All The Way In: Co-Pilots

Each of these talented artist-teachers has completed a full year as a  participant in All The Way In,
and also served for another year as a co-pilot with Rhiannon.
We thank each generous heart for their commitment to our vocal community.

2023  

Photographer:
António Ataíde

Manuel Linhares
“The voice stands out by its technical quality and security, grounded by impeccable instrumental support(…) With this new record, Manuel Linhares presents solid arguments to claim his place in the sun on the Portuguese jazz scene.”
                              - Nuno Catarino, in A Forma do Jazz, june 2019 

Manuel Linhares is a Portuguese Jazz singer dedicated to performance, composition and teaching. Besides his degree in Jazz Music by ESMAE – Porto, he studied in “Tallers de Muzics” – Barcelona and in the Jazz Institute of Berlin. He worked and studied with renowned international musicians like: Bobby Mcferrin, Judy Niemack, Theo Bleckmann, John Hollenbeck, David Linx, Rhiannon, Rebecca Martin, Becca Stevens, Gretchen Parlato, Guillermo Klein, David Binney, António Loureiro and the extraordinary Meredith Monk. He had also the opportunity to work with major Portuguese musicians like José Mário Branco, Rui Veloso, Sofia Ribeiro, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Alexandre Frazão, Carlos Barreto, Mário Delgado and Carlos Martins. He has been presenting himself on stages throughout Portugal, Europe, United States and Brazil. He played in major festivals like “Caldas Nice Jazz” 2020, “Festa do Jazz” 2019, “Porta-Jazz Festival” 2012 and 2022, “Angrajazz” 2011 and 2013; “Jazz Fest of Berlin” 2011 alongside with many other jazz clubs and venues. He took part in several albums as a guest and in 2013 he releases his first album of original music entitled “Traces of Cities”, followed by “Boudaries” in 2019. In January 2022 he released his third album of original compositions - “Suspenso”- with music production by António Loureiro and that brings together his quartet with a wide range of guests such as: the big ensemble Coreto Porta-Jazz, David Binney, Frederico Heliodoro or Guillermo Klein. A work with the support of DGartes – Ministry of Culture and released by the Portuguese label Porta-Jazz. Besides his own project, Manuel Linhares has a duo with the prestigious Brazilian singer Pedro Iaco and he is also the lead singer in the project of the saxophone player Carlos Martins entitled “Mar-Planície”. Apart from his performance career he has been teaching singing lessons and vocal improvisation. Since 2017 he runs a vocal improvisation laboratory - “O Círculo da Voz”, that tries to enhance a vocal community in Porto and besides its regular activities it organizes workshops throughout Portugal. In 2019 he created alongside with the singers Sofia Ribeiro and Rizumik a vocal improvisation retreat entitled “Vocal Being Retreat”.

