Voces [ages 12-18]

Brandon H. Allen has been with ZUMIX since 2012, teaching private voice lessons and the Voces Ensemble. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, arranger and music educator living and working in the Greater Boston area. With a starting foundation in gospel music growing up in church, Brandon went on to study classical and Negro spirituals, touring with The Boys Choir Of Harlem while still in middle school. There, he got to perform alongside greats like Kathleen Battle and Aretha Franklin. In high school, he performed alongside Whitney Houston on Good Morning America with the Talent Unlimited Chorus before moving to Texas and earning the 1st Chair Bass 2 position in the TMEA competition, earning him several scholarships to study classical music and opera. While studying opera, he realized his passion was contemporary music (songwriting, production and business) and transferred to Berklee College of Music. There, he performed with Bootsy Collins, Patrice Rushen, Michael McDonald, the late John Blackwell Jr., Bobby McFerrin and many others while earning his degree in music business. Along with teaching at ZUMIX, Brandon is a lead singer with Honey Train Music Services (Weddings & Corporate) , a worship team musician with New Roads Catholic Community, music director for the upcoming new hybrid film and musical stage play “Donuts and Stardust”, and is working on his first solo EP. His cover rendition of “Wind Beneath My Wings” was used by Miss Massachusetts Elizabeth Pierre in December 2021 for the talent portion of the Miss America 2022 competition.

Jireh Calo is a multi-awarded global Filipina vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with an extensive and eclectic career as an international performing and recording artist. Her music embraces the spirit of freedom, improvisation, and exploration and draws much inspiration from jazz traditions, sacred oral traditions, African and Latin rhythms, hip hop culture, soul music, and a variety of world music. She graduated summa cum laude in Contemporary Writing & Production from Berklee College of Music and holds a master’s in Global Jazz Performance from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. Born and raised in the Philippines and currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, Jireh remains active as an interdisciplinary artist and educator, deepening the connections between her music, visual art, and movement practice while collaborating with a diverse mix of artists, teaching music to youth and being deeply involved with her local and global community.