Artistic Directors

  • Beth Ross Buckley is the Flutist, Founder, and Artistic Director of Camarada. For 29 years, Ms. Ross Buckley has produced groundbreaking chamber music events throughout San Diego, combining great music, cuisine, and art. Since Camarada’s inception, she has expanded the scope of the organization to include performances at diverse venues throughout greater San Diego, new commissions for concert repertoire, and an exciting roster of performing artists.

    Ms. Ross Buckley received her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from St. Olaf College and her Master of Music from the University of Minnesota. While she enjoys all genres of music, tango music is her passion. Ms. Ross Buckley boasts an extensive performance resume that includes a twenty-five-year tenure as principal flute of the former San Diego Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra Nova and engagements with a variety of musical theatre companies throughout Northern and Southern California. Ms. Ross Buckley also runs a portrait photography business, Beth Ross Buckley Photography.

  • Fred Benedetti is an emeritus professor of music at Grossmont College where he was chair of guitar studies for 38 years. He is currently a member of the guitar faculty at San Diego State University. Mr. Benedetti has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, Czechia, Japan, and Taiwan. In 1986 Mr. Benedetti was one of twelve performers chosen worldwide to perform in the prestigious Andrés Segovia Master Class. As a BMI-affiliated composer, he has written numerous contemporary pieces for the international CD library company Network Productions. 

    After working as a studio musician and composer for 40 years, Mr. Benedetti’s music and performing is featured on over 150 digital and vinyl recordings and numerous radio, television, and feature films. He has shared the stage with Dave Brubeck and Luciano Pavarotti and has performed for dignitaries such as the King and Queen of Malaysia, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ravi Shankar. In 2023, Fred was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame.

  • Praised for his “apt eloquence” and “persuasive, stylish ardor” (San Diego Story), violist Travis Maril is an accomplished chamber musician and innovative pedagogue. He is proud to have performed with Camarada for over a decade. 

    As violist of the Hyperion Quartet, he was a top-prize winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and performed on NPR’s Performance Today. His chamber music collaborators have included members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Miró Quartet, and principal players of the Cleveland Orchestra, the LA Phil, and the Dallas, San Diego, and Pittsburgh Symphonies. Festival appearances include La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Schleswig-Holstein, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Ojai, the Banff Institute, and Mainly Mozart.

    Travis was the gold medal winner of the 2021 Violympics, an online competition of over a hundred violinists and violists organized by Boston Symphony Concertmaster Nathan Cole, with a panel of judges including Augustin Hadelich, James Ehnnes, and Gil Shaham.

    In the fall of 2025, Travis begins an appointment as Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of New Mexico. Prior to that, Travis taught at San Diego State University’s School of Music and Dance for nearly two decades. At SDSU, Travis co-founded the String Academy, a pre-college program for string students. He was awarded Outstanding SDSU Music Faculty Member in 2021.

    On his website, www.travis-maril.com, Travis writes regularly on string pedagogy and leads online workshops and educational programs through which he works with hundreds of violists from all over the world. Travis earned his degrees at the University of Southern California and Rice University, studying with Donald McInnes, Ralph Fielding, Karen Ritscher, Che-Yen Chen, and Nathan Cole.

  • Duncan Moore grew up in Des Moines, Iowa and began drum studies at the age of eight. He majored in music at the University of Iowa, studied with Tom Davis, and played with local jazz groups until his move to San Diego in 1977. Over the last forty-five years, he has performed and/or recorded with many national and local artists, including: Ray Brown, Kim Carnes, Dave Carpenter, Joe Chambers, Billy Childs, Holly Hofmann, Rickie Lee Jones, Kenny Loggins, Pat Metheny, James Moody, Peter Sprague, Steve Wilson, and Mike Wofford. Duncan has a home studio where he records and provides drum instruction.