Cara Trezise
Cara is an eclectic vocal artist and songwriter with an eye for sparkle and a flair for community music making.  Her big love for music and nature sprouted from singing to the sheep and land on her childhood farm in New York. An insatiable passion for life and learning has taken her all over the world to study music, dance, theater, reconnecting with nature, ancestry, seed saving, and food as medicine. After departing from classical singing and receiving her BA in Theater Solo Performance from Emerson College, Cara immediately felt a sense of musical homecoming with Rhiannon in the Vocal River. For over a decade, she has sung and cheffed for Rhiannon’s workshops, which have provided a fertile ground to cultivate her deep love of food, music, community and land honoring. Her many artistic influences include Margie Gillis, Ruth Zaporah, Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, Música do Círculo, and Power of Hope. The honor of studying at Martín Precthel’s school, Bolad’s Kitchen, deepened Cara’s understanding and commitment to the powerful relationship between music and food. And that no matter where or who we come from, singing is our true nature. Most recently, Cara was studying traditional Cuban music on guitar in Havana and is training to become a certified teacher through the Complete Vocal Institute in Copenhagen. She is currently loving teaching, writing custom Song Tinctures for people, gardening and performing at her own catered concerts. Cara deeply believes in the healing power of improvisational music and her hope is that we can use this music to build bridges for a world beyond our own imagining in these fragmented times.  And of course, enjoy costume changes along the way.
2022  
Monique DeBose
Monique is an award-winning singer, activist and playwright. She was welcomed as a member into the Recording Academy’s class of 2021. Monique has toured and entertained audiences throughout the world, performed at TEDx and spoken as part of the United Nation’s SDG Action Zones event, all with the mission of helping people of all ages and cultures to transition beyond seeing in just “black” and “white” to seeing in full color. Her last four singles, Human Condition, Brown Beauty, More and Rally Call have well over a half of a million views on YouTube. She is releasing her third full length album, You Are the Sovereign One, late August 2021. Her podcast, More with Monique is an intimate conversation with women around the world who are choosing more for themselves. She also facilitates an online global community of women. DeBose holds a master's degree in Spiritual Psychology and a BA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley. Monique calls Los Angeles home, is married to a Brit, and is raising two compassionate, culturally intelligent boys.  https://youtu.be/Q4U067Qmkys
Suzzette Ortiz
Suzzette Ortiz is an accomplished pianist ..composer, arranger, choral conductor and music educator. Her work as a music teacher has been well recognized, with countless awards and commendations for empowering inner city students through choral music. Suzzette retired from full-time teaching after 32 years of service; 27 of those in the City of Camden, New Jersey. Her high school choirs achieved first and second place awards in Italy, Prague, Puerto Rico, Ghana, Poland, Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee, New York City, New Orleans and Orlando, Florida. Suzzette continues to serve as an advocate of music education in her community. She is currently the Artistic Director at Artistas y Musicos Latino Americanos (AMLA) music school in Philadelphia and the choir director of the Jubilee singes-s acappella vocal ensemble from St. John Baptist church in Camden, New Jersey, where she strives to continue to create social change through music. Suzzette holds a Bachelors degree in piano performance with a minor in composition from the Conservatory of Puerto Rico, and a Master Degree in music education from Temple U Diversity in Philadelphia- She has arranged choral music for Hal Leonard, GIA, Oregon Catholic Press and World Library publications. Suzzette has also completed training to become a Music Practitioner providing comfort music on the harp for patients in hospitals, skill facility centers , cancer centers and those in hospice settings. 
2020  

Valentina Levchenko
Valentina is a Ukrainian singer and improviser. She was born behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union, grew up in a young independent Ukraine and evolved as a musician in different countries and cultures. After a Master degree in Psychology, she built a career in a human resource in a huge metallurgical company that she left to follow her dream of being a singer. She spent 2018 with Rhiannon diving into ATWI, studying body percussion and musical facilitation in Brazil with Música de círculo community, touring West Coast with ATWI mates, performing and teaching in Moscow and Sweden, being away from home for a long time and immersion in improvisation gave her the opportunity to understand her own voice and accept her roots. In 2019 she came back to Brazil to record her first album - Ukrainian folk music combined with Brazilian and African rhythms (release -July 2019). Now she is exploring different ways of teaching and using improvisation in performances. 

