make music just for the heaven of it!”
Jenny Hill
Tenor Sax / Flure
Jenny Hill, saxophones and flutes, is a composer, arranger, and performer and also leads her own band Liquid Horn, a jazz sextet featuring her own compositions. She is currently a member of Lioness, an all-female jazz sextet.
A Berklee graduate, Jenny Hill studied composition and has been the recipient of many honors including the National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Studies grant with Joe Lovano, winner in the JAZZIZ Woodwinds On Fire competition, and the Lennie Johnson Outstanding Musician scholarship from Berklee College. Jenny is a featured artist in the books Practice Like The Pros by Sue Terry and Rock and Roll Saxophone by John Laughter.
Jenny’s resume includes touring/performing with her own band Liquid Horn, Lioness, Denis Leary, the Easy Star All-Stars, the Black Rock Coalition, Maurice Hines, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Broken Reed Sax Quartet, Burning Spear, Maxi Priest, Daniel Ponce, Govt Mule, and others.
Jenny’s jazz credits include performing with Nancy Wilson, Dianne Schuur, Clark Terry, Dave Brubeck, and Joe Williams while a member of the DIVA jazz orchestra. She performed with Maurice Hines in “Tappin’ Thru Life” and also played bari sax on Broadway in the musical Hair, as well as alto sax in Sweet Charity. In 2013 Jenny and her band performed at the national music education/performance conference CIVEBRA, in Brasilia, Brazil. She performed for the King of Morocco in Agadir in 2002.
Bill Milkowski of Jazz Times calls her “an accomplished composer-arranger and first-rate soloist, with some bold playing on tenor, soprano and flute. Highly recommended.”
Todd Isler
Drums / Percussion
Barry Kornhauser
Cello
Barry was born in the Midwest -- of the Bronx -- but he is now a certifiable long-time Brooklyn resident.
As a composer, arranger, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist (cello, guitar, and bass), Barry has worked in a wide variety of musical environments, performing on stages ranging from Merkin Hall and NJPAC to the Bronx Zoo and Hippo Playground, from St. John the Divine and Trinity Church to Sing Sing Prison and Creedmoor.
Barry’s past collaborators include Suni Paz, Lucia Pulido, Bernardo Palumbo, Bev Grant (The Human Condition), the Derailers (with Charles “Honeyboy” Otis), Jana Herzen, Jay Mankita, Meredith Wright (Sweetbeatz), Luis Diaz, New Translations (w/David Binney and Paula Potocki), Cutumay Camones, Tomas Rodriguez, Jolie Rickman, Juan Lazarro Mendolas, David Gonzalez, and Zenobia Conkerite). Barry has performed with Chris on numerous occasions, including with the Owens Brothers Band and at the Chris Oledude 2022 Birthday Bash.
Along with Jaque DuPree, Barry serves as an artist-in-residence with the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. He is presently developing an educational resource about harmony as applied to the cello.
Yanitza Lee
Singer / Soprano
Yanitza sings soprano and is a Certified Music Therapist.
She is a graduate of Hunter College in New York City, where she received her Bachelor's in Music in Music Performance with a concentration in Classical Voice. During her time at Hunter, Yanitza participated in the Opera Program which featured new operas in partnership with OPERA America.
Yanitza earned her M.A. degree in Music Therapy from New York University. She enjoys playing music with friends.
Bracha Lieberman
Presenter
Bracha, a social worker and career counselor, is President of the People's Voice Cafe Board of Directors and has also served on the Steering Committee of the People's Music Network. She sings with the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, does some songwriting, studied acting at Circle in the Square and HB Studios, and played a variety of roles in community theater productions, and she believes that community counts.
Dedicated to taking action to make the world a better place, Bracha has been phone banking for the Center for Common Ground on voter suppression issues. In the original song, "Pave The Way", Bracha proclaims her personal motto: "Start your day off with an act of kindness!"
Brian McQueen
Singer / Bass
Residing here in New York CIty, Brian is an operatic bass and voice instructor. They have appeared with the Lyric Opera Theatre of Arizona State University, Miami University Opera, Janiec Opera Company, Trilogy: An Opera Company, On Site Opera(NYC), and most recently made their Canadian debut with Tapestry Opera (Toronto).
As a recitalist, Brian has been seen at The Metropolitan Opera Guild and A Train Festival in New York City. Brian has served as Artist in Residence with the Tohno International Arts Association (Japan) and Artist in Residence with ChaShaMa (NYC). In 2018 Brian premiered their performance piece, We Wear the Masc, also with ChaShaMa.
As an actor, Brian has been seen in Xandro Segade’s Future St. at the We’re Watching series (Bard College) and the Tip of Her Tongue series (Broad Museum). They also played the role of Cleopatra in Here, Serpent (Dixon Place, NYC), a trans-gender liminal experimental piece devised by both Brian and performance artist, C. Bain. Recently, they were heard in a workshop of the new opera Exagoge (Avner Finberg) presented at the New York Opera Festival.
As a voice instructor, Brian maintains a private voice studio, teaching in New York City as well as virtually. They are a Teaching Artist with The Harlem School of the Arts and Lincoln Center Education. Brian was a 2017 fellow with Emerging Leaders in New York Arts and a finalist in Opera Ebony’s 2021 Benjamin Matthews Voice Competition.
