TenleyFest

Saturday, June 1, 2024 from 3-5 pm,

Wisconsin Avenue, Fessenden to River

The event celebrates live music at businesses along Wisconsin Avenue. We will be offering family-friendly music performances and chalk art with local artists. Kids can participate in creating chalk art and add their wish to a wishing tree. Participating businesses are offering store discounts to help celebrate!

Musicians

Taisha Estrada – Coffee Nature

Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Taisha Estrada grew up with grandparents who felt a strong devotion to la patria, their homeland. The rhythms of salsa, bomba, and plena course through Estrada’s veins. Though she moved away from the island when she was young, her passion for Latin culture has only grown with time.

Estrada’s style, which blends Latin jazz, r&b, and pop, is comparable to artists such as Omara Portuondo, Elis Regina, Natalia LaFourcade, and iLe. Lyrically, she is heavily influenced by the sensory experience of the Caribbean, and her work explores topics including life, love and the beautiful and mystifying bond between humanity and the earth. Estrada’s performances evoke power and grace.

Having only just begun her career, Estrada has been very warmly received. She has performed for a wide variety of audiences at venues including Mr. Henry’s, Bossa Bistro, Jojo’s, The National Press Club, the Strathmore’s AMP and the Smithsonian Museum. In 2020, she won second place in Blues Alley’s Ella Fitzgerald vocal competition. In 2021, she was selected as one of the Strathmore’s six Artists-in-Residence. She looks forward to May, when she will have her designated month of performances.

Amy Bormet – Verified Wines

Amy K Bormet is a pianist, vocalist, and composer, known for her fearless free-wheeling style and dedication to creating new music. To collaborate with and celebrate women musicians, she started the annual Washington Women in Jazz Festival in 2011, directing, financing, and performing in an annual festival and women-focused events throughout the year in the DC area.

She has formed several ensembles to perform and record her compositions. Los Angeles-based quintet, AmyAna, co-led with Brazilian drummer Ana Barreiro, released their debut album in 2019, and performed an east coast tour in October 2021. The Harold Trio, an instant composition ensemble with Tina Raymond, drums and Biggi Vinkeloe, saxophone/flute, released their second album, Open Secrets, in 2019. Her quintet, Ephemera, a project of women’s poetry and improvisation, performed a two-week tour of Sweden. Currently she tours and performs her songs with the Amy K Bormet Trio, and No Trick Pony.

Amy’s recordings are available through Strange Woman Records, which she co-owns with guitarist/producer and husband Dr. Matt Dievendorf.

As an educator and a mentor, Amy K Bormet amplifies her performance tours with outreach masterclasses and residencies, recently at the Thailand International Jazz Conference (Mahidol University, January 2020), Los Angeles City College (February 2020), the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (May 2022), and Shepherd University (Jan 2023). She is a teaching artist, collaborating with the Kennedy Center’s newest programming at the REACH to present and perform with her all-women trio “the future of jazz is female” for middle school students.

She continues to serve as a mentor for Grammy U, 202creates, and the summer program for the Washington Jazz Arts Institute, where she has participated since she was a high school student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She received her Jazz Studies Piano Performance BFA from the University of Michigan, where she chairs the alumni board of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Inspired by her University of Michigan professor Geri Allen, Amy went to Howard University, and graduated with a MFA in Jazz Studies.

As her performance career develops, Amy focuses more on presenting her compositions. She began to write orchestral music in 2013 as a part of the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Institute (American Composer’s Orchestra) and premiered several new pieces with her quartet and the Capital City Symphony in February 2017. Her trio and string quartet debuted two sets of new music at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in March 2016. She wrote and performed music for two residencies at the Kennedy Center; Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead for composer/performers and the Mary Lou Williams Emerging Artist Showcase.

Jodie Knox (Vocals) and Alan Etter (Guitar) – Le Chat Noir

Jodie Knox and Alan Etter perform top 40’s music ranging from the 1970s to current day. They have performed at Pearl Street Warehouse, Kirwin’s, Cantina Bambina, Capital Yacht Club, and other venues in the area such as the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. A former member of the Coast Guard, Jodie lives on a boat and is also an award-winning author. Alan Etter is a reporter and news anchor for WTOP Radio in Washington, DC. Their duo, The Seacocks, has a repertoire of nearly three hundred songs and performs almost every week throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

District Irish Dance Demonstration – Bullfrog Bagels (3-4 pm)

District Irish Dance opened in 2018 with a mission to promote individuality in Irish dance through technique, teamwork, & tradition.

We achieve this goal by combining expert instruction led by some of the best professional Irish dancers in the world, with a focus on student inclusion and community building. Running in our own beautiful, spacious studio in Tenleytown DC, we aim to bring out the best in every dancer, offering a well-rounded, rewarding Irish dance experience for all.

Well and Wonder Studio Yoga Demonstration – Bullfrog Bagels (4-5 pm)

Well & Wonder is a space to champion the well-being of the people in our community. Well & Wonder provides curated products, services, and experiences that nurtures our mind, body, and beauty. Well & Wonder was created by women as lifestyle brand for holistic self-betterment.”