Charles Haines 
Charles Bankhead Haines is a singer, teacher, actor and improviser, as well as the founder and director of Big Smiles Music Academy in Hilo, Hawai’i. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Charles studied and performed extensively in the world of musical theatre including studying at the Boston Conservatory. He then followed his he(art) to Chicago where he directed an a cappella group (DePaul Men’s a Cappella), created neo-vaudeville variety theatre with his twin brother Davis (The Haines Sisters), and co-founded a 6-piece funk band (whysowhite). Since moving to Hilo in 2014, Charles fell in love, had a baby, and has been actively pursuing his exploration into the world of vocal improvisation with Rhiannon. He completed All the Way In in 2017 and hosts CircleSing Hawai’i with Rhiannon at Leo Nani Farms. 
2019  
Germaine Ingram 
Germaine Ingram is a jazz tap dancer, choreographer, songwriter, and improviser. Through choreography, music composition, performance, writing, designing and leading artist learning environments, she explores themes tied to history, collective memory, and social justice. Current projects include an exploration of the evolution of Yoruba-rooted performative practice in Philadelphia; a performative exploration of the factors that produced an “inspired circle” of jazz innovators, including John Coltrane, Odean Pope, Shirley Scott, and others; and participation in building a global infrastructure to support art, culture and conflict transformation. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Leeway Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Sonja Morgenegg 
Zurich, Switzerland
stimmsaiten.ch  triado.ch    ohrenweide.ch
Sonja Morgenegg is a singer, composer, improviser and voice teacher living near Zurich.  She has performed on several national and international stages especially in Switzerland and Germany. Her experience singing many different music styles and her studies at the School of Jazz in Switzerland give her a strong background in improvised singing. Sonja was trained in vocal coaching at the Academy of Integratives-Stimmtraining.com. She has released her first album, On the Wings of Sound, in 2015. Since she met Rhiannon in ATWI 2012 and ATWI 2014, she has deepened the connection between her roots in Swiss Yodel and free improvised singing. Sonja has since developed a new style of teaching and way to yodel on stage, and her next album, My Roots, will be released in 2019. 

