|
The Boys tell us about Themselves |
|
 Avi Jacobson -Avi Jacobson’s musical endeavors started with piano lessons at the age of five, trumpet at eight, and tuba at eleven. After moving from his native Philadelphia to Israel at the age of 16, he graduated from the Telma Yellin High School of the Performing Arts in Tel Aviv and received a Bachelor’s degree in composition and choral conducting from the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. Avi served as assistant conductor of the Israel Defense Forces Band and Orchestra and appeared and soloed with a broad variety of Israeli performing ensembles, including the Cameran Singers, the Rinat Israel National Chorus, the Vokal a cappella octet, the bluegrass Golden City String Band, and as guest banjoist and tubist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Avi returned to the United States in 1997 after 27 years abroad, and has performed and soloed with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble
|
|
 LARRY VENZA - Lawrence Venza graduated from the University of the Pacific with a Bachelor of Music in Opera Performance. He apprenticed with the Santa Fe Opera, attended the Opera Workshop in Florence Italy under Tito Gobbi and worked at the Music Academy of the West with Martiel Singher. He has sung major operatic roles with the Sacramento Opera, Pocket Opera, Oakland Opera, Long Beach Opera, San Jose Opera, Marin Opera, Boise Opera and the San Francisco Opera Guild. He has also performed as baritone soloist with the San Francisco Ballet, the Oakland Ballet, the Marin Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Fremont Symphony and the Maui/Honolulu Symphony.
Larry has been performing and touring with the award winning a cappella quartet, the EDLOS, for almost sixteen years.
|
|
 ERIC MORRIS - Eric Morris has been a tenor soloist with such diverse groups as the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, Marin Opera, Canada Opera Piccola and many others. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Eric was the tenor soloist for the first annual Sing-it-Yourself Messiah at the SF Opera House. Mr. Morris has specialized in contemporary music as well, singing many pieces by Benjamin Britten, John Cage, Aaron Kernis, Charles Wuorinen and Igor Stravinsky. Recently Eric has become a faculty
member at Notre Dame de Namur University, teaching private voice lessons, vocal performance, opera workshop, and as a lecturer. He has won awards for his compositions as well, and is an avid bicyclist, accordionist, tennis player and banjoist.
|
|
 CRAIG KNUDSEN - Craig is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Craig’s performance credits span a wide variety of musical styles and performance mediums. As an opera singer, he has performed leading roles with numerous opera companies. These companies include Pocket Opera, Mendocino Music Festival Opera, West Bay Opera, Berkeley Opera, Las Vegas Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera and the Austin Opera in Austin, TX. As a classical singer he has been the tenor soloist in many oratorios with performance groups that include the Santa Clara Chorale, the U.C. Symphony, the Mendocino Music Festival, the Prometheus Symphony, the Valley Chorale Society and the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. He also toured to the East Coast as a tenor soloist with the George Coates Performance Works, performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Craig originally came to the Bay Area in 1982 to join the San Francisco Mime Troupe as a saxophone player/actor. He became a collective member of the troupe, and between 1982 and 1984 toured extensively with the troupe in the U.S. and Canada. Before the Mime Troupe, he resided in Austin, TX. where he was the sax player with the Marcia Ball Band, again touring throughout the United States. Marcia is a grammy nominated recording artist on Rounder Records.
For the last 20 years Craig has also maintained a private vocal studio in Berkeley teaching a broad range of students in genres ranging from opera to rock and blues to musical theater. He is also represented by Stars, the Agency for whom he does on camera and voice-over work. Recently he started his own talent agency, Knudsen Productions. Knudsen Productions books entertainers into venues both locally and nationally.
|