  • Dana Burnett is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Camarada and has directed and performed with Camarada for over a decade. She has been on the faculties of the University of North Carolina, University of Wisconsin, and Vanderbilt University. Ms. Burnett was awarded the Alban Berg Fellowship at the Schubert Institute-Austria and received an Artist Diploma and accompanying prize from that institution. She has a Bachelor of Music from San Diego State University, a Master of Science in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Vanderbilt University, and has completed post-graduate work at Indiana University with Michel Block and John Ogdon. A soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Burnett has performed at Carnegie Hall, New York City; the Frick Collection, Pittsburgh; Dame Myra Hess Series, Chicago; Academy of Music, Philadelphia; and the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. Dana has been fortunate to have collaborated with Leonard Rose, Hilary Hahn, Nathaniel Rosen, Martin Chalifour, Benita Valente, Paula Robison, and many more musicians in her chamber music career. She has premiered chamber works including those by Jean-Michel Damase, Richard Wernick, Judith Zaimont, Gunther Schuller, and the last chamber work of Stephen Albert. She was also a yearly concerto soloist during her eighteen-year tenure as a member of the piano faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. Other festivals include Hidden Valley Seminars Flute Camp, Virginia Arts Festival, and the Skaneateles Music Festival. She has recorded for the Naxos and Arabesque labels and has been featured on WHYY, Philadelphia's “Fresh Air,” and NPR. Dana performs with California Chamber Orchestra and Classics 4 Kids and was the symphony pianist with the North Carolina and Virginia Symphonies. Ms. Burnett is on the music faculty at Cal State San Marcos and an active member of North San Diego MTAC, with a private piano studio in Carlsbad.

  • Matthew Armstrong began teaching music at San Marcos High School in 2004 and became the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the San Marcos Unified School District in 2015. Named San Marcos High School Teacher of the Year and San Marcos Unified Teacher of the Year in 2013, as well as Music Educator of the Year for the California Music Educators Association in 2015, Mr. Armstrong is a highly sought-after performer, clinician, arranger, and arts advocate. As a performer, he regularly plays in San Diego Symphony chamber ensembles, has held the position of Principal Percussionist with the California Chamber Orchestra, and works throughout San Diego in jazz and Dixie ensembles. Mr. Armstrong is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, the Southern California Band and Orchestra Association, California Music Educators Association, and the National Association for Music Education. He teaches and performs as an Innovative Percussion Artist.

2025-2026 Camarada Artists

  • Ruslan Biryukov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and received his formal music education at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in Russia (Master of Music, M.A.), and the USC Thornton School of Music in United States (Artist Diploma and Graduate Certificate). Biryukov has won numerous awards worldwide, including the Grand Prize at the 17th Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition. He is currently the Temecula Valley Symphony Principal Cellist and Artist-in-Residence, founder of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Cello Quartet, and Artistic Director of the Positive Motions Concert Series in San Diego. Recent solo appearances include the Redlands Bowl Symphony, Marina Del Rey Symphony, Glendale Philharmonic, and San Bernardino Symphony. His chamber music accolades include performances with world-renowned violinist Midori at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, cellist Kirill Rodin at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, and members of the Ysaÿe Quartet. Additionally, Mr. Biryukov is the only musician in the world to be granted a US Commercial Pilot license and Certified Flight Instructor single & multi-engine instrument license (SEL, MEL, CFII, MEI). Ruslan has many award-winning students throughout the nation and continues teaching in Los Angeles and Temecula.

  • Born in Tijuana in 1971, Hugo Crosthwaite grew up in the coastal town of Rosarito, Baja California, ten miles south of the international border. A graduate of San Diego State University in 1997 with a BA in Applied Arts and Sciences, Crosthwaite is a draftsman who focuses on the figure, often using pencil or charcoal. He works in a linear fashion, allowing drawings to develop with great detail. All the work is created with improvisation; narratives develop as works are created.

    Crosthwaite combines portraiture, comic book references, urban signage, commercial facades, and mythology in dense, layered compositions. Working primarily in black and white, Crosthwaite brings characters from allegory and popular media to the stage of the human condition, interacting with the architecture of Tijuana and dreams of the border. The work reflects the character of frenetic urban settings, a border in flux. Fear, hope, pain and celebration are represented together as Crosthwaite elevates the ordinary person to heroic levels showing the trials they endure while surviving in contemporary society.

