The PADX Spain Delegation
The Inaugural PADX Delegation Heads to WOMEX Next Month
Our first ever PADX trip takes place next month! Our inaugural PADX Fellow delegation of ten artists/agents/managers from music disciplines will head to A Coruña, Spain to participate in WOMEX — Worldwide Music Expo.
"The delegation will experience this global music hub together, under the banner of WAA," explained Lucero Cortez, PAD Program Manager. "We'll have an exhibiting area for folks to learn about the PAD program and the PADX delegation's work. We also have a pitch session planned, to which we're inviting agents and programmers attending WOMEX from all over the world to learn about the exceptional work of our delegation. A special reception will follow to facilitate opportunities for networking and planning one:one meetings."
PADX Fellows, selected via an application process, receive a subsidy towards their trip cost.
PADX is an initiative of the Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) program, developed to expand international markets and generate overseas touring opportunities for U.S. performing artists. PADX launched in September 2022 thanks to a new partnership and $300,000 grant award from the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration’s (ITA) Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) which facilitates relationship-building with international partners and provides travel support for delegations of artists to participate in overseas conferences and events. Learn more about PADX here.
Meet the PADX Spain Delegation
Antonio M. Gómez | Trio Guadalevin | Artist | PADX Fellow
Antonio M. Gómez works across education, the arts and public media. He is the Director of Community Engagement & Extended Learning at Tacoma Arts Live, is the current WAA Board President, and has served on the WAA board since 2019. A working percussionist who focuses on Afro Latin and Mediterranean genres, he co-founded Trío Guadalevín, and works with Tango del Cielo and Pacific MusicWorks, in addition to curating Deep Roots, New Branches for Early Music Seattle.
Image courtesy of Antonio M. Gómez
Bryan Yamami | TAIKO Project | Artist
TAIKOPROJECT was founded in 2000 in Los Angeles, California by a group of young, emerging Taiko drummers led by Bryan Yamami and Masato Baba. The group continues to define a modern American style of Taiko, blending traditional forms with an innovative and fresh aesthetic.
TAIKOPROJECT first made waves when they became the first American taiko group to win the prestigious Tokyo International Taiko Contest in 2005, besting all of the Japanese Taiko groups in the competition. That year, they were cast in the Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial, the first and still only national advertising campaign to prominently feature Taiko.
Image courtesy of Bryan Yamami
Dorian Wood | Artist
Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her artistic practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people.
Image credit: Laura Pardo
Jailton “Dendê” Macedo | Dendê & Band | Artist
Dendê is a percussionist, singer, composer, bandleader, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist. He’s been a professional musician since the age of 14, when he appeared in the frontline of Timbalada, Carlinhos Brown’s superstar percussion ensemble. Since 2001, he’s been splitting his time between the US and Bahia, working with his own ensembles.
His flagship group, Dendê & Band reflects the cross-section of his deep roots in traditions like samba de roda and Candomblé and his eclectic musical appetite for other global rhythms like rumba, afrobeat and mbalax. Over the past two decades, Dendê & Band have performed at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles; the KW Latinfest in Canada; the Penang World Music Festival in Malaysia; the Kalalu Festival in Saint Lucia, Summerdance and Old Town School in Chicago the Lincoln Center Atrium in NYC among many others.
Image courtesy of Dendê & Band
Janinah Burnett | Artist
World-renowned soprano Janinah Burnett, lovingly named “La Janinah” by adoring Italian fans, is a singing phenomenon and one of the most accomplished and versatile singers of her generation. Sought after for her shimmering and refined vocal quality, as well as her versatility, Janinah is one of the few singers to perform roles on both Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera stage while maintaining an international performance presence.
On her debut recording project entitled Love the Color of Your Butterfly, Janinah collaborates with some of the world’s finest jazz musicians to re-imagine the boundless musical elements of her life and career including opera, art song, oratorio and the American indigenous music genres: spirituals, blues, jazz, and soul.
Image courtesy of Janinah Burnett
José A. Curbelo | American Patchwork Quartet | Manager
José A. Curbelo has over 20 years of experience in arts and culture management and production, from academic fieldwork, publishing, press relations, and recording, to booking and international tour management. He has booked and produced North American tours for musical artists from Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, performing at venues such as: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (Saint Paul, MN), Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles, CA), Festival International de Louisiane (Lafayette, LA), and Carrefour mondial de l’accordeón (Montmagny, QC, Canada).
As director of Ocho Bajos Music he also served as co-producer of an album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the non-profit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He has worked with Home Team Mgmt since 2016.
Image credit: Jack Randall
Kenny Endo | Artist
One of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm, Kenny Endo is at the vanguard of the Taiko genre, continuing to carve new territory in this Japanese style of drumming. A performer, composer, and teacher of Taiko, he has received numerous awards and accolades, including special recognition in Japan — he was the first foreigner to be honored with a “natori,” a stage name, in Japanese classical drumming. Kenny Endo is a consummate artist, blending Japanese Taiko with original melodies and rhythms. He is known for his collaborations with artists from around the world.
Image credit: Shuzo Uemoto
Marian Liebowitz | Agent
Marian Liebowitz is an acclaimed musician, professor, consultant, and executive director with international credentials. As a professional classical clarinetist, she has appeared on stages the world over.
Marian has served as a booking agent since 1992, when she founded the San Diego State University Adams’ Project Performers Network. After retiring as a clarinetist, Marian founded her own professional booking aency, and Marian Liebowitz Artist Management (MLAM) has flourished ever since.
Image courtesy of Marian Liebowitz
Queen Esther | Artist
Described as “the unknown queen of Americana” (LIRA), Queen Esther’s creative output musically is the culmination of several critical Southern elements, not least of which are years of recording and touring internationally as front-woman for several projects with her mentor, harmolodic guitar icon James ‘Blood’ Ulmer, including a stint in his seminal band Odyssey.
Raised in Atlanta, Georgia and rooted in Charleston, South Carolina’s culturally rich and enigmatic Lowcountry, a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and continue to inform her work, she embraces a deep and abiding love of lost American history along with her wide-ranging and ever changing sonic influences, as she leans heavily on the bluing of the note.
Image courtesy of Queen Esther
Todd Marcus | Artist
Bass clarinetist, composer, and bandleader Todd Marcus is one of the few jazz artists worldwide to focus their work primarily on the bass clarinet. His music swings hard with both a fiery and introspective intensity while maintaining a strong lyrical sensibility.
Self-taught in jazz theory and composition, Todd’s compositions draw largely on straight-ahead jazz and classical influences, and over recent years have increasingly explored the Middle Eastern sounds of his Egyptian-American heritage. Marcus’s work includes regular performances in Baltimore, Washington DC, New York, and Philadelphia as well international performances, clinics, and radio plays. He was a featured artist in 2017 Jazz Tales Festival in Egypt; 2015 Cairo Jazz Festival in Egypt; and in 2005 at the First World Bass Clarinet Convention in Rotterdam, Holland.
Image credit: Gary Young Photography