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The Vocal Music Program at Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú

The 2025-2026 academic year has been nothing short of extraordinary for the Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú Vocal Music Program, marked by international recognition, prestigious collaborations, and performances that will long be remembered.

The adventure began in the summer of 2025, when the East Bay Singers, a spirited ensemble of current students and alumni, traveled to Spain to participate by invitation in the 60th INTERNATIONAL CHORAL MUSIC FESTIVAL BARCELONA. Over the course of seven remarkable days, the ensemble gave six performances at some of the most storied venues in all of Catalonia, including the awe-inspiring La Sagrada Familia, the Montserrat Monastery, the historic gothic Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi, and the magnificent Palau de la Música Catalana. The group quickly became an audience favorite, earning warmth and acclaim at every turn. ()

The energy carried forward into the 2025-2026 academic year as members of the East Bay Singers joined the Oakland Symphony for their annual Break Bread concert, performing before a crowd of more than 2,000 people. The ensemble also earned an invited appearance at the opening concert of the Western American Choral Directors Association Division Conference in San Jose, performing as part of a Collegiate Consortium led by Joshua Haberman.

The year also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú Tenor Bass Festival, directed by Frank Bianchi, who previously led the festival in 2016 and returned to mark this milestone with characteristic excellence.

And perhaps most personally meaningful, the program recently witnessed two senior recitals widely regarded as among the finest ever presented at Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú, given by Kirsten Bradford and Jimi Cuevas. Their performances stand as a testament to the caliber of artistry being cultivated here.

At the heart of it all is the dedicated faculty who make this work possible: Professor Christine Abraham, whose teaching continues to shape voices and careers, and Professor Dr. Omri Shimron, who has taken over the vocal coaching and who brings depth and refinement to every student's development.

The East Bay Singers are actively planning their next tour in summer 2026 and alumni and friends of EBS will be invited. Details will be announced soon!

Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú Music Education alumni are active in the schools, fostering meaningful experiences for their students. This fall, Cassandra Firmin (Certificate in Music Education, 2024) will begin a new position teaching general music at Morello Park Elementary in Martinez. Miranda Rocco (BA, 2024; Credential, 2025) is currently teaching middle school orchestra, band, and guitar at Washington Manor Middle School in San Lorenzo. Ricardo Garcia (BA, 2022; Credential, 2024) is currently teaching elementary music in the Castro Valley Unified School District. Ricardo has taught at eight of the nine elementary schools in Castro Valley and will be entering his third year with the district this fall, with the goal of continuing to foster a love of music in his students.

Dr. John Eros (Music Education) is completing his second year on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Music Teacher Education. Dr. Eros has also been invited to join the Editorial Board of the new Journal of Quantitative Research in Music Education. Dr. Eros presently has multiple research papers in review, as well as a book chapter in the final stages of editing. Dr. Eros presented a research poster at the 2026 California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC), at which he and Dr. Buddy James (Choral Music Education) caught up with numerous CSUEB Music Education alumni:

Dr. Eros with Rio Nickerson (BA, 2024) and Paco Wong (BA, 2025)

Dr. James with Lieven Smart (BA, 2010) and Shaylyn Ordaz (BA, 2014)

Omri Shimron (Piano Area)

In the Piano area, the department hosted two phenomenal guest artists who presented lecture-recitals on varied and timely topics. In November, we welcome back Dr. Gabriela Calderon-Cornejo, who presented the second installment of her projects Musas: Echoes of Immigration (Piano Music by Immigrant Women Composers). In April 2026, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Maryam Farshadfar (Evergreen Valley College), who gave a lecture and mini recital on Piano Music from the Caucasus Region (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russian, Georgia, and Iran).

Peter K. Marsh (Musicology-Ethnomusicology)

I have three recent projects to share that reflect my ongoing work in ethnomusicology, performance, and cultural exchange. I was invited to give a guest lecture for a graduate seminar at Texas Tech University focused on intangible cultural heritage, where I discussed the Mongolian morin khuur (horse-head fiddle) and the ways musical traditions are shaped, reimagined, and mobilized in the construction of national identity. The session connected ethnomusicology with broader conversations in heritage and museum studies.