    In 2019 Crosthwaite was awarded First Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC for the fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, American Portraiture Today. Crosthwaite’s prize-winning stop-motion drawing animation, A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez (2018), recounts a woman's journey from Tijuana, Mexico to the United States in pursuit of the American dream.

    Whereas stop-motion animations and public mural-making capture Crosthwaite's creation process, the artist's IN MEMORIAM series and other temporary, monumental murals highlight the deconstruction of his work. These are murals that have short lifespans—narratives, once complete, are deconstructed slowly, piece by piece.

  • Rebecca Jade is an accomplished singer/songwriter and has been able to turn her love for music into a career for close to two decades. She has performed with some of the most sought-after musicians all over the world and her versatility has allowed her many unique opportunities to perform. Rebecca has toured with the Queen of Percussion, Sheila E, since 2017 and appeared in the Emmy-nominated show, Let’s Go Crazy: The GRAMMY Salute to Prince that aired on CBS in April 2020. She also sang background vocals for Sir Elton John at the 2020 Academy Awards. Rebecca has done multiple concerts at Spaghettini in Seal Beach and was the singer in the Houseband at Anthology in San Diego for 5 1⁄2 years. Rebecca Jade earned two San Diego Music Awards in 2022 for “Best Music Video” & “Best R&B/Funk/Soul Song.” An accomplished jazz vocalist, she released an album of Cole Porter classics titled Planet Cole Porter with arranger/producer/jazz guitar virtuoso Peter Sprague. This album was awarded the 2018 “Best Jazz Album” at the San Diego Music Awards. Rebecca graduated from UC Berkeley on a full basketball scholarship with a degree in Theatre & Performance Studies, has earned her MBA in Marketing from the University of Phoenix and advanced her musical education by studying Jazz Theory and Classical Voice at Grossmont College. Rebecca is an avid motorcycle rider, has an affinity for classic cars, and loves the arts community as a whole.

  • Carolina Jaurena has been teaching dance and performing for over twenty years and dancing tango with Camarada for six years. The height of her professional career was her role as a primary dancer in the feature film “Random Hearts,” directed by Sidney Pollack. She has performed in Eternal Tango with Hector del Curto, the show Tanguero, Tango! Soul and Heart with the Choral Arts Society of Washington at Kennedy Center, and the off-Broadway Show Tango House, produced by Juan Fabbri. Her international workshops and performances include Canarias Tango in Spain, 100 Años de Tango at the Solis Theater in Uruguay, The Theaterhaus in Stuttgart, Alte Synagoge in Hechingen, and Landesakademie in Ochsenhausen. She has performed and taught at many tango festivals including Tango Norte Festival in Sweden, Yale Tango Fest, Tango Fest Houston, and New Orleans Tango Festival. Carolina is sought after as a dancer and teacher and renowned for her precision of movement, professionalism, and charisma. In 2023, Carolina and her dance partner Andrés Bravo performed with The United Nations Festival Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

  • Adrian Evarkiou-Kaku began honing his craft as a violinist at just eight years old, earning him membership in the San Diego Youth Symphony. As a teen, he attended La Jolla Country Day School and served as Concertmaster of the school orchestra. He later transferred to Interlochen School for the Arts in Traverse City, Michigan before studying with Cornelia Heard at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he and earned his Bachelor’s degree in violin performance. Eager to further craft his musical prowess, Adrian went on to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he earned a Master’s degree in Violin Performance under the tutelage of Dr. Olga Kaler. Since then, Adrian has developed an impressive career as a performance violinist, playing for esteemed institutions including The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse, as well as for popular groups like the Eagles. He has also poured his talent into supporting his community, volunteering to hone young musicians’ education through a variety of nonprofit organizations and schools including Villa Musica, W.O. Smith School, and the Nashville Symphony.

  • ​Anton Domansky is a champion professional ballroom and Latin dancer with over 25 years of competitive and show dance experience. After winning the Ukrainian National Youth Championship at 16, he went on to study with the world’s top teachers in London and Italy. Since immigrating to the US in 2001, he has won multiple US National Youth Ballroom and 10 dance championship titles, and has represented the US in three World Championships. On his first trip to Buenos Aires, Anton fell in love with Argentine tango; 10 years later, he became US National Argentine Stage Tango Champion.

