Listening Lyrics

Alex Jordan was born to music, playing first trumpet, then bass, then guitar—and always singing.  His musical influences ranged from jazz to musical theatre.  He studied his father’s extensive CD collection, in particular the Grateful Dead section, which considerably expanded his perception of what was music.  Listening to a live album, he had a revelation when he heard a passage in which silence was clearly part of the music. “It was quantifiably, certifiably, distinctly music, and it was dead silence. I’d never heard anything like that.  I don’t know that I became a Deadhead at that moment, but I sure got it.”

Estelle California is a singer/songwriter born in France. She started playing the piano when she was 5 and went on to study saxophone. Later, she was formally trained in opera. Her current life is a far cry from her childhood in France, where she suffered physical and mental abuse, and lived in an environment where she saw many people being discriminated against.

Estelle is a passionate artist, musician, writer, and activist dedicated to shining the light of resilience and bringing forth social healing throughout the world. Her single "Black is the True Light" has garnered significant media attention and resonated with people all over the globe.

Born in Davis, Korean-American cellist Eunghee Cho earned second prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China. He is principal cellist of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the Mellon Music Festival in Davis, and serves on the faculties of Middlesex Community College and Derby Academy.

He has been invited to perform at such international festivals as La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Taos School of Music, Festival International d’Echternach, and Rencontres Franco Américaines de Musique Chambre. He is enrolled in New England Conservatory’s Doctor of Musical Arts Program under the guidance of distinguished pedagogue Laurence Lesser. (Photo by Chris Kitchen, used with permission of the Heifetz International Music Institute)

From Pieter: If you enjoyed this program, please hit the like button on the Listening Lyrics Facebook page. If you're interested in appearing on the show, hit me up at promotions@kdrt.org

Kat Gallardo, known as “katgrüvs,” is riding the new wave of modern fingerstyle guitarists. A self-taught artist with a solid sense of time and rhythm, she discovers new ways to nurture her passion for percussive fingerstyle guitar arrangement and composition.

The name “katgrüvs” captures her innate feel for “grüv” and pocket, a trait steeped in years of playing in jazz, funk, and rock ensembles. A graduate from the University of California, Davis in Mechanical Engineering, she aspires to marry her lifelong passion for music with creative engineering.