Arts on the Move: Recent Episodes
Valley Cultural Foundation
Arts on the Move features interviews and discussions on hot topics in the performing arts. Join us on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month for new episodes featuring special guests, talented emerging artists and musicians, and professionals from the industry. We’ll also cover historical performances and speak with prominent community leaders. On occasion major performers will stop by and talk about their work and artistic contributions. There’s something new to be learned with every episode.
This program is produced by the Valley Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization that embraces diversity of talent, community, business and education, by providing live entertainment programs and events in the arts. A vital community resource, the Valley Cultural Foundation provides arts appreciation, music education, and arts outreach for Valley students, as well as programs that support its senior population.
Gay Men's Chorus Of Los Angeles
The chorus was born in 1979 when 99 gay men showed up to be part of something bigger than themselves. Within three months of that rehearsal, founding director Harold Kjellberg led the group through its first major event: the March on Washington, D.C. and the first national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) concert at the Washington Memorial. Now, For over 40 years, the Chorus has built an international reputation for musical excellence while remaining deeply rooted in service to the Los Angeles community. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the last important links to a glorious tradition in music,” GMCLA has more than doubled in size to over 300 members, added professional and artistic staff, toured nationally and internationally, released fifteen CD’s, commissioned more than 300 new works and arrangements and appeared frequently on national television. The Chorus membership donates over 60,000 volunteer hours annually to make GMCLA’s mission of musical excellence and community partnership a reality.
Project Angel Food
Project Angel Food prepares and delivers healthy meals to feed people impacted by serious illness, bringing comfort and hope every day. Project Angel Food is the loving neighbor who knows that food is medicine, food is love, and food nourishes the soul. First created during the Aids Crisis, they believe no one fighting critical illness should go hungry. They personally deliver, with care and compassion, free medically-tailored meals, handmade with healthy ingredients to those in our community who are hungry and alone. As of today they have delivered 14 million meals to those in need.
Abby Posner
Abby Posner has been a working musician in Los Angeles for the past 16 years. She is best known for her ability to play nearly any instrument that she can lay her hands on, twisting genres, and pushing the boundaries of folk and roots music. If you have seen Abby perform live, you know she can play a mean lead-blues guitar solo, or throw down a complex Earl Scruggs banjo riff. You also may have spotted her playing drums, mandolin, or bass while using her looping pedal. In addition to her versatility, she puts passion and soul into everything she plays.This CalArts music graduate has composed music for commercials/TV, films, and radio shows all over the globe
Mark Wallengren
Raised in an entertainment family, it’s no surprise Mark Wallengren found himself in radio. During his 35 years at KOST 103.5 in Los Angeles, California, he won almost every personality award bestowed by the industry including Billboard’s Personality of the Year and Radio & Records’ Major Market Personality of the Year and received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
Paul 'Lobster' Wells
DJ Entrepreneur, Producer, Manager, Musician’s BFF, and Voice-Actor, Paul 'Lobster' Wells is well versed in the music industry. He tells it how it is and shares his insider secrets. His broadcasting career includes stations in the SF Bay Area & LA. He is the owner of Flow Communications where ehe manages, consults, produces TV/radio programs, and focuses on advertising & media.
Plastic Culture
Plastic Culture is a DIY unsigned dynamic duo based out of Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2012, founding member/lead vocalist Kaitlin A. “Sauceyhead” and lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Eddie G. have made it their mission to bring back the heart and soul into rock n’ roll.
Make Believe Friends
Make Believe Friends also known as Lunden Reign are comprised of Laura Espinoza (guitar, composer) and Mindy Milburn (lead vocals). Laura and Mindy turned their debut album into a stage play/musical at the Fringe Festival in Hollywood and American Stranger (the musical) was chosen as "One of the Best of the Fringe" and also received a "Favorite Audience Award."