Cristian Perez – Steak N’ Egg (3-4 pm)

Cristian Perez is an Argentine-American 7-string guitarist, composer, and arranger based in Northern Virginia. Cristian has performed throughout the world in Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, South Korea, and is very active in the greater D.C. area. His debut album “Anima Mundi” has received numerous international reviews and reached #13 in the CMJ World Music charts in the USA. Cristian is a former Artist in Residence at Strathmore (’15), and won 2 Wammie Awards (‘22) for his work with Project Locrea. Cristian is a Kremona Guitars Artist and MCO Guitars Artist, and has been featured in the industry-standard publication Vintage Guitar Magazine. Cristian graduated from George Mason University with degrees in both Classical Guitar (BM, ’10), and Jazz Studies (MM, ’12).

Cristian has formally studied with Berta Rojas, Larry Snitzler, Rick Whitehead, Ken Hall, Mike Stern, Roland Dyens, Pepe Romero, Gilad Hekselman, Nelson Veras, Steve Herberman, and many more. Cristian’s love of classical music, jazz, pop, soul, and folk music from around the world inspire his creative process and add to his musical palette both as a bandleader and sideman. Cristian is very active performing as a freelancer and collaborates with many musicians of diverse backgrounds. He co-leads world music fusion group Project Locrea and is the founder/leader of the guitar-only ensemble The Guitar Renegades. Cristian is an adjunct professor at NOVA Community College (Alexandria, VA), and is available for masterclasses, clinics, and workshops.

Randy Barrett – Steak N’ Egg (4-5 pm)

Randy is a singer, songwriter, banjoist, fiddler, teacher and luthier. He’s spent the last 40+ years playing music that makes people feel good. That includes bluegrass, country, old time, rockabilly and related stylings. He’s won seven Washington Area Music Awards and performs regularly around the greater DC region and beyond. He is a member of the group Big Howdy and has released three albums: Shake, Rattle & Roar on the Patuxent Music label, Lights of Home and Each & Every Day.

Randy is president of Bluegrass Country radio, America’s oldest bluegrass, old time and Americana station (formerly operated by WAMU FM). Streaming worldwide, it offers a unique blend of musical offerings old and new curated by expert deejays from a library of more than 90,000 recordings. Check it out. You won’t find a station like Bluegrass Country anywhere else on the planet.

Groove Architects – East West Cafe

Comprised of tenor saxophonist Jacob Niederman, bassist Andrew Musselman, and drummer Jake Askarinam, Groove Architects is a local jazz trio known for their modern interpretations on classic standards.

Jacob Niederman is a professional saxophonist, session musician, and teacher. Originally from New Jersey, Jacob graduated from American University in 2022 with a B.A. in music performance and has since continued performing at local venues in DC. While he’s found a home in jazz and improvisation, he has also played with hip-hop, RnB, bluegrass, and funk groups during his short tenure in the DMV area. He is also an experienced session musician, including being featured on the award-winning score for the 2021 short film Dawn. His 2023 debut album Through Glass features a series of original jazz numbers that demonstrates his skills as a composer, band leader, and performer.

Jake Askarinam is a Maryland based drummer, composer, and teacher. He has performed at venues and festivals throughout the DC-Maryland-Virginia area like the Havre De Grace Jazz and Blues Fest, Capitol Hill’s “HillFest,” and the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. Jake has also performed at local clubs and bars including JoJo’s on U Street, Maximon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore, City Perch in Rockville, and the Sultan Room in Brooklyn NYC. He graduated from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary music and is currently doing his masters at the Peabody Institute.

Andrew Musselman is a jazz bassist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who now calls D.C. his home. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a B.A. in jazz performance. Andrew has performed on many iconic stages including The Kennedy Center, 9:30 Club and The Hamilton to name a few. He was also on Sirius XM live radio backing up RnB superstar J. Brown. He runs a weekly jam session every Tuesday at Tonic in Foggy Bottom from 7-10pm. He has an upcoming performance July 5th at Mr. Henry’s, where he will play many of his original tunes.

Mary Victoria-Voutsas – Middle C Music

Mary-Victoria Voutsas is a “powerful” and “enthralling pianist” (Washington City Paper). She has toured extensively as a pianist and classical musician; she has performed solo at many notable venues, including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage & Terrace Theatre, the Lisner Auditorium, and many embassies. Ms. Voutsas is also one of the visiting Artists in Residency for Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts and has done accompaniment/ensemble work for the National Symphony Orchestra and artists such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alison Krauss, and collaboratively performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk series. Ms. Voutsas also has experience in harpsichord performance, choral conducting, and performance and recordings of prepared piano.