  • Justin Grinell is a San Diego-based freelance jazz bassist and music educator. More importantly, he is a husband to pianist/educator Melonie Grinnell and father to their two sons.

    Justin frequently performs with his own groups and as a sideman. He is often performing with San Diego's most respected jazz artists, including Holly Hofmann, Christopher Hollyday, Duncan Moore, Jim Plank, Richard Sellers, Peter Sprague, Tripp Sprague, Joshua White, Mike Wofford, and Mikan Zlatkovich.

    Justin is a long-standing member of the Danny Green Trio (with pianist Danny Green and drummer Julien Cantelm), a melodic and nimble piano trio featuring Green's original compositions and his creative combination of Modern Jazz, Brazilian Jazz, and Classical influences. Since its inception in 2008, the trio has released five albums: With You In Mind (2009), A Thousand Ways Home (2012), After The Calm (2014), Altered Narratives (2016), and One Day It Will (2018).

    Since 2015, the Danny Green Trio has teamed up with vocalist Leonard Patton to form LP And The Vinyl, a collaborative project reconstructing popular music ("from The Beatles to Bowie") with a jazz toolbox. The quartet released its debut album, Heard And Seen (Origin Records), in April 2020.

    Justin can be heard performing his own compositions and arrangements on his 2013 debut album, Without You. The album features Justin on acoustic and electric bass alongside tenor saxophonist Robby Marshall, pianist Josh Nelson, and drummer Dan Schnelle.

    In addition to performing, Justin maintains an active teaching schedule as adjunct faculty at University of San Diego and Grossmont College. He has also served as an adjudicator and clinician at local music festivals, such as the Coronado Jazz Festival and the San Diego Bass Fest.

    Justin received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Jazz Performance from San Diego State University while studying with bassists Gunnar Biggs and Bert Turetzky. Justin also achieved ABD (all but dissertation) status for a doctoral degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. Besides studying privately with Los Angeles' first-call jazz bassist, Darek Oles, Justin's enrollment at USC gave him the opportunity to study with internationally-recognized jazz artists Peter Erskine, Russ Ferrante, Bob Mintzer, and Alan Pasqua.

  • Over the past decade, jazz pianist and Origin Records recording artist Danny Green has earned recognition as a bandleader and composer with a gift for spinning lyrical, absorbing narratives. Green’s growing portfolio of vibrant sounds – an enchanting mix of jazz, classical, and Brazilian rhythms – has captured the attention of critics around the world, including DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, San Diego Union Tribune, TheBoston Globe, and Public Radio International. Green revealed his unique talents on his 2009 debut recording With You in Mind, which rose to #18 on the Jazz Week Charts and won Best Jazz Album at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. In 2012, Green released A Thousand Ways Home, featuring Justin Grinnell on bass, Julien Cantelm on drums, and special guests including Peter Sprague, Tripp Sprague, Chico Pinheiro, Claudia Villela, Eva Scow, and Dusty Brough. Two years later, Green's Trio released After The Calm on Origin Records, which won Best Jazz Album at the 2015 San Diego Music Awards and was nominated for Album of the Year. In 2016, Green's trio teamed up with producer Matt Pierson to record Altered Narratives at NYC's famed recording studio, Sear Sound. Three of the songs featured a string quartet - a concept which Green would revisit for the entirety of his critically acclaimed 2018 release, One Day It Will. 

    In addition to leading his own trio, Green co-leads LP And The Vinyl, a group that combines the forces of Green's trio and vocalist Leonard Patton. Between these two groups, Green has toured throughout the United States and Canada, playing at major venues and festivals. Outside of his own projects, Green plays regularly with guitarist Peter Sprague and has performed with many other noteworthy musicians, including Paquito D’Rivera, Chico Pinheiro, Charles McPherson, and Pacho Flores.

