Our faculty and staff are committed to developing the next generation’s composers, performers and arts advocates.
Faculty and staff take an active role in Walden’s community life by living alongside the students in dormitories. They eat meals together, participate in various school-wide recreational activities, and share the tasks that maintain the school and assure the safety of all it members. Our philosophy is that by participating together in all levels of community life, faculty, staff, visiting artists, and students can create an environment where close relationships develop and creativity flourishes.
Outside of the summer session, our leaders are distinguished in the fields of composition, theory, arranging, performance, pedagogy, arts administration, and arts advocacy. Our staff holds degrees from institutions such as Eastman School of Music, Mills College, Yale University, Williams College, University of Washington, Luther College, New England Conservatory, College of Wooster, University of Michigan, Peabody Conservatory, Northwestern University, Columbia University, Oberlin College Conservatory, University of California, Swarthmore College, University of Southern California, SUNY-Buffalo, University of Cincinnati Conservatory, SUNY-Stony Brook, New England Conservatory, Harvard University, and Duke University.
Meet the 2025 Young Musicians Program Faculty & Staff
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Cara Haxo
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Carlos Henrique Pereira
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Francesca Hellerman
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Kittie Cooper
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Nate Trier
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Sammi Stone
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Seth Brenzel
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Theo Trevisan
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William Bolles-Beaven
Cara Haxo
Faculty, Creative Musicians Retreat
Academic Dean, Young Musicians Program
At the encouragement of her mother, Cara Haxo begrudgingly attended Walden as a student in 2004. As soon as she arrived on campus, she immediately fell in love with everything about Walden and came back for another five summers. She is thrilled to return to Walden more recently as a faculty member and academic dean. Cara is the winner of the 2022 National Women’s Musical Festival Emerging Women Composers Competition. She was also awarded the 2019 International Alliance for Women in Music Libby Larsen Prize, the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, and the 2013 IAWM Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize. Her works have been premiered by the May Festival Youth Chorus, Hub New Music, Quince Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds, amongst other ensembles.
Cara is a Visiting Assistant Professor at The College of Wooster in Ohio. She earned her Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Oregon, where she worked as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory. She also holds degrees from Butler University and The College of Wooster. She previously taught courses in composition and theory as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Notre Dame College (Ohio), and private piano, theory, and composition lessons through the Butler Community Arts School in Indianapolis. When she is not composing, Cara enjoys baking desserts, going on long road trips, and hanging out with her cat, Pippin. For more information, please visit http://chaxomusic.com.
Carlos Henrique Pereira
Carlos Henrique Pereira is an accomplished composer, performer, educator, and music producer. Alongside his thriving career as a musician, he has been deeply committed to educating students since the age of 18 when he began teaching at the music conservatory in his hometown. Carlos draws from his extensive studies in classical music, Brazilian music, popular music, and jazz to enrich his teaching, exposing his students to a diverse range of musical styles. He firmly believes in the inherent musicality of every child and sees it as his duty to nurture and develop their musical abilities. Carlos’s teaching approach focuses on instilling joy and fun into music, fostering a sense of accomplishment through personalized and attainable goals for each student.
Carlos’s journey as a composer started at a young age, and despite the absence of formal training, he made history by becoming the youngest composer to have a work selected for the Brazilian Contemporary Music Biennial in Rio de Janeiro in 1983. His compositions were featured alongside those of renowned Brazilian modern composers. Throughout his career, Carlos has composed and recorded four albums of original compositions, with his fifth album currently in progress. His musical contributions have garnered numerous awards and recognition. Notably, Carlos has composed and arranged music for various dance companies in New York and has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall. He has had the privilege of collaborating with many esteemed jazz artists. During his time in New York, Carlos also produced a diverse catalog of original music that has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows worldwide.
In 2009, Carlos received a grant in Brazil to compose his third album, titled “Minas, Gerais,” which was released in 2011. Dedicated to his home state, the album received widespread acclaim from critics and fans, earning a nomination for the 24th Brazilian Music Awards.
