CONCERT II: SCOVILLEANA
Produced collaboratively by NewMusicWorks & Tandy Beal & Company
The universal scope of Jon Scoville’s extraordinary compositional artistry.
Performances of Scoville’s music in recital, and as accompaniment to film, dance, & circus
Saturday, February 14, 2026: 7:00pm; UCSC Music Center Recital Hall
An evening-length festival that encompasses dance, silent film, chamber music,
jazz piano, magic and circus marvels…ALL SET TO THE MUSIC OF JON SCOVILLE !!!
~MAN RAY silent film: Les Mysteres Château du dè
Jon Scoville’s score performed by the NewMusicWorks Ensemble,
conducted by Michael McGushin
(Commissioned and premiered by NewMusicWorks)
Mr. Miro’s Saxophone — MANA Saxophone Quartet
A seven movement suite resonating the mystical genius of Juan Miro
(Commissioned and premiered by NewMusicWorks)
Performing Artists
(Complete bios of the following artists further below)
~Art Lande — Legendary jazz pianist has been creating improvisations based on Jon’s music for decades. For this program, Lande will be improvising to music by Scoville that he has never heard. Jon and Art love to surprise each other.
The following artists will be performing to a range of recorded scores by Scoville.
~Calvin Kai Ku — Magician: Renowned Bay Area artist with roots in theatre, clowning & magic.
A longtime collaborator with Tandy Beal and a founding member of the Medical
Clown Project
~Natasha Kaluza — Hoop dancer: aka The Super Duper Hula Hooper and one half of the award-
winning clown duo Coventry & Kaluza
Micha Scott — Dancer: Is currently the Executive Director and Artistic Director at Tannery World
Dance & Cultural Center in Santa Cruz. She has been awarded the 2026 Santa Cruz
County Artist of the Year Award.
Nathan Tsuji — renowned handbalancer — former Cirque performer, performing live at the SuperBowl)
~Tandy Beal — Dancer, choreographer, Guest Artistic Director
JON SCOVILLE — Composer
Jon Scoville said he was "raised in Connecticut, ruined in New York, and restored in California"! His experience of music includes playing the music of Brazil, the Balkans, and Detroit, training in the Hindu tradition with Ali Akbar Khan, studies in English literature with Harry Berger, Harold Bloom, and Mark Strand, classes in electronic composition with Gordon Mumma and Vladimir Ussachevsky, Latin music with Michael Spiro, Dennis Broughton, and Edu Szjanbrum in Rio. Touring as the road manager for American Society or Eastern Arts, Jon was a road manager for performing arts groups from Northern India, Kerala, Korea, and Indonesia, which immersed him in Asian music nightly. He taught and accompanied dance in the US, Europe, South America, and Asia.
Over 50 of his scores have been commissioned by choreographers and dance companies, including the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater, Murray Louis, Dance Company, TranChan of Brazil, Laura Dean, Sara Rudner, the Oakland Ballet, the Hovik Ballet of Oslo, Compagnie Hors Taxes of Paris, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company of Salt Lake City, New Music Works, and Tandy Beal & Company.
Jon has written music for commercials for the Digital Equipment Corporation. Jon created sound installations for the Seibu Department store in Tokyo, a gallery in São Paulo, and created works with visual artists Ellen Bromberg, Carlene Jiménez, and Bruce Lee at sites in California and Utah and films with Denise Gallant and of Rio de Janeiro. Radio appearances include Radio Belgrade and Radio Free Europe as well National Public Radio. Jon is a recipient of grants and fellowships from the California Arts Council, Salt Lake Arts Commission and the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County. He is the Musical Director of Tandy Beal & Company.
Jon, now Professor Emeritus, taught for 40 years at the University of Utah--Aesthetics for grads, Rhythmic Analysis, Composition, Senior Projects, Music and Choreography. While there, he started Samba Gringa, the world’s only almost all female, almost all white, almost all Mormon Samba Band (which opened for Earth, Wind and Fire, and played at the Olympics and Park City Film Festival). His creativity, exuberance and thoughtful guidance inspired the faculty to establish a scholarship in his name. He was a columnist for Percussive Notes and is the co-author of Sound Designs, a book about the design and construction of musical instruments. If he hadn’t met his wife, Tandy six decades ago, he’d be playing guitar in a country and western band in Nashville and voting Republican.
