Jan 6, 2022
FROM JOCELYN HSU
Taiwanese-American violinist Jocelyn Hsu is a performer based in Orlando, Florida. She is an established electric violinist and vocalist, having performed in major venues all across the country, and is also a session violinist at Solar Studios for Grammy-nominated producer Michael Franklin. This past year, Jocelyn headlined as a soloist at the 2021 Osceola County Fair and joined Disturbed for the Welcome to Rockville Festival at Daytona International Speedway. She lent her talents for Robby Steinhardt's posthumous solo album Not in Kansas Anymore, which was released in late October and recently nominated for Best Album, Best Song, and Best Album Cover on the Prog Report Awards. She also collaborated with Utah-based composer John Paul Hayward, recording remote orchestral tracks for his latest album Generations: A Symphonic Tale, which pays homage to video game soundtracks from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Zelda, and more. In addition, she recorded on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Via Divina: The Celtic Way project for their Study Abroad/Global Engagement & Justice program.
Upcoming projects include a string track on Benjamin Neil's upcoming album, Live Forever, recording for Jon Anderson's 1000 Hands: Part 2 album, and debuting with Oak Avenue, Orlando's newest folk rock cover band. Jocelyn continues making regular appearances at the House of Blues Orlando, Mathers Social Gathering, Universal Studios, and Ole Red.
Website: www.jocelynhsuviolin.com
FROM RICHARD BRADY
This has been a challenging time for all Musicians but things are starting to get better for live music. I am a member both here and Atlanta and I have been doing recordings and a live tent series with Atlanta opera. Also 38 performances of nutcracker with the Atlanta ballet. Here in Florida there have been a few performances with some community groups and local ensembles that have kept music fun. Happy holidays to everyone.
FROM JEREMIE MICHAEL
Jeremie Michael, pianist and keyboardist, has been playing at Magic Kingdom’s Casey’s Corner as a sub since October. In November, he was on stage at the D23 Convention, and he looks forward to the opportunity to join the band for Disney on Broadway at Epcot in early 2022. He will ring in the New Year with the orchestra for the tour of Tootsie in their run in Naples, FL. Jeremie holds a faculty position at Florida Southern College as collaborative pianist and, in addition to other projects, continues to teach private piano, theory, and composition students in person and online.
Website: www.jeremiemichael.com
FROM ADAM GRIM
This year has brought a lot of change in our lives, but it does not stop us from pursuing music as a life-long career! Teaching during COVID has been a totally different struggle, especially in Title 1 schools, but luckily not everything is doom and gloom. Within the school, we just had the first concert given in over two years!
Outside of school, I have had three compositions reviewed by the Percussive Arts Society in Percussive Notes (and can be found at permus.com), and had an ensemble win Third Prize in the Medici International Music Competition for Chamber Music with my composition called "The COVID Awakening." This work won first prize in the 21st Century Talents International Music Competition for Composition as well. It was my first true chamber work written and recorded by myself during the pandemic, and carried itself highly through the North Star New Music Festival at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri before moving onto international acclaim. These were my first international awards not supported by a school or university, and my quartet colleagues deserve some appreciation as well.
Moving to Orlando, I hoped I would see the potential for new opportunities. I hope you all find some of those opportunities and successes in 2022, and I hope we can make the next year better than any before. My website is adamgrim.weebly.com.
FROM JEFFREY S. WILLEY
The Smokin’ Torpedoes are now the Shuffle Tones and performing regularly throughout Central Florida. Always a great choice! The Shuffle Tones are a professional 4-piece blues band and each member has performed extensively at upscale venues, special events, concerts, festivals and conventions throughout their careers, often appearing with internationally recognized artists.
We're always interested in finding cool new networking opportunities to bring our upbeat, good time live entertainment to and specialize in dynamic volume control and adapting to almost any situation, large or small, while interacting and appealing to wide and diverse audiences. We’re currently booking well into the future and would like to discuss working with you. Please feel free to check our schedule and contact any of our clients as references. You will not be disappointed!
FROM STEVE TIRPAK
Steve Tirpak, a new member of Local 389, having recently relocated to Orlando from Philadelphia, arranged the strings on Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak's collaborative album “An Evening with Silk Sonic.” Songs from the album “Leave The Door Open” and “Smokin’ Out The Window” both opened at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 along with “Skate”, “After Last Night” and “Put On A Smile.”
In addition to arranging and producing, Steve plays trombone, trumpet and piano. Earlier this year he prepared music for the hit vocal reality TV show “Alter Ego” on FOX, “That’s My Jam” on Peacock, “Wheel of Freestyle” on Jimmy Fallon, The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation “The Event” in Las Vegas and “The Soul Train Awards.”
Most recently Steve arranged horns for Paul Stanley of “Kiss” on his new album which is scheduled to be released early in 2022.
More information about Steve can be found on his website and Instagram:
https://pakmanmusik.com
@pakmanmusik
FROM BRANDON MILLER
Brandon Kyle Miller is a CFMA member from Orlando. He plays electric and double bass, teaches at Eastern Florida State College, and composes for his band ANSWERS (or playfully titled, “The Name of the Band is Answers”).
Over the last two years, he worked with Chris Belt on guitar (Executive Director at Timucua Arts Foundation), Beatriz Ramirez on oboe (Opera Orlando), Caitlin Pequignot on violin (Airtable), and Thad Anderson (Associate Professor of Music at UCF) on vibrakit—a combination of vibraphone and drum kit with effects—on the ANSWERS album. It’s title, “A New Path to Touch the Earth,” represents the challenges of navigating quarantine, social media, personal life, and art during a pandemic. The album is a perfect blend of the group’s contemporary-classical-meets-open-improvisation, with nods to the 70’s great prog rock bands while still sounding completely fresh. The piece itself is a 30-minute journey in three movements.
ANSWERS performed the piece in its entirety at the University of Central Florida as part of Thad Anderson’s faculty recital, as well as at Eastern Florida State College in Cocoa, Florida as a part of Brandon Miller’s faculty recital. The band gladly recorded the full album later that week at Phat Planet Studios in Orlando, Florida on September 10, 2021. ANSWERS is absolutely thrilled to have John McEntire (Soma Studios) of the band Tortoise mixing and mastering the album, with a slated release for early 2022.
Apart from ANSWERS, Brandon performs locally in Orlando with Joey Fatone’s Fat Tones Band, at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Windermere, and much more. He performed six musicals in 2021 at Orlando Shakes, Osceola Arts, Theater West End in Sanford, the Abbey in Orlando, the Garden Theater, and accompanying West Orange High School. He recently played bass on and produced Adam Scharf’s new record, “This Wild Little Lifetime,” during the pandemic–now available on most streaming platforms. Brandon’s next big project in 2022 is music directing the 50th anniversary concert of the 70’s hit record “The Way” by Bobby Callender.