  • Batya MacAdam-Somer is a violinist, violist, and vocalist specializing in collaboration and experimentation. Her work spans classical, avant-garde, folk, and popular music practices, taking her to venues throughout the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Europe. She has collaborated with ensembles including wasteLAnd, Bang On A Can All-Stars, PARTCH Ensemble, Wild Up, and ICE, appearing on stages at the Ojai Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and Festival Vértice. Batya resides in San Diego, where she often works with organizations such as Project [BLANK], Art of Elan, The Hutchins Consort, San Diego Baroque, Camarada, and Bach Collegium San Diego. She is a member of Quartet Nouveau, a non-profit string quartet whose mission is to make classical chamber music available to all San Diegans, and Sädesärla, a word fusion duo with Christopher Adler. www.batyamacadamsomer.com

  • Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Andrés Martín is a celebrated composer, producer, and virtuoso double bass soloist whose work resonates with audiences worldwide. Andrés' compositions are renowned for their emotional depth and cultural richness, drawing from his diverse experiences across Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and the United States.

    Andrés has dedicated himself primarily to composing for the last few years, creating new works that have been performed and commissioned by virtuoso soloists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras globally. His music spans continents, showcasing his passionate and emotionally moving musical voice. Audiences and performers alike find deep meaning in his compositions and are frequently moved to tears by the profound emotions his music evokes.

    As the principal double bass of the Orquesta de Baja California from 2002 to 2023, Andrés played a crucial role in the orchestra's success. He founded and directed the Contrabajos de Baja California International Bass Festival from 2003 to 2019, fostering a vibrant community of bass enthusiasts and professionals.

    Currently, Andrés serves as the composer-in-residence for The Hutchins Consort and Camarada, prestigious chamber ensembles in Southern California. His compositions highlight his ability to blend cultural influences with emotional power, including his pieces “New Beginnings, concerto for Hutchins violin consort and Orchestra,” “Abrazar al viento," and various concertos.

    2024 was a particularly significant year for Andrés. The world premiere of his "Morgante" Concerto for violin and orchestra, performed by Samuel Vargas and the San Bernardino Symphony and conducted by Anthony Parnther, was a resounding success. He also wrote the Anthem for the 2024 World Design Capital event held in San Diego and Tijuana, joining together the San Diego Youth Orchestra and the Tijuana Orquesta Juvenil. Andrés also composed two cello concertos, two bass concertos, and the “Alma de fueye” Bandoneon Concerto, which was premiered in 2024 by the great César Olguín.

    In 2019, Andrés received the International Society of Bassists Composition Award, becoming the first Latin American composer to receive this honor, in recognition of his contributions to the repertoire of the double bass. His Double Bass Concerto No. 1 has been performed in over 30 countries around the world, serving as the required work for several international solo competitions and orchestral auditions worldwide, as well as a subject of research papers in universities in Europe and the United States.

    Andrés has written around 70 works for solo double bass, as well as several other chamber and orchestral works and concertos for solo instruments. He has also contributed to the musical community through his signature solo double bass, designed for Eastman Strings, which has been played by musicians worldwide. As a D’Addario artist, he continues to influence and inspire fellow musicians, enhancing the artistry of the global music community.

    Andrés Martín's career is a testament to his dedication to composition, bridging cultures, and connecting people through the universal language of music. His work continues to inspire and resonate with audiences and musicians alike.

    Andrés plays a double bass made by Nick Lloyd.

  • Peter Sprague is a highly acclaimed musician and composer. With his forty-plus years as a professional guitarist, Peter has evolved into a musical powerhouse, having produced and played on over 400 recordings. He has also published eleven songbooks of his own music. Peter conducts the majority of his endeavors in Southern California, staying close to his family, and where he is, without dispute, San Diego’s premier jazz talent. He has won numerous awards for his artistry, including “Best Jazz Artist” for San Diego, and was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame. Peter has worked with some of the greats: Dianne Reeves, Chick Corea, Al Jarreau, Pat Metheny, David Benoit, and many others too numerous to count. Peter’s full list and discography can be found on his website, www.petersprague.com.

