The Evolution Starts Now:


..."The inventory of recent Mills students and alumni is indeed impressive. It includes Latin jazz keyboardist Rebeca Mauleón, koto player Miya Masaoka, cellists Danielle DeGruttola and Theresa Wong, clarinetist/computer musician Matt Ingalls, vocalist Aurora Josephson, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, keyboardist Graham Connah, drummer/percussionist Ches Smith, sound artist Ed Osborn, composer Guillermo Galindo, electroacoustic vocalist/composer Anne Hege, video/sound artist Betsey Biggs, neo-folk guitarist and producer Noah Georgeson and flutist MaryClare Brzytwa. In addition to their academic achievements, recording credits and, in some cases, international accomplishments, many of these musicians are active in the Bay Area's eclectic music scene.
In that respect, they parallel the activities of their instructors, including percussionist William Winant, who studied at Mills with Lou Harrison, was in residence for 10 years with the acclaimed Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and has been teaching there part time since 1983, all the while maintaining a performing career with Harrison, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the John Zorn Chamber Ensemble, the Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham dance companies and the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle. "A lot of my students, one minute they might be playing at 21 Grand in Oakland or the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, and then the next minute they might be getting their Ph.D. at Stony Brook or Wesleyan or Princeton University," Winant says. "I encourage them to do it all........"

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