2018  
Eleni Arapoglou
New York, NY
soundcloud.com/eleni-1
Eleni grew up in Athens, Greece, where she developed a strong love for performing arts and sports, making the body a fundamental tool in all her future work as a musician and performer. As a student, she toured Costa Rica and Bulgaria with the Tufts Jazz Orchestra, and earned a professional diploma in vocal performance at Berklee College of Music.  Eleni has performed in the Latin Grammys alongside Alejandro Sanz, has opened for The Roots with her own band, and is currently performing in various projects abroad and in NYC where she is now based, including the Serbian vocal group ROSA and Carnegie Hall's vocal improvisation group Moving Star.  Eleni has taught at the Global Music Foundation (London), ISWiB (Serbia), Luna Monti Estudio (Buenos Aires) as well as various circle singing workshops in Greece, Boston & NYC. She is now preparing for a CD release and concert with her multidisciplinary group Breath in the fall of 2017
Evemarie Brunelle  
Montreal, QC
allezchante.ca
Evemarie is a singer, choir leader, and performer, living in Montréal. She grew up in a musical family. At the age of 7, she sang beside her mother in a church choir conducted by her father. In 2009, she graduated from the Community Choir Leadership Training in Victoria B.C., where she remains a member of the Ubuntu choir network. In September 2009, she founded Allez Chante!, non-auditioned choirs in Montréal. After 8 years, over 200 people attend and sing each week! Evemarie met Rhiannon in 2000 and has been studying with her ever since. She has studied with Frankie Armstrong, Jill Purce, Raoûl Duguay, Réjean Marois, and currently studies voice and Feldenkrais movement with Robert Poliquin. She is a successful solo performer, and she currently shares the stage with pianist Yves Léveillé in her show Touche Au Coeur. She is a passionate cook, a life-long nature lover, and cherishes her solitude to nourish creativity.
2017  
Malene Kjærgård
Copenhagen, DK
malenekjaergaard.com
Malene Kjærgård is a Danish singer, improviser, composer and vocal coach living in Denmark. Malene has performed on several national and international stages around the world in various constellations such as Malene Kjærgård Group, Kjærgård/Cigna/Dall & PLAYground.  In November 2012 Malene was the first runner up in DPA's competition 'Young Jazz Composer of the Year' with her composition Temporary Love Affair. Malene has two jazz albums released in her name: Happy Feet (2013) and Here's To The Ladies (2016). She has also released On Cole Porter with her trio Kjærgård/Cigna/Dall (2015).  Malene teaches privately, facilitates workshops and coaches at art schools, companies and communities. She is an authorised vocal coach from Complete Vocal Institute in Copenhagen, she has studied a cappella vocal improvisation with Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, and with Rhiannon at Mele a Hakuwale and ATWI and she has studied with international teachers such as Bob Stoloff, David Brunetti and Jay Clayton. Furthermore, Malene has a strong background teaching breathing, body support and working with the soft tissue of the body. Malene loves to explore the power of vocal improvisation and feels very much at home in the improvisational singing circle. 
Sofia Ribeiro
New York, NY
sofiaribeiro.com
Sofia Ribeiro is a Portuguese singer, composer, improviser and educator. With nine albums to her credit, she has been performing and teaching intensively in Europe, South America and United States for the past 14 years. She has won several prizes, including first place at the vocal jazz competitions “Voicingers” (Poland) and “Crest Jazz Vocal” (France), and 2nd place at “Brussels Young Jazz Singers."  Sofia has a degree in Jazz Performance from ESMAE (Portugal) and a masters degree from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. During her studies, she did exchange programs at ESMUC (Barcelona), Berklee College of Music (Boston) and Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris, and she completed two levels of the ‘Estill Voice Training Systems’ program. Sofia met Rhiannon in 2002, and started a long and beautiful learning journey into vulnerability, generosity and authenticity, in life and in music, while facilitating others' growth, improvising on her own, or with her European vocal improv group PLAYground, 
2016  
T. Wesley Dean
Atlanta, GA
twesleydean.com   
T. Wesley Dean has traveled a life-long path of musical exploration that has taken him from singing Bach, Brahms, and Mozart as a boy soprano to working in funky dives in Memphis, New Orleans, and Key West. Work as a bassist, vocalist, bandleader, and songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by major artists took him to recording studios in Atlanta, Nashville, and London. His experimentation with vocal improvisation began as a vocalist singing jazz  and took a quantum leap thirty years later when he began studying with Rhiannon. As a dedicated student of improvisation, he is ever ready to share insights garnered from a lifetime of performing as a working musician. The journey now is an exploration of ways to let go, let  the music be, and support fellow musicians within the improvisational singing circle.
Jascha Hoffman
Brooklyn, NY   
jaschamusic.com 
Jascha is a singer, improviser and teacher in Brooklyn. He believes that the voice holds a strong connection to the body, heart and spirit, and that improvisation can help unlock its power. His most recent album, The Afterneath, was hailed as “a remarkable album and great achievement” by American Songwriter and aired on National Public Radio. He has studied intensively with master teacher Rhiannon, and has taught singers to improvise at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, Bobby McFerrin's Circlesongs workshop, and schools from Brooklyn to Brazil. In 2015 he co-founded the Society for Spontaneous Singing, a weekly prompt for vocalists worldwide, and Sounding NYC, a monthly gathering for public singing in New York City. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.
