Robert Lopez Ensemble featuring Jorge Alabê (USA) Ogum Onirê (2025, World Premiere)

Ogum Onirê Ogum Onirê is a suite of ancestral music originating from the Candomblé religion. These practices, enduring the Transatlantic slave trade and centuries of religious intolerance are a staple of Brazilian culture. This work adds chamber music instrumentation to traditional Candomblé ensemble featuring the prominent educator and master drummer Jorge Alabê. Artist Biography Robert Lopez A percussionist and educator, Robert has a background in various types of musical folkloric traditions of Brazil, Ghana and Cuba, alongside contemporary chamber music and free improvisation. This range allows a malleable approach to sharing musical ideas. Since 2011, he has been an active member of the Bay Area music community working with groups SO AR, the Red Room Orchestra, Grex and Jordan Glenn’s BEAK among others. Since 2014 he has maintained a close relationship with Brazilian master drummer Jorge Alabê. This partnership has led to presentations at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, awards from the Fulbright US Student Program and a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. He currently teaches at the SF Community Music Center and the SF Waldorf High School. Lisa Mezzacappa Berkeley-based composer, bassist and producer Lisa Mezzacappa has been active in the Bay Area music community for more than 20 years. Her activities as a composer and ensemble leader include ethereal chamber music, electro-acoustic works, avant-garde jazz, music for groups from duo to large ensemble, and collaborations with film, dance, and visual art. Recent projects include Cosmicomics, a suite for electro-acoustic jazz sextet based on Italo’s Calvino’s stories about the origins of the cosmos; and the serial audio opera The Electronic Lover. She is a recipient of the Pauline Oliveros New Genres Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM), and has been commissioned by the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Del Sol Quartet. With Jordan Glenn, she runs the Do-Over Music series at Shapeshifters Cinema in Oakland. Mark Clifford Mark Pascucci-Clifford is a vibraphonist, composer, percussionist, pianist, educator, and producer based in Oakland, CA. A much sought-after performer and improviser, he is deeply involved in new music, jazz, free improvisation, classical music, and indie rock. Along with composing for and leading his own group, "The Dirty Snacks Ensemble," Pascucci-Clifford participates in multiple longstanding musical projects across the Bay Area and the US. In demand as a recording musician and arranger, his playing can be heard on over 30 records to date. His performance experience spans worldwide, and he has had the honor of playing alongside an array of master musicians, including Jeff Parker, Kjell Nordeson, Lisa Mezzacappa, Scott Amendola, Ches Smith, Fred Frith, Joan La Barbara, Vinny Golia, Aram Shelton, Colin Stranahan, Jordan Glenn, Rent Romus, and Ron Miles. He has also performed with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, So Percussion, sfSound, and the Oakland Active Orchestra. Jorge Alabê Brazilian percussionist Jorge Alabê brings the rich musical culture of Brazil to the U.S. as a performing artist and master teacher. His deep history and skill developed as he grew up playing Afro-Brazilian and samba rhythms in Rio de Janeiro, and took him around the world as director of percussion with the legendary performing company Oba Oba. He is an “Alabê” connected with the oldest candomblé house established in Brazil, Casa Branca; the title of “Alabê” means that he has obtained the highest level in drumming and leading of rituals in the candomblé religion and signifies deep experience and authority. Jimmy Biala Jimmy Biala is a music educator teaching specialized programs in Cuban and Brazilian percussion to youth and adult students in San Jose, California. Jimmy is the artistic director of Bloco do Sol San Jose, a faculty member of the California Brazil Camp and a member of the bateria of the Beija-Flor de Nilópolis escola de samba in Rio de Janeiro. Shanna Sordahl Shanna Sordahl (they/she) uses sound to create spaces that emphasize possibilities of transformation while questioning ingrained patterns of perception. Using analog and digital electronics, amplified cello, and multimedia installation as their primary mediums, Shanna views sound immersion and performance as methods for processing and re-contextualizing past experiences while creating new possibilities for the future. As an active member of the experimental and improvised music communities in the Bay Area since 2013, they have played at the Active Music Series, Outsound New Music Summit, Exploratorium, Yerba Buena Gardens, and Berkeley Art Museum, amongst others, and have had performances funded by The Lab and the Latitudes series by Other Minds. They have worked with a variety of composers and artists including Alvin Lucier, Trimpin, Wrekmeister Harmonies, Sarah Davachi, and Indira Allegra; and has worked with dance

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