TANDY BEAL — Dancer, Choreographer, Guest Artistic Director
Tandy Beal is a performer, director, choreographer, writer, teacher and ... dreamer. An off-the-map career has brought about many adventures in dance, circus, music, animation, opera, life sized puppets—even a horse spectacle with Early Music. As the Artistic Director for Tandy Beal & Company (‘71-present) and for the Pickle Family Circus (‘92-2000), she has created 20 full-length shows and approximately 150 shorter works that have toured 48 states and on 4 continents, including a fully funded US State Department tour of Eastern and Central Europe. She also wrote, directed and choreographed Viva! Musical Circus for a Japanese producer and the Moscow Circus, which ran for 2 years in Japan.
Her film and television credits include choreography for: all the major characters in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas; a PBS special, Voice/Dance, which won 3 Emmies and the Golden Rose award from the Montreux Festival; The Garden, a music video with Bobby McFerrin and for the release of his Vocabularies CD; appearances of Voicestra on The Today and the Arsenio Hall Shows; a segment for Thomas Moore's TV series Everyday Spirituality; a PBS series called Roots in the Aether. The American Film Institute chose her to create Buried Light, a film she wrote and directed on Hildegard von Bingen. Her works have been seen on the national TV stations of Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Japan. She has also staged and choreographed commercials for Nissan and for Bonny Doon Winery.
Other interesting art projects have been:
• creating a show for NASA's Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), under the direction of Carl Sagan and Frank Drake for the once every 10 year convocation of Russian and American scientists.
• choreography for 65 life size puppets for Frank Zappa’s orchestral premier.
Corporate work includes creating shows for LucasFilms, Pixar, SF 49ers, Oracle, MacroMedia, Zales, 3 Com, Sun MicroSystems, Coca-Cola, Capital Exhibits, MCI and others.
Awards include: American Council for the Arts, Bay Area Dance's Isadora Duncan Award for Innovation, New Performance Festival, National Choreography Project, several commendations from the California State Legislature, Japan US Friendship Commission (twice), over 20 grants from the NEA in dance and theatre, including a rare three-year choreography fellowship and a solo theatre fellowship, as well as awards from CAPHERD (the director’s award), California Dance Educators (outstanding artist/educator award Arts Council of Silicon Valley) and numerous community awards for excellence in art, community outreach, and children’s programming.
ART LANDE — Pianist, Composer
Grammy-nominated Art Lande is considered one of today's premiere improvisational jazz pianists and teachers. He began piano at age 4, graduated from Williams College (with studies in music, philosophy, and literature) and moved to San Francisco in 1969. He has carved out his own singular path taking the innovations of Bill Evans several steps further. In '73 he recorded with Jan Garbarek, which began 20 years and six recordings with the prestigious label, ECM. In the mid-1970's he started his own jazz school in Berkeley, and subsequently taught at Cornish Institute, Seattle ('79–'83), Migros Klubschule, Saint Gallen, Switzerland ('83-'86), Naropa Institute ('80–'00) and CU Boulder ('05 to present). In '76 he formed the quartet Rubisa Patrol with Mark Isham, Glenn Cronkhite, and Bill Douglass, recording for ECM--which is also when he, Jon and Tandy started to work and friend together. After teaching for three years in Switzerland, Lande in '87 moved to Boulder where he continues to teach, perform and compose. Art has made numerous recordings that include many of his 500+ compositions. His music reflects the history of jazz and classical music as well as world music and he appears in many of the Who's Who in Jazz encyclopedias for his role in the development of "Chamber Jazz." In 2026, Art Lande continues to create and inspire remarkable recordings and concerts and maintains a deep commitment to community, friendship, artistic vision and collaboration.