Ms. Voutsas has been a part of numerous competitions, such as the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev (2013) and holds awards including the 2023 Gold Medal for the Nobel-Artist International Competition, 1st Place for the 2023 Charleston World Music Competition, 1st Place in the UK International Music Competition, 1st Prize in the Swiss International Music Competition, 2nd Place in the Charleston 20th Century Music Competition (2023), 2023 Bronze Medal for the Carles & Sofia International Piano Competition, 2023 Platinum Medal for the Quebec International Music Festival, and the Watkins Prize of Northern Virginia (2011). She performed as a harpsichord soloist for “What Makes It Great?” accompanied by the Peabody Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Voutsas completed the U.S. west-coast tour of the program, “Sky Send Me a Bird,” which debuted new music written for her and the Greek Chamber Music Project and will continue the east-coast tour in the fall (2023). She has performed in master classes for acclaimed pianists, including Dr. Joseph Banowetz and Christopher O’Reilly. Ms. Voutsas performed for the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday celebration, and the inaugural concert of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. She was praised in an article later that her “performance enthralled the listeners, making the evening a wonderful tribute”. Ms. Voutsas regularly performs new music and has debuted various works including by inti figgis-vizueta. She is an accompanist of the National Children’s Chorus, and collaboratively performs regularly with the Salon Trio, Duo Ancil-Voutsas, and with the Greek Chamber Music Project.

Artists

Liz Ashe

Elizabeth Ashe is a sculptor and poet, who earned her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA in creative writing from Chatham University. Her public art projects have recently been on view at the Bemidji Sculpture Walk, Sukkahwood Festival, and Art All Night DC. Ashe’s poetry has appeared in Bourgeon, Yellow Medicine Review, the Lavender Review, Vagabondage, and Badlands Literary Journal, among many others. Her work is included in Studio Visit Magazine, issue 46. She was lead curator for “Not So Concrete,” an exhibition on the role or architecture in our lives, funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Due to COVID, the exhibit went online. She was just awarded a grant from the same organization, to support her art practice for the next year. Ashe lives with her girlfriend in Washington, D.C., where she has an active studio practice. Ashe currently has a studio residency at Portico Gallery and Studios in Brentwood, MD. She works as the Exhibits and Event Technician for the Katzen Center at American University.

Jarrett Arnold

I was born an identical twin in Schenectady, NY in 1974. I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta and became serious about art at the age of 14, when my father was diagnosed with ALS; he died two years later. After earning a BFA from the University of Georgia in 1997, I walked the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 1998. This allowed me to consider all I had seen, done, and experienced thus far in my life. It changed me in ways I am still realizing. I spent the next three years as a bike messenger in Atlanta. When I carried all of my possessions on my back, I could either work in sketchbooks or stop making art. I chose the first option. I completed two cross-continent bicycle tours in the United States and I continued to work blue collar jobs until I went back to school to support my new family in 2006 at the University of Oregon where I earned a bachelors in biology, a master’s in education, and became a high school science teacher. I taught for two years in a public high school in Springfield, Oregon, and ten years at an elite private school in Washington, DC. Finally, I went back to school in 2021 to earn an MFA in studio art at American University in 2022.

My background, interests, and the importance of justice and neuroscience in education have influenced my artwork, and drive much of my academic research practice. In my artwork however, I tend towards the personal before the political. My research is, like my art, a journey towards understanding not a pronouncement of it. In my research, life, teaching, and art, I am interested in the journey. I ask questions and learn to ask better questions through the asking. As a young man and then as a hiker, I discovered that obdurate circumstances teach me; as a parent I found that my children teach me; as a teacher, I discovered that my students teach me. Each person I interact with gives me another opportunity to learn. Every day I hope to understand more. I hope to become better at teaching, parenting, learning, and making art by continuing to live and staying open to experiences I record in my sketchbooks.

I work in sketchbooks every day. The notes I take, the journal entries and poems I write, as well as the sketches and visual experiments I record in my sketchbooks form the center of my artistic practice. My work usually starts with drawing and painting, though I work in all mediums and the detritus of life often finds its way into my 2-D and sculptural work. I let chance initiate many of my images; each painting I create is a portrait of the moments in time that lead to now—combined with the realities I cannot avoid.

Monica Perdomo

With over eight years of experience as a visual arts educator, I am passionate about teaching and inspiring students of diverse backgrounds and abilities to explore and express their creativity through various mediums and techniques. I have a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, and I am fluent in Spanish and English.

While at St. Pius X Regional School, I built a bilingual STEAM classroom and introduced Figma UX graphics to 5th-8th graders. I share the school’s vision of fostering academic excellence, social justice, and spiritual growth, and I strive to create a supportive and inclusive learning environment for my students.

In my previous role as a visual arts educator at PGCPS, I taught the arts program at Frances Fuchs and Thomas Stone offering painting, printmaking, sculpture, and paper-making to over 800 students. I also collaborated with other teachers and staff to integrate the arts across the curriculum and promote cultural awareness and appreciation. I used my skills in school systems, coaching and mentoring, and visual arts to design and implement engaging and differentiated lessons, assess student progress, and showcase student work in exhibitions and events within the community. I am proud of the positive impact that I had on my students’ academic and personal development, and the feedback that I received from parents and administrators.