July Sprouts Summer Special

Laura Macias, Sprouts Coordinator & Piano Instructor, received her Bachelors in Music Composition and Theory from the Petrie School of Music at Converse College and her Masters in Music Composition from the Longy School of Music, where she was awarded the Nadia Boulanger scholarship.  In 2005 she was selected to be part of the European American Music Alliance, where she was awarded a scholarship to study composition at L'Ecole Normale in Paris, France.  In 2008, she completed the Kodaly Music Training at the New England Conservatory.  Laura is an active composer in the Boston area.  Her musical catalog includes compositions for chamber orchestra, art songs, chamber music and incidental music for the theatre.  Laura was recently selected as a composer to participate in the 2011 Vancouver International Art Song Institute.  Her music was also recently featured in concerts given by the Boston New Music Initiative ensemble.  Besides writing art music, Laura enjoys working with children.  Laura has been working to map a path for our youngest members to actively participate in group programs and to increase and deepen their involvement as they grow.  She has a strong belief in developing music fundamentals and her youthful personality makes learning fun.

Chris Lee-Rodriguez is a musician, songwriter, and educator. He graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music with a B.M. degree in music education and is currently working on his M.M. in music education at Boston University. While at Berklee, Chris studied under world-class jazz musicians, including David Gilmore, Freddy Bryant, and Marcello Pellitteri. During his time at BU so far, he has studied with renowned music education scholars, including Andre deQuadros and Kelly Byllica. Chris has spent the past eight years teaching music in the nonprofit and public sectors in Massachusetts and New York. Some of these organizations include Highbridge Voices in the Bronx, and Midori & Friends in Harlem. He currently is a teaching artist both at ZUMIX, where he teaches ukulele, private guitar and bass lessons and two ensembles, as well as in the Brookline School District, where he teaches guitar/ukulele, music production, and fourth-grade instrumental classes. He has also received grants to study Brazilian music under musicians such as Pedro Martins, Michael Pipoquinho, and Kapital, as well as flamenco music in Spain with Jorge el Pisao. In addition to teaching, Chris also tours nationally and internationally performing with his band, Really From, which released its third critically acclaimed album in March 2021. Really From’s music has been featured in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and WBUR. His philosophy as a musician and an educator is that teaching music is the ultimate tool for social change and development because it gives students the opportunity to build community, express themselves, and change the world around them.

Tony Batey is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer based in Boston. Growing up equally enamored with the rock and soul music of the '60s and '70s and the thrills and challenges of being an aspiring jazz saxophonist, she soon found herself writing music of her own to, at once, reconcile and fuse these disparate interests. Throughout high school, she was the bassist, singer, and principal songwriter for jazz-punk band Perfect Girl. Their one and only album, Spice Pictures, centers itself around a paradigm of rhythmic ferocity and melodic sweetness that would become a through-line of her output going forward. Tony attended Berklee College of Music, studying saxophone improvisation and receiving a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Writing and Production in 2022. A recent signee to Dollhouse Lightning Records, she currently plays saxophone and guitar in progressive dance-punk outfit Cheap City and has written, self-recorded, and self-produced a solo album, This is Yesteryear, that uses the rock and soul music of her upbringing as a foundational vehicle for exploring thoroughly modern emotional and sonic modes. In addition, she has provided the soundtrack for Dean Lent’s upcoming film, Feeling Randy. From being a freelance saxophone instructor to a lead teaching artist for the Cantata Singers’ 2023 youth songwriting program, she has always found immense joy and gratification in working with budding musicians and finding the aspects of music, art, and the world at large that spark excitement within them.

An avid explorer of sound and rhythm, different world cultures and innovative approaches to music, Manila-born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jireh Calo is an ever-evolving composer, arranger, and producer.  Growing up mostly self-taught, her music embraces the spirit of freedom, improvisation and exploration. She draws much inspiration from jazz traditions, indigenous oral traditions, African and Latin Afro/Cuban rhythms, American folk, hip hop culture, soul music, and a variety of world music. Jireh remains active today as an artist-educator, performing and creating music while working closely with the youth, teaching and being deeply involved with her local and global community. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Writing & Production from the Berklee College of Music and a master’s in Contemporary Performance (Global Jazz Concentration) from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. She has performed extensively around the Philippines and in Boston, where she is currently based, and has performed international festivals in Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Los Angeles.