Maricela Martinez
With over 20 Years Of experience in the mariachi business, Maricela comes from a long line family of mariachi musicians from Jalisco, Mexico and has been a member of the most prestigious mariachis in the United States and Mexico. A proud Mexican immigrant, and now US Citizen from the beautiful city of Guadalajara, Jalisco , Maricela is a passionate supporter of equality pay for her fellow female musicians after personally experiencing this sort of injustice, in a primarily macho dominated genre. Some of the all female groups that Maricela has been a part of and have helped shape her career and apprectation of the musical genre are Mariachi Las Perlitas Tapatias, Mariachi Femenil Internacional, Mariachi Las Adelitas, Mariachi Reynas de Los Angeles, Mariachi Divas and Mariachi Mujer 2000. A master multitasker, Maricela is mother to three children and wife to Julian Martinez and handles the responsibility of booking, promotion, billing, rehearsals, wardrobe and paperwork for all of the performances.
The Delgado Brothers
Propelled by their 2016 INTERNATIONAL BLUES COMPETITION WIN in Memphis, TN, The Delgado Brothers are a well-known name throughout Southern California. For over 30 years they have played their brand of Latin blues, roots, soul, and Reggae together as a family and have been a featured act in the Ventura County Blues Society’s Blues festivals, the 40th Anniversary of Santa Barbara’s Blues Society concert and more. Hailing from East Los Angeles, The Delgado Brothers have long been referred to as Los Angeles’ best kept secret. Their iconic brand of original song crafting is fueled by rock solid musicianship. Their music has been embraced both locally and globally by a wide spectrum of people, undivided by culture, age or socioeconomic status. Driven by fierce independence, unified by family, and fortified by the brotherhood of music, the Brothers deliver the musical goods; topical anthem-worthy songs complemented by call-to-action lyrics, and East L.A. Soul.
Conjunto Jardin
Updating and reinvigorating the lively son jarocho of Veracruz, Mexico, Conjunto Jardín features sisters Libby and Cindy Harding – the band’s name is a play on the Spanish pronunciation of their last name – on the traditional jarana, a small strummed rhythm guitar, and requinto, a 4-string lead guitar plucked with a long bone pua or pick. Their sibling vocals ride atop hard-charging jaranas, driving cajón-and-bass rhythm section and sparkling harp-like keyboards to create a fresh, modern sound that is at once faithfully traditional yet possessed of a rock-influenced drive and accessible edge. Integral members of the Los Angeles family of bands that includes Sabiá and Huayucaltía, Cindy and Libby have played jarocho music virtually all their lives, starting as children learning from and performing with their father, renowned Latin American scholar and harpist Tim Harding.
Nick Mancini
Vibraphonist/Marimbist and Composer NICK MANCINI began his professional career as a drummer, at the age of 15. His undergrad studies earned him an A.S. from Schenectady County Community College and a B.M. from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. By the age of 23, he was a heavily called upon drummer in upstate NY but was feeling the tug of pursuing jazz more avidly. That was when he moved to NYC to attend Manhattan School of Music. His audition won him the prestigious President's Award scholarship and he graduated with a masters degree in jazz performance. Mancini continued honing his craft while cutting his teeth at live gigs all around NYC, earning him a much deserved reputation as a trusted sideman and kick-ass band leader until a gig took him out west and he found his true home in LA. He has arranged and overseen the production of multiple vocal and instrumental jazz records and boasts an ever growing catalog of independently released recordings under his own name.
Danny Janklow
Saxophonist, multi-Instrumentalist, educator, producer & composer Danny Janklow is quickly gaining international recognition for his soulful and innovative musical voice. His heart-felt, passionate, and highly energetic music has reached and inspired thousands of listeners from Japan to Holland to Mexico. His live performances, often described as “emotionally charged” and “vibrant celebrations,” leave his listeners always wanting more…
Cameron Graves
A member of the game-changing, genre-blurring Los Angeles collective, the West Coast Get Down, pianist Cameron Graves is taking the modern jazz scene by storm. Graves’ style was described by his fellow West Coast Get Down member, Kamasi Washington, as an “almost unbelievable combination of modal jazz, romantic era European classical music, and mathematical death metal.” Graves’ debut record on Mack Avenue Records, Planetary Prince, which also serves as Graves’ pseudonym, comes from The Urantia Book, a spiritual tome that emerged from Chicago in the first half of the 20th century and that purports to reveal the truth of humanity through a combination of spiritual and cosmological ideas, including radical retellings of familiar stories from the Bible.