  • Born in San Diego to classically trained musical parents, Allison Adams Tucker’s vocal palette has been colored by her experience in a variety of musical genres throughout her life, from classical to punk rock to a cappella Elizabethan madrigals. In 2005, she found her home in jazz. In addition to Allison’s discography of four albums and three EPs recorded in New York, Paris, and San Diego. Allison’s voice can be heard on various other album collaborations, TV commercials, and on the soundtrack of the video game The Saboteur, singing French jazz in the company of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Madeleine Peyroux, and others. She has toured in Japan, Europe, Mexico, and the US, including performances at the Blue Note New York, Ronnie Scott’s London, Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Los Angeles, San Jose Jazz Fest, Tula’s Seattle, East Hawaii Jazz & Blues Fest, Hawaii Public Radio Honolulu, Lucca Jazz Donna Festival Tuscany, Music Inn Rome, Le Baiser Salé Paris, Takatsuki Jazz Street Festival Osaka, and Body & Soul Tokyo, among others.

  • David Buckley has been an integral part of Camarada for all 31 seasons and performs in The Camarada Tango Quartet, with whom he has toured in North and South America. He serves as co-concertmaster of the La Jolla Symphony, where he has been a featured soloist on multiple occasions, most recently performing Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Balancing his passion for music with an impressive medical career, Dr. Buckley received his MD from the University of Minnesota after attending St. Olaf College. He is past president of Radiology Medical Group and has served as Chief of Radiology at Scripps Mercy Hospital. Honored as a top doctor by the San Diego County Medical Society, he is also a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and Phi Beta Kappa. When not performing or practicing medicine, David enjoys travel, golf and relaxing by the lake in his home state of Minnesota.

  • Lars Hoefs has been a professor of cello and music history at Sao Paulo State University in Campinas, Brazil since 2013. He has established himself as a leading expert on the cello repertoire of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival, based in Oceanside, which celebrated its 10th season in January 2024. Originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, Lars earned his high school diploma at the North Carolina School of the Arts, a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University studying with Hans Jorgen Jensen, and both his Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he studied with former Los Angeles Philharmonic principal cellist Ronald Leonard. Lars has released 8 albums on the Villa-Lobos International digital label in the last few years, featuring world premiere works by contemporary Brazilian composers as well as rare works by Villa-Lobos. With pianist Aline Alves, Lars was been awarded the 2024 Silver Medal from the Global Music Awards in Latin American Chamber Music for their album Bachianas Brasileiras: Original and New Arrangements.

  • Pablo Jaurena, born in Córdoba, Argentina, holds a degree in music composition from the National University of Argentina in Córdoba. In 2007, he graduated from the School Orchestra of Tango Emilio Balcarce in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a soloist and occasional guest conductor for the Orquesta Provincial de Música Ciudadana de Córdoba. From 2011 to 2015, Jaurena was the Artistic Director of the Tango Orchestra of the System of Music Schools of Medellín, Colombia. Since 2013, he has been the director of the Orquesta Típica Ciriaco and the School Orchestra of Tango in Córdoba, Argentina. In 2020, Jaurena was named Artistic and Teaching Director of the School Orchestra of Tango at the National University of Villa María in Córdoba. In 2015, he formed the Pablo Jaurena Sextet. He has participated in more than 40 recordings as bandoneon player, arranger, or artistic director. His works and arrangements have been performed by ensembles and orchestras from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, China, the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, among others. In 2023 his album Retrato del Aire was nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards.

  • Mackenzie Leighton is a bassist and composer from San Diego, CA. He has performed with jazz legends such as Pat Metheny, Donald Brown, and Geoffrey Keezer, and works regularly with Southern California jazz heroes Peter Sprague, Gilbert Castellanos, and Kamau Kenyatta. He has performed at the Carlsbad Music Festival, the Ensenada Jazz Festival, the Tijuana Jazz and Blues Festival, and Idyllwild Jazz in the Pines. He has released two albums as a leader, I Remember and MLTRIO, and his compositions have been featured on recordings by San Diego State University and themattsmithneujazz trio. He is a lecturer at Palomar College and CSU San Marcos, where he directs the jazz ensembles, and is on the studio faculty of a number of colleges in Southern California. He holds a Master's in Music from San Diego State University.