In Fall 2025, I brought composer and gamelan specialist Stephen Parris to campus to work with students in MUS 304: World Music & Culture. During his visit, he coached students in the fundamentals of Balinese gamelan performance, and I helped facilitate the sharing of a gamelan set for use by our department. This initiative opens the door to more sustained, hands-on engagement with Indonesian music, and I hope it will become an integral part of our curriculum and ensemble offerings.

I’m also co-organizing the scholarly conference for the Fourth Morin Khuur Festival in the USA in Denver this May, bringing together performers, scholars, and culture bearers to explore the instrument’s history, technique, and contemporary relevance.

Inés Thiebaut (Composition & Technology)

• Commission from The Grossman Ensemble. Some links:

  • Interview 

  • Piece 

• My piece Syneche (for Galan Trio) was released by Neuma Records

  • Apple Music 

• I’m collaborating with Spanish visual artists & filmmaker Javier Codesal (website in Spanish ) on his latest movie (about Medea, the sorceress from Greek Mythology). We are shooting in June in Spain!

Aaron Shaul

I just finished a 3 week (8 shows a week) run with the Nat'l Broadway Tour of Monty Python's "Spamalot". Mid April, I will be playing bass at the Chan Center for LGBTQ Arts in SF for Broadway vocalist Taylor Jones, playing the music of composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, etc) with Stephen himself on piano (!?!). In May, I'll return to the first Nat'l Tour of "Back to the Future, the Musical" in Sacramento for several weeks (8 shows a week), and the west coast premiere of Allanis Morrisette's "Jagged Little Pill" for ALL of June at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek (8 shows/week). August will be several weeks of the award winning Transcendence Theater Company's production of "Mamma Mia" in Sonoma. Looks like a lot of theater this year?

Jason Eckl

My name is Jason Eckl and I am the rock band director and the jazz band director. In the past year or so I’ve enjoyed working with the students and having them do lots of performances. There have been fun shows on campus with notable highlights including a wild performance in the amphitheater outside of the theater building to performances at the school’s block parties.

I’ve had the opportunity to take the students off campus to perform as well. The rock band had a sold out show at a record store in Walnut Creek, and they have upcoming performances live on a radio show and at a punk music themed deli. The jazz band will get to perform at the Gilman Jazz Festival.

In the professional world, the orchestra I conduct has been performing big concerts all over the Bay Area and beyond. The ensemble is called the Renegade Orchestra and we’ve played everywhere from a Gold Rush era opera house to a turn of the century bank that’s been converted into a concert hall to an upcoming tour to Hawaii. I’ve also recently performed with other projects all over the country and in Europe (Portugal) and Asia (Singapore and Bali).

Rebecca Roudman

My name is Rebecca Roudman and I conduct the orchestra at CSUEB. The orchestra has been steadily growing recently from 15 members to over 60 currently. This ensemble is a mix of students and community members. Our concerts are wide-ranging and fun, and feature standard classical repertoire as well as video game music and new compositions. 

As a professional cellist I lead a few different bands that perform all over the world. In the past year I’ve taken these bands to 10 different states and to Asia and Europe for big shows. Locally, my swing band has done some crazy shows, like borrowing the USS Hornet aircraft carrier for a giant swing dance. My blues and rock band has been featured at major festivals as well as lots of our own shows with audiences that have numbered over 1000 people at a couple of shows.

Christine Abraham (Professor of Voice) has had a full performing calendar this spring in addition to her teaching.  She performed the alto solos in Mendelssohn's Elijah with Schola Cantorum, conducted by our very own Dr. Buddy James.  She sang two song cycles on San Francisco Conservatory's Faculty Recital Series composed by SFCM's David Garner, Blake Songs and Cinco Poemas de Jaime Manrique (they can be found on David Garner's YouTube channel).  She participated in a joint concert with 21V Choir, New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Choir and the Transgender Youth Choir Project (TYCP's inaugural concert!) singing music of the 21^st century from the Americas.   In June she will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to be a soloist with the Bach Dancing and Dynamic Society's chamber music festival.  Jeffrey Sykes, just retired CSUEB collaborative pianist, is the Music Director there and she is excited to be performing again with him, as well as new collaborators in several contemporary chamber works.  

