Alicia Jo Rabins is a musician, composer, writer, ritualist, and Torah teacher. The New York Times calls her voice “gorgeous”; the San Francisco Chronicle calls her writing “a poetry page-turner, both sexy and humble.” She has released three albums with Girls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah; is the author of […]
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Benjamin Hunter is an award winning multi-instrumentalist—violin, mandolin, guitar, percussion, voice—whose interests lie in roots music from around the world. Born in Lesotho, raised predominantly in Phoenix, with stints in Seattle and Zimbabwe, Ben was raised classically on violin, but now plays a variety of styles—roots, folk, jazz, blues, gospel, world. Ben plays in the […]
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Singer and songwriter Juan Barco, born in Lytle, Texas, brings an enormous wealth of experience to the Tejano folk music for which he is so well-known in the Northwest and his native Texas. His songs are colored by his childhood experiences in the migrant labor camps of the South and the Midwest, his service in […]
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Chang Hye-Jin, a kayagum (12 string zither) performer, was born in Korea where she attended the National High School for Korean Traditional Music, and received her B.A. in kayagum from Hanyang University in Seoul. Hye-Jin has performed for radio broadcasts in Seoul and has played contemporary compositions, shinawi (instrumental improvisational performance), and court music and […]
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Sueño is a dynamic group of Mexican-American musicians who play traditional conjunto music, the energetic accordion-dominated sound so important to the Tejano and Chicano communities throughout the United States. Sueño was born out of the desire of Cruz Rangel, the lead accordion and bajo sexto player, to pass his knowledge of the conjunto tradition on […]
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Nisha Joshi is a vocalist and sitar player who was born and raised in Rajasthan, India. Today, she performs both classical and folk repertoire at community concerts and festivals and in private homes during traditional Indian holiday celebrations in the Portland area. Many of the folk songs Joshi performs were learned in grammar school or […]
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Manuel Cavazos, leader of Los Paisanos, has been playing to audiences in Southern Idaho for over ten years. With Los Paisanos, he focuses on corridos (ballads), rancheras, and boleros that bring instant recognition to anyone with roots in Mexican culture. The group typically plays for community and church-related events from weddings to company picnics. They […]
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Before settling in Portland, Oregon, Neftali Rivera was a professional musician in his native Puerto Rico. For several years there, he and his groups played popular dance music such as the meringue from the Dominican Republic. Later, he decided to return to his first love, the traditional music of Puerto Rico. In Portland, Rivera has […]
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Candelario Zamudio is a Mexican singer and requinto (five-string guitar) player who is originally from Gudalajara, Jalisco. Zamudio, who now lives in Portland, is a master guitarist with a florid, highly expressive style. Zamudio’s repertoire of over 300 compositions covers a vast range of traditional songs (rancheras, corridos, huapangoes, sones) as well as more contemporary […]
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Classically trained since the age of nine, Paul played bluegrass, hoedowns, western swing and swing at an early age. He met and studied with the great jazz violinist Joe Venuti, performed regularly with him on stage, and was the only student ever invited to study at Venuti’s home in Seattle. Today he is considered one […]
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Here you’ll find past podcasts from our Soundpages, Artist of the Week and Writers Programs. |
