2004: C.J. Reaven Borosque & Ellen Weller

C.J. Reaven Borosque is a San Francsisco based, Sound Artist, Abstract Visual artist and Poet. Having both a father and a brother who are jazz musicians, Borosque was exposed to a great variety of music at an early age.

Many a day she would sit at the Cooper House in Santa Cruz and listen to her father play jazz standards on his vibraphone. Her education as a musician started early when she began playing the violin at the age of five. From there she moved to the clarinet, and had a brief spin with trumpet. In her late teens she began playing saxophone. Although she fully expected at this time to become a jazz musician (and thus follow in her brothers and fathers footsteps) Her own musical interests were taking her elsewhere. She became fascinated by Industrial, punk, metal and harsh sounding music. And would spend hours making tape compilations comprised of snippets of people speaking and a wide range of samples of anything that caught her ear, be it rap or country or demonic chanting.

Her fascination with aggressive sounding music, led her to guitar. And her association with saxophonist/improviser Rent Romus led her to experimental music (in particular: noise). She is currently most often seen working with small sets of noise pedals and she very often incorporates turntables in her musical experimentation. She has performed with Kaylee Coombs in the ambient experimental duo Swoon Doll, Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland, The Abstractions, and John Berndt among others.

Flutist/Saxophonist/Pianist/Ethnomusicologist/ Improvisor-Composer Ellen Weller divides her musical performance activities between jazz, klezmer and improvisation. One of the original members of Maiden Voyage, an all-female big band out of Los Angeles, Weller has performed with Vanessa Tomlinson, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Clocked Out Orchestra, Skeleton Key Orchestra, Michael Dessen, various members of the Trummerflora Collective, Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble, the Binacional Mambo Orchestra and the Weller Family Jazz Quartet. Her compositions have been performed in New York, Detroit, San Diego and Los Angeles, and she composed and performed music for the acclaimed 1996 UCSD revival production of "Terminal" directed by Joseph Chaiken. Ellen received the Ph.D. in music (Critical Studies and Experimental Practices) from UCSD in 2002. She has taught music at all levels, from kindergarten, junior and senior high, through community colleges, and she currently teaches World Music courses at California State University, Long Beach and the University of California, San Diego. Her research has focused on multicultural performance in San Diego, public arts funding and cultural tourism, with recent interest on a cross-cultural approach to the music of war.

Artist (photo by Photographer)