Kaleena
Azeem Ward
Azeem Ward began to play flute at the age of ten. He started formal training in his sophomore year of high school studying under Jillian Yu. Since then, he has studied with Anita Uhlmann, Penelope Turgeon, Jill Heinke, and Katie Stuwe. In high school, he participated in numerous honor bands including the Alameda County Honor Band and the National Honor Band of America. Azeem was also a member of the Oakland Youth Orchestra during high school and was featured as a soloist at the Junior Bach Festival. Now he studies flute under the world renowned teacher, Jill Felber, and is pursuing a BM in flute at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was recently featured as a soloist at the Ensemble for Contemporary Music at UCSB, and participated in master classes with Robert Dick, Marianne Gediggian, Demarre McGill, Jim Walker and Leone Buyse. He frequently composes for chamber ensembles as well. Azeem currently performs with the University Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble for Contemporary Music. In the past, he also performed with the University Jazz Combo and Jazz Band playing tenor saxophone. Azeem has also won a few competitions such as the UCSB Orchestral Soloist Competition, the Areon Summer Flute Institute Competition, the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation competition, and a honorable mention in the Dorothy Van Waynen Scholarship Competition. In the summer of 2013, he traveled to Florence, Italy to participate in the flute seminar, Flauti al Castello. The seminar was led by internationally acclaimed flautists Sergio Pallottelli and Leone Buyse. In the past summer, he participated as a counselor and performer in the most prestigious music festival in the Northwest, Marrowstone, in Bellingham, Washington.
Pets with Human Names
Pets with Human Names is a dirty, loud, and dynamic rock band from Des Moines, IA. Starting from a hot storage shed in the summer of 2011, members Andrew Pierson, Alex Nickeson, and Benton Schoenrock have crafted a sound that hits you hard and makes you move.