Since relocating to California, Carlos has captivated audiences through various performances, including appearances at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival and the Blue Note in Napa. His musical endeavors have been acknowledged and supported by organizations such as the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, where he was awarded the 2016 Music Grant Program, and Creative Sonoma, which honored him with the 2019 Next Level Grant award. Carlos takes immense pride in being a father to his nine-year-old son and eleven-year-old daughter, whom he affectionately considers his favorite students.
Francesca Hellerman
Staff, Creative Musicians Retreat
Faculty, Young Musicians Program
Francesca Hellerman is a composer whose works joyfully uncover the tactile richness of gestures and sounds made by instruments, electronics, and found objects alike. Her work has been performed by the PRISM Quartet, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Walden School Players, and TAK Ensemble. Her music has been heard in a variety of spaces, from concert halls or museum galleries (at the Williams College Museum of Art) to outdoor stages (at Mostly Mozart Festival), a cabin on a lake (at New Music on the Point), or a patch of grass under a tree (at the Clark Art Institute). Francesca also performs as a choral singer and on electronics, piano, and more, having appeared in or alongside the Williams Chamber and Concert Choirs, Peabody Camerata, the Williams Percussion Ensemble, and New Music Williams.
Francesca is currently pursuing a M.M. in composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studies with Sky Macklay. She previously obtained her B.A. in music from Williams College. Francesca first fell in love with composition and group music-making at The Walden School’s Young Musicians Program, which she attended as a student for eight summers and whose warm community she is thrilled to have returned to as a teacher.
Kittie Cooper
Faculty, Academic Dean, Director of Electronic Music, & Director of Composers Forums
Young Musicians Program
Kittie Cooper is a sound and intermedia artist, performer, and educator based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Kittie makes work that explores the spectrum between silliness and seriousness, and in particular where those two qualities overlap with spookiness. Much of their work deals with the messy insides of humans, electronics, and other everyday things. Their work has been called “highly original and wonderfully fun.” Kittie’s music has been commissioned and performed by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Dal Niente, Splinter Reeds, TAK Ensemble, Warp Trio, Popebama, and Ghost Ensemble. She has also performed and presented at a variety of festivals and conferences across the United States, and performs regularly as a guitarist, electronic musician, and improviser.
Currently, Kittie serves as Education Director and a teaching artist for MIMA Music, an educational nonprofit that builds community through collaborative music-making. During the summer, she serves as Director of Electronic Music, Director of Composers Forums, and Faculty for The Walden School Young Musicians Program—this will be Kittie’s eleventh year at Walden! Kittie holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts, an MEd in Special Education from George Mason University, and a BM from Northwestern University in Music Education and Guitar Performance. Kittie also likes ghost stories, chili, and cats.
You can find more info about Kittie and their work at kittiecooper.com.
Nate Trier
Faculty & Academic Dean, Young Musicians Program
Nate Trier is a composer and producer, based just outside of New Haven, CT, who creates electronic music that features lyrical piano and accordion melodies over churning soundscapes of buzzing drones, fuzzy drums, and crackling static. He describes his music as “classical ambient beats;” others have described it as “quite engrossing” (KFFP) and “like looking into your soul” (Raighes Factory). His music has travelled worldwide: abstract visual artist Sergei Petrov used Trier’s music for installations in Zelenograd, Russia, and the 48th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany distributed a recording of Trier’s fixed-media piece, “Serial Parameter Shift,” to attendees. Trier has released several collections of electronic music, including singles, EP’s, and albums.
Sammi Stone
Director of Operations
Faculty, Young Musicians Program
Sammi Jo Stone is an arts administrator, oboist, saxophonist, and woodwind enthusiast. She lives in Norwich, Connecticut, and is originally from Baker City in rural northeastern Oregon. She studied music at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the University of California San Diego, and has performed with Long Beach Opera, the Berkshire Symphony, the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra, and the La Jolla Symphony. She is passionate about teaching, learning, and discovering new abilities and skills, and hopes to do an unassisted chin-up before the end of the year. Sammi discovered Walden as a Creative Musicians Retreat participant in 2017.