Stephen Kalinich
Originally from New York, Stephen found himself in the world of writing and music as he relocated to the west in the 60s. Stephen has years of professional writing under his belt having worked very closely with famous singers. While under contract as an artist signed to the Beach Boys, Kalinich co-wrote several songs released by the group including “All I Want to Do,” “Be Still,” “Little Bird,” and “A Time to Live in Dreams” with Dennis Wilson. Kalinich is also the lyricist and co-publisher for Brian Wilson’s duet with Paul McCartney “A Friend Like You,” on Wilson’s 2004 solo album release, Gettin’ In Over My Head. Kalinich also has collaborated with a number of recording artists, performers, musicians, and composers including P.F. Sloan, Art Munson, Ken Hirsch, Randy Crawford, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Fernando Perdomo, Odyssey, Clifton Davis, Chris M. Allport, and Diana Ross.
MASON GRANGER- GET LIT FOUNDATION
Mason Granger is the Manager of Public Outreach at Get Lit. Originally from Philadelphia by way of Willingboro NJ, Mason is a poet with 15+ years of professional experience on stage & in classrooms across 49 states and six countries as ⅓ of the performance poetry trio, Mayhem Poets. In 2014, he created Slam Find, a digital platform specifically intended to connect fans of poetry videos with the poets & live poetry venues where these videos are born. Between 2016-2018, he was the official videographer for the Women of the World Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam, and Individual World Poetry Slam, producing hundreds of poetry videos that continue to garner million views across multiple platforms. In the spirit of his mission of always keeping the ‘live’ in ‘live poetry’, Mason hosted the weekly Poet NY open mic at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC from 2017-2019 while also serving as Executive Director of Bowery Arts & Science through 2019.
Salome Agbaroji
Co-hosted by Mark Wallengren Raised in an entertainment family, it’s no surprise Mark Wallengren found himself in radio. During his 35 years at KOST 103.5 in Los Angeles, California, he won almost every personality award bestowed by the industry including Billboard’s Personality of the Year and Radio & Records’ Major Market Personality of the Year and received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
Featuring interviews with our Rock the Valley – Battle of the Bands finalists Terrell Edwards
Referred to as “the perfect blend between Sinatra and Motown,” crooning sensation Terrell Edwards’ style of music is that organic blend that becomes the soundtrack to moments in your life that evokes the fondest of memories.
Plastic Culture
Plastic Culture is a DIY unsigned dynamic duo based out of Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2012, founding member/lead vocalist Kaitlin A. “Sauceyhead” and lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Eddie G. have made it their mission to bring back the heart and soul into rock n’ roll.
Valley Cultural Foundation is excited to bring you our first ever podcast episode featuring the wonderful creators of Sasso Studios. Plus our past Chairman, Joe Andrews, stops by to say hello and give some information about the Valley Cultural Foundation and our community efforts.
Jim Sass, the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog discusses the animation process and the hard work and constant creativity it takes to keep bringing this epic series to life. Then, Melvin Galloway touches on the production aspect of the animation as well as how their social media presence has helped grow their series. Lastly, Brandon Nowell talks about his music and what inspires him to create for the show. We loved having these three as our first guests. Plus don’t miss when Sonic the Hedgehog stops by!
Los Angeles, CA – Valley Cultural Foundation will launch a new podcast “ARTS ON THE MOVE” a podcast that discusses industry tips and tricks with professionals and focuses on giving talented unsigned Emerging Artists a platform to have their voices heard. Each episode will include an established professional that will share how they made it in the business, along with their current and recent projects. Episodes will also include interviews and performances by Emerging Artists and other talented creators. The program is geared to the multi-generational/demographic audience that wants so support the Arts of tomorrow.