CALVIN KAI KU — is a Bay Area artist with roots in theatre, clowning, and magic. Through varied performance formats, his mission is to deliver laughter and joyful healing. His performances include the WuQiao International Circus Festival, Teatro ZinZanni, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Circus Bella, theme parks, and private events. He performed with Tandy Beal & Company in HereAfterHere and in ArtSmart concerts around Santa Cruz county schools. As a founding Medical Clown Project member since 2010, Calvin is deeply proud of his healthcare clowning engagements in hospitals and facilities. Using various theatrical therapeutic modalities to ease stress and anxiety, with a unique mix of humor, heart, and theatrical training, Calvin continues to create joy-filled connections with diverse audiences. https://www.calvinkaiku.com/
NATASHA KALUZA — aka The Super Duper Hula Hooper, graduated with honors from UCSC with a degree in Theater Arts, and a minor in Education, and followed that with a graduate certificate in Dance. She attended two years of the Clown Conservatory at the SF Circus Center under Jeff Raz. She is also one half of the award-winning clown duo Coventry & Kaluza. She has performed in TBC's Mixed Nutz, JOY and ArtSmart.
MICHA SCOTT — has performed on stages around the world as a 13-year senior member with Garth Fagan Dance. While in the company she performed leading roles in many of Mr. Fagan’s works, including ‘From Before’, ‘Collage For Romie’, 'Transition/Translation' and the groundbreaking collaboration with trumpeter / composer Wynton Marsalis, ‘Griot New York’. Ms. Scott is currently the Executive Director and Artistic Director at Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center in Santa Cruz, CA. There she highlights the artistic traditions passed on to her by Garth Fagan, including not only the technical and performance aspects of dance, but also incorporating traditions from the Black American experience through music, discussions around race, advocacy and the arts. She serves on the Advisory Board of the SCC Black Health Matters Initiative, and on the grants panels of the Arts Council Santa Cruz County and the California Arts Council. She has been awarded the 2026 Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year Award.
NATHAN TSUJI — Nathan Tsuji's life was forever changed at age 8 when Tandy first put him on stage and he’s never looked back. Since then he has performed all over the world from stage to television, but nothing brings him more joy than to circle back to where it all started. Nathan Tsuji is a former collegiate gymnast and current model who has appeared on America's Got Talent. After retiring from gymnastics, Tsuji joined Cirque du Soleil to help create their new show, Under the Same Sky.
https://www.instagram.com/nathantsuji/?hl=en
CHIP — Stage Manager
A long time ago while racing to do some weird lighting install for Tandy's lighting designer, Evan Parker,
Chip got a speeding ticket. To pay his debt to society, Chip drove a very large truck filled with scenery from Felton to a distant theater, maintaining the speed limit for much of the journey.
After unloading and assembling the many set pieces, Chip stage managed Tandy Beal's 'Solo' Show—a term Chip still takes umbrage with to this day given the intense offstage choreography for his starring role + 3 crew members in order to make magic on the stage! Chip's journey has taken him in many directions since then, but he always feels joy to come back to Tandy Land. And he takes public transportation whenever possible.
QUOTES about JON SCOVILLE’S MUSIC:
Catalyst Magazine (SALT LAKE): “Jon is equally balanced in his ears, eyes, wit, and intellect. He can go into a choreographer's work at all these different levels and that of course makes him a unique collaborator. Humble doesn't begin to describe Jon it's about time he takes a bow!”
One thing that makes Scoville's music so accessible is the refusal to declare a genre. One song impresses you with its classical complexity, yet another song has a beat that almost starts out like dubstep. Jon is always on the forefront but quiet as he never makes a big deal of it. Before it became chic, he was working with world music, with text, with trance.”
New York Times: shrewdly textured score… neo minimalist score… an apt rhythmic pulse that underlines the dance's tribal imagery.
Honolulu Star Bulletin: “ wild, marvellous music!”
US Poet Laureate Mark Strand: “Your CD is wonderful! I loved all of it. Thanks for including my poetry.. Your old friend, Mark
SF Chronicle: Music that is “evocative, lyrical, and multi-shaded… various and impressive.”