Seth Brenzel
Executive Director & Director, Young Musicians Program
Seth Brenzel, Executive Director, has been associated with The Walden School for nearly 40 years. He was fortunate to be a student at Walden for six magical summers (1985-1990), and since 1994, has served the School as a staff member, faculty member, board member, Director of Operations, and as the Associate Director from 1996 to 2003, when he became Walden’s Executive Director. Since 1995, he has sung tenor with the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and is currently a professional (AGMA) member of that ensemble.
In 2023, Seth was appointed by Mayor London Breed to serve on the San Francisco Arts Commission. Seth chairs the board of the PRISM Quartet and serves on the boards of Ensemble Dal Niente and of the San Francisco Friends School, a board he has previously co-clerked. He has also served on the boards of Swarthmore College and Earplay. Seth received his B.A., with degrees in Music and Political Science, from Swarthmore College, where he served as President of the College’s Alumni Association. He received an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, with a focus in non-profit management and marketing. He is a graduate of Leadership San Francisco, where he serves as an alumni advisor.
Prior to becoming Walden’s first full-time Executive Director, Seth worked part-time for Walden during the year and held positions as a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, in marketing and public relations at the San Francisco Symphony, and led both the marketing and the enterprise sales teams for an internet software company, now part of Adobe. When not at Walden, Seth lives in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco with his husband, Malcolm Gaines, and their daughter, Cora.
Theo Trevisan
Faculty, Young Musicians Program
As a child, Theo sang at the American Boychoir School, performing in 30 states and South Korea with world-class conductors and ensembles. Theo received a B.A. from Princeton, studying composition, computer science and consort singing. He studied composition with Jeff Snyder, Dan Trueman, Donnacha Dennehy, and Dmitri Tymozcko; voice with Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek; and conducting with Gabriel Crouch. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Composition at USC, studying with Ted Hearne, Donald Crockett, and Andrew Norman.
Theo’s music has been performed by many collaborators, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Antioch Chamber Ensemble, Princeton University Glee Club and Chamber Choir, Princeton Laptop Orchestra, DJ Sparr, David Friend, Matthew Gold, and Soo Yeon Lyuh. He has sung with the choir of St. James in the City LA, Tonality, C3LA, Gallicantus, USC Chamber Singers, various Princeton choirs, and the Princeton Katzenjammers acapella group. Additionally, he sings in the recently founded octet Exilio, which is dedicated to programming new music and composers from historically underrepresented groups. Theo contributed to software development of Dan Trueman’s bitKlavier app and Jeff Snyder’s Vocodec instrument, and he has been teaching ear training classes for National Children’s Chorus since 2024.
Other interests include reading obscure history, playing strategy games, telling bad puns, skiing, and vegetarian cooking. Theo has been a part of the Walden community for many years: he attended the Young Musicians Program from 2014-2017 and the Creative Musicians Retreat from 2019-2021, and he has worked at the Young Musicians Program in various capacities since 2019. Learn more at theotrevisan.com
William Bolles-Beaven
Faculty, Young Musicians Program
William Bolles-Beaven is a composer and educator based in New York City. His compositions attempt to bring awareness to the present moment by writing for performers as whole persons (calling for vocalizations, bodily actions, etc.) and articulating space (moving sound through an ensemble as well as allowing the hall to speak). As a composer and educator, his main aim is to show that there is more to know and feel than what we know and feel.
He received his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory studying under Elizabeth Ogonek and received his Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music studying under Reiko Fueting. In 2018, he was a fellow of the United States Teaching Assistant Program of the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), which was administered by Fulbright Austria (Austrian-American Education Commission). As part of the fellowship, he taught English to high school students in Bregenz, Austria.
William Bolles-Beaven’s compositions have been performed domestically and abroad (Italy, Germany) and have received recognitions such as the Nicholas Flagello Award, the Aschaffenburg Prize, second place in the Carl Kanter Prize, and being named a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Composition Awards 2022. He has worked with artists such as Jordan Bartow, Teagan Faran, Nicole Brancato, Marius Staible, Austin Philemon, Elizabeth Gartman, Dan Lippel, and the Mivos Quartet.
William Bolles-Beaven currently teaches music theory and ear training at Manhattan School of Music’s Precollege Division while pursuing his Ph.D. in composition at the CUNY Graduate Center with Jason Eckardt.
Summer 2025
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