Renuka Asirvatham (Administrative Coordinator)

In 2017, I stepped into the role of administrative coordinator for the Music Department with a mix of excitement and a sudden realization: I had massive shoes to fill. I was succeeding Mariko Abe, a department pillar who was retiring after 40 years as both a dedicated admin and an accomplished musician. For a long time, I was simply known as the “New Mariko.”

Now, nine years later, I can’t imagine being anywhere else. While I’m not a performer myself—aside from a little piano and singing—I’ve developed a deep love for the "artists" I support, from the chair and faculty to my colleagues and students. My work happens behind the scenes rather than in the spotlight; I ensure classes are scheduled, enrollments are seamless, and budgets are tracked.

There is a unique joy in watching our students thrive, seeing them grow from their first day to the moment they graduate with a world-class education. Over the years, this office has often served as a sanctuary, allowing me to offer a bit of "pastoral care" when students need it most. It’s also been heartening to see our enrollment numbers climbing again after the challenges of the pandemic.

However, as much as I love my career, I recently received the greatest promotion of my life: I officially became "NaNa" to my first granddaughter, Brielle.

Tianyuhao Nie (Music Equipment Office)

I'm a huge metalhead I like most heavy music and I enjoy going to shows and mosh, that's how I started playing music. I realized many metal bands often need drummers so I started playing drums. For my current role at CSUEB music I like to check out the original music the students here make, I like to jam with people here. I also enjoy setting up instruments for people. When I'm not doing music, I like to work on my car and driving to somewhere new with my friends.

Please check out my band With Open Arms; our album was recorded in the music building studio. Find us on  and .

Justin Plank (Music Resource Center)

See below for a detailed update on the "New" Music Resource Center. Meanwhile, the "Old" MRC will continue to serve our extensive collection of choral music, as well as the band and orchestra performing libraries. To prepare for this transition and the acquisition of materials from the Main Library, a great purge was undertaken and items which no longer served our department were rehomed, recycled, digitized, or otherwise retired with honors.

The result is a more functional and organized space that will allow the Music Resource Center to continue supporting ensembles, students, and faculty for years to come. The collections will also now be available to reserve and borrow in the new (and constantly expanding) . Outside of campus, I continue to perform in the annual Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite and at home, I am kept company (and supervised) by three cats. You can also check out my for lesser-known 19th-century French opéra-comique overtures, digitally reconstructed - sometimes from handwritten parts!

A New Home for Music: The Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú Music Resource Center

When Holly Scheld ('20) graduated with her BA in Music in the spring of 2020, she could not have imagined that just a few years later she would be coming back to her alma mater to help build something she wished had existed when she was a student. The result is the newly created Music Resource Center (MRC), housed in MB 1560, the former organ practice room in the Music Building.

The new MRC brings together materials from the department's existing collection and a carefully curated selection from the university's library holdings. Scheld worked closely with library staff to identify materials aligned with the music curriculum and the department's growing graduate programs, combing through tens of thousands of items by subject heading to select what would be most valuable to students and faculty. She also sorted through more than 3,500 LPs from the original departmental collection, ultimately retaining roughly 2,500 records spanning a wide range of genres, eras, and pressings.

The space itself has been transformed from a cluttered storage room into an inviting library and gathering space. Students, faculty, and alumni will find physical scores, books, and recordings, along with listening stations where visitors can put on a record, follow along with a score, and compare performances. The soundproofed room offers both quiet individual study and a long table for collaborative work. The entire collection is also searchable online through the Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇøÈë¿Ú Music Library catalog, accessible by URL from any device.

Scheld's vision for the space goes beyond a traditional library. "I see it as a place where students can discover a new artist or a new piece just by being in the room," she says. "You go in looking for one thing, and the item right next to it on the shelf takes you somewhere you never expected."

Scheld, who earned her MLIS from San Jose State, is currently working as an archival consultant for retiring Stanford art professor Enrique Chagoya and will begin an internship at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this summer. Her work in the MRC, she says, stemmed from a simple guiding question: what would she have wanted as a music student at East Bay?

The public is warmly invited to see the new Music Resource Center and visit with Justin Plank, coordinator of the MRC, at the annual Glenn Glasow Concert on Tuesday, May 12 at 7:30 PM.