  • Oliviana Marie is a composer, conductor, lyricist, librettist, trumpeter, pianist, singer,  dancer, actress, and recent graduate of USC’s Thornton School of Music. In 2024,  Oliviana became the youngest winner of The ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award, and in 2023, she was the only composer to ever win two awards in the same year for ASMAC’s Composer Competition: The Ray Charles Vocal Arranging Award and The Bill Conti Big Band Arranging Award. She is a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award nominee in jazz, contemporary pop, and classical composition, and won in 2023 for Best R&B Song, presented by Clive Davis. 

    Oliviana has also written four award-winning musicals. Her first musical, The Middle of Nowhere, was mentored by legendary composer Stephen Schwartz and presented at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Her most recent musical, Corona’s Cabaret: An Act of Destruction, in which Oliviana portrayed the Coronavirus as a nightclub singer, was the winner of Playbill’s Virtual Theatre Festival. 

    An accomplished conductor, Oliviana assisted Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and director Alberto Arvelo on the LA Phil/Deaf West production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as the San Diego Symphony’s production of Antonio Estévez’s Cantata Criolla under the baton of Rafael Payare. In 2024, she made her international conducting debut with Memento Mori, composed for and premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica. She’s scored dozens of short films, including Are We Dead Yet? (AFI); Sundown (USC), an official selection at NewFilmmakers Los Angeles; and Spin the Bottle (LA Film School), which will be screened at the Chicago Horror Film Festival, the East Village New York Film Fest, the Unnamed Footage Festival, and the LA Shorts International Film Festival.  

    In 2025, Oliviana was selected to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation’s  Songwriters Project in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Johnny Mercer Foundation’s  Songwriters Intensive in Sidney, Maine. Most recently, her song “Azalea Woods,” written to honor H.F. du Pont’s beautiful gardens at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, won the  Popular Composition Prize, as well as the Audience Favorite Award at the Inaugural Ruth Wales du Pont Collegiate Composition Competition. This upcoming season, Oliviana has been commissioned by White Snake Projects, an activist opera company in Boston, as well as the Washington D.C.-based American Pops Orchestra. Oliviana is eternally grateful to Beth Ross Buckley and Camarada for believing in her, giving an aspiring young composer her very first commission in 2024, and inviting her back again this season.

    www.olivianamarie.com
    IG: @oliviana_marie

  • Elena Mashkovtseva has won attention as one of the world’s outstanding harpists through numerous appearances as a soloist and chamber musician. She has enchanted audiences throughout the world with her virtuosity, grace, and elegance. Ms. Mashkovtseva is a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with the celebrated harpist Vera Dulova. She was awarded First Prize at the International Competition in Moscow. After graduating, Ms. Mashkovtseva held the principal harp position with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Since leaving Moscow, she has appeared with the Orquesta de Baja California, Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orchestra Nova, St. Petersburgh Mariinsky Theater Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin under Misha Rachlevsky, The Hutchins Consort, Camarada, and the San Diego Opera. Ms. Mashkovtseva is a Professor of Harp at San Diego State University and University of San Diego, and she has her own private harp studio in San Diego.

  • Tripp Sprague is a jazz saxophonist based out of the San Diego area. Tripp also plays flute, chromatic harmonica, and EWI. He has performed extensively with the area’s top jazz musicians including his brother, guitar player Peter Sprague; bassist Bob Magnusson; and pianist Geoffrey Keezer. Tripp‘s musical versatility has led to invitations to perform with international acts such as jazz singer Mose Allison, Kenny Loggins, and Motown legend Smokey Robinson. Tripp also co-produced and performed on the self-titled CD from the group Blurring the Edges which won Best Pop-Jazz Album at the San Diego Music Awards. Tripp also runs a recording studio from his home where he has produced and recorded CDs for numerous local artists.

Camarada Around Town!

Camarada Jazz @ Mingei International Museum

Camarada Jazz @ The Conrad

Featured Past Performances

Check out the Camarada Video Library on YouTube by clicking below.