LIVE at Piedmont Piano Company
Songs & Stories:
Darita Seth
Conductor, choral artist, and composer Darita Seth shares stories about advocating for BIPOC and other marginalized communities through choral music, singing all over the world, and weight-lifting. Followed by audience Q & A. Hosted by vocalist Sharmila G. Lash.
$25 General Admission
We are offering a limited number of tickets to attend this performance in person. Advance purchase is recommended. Masking is encouraged but not required.
DARITA SETH
Recently finishing his position as Interim Director of Choral Studies and Conducting at University of the Pacific, Stockton, Darita Seth is a Cambodian-American conductor, haute-contre, and composer. He has served as the founder, president, and director of Choral Audacity, a Bay-Area based ensemble centering the stories of QBIPOC voices through choral music. Prior conducting affiliations include St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Long Beach, Calif.; St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Danville, Calif.; Danville Girls Chorus; Cantabella Children’s Chorus; and the Grammy-award winning Pacific Boychoir Academy. Darita is praised for his "technical deliciousness; power and precision of the connection between the colors of the voice; and beauty of delivery." (Aspen Music Festival) In 2016, he concluded his tenure with Chanticleer, the Grammy Award-winning, San Francisco-based men's vocal ensemble. His voice is featured singing Handel's Ombra Mai Fu in the film score to the movie "The Tutor." He currently sings with the Grammy-award winning Los Angeles Master Chorale. Seth holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Capital University’s Conservatory of Music and a Masters of Music in Choral Conducting from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSU Long Beach. Additionally, he is a proud alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy and Camp where he participated in the composition, opera, and choral programs. He is an active member of ACDA, NATS, ASCAP and is a Sigma Alpha Iota distinguished member. As a freelance composer, Seth is recognized by the National youngARTS Foundation and continues to write for the Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Choral Series for Choral Audacity. He is a published choral music editor with Hinshaw Music Publications with his own writings published through Pavane Publishing. His arrangement of Champa Battambang has garnered over a million views on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram with the majority of its viewership in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
SHARMILA G. LASH
Sharmila G. Lash is sought after as a jazz and classical singer, as well as for her voice-over work. She is a private voice instructor, works as a session singer for film and television, and is a regular chorister with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Teaching steadily since 2004, she incorporates her vast professional experience to help guide students to find their own voice. Sharmila began her music studies with piano lessons at age six and singing lessons at age eleven. She was a music student at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and continued on to study classical voice at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she discovered her passion for jazz. She has performed on some of the biggest stages in California, led by Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta, and others, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Carmen Lundy, Don Shelton, Luciana Souza, as well as with many other top jazz and classical musicians in both Northern and Southern California. sharmilaguhalash.com