Brian holds a BA in Music from the University of South Carolina, an MM in Voice Performance from Miami University of Ohio, and is an alumnus of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He is a fierce advocate for housing rights and the fight to end homelessness. They currently serve as Senior Ambassador for Hearts of Gold, a charity that works to transition unhoused mothers and their children off the streets & out of shelters into permanent housing in the New York City community.
Chris Oledude
Singer / Keys / Recorder
Chris "Oledude" Owens has performed at the People's Voice Cafe several times -- the first in the 1980s! His 2022 Birthday Bash was the first livestream-only PVC show and very well attended! For this performance, Oledude has brought together a talented ensemble of artists and fascinating presenters to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his legacy.
Get to know Oledude's music, old and new, through https://www.ovou.me/artivistus .
Elijah Dixon Owens
presenter
Elijah is a 2019 graduate of Earlham College. He spent three years teaching various grades in Japan and now teaches history and English Language Arts to 5th-grade students at a Bronx middle school.
Elijah loves music and was a member and leader of a cappella group in college, amongst other activities. He also loves debate, politics, and public speaking, having won the Declamation contest at high school, the Brooklyn Latin School.
For several years, Elijah served as a volunteer for the Central Brooklyn Martin Luther King Commission -- a non-profit organization founded by his grandfather, the late Congressman Major R. Owens (D-NY).
Max Parsons
Singer / Bass
A New York City native, Max is a versatile singer equally at home in art song, opera, and choral music. Max has performed with such choral ensembles as Musica Sacra, the Franklin Chamber Choir, Ghostlight Chorus, Æon ensemble, Marble Collegiate Sanctuary Choir, and, during previous seasons, with Canterbury Choral Society.
Max attended the University of Texas, where he performed alongside Austin Baroque Orchestra, the Ars Longa Ensemble, and Austin Opera. He also performed at the University of Texas Butler School of Music. An accomplished pianist and music educator, Max is currently the assistant conductor at Our Lady of the Miraculous Metal and teaches music at Manhattan Country School.
Nathan Repasz
Singer / Tenor
Nathan is a New York-based drummer, vocalist, improviser, theatre artist, music director, and composer. He works as a choral singer, session/pit musician, and goat-cheesemonger in the NYC area.
His solo language + percussion performance explores the liminality of sense/nonsense and groove/noise. His piece “National Hot Dog Day” will be featured in the 2024 Emergency Index and he recently delivered his “Lecture on Something” as part of ?!: New Works.
Nathan has performed in Iceland, Poland, Germany, Czechia, and the U.K., and at Carnegie Hall, The Kitchen, SXSW, NPR’s Mountain Stage, and Philly Fringe.
Zack Staples
Guitar / Keys
Zack is a multi-instrumentalist with a focus on guitar and piano. He has been steeped in a variety of musical styles and played with groups of many seemingly incongruous genres. Growing up in Barbados before moving to the US by high school, he regrets to inform you that he has at this point mostly lost his accent - though he has not lost his grounding in the rich Caribbean musical tradition. Despite subsequent experience making and performing Jazz, Folk, Indie/Rock, and Electronic music the pulsing rhythms and lilting melodies of Soca, Dancehall, and Calypso have never left his head and still inform much of his solo work to this day.
Having not yet quit his day job, he currently resides in Brooklyn and works on his music in his free time - someday some of it might even be published! For inquiries, offers, prized family recipes handed down for generations, or tips on inexpensive coffee shops please reach out at ZackStaplesMusic@gmail.com.
Wendy A. Ward
Singer / Guest Soloist
Wendy and Chris Oledude first met in 1983 before Wendy attended medical school. They have remained friends ever since. Their bond was music. Wendy loves to write songs and sing, and Chris loves Wendy's songs, her singing, and her presence.
Wendy was the featured vocalist and "actress" in the award-winning music video, "George Floyd: Say Their Names". Wendy herself was the recipient of an award, Best Female Model In A Music Video, from the 2021 Sweden Film Awards.
Known as"Dr. Wendy", Wendy Ward is a physician – a board-certified anesthesiologist who has been practicing medicine for 30 years – and a Life Transformation Specialist. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and received her Medical Degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Wendy is also certified in the holistic disciplines of Acupuncture and Reflexology.
Wendy is the Founder and CEO of MPower Productions – a multimedia inspirational educational production company – which she started more than 10 years ago. MPower allows her to feed her passion and use her gifts.
Wendy’s philosophy is that everyone has a purpose and deserves an even playing field of opportunity to maximize their full potential, realize their dreams, and fulfill that purpose. She believes that as each person can fulfill their purpose, collectively, it serves as a major precursor to achieving the ultimate goal of establishing world ‘love, peace and unity’, creating a win-win for all.
Kiena Williams
Singer / Soprano
Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, Kiena, is an operatic soprano who also loves other genres of music and performance. Some of her recent features include: Il Tabarro (Ensemble, Giorgetta Cover - OnSite Opera), Festival de coros del fin del Mundo "Naturaleza" Argentina (Soloist- Essence of Joy Alumni Singers), Daniel Fish's "Bold New Work" Most Happy in Concert (Williamstown Theater Festival), and the Elizabeth Greenfield Award Competition (James Toland Vocal Arts - Finalist).
Kiena proudly serves as a Conductor at the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, a Vocal Adjunct at the Calhoun School, and a Voice Faculty member at The Trinity School. She received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University, having graduated from New York's own Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.