2015-16  
Moe Clark
Montreal, Canada  
moeclark.ca 
Métis multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a nomadic songbird with wings woven from circle singing and spoken word. Mistress of the looping pedal, she creates sonic landscapes of layered voice for her poetic songs to soar through. As an educator she facilitates writing, vocal improvisation and looping pedal workshops in high schools, communities and with Aboriginal youth with a basis for deepening embodiment and awareness with personal and collective expression. Clark has two albums of words and music: Circle of She: Story & Song (2008) and Within (September 2014) and a bilingual book of poetry Fire & Sage / De sauge et de feu was published through Maelström Press in 2013. She has performed and collaborated on numerous national and international stages around the world and has shared her voice at TedXMtl and the 2012 London Olympics
David Haddock
Vancouver, BC
davehaddock.com
David brings many years of experience as a musician both instrumentalist and singer, bandleader, support player, composer, songwriter, sound designer, video editor, computer technician, clown, guitar instructor, voice workshop leader, theatre performer, producer, musical and artistic director. A lot of hats, ready to contribute to what’s happening.His home is now Vancouver, BC, although he thinks of himself as a northerner, having spent most of his musical life in Canada’s Yukon.He has recorded three albums of original songs, ‘Oil & Water’, ‘keep it simple’ and ‘Talk to Me’ from 2013. He believes in the power of improvisational music, singing and movement to bring people together in community with each other and the surroundings.
2014  
Mony Wouters
Haarlem, Netherlands
www.linkedin.com/in/monywouters
www.soundcloud.com/mony-wouters
Mony has worked with Rhiannon since 1998. She is a passionate improviser and sings in vocal improv groups such as RIV (Rotterdam Impro Voices), Impro4Voices and Improzo. She teaches vocal improvisation at Codarts, University of the Arts in Rotterdam, where she works as a singing teacher. She has another great passion for the “chansons” of Piaf, Barbara, etc. that she sings in her own group “Solune”.
2013  
Margo Hennebach
Bloomfield, CT
margohennebach.com
Margo's path to Rhiannon includes a BA in Piano from Oberlin, a licentiate degree in Music Therapy from The Guildhall School of Music, a singer-songwriting career that spans three decades and eight CDs, and over ten years as a Feldenkrais Teacher.  She combines these loves with vocal improvisation in “Singing for Life” workshops, Sound Body Choirs, and private sessions as the foundations for cultivating presence, joy and a musical life.  
Karen Porkka
Edmonton, AB, Canada
karenporkka.com
www.dcana.ca
Karen is a Canadian vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, educator and collaborator. Her music reflects her love of jazz, world and spiritual music. She discovered Rhiannon in 2010 and dove in deep by creating V.I.N.E. (Vocal Improvisation Network of Edmonton). She holds weekly classes, weekend workshops, offers private lessons and brings vocal improv to performance with her bands, her solo electronic project “Porkka Loops” and with many other multi-disciplinary collaborations
2012  
Elise Witt
Atlanta, GA
www.EliseWitt.com
Elise’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. The Elise Witt Choral Series features her original compositions. Elise serves as Artist-in-Residence at the Global Village Project, an arts-integrated school for teenage refugee girls.
Janiece Jaffe
Bloomington, IN
www.conscioussinging.com
Janiece travels regionally with her crystal and Tibetan bowls offering 'sound meditations'.  She enjoys teaching in her home studio, and giving workshops in Circle Singing, Improvisation, The Voice as a Healing Instrument, and Merkaba Meditations. She has 12 recordings available and sings everything from Big Band repertoire to back up for soul music!  When not out in the big wide world, you can find her dancing, singing, chanting and laughing in her home!
2010-2011  
Nicoline Snaas
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
nicolinesnaas.nl
Nicoline Snaas is a jazz singer and vocal coach, dedicated to freeing the musical voice, with a degree in teaching social skills and communication. She has attended Rhiannon's seminars since 1994 in Holland, Italy and Hawaii and has taught improvisation and circle singing to choirs and at festivals in Holland and abroad. She has led the world music choir: “Tell Mama We’re Late” and sings in “Nicoline Snaas Trio” and in 2 a cappella groups
.Johanna Seiler
Berlin, Germany
johannaseiler.com
As a vocal improvisational artist, Johanna gives fully improvised a cappella concerts and leads circle song events with up to 1500 "singers or non-singers".
As a composer, she writes a wide variety of music including the complete repertoire for her Berlin Seiler Choir. As a coach for a cappella improvisation, she teaches workshops and master classes in numerous European cities – for conventions, institutes (psychology, healing, personal development) and at music conservatories
Chantal Gosselin
Montreal, BC, Canada
www.chantalgosselin.com
Singer songwriter based in Montreal, Chantal performs and teaches vocal improvisation in Quebec and Europe.  She enjoys collaborating with other singers and multi-disciplinary artists, integrating voice and movement in spontaneous creation.  Passionate about the human transformative process, she brings her musical skills, instinct and communication background into her teaching. And these with the aim to support students in their search for deeper connection, authenticity and creativity in their artistic practice and self-expression.
2009  
Rebekka Goldsmith
Seattle, WA
www.rebekkagoldsmith.com
Rebekka Goldsmith is a vocalist and social artist who teaches improvisation as way to develop music skills, personal intuition and creative capacity. She facilitates multi-disciplinary art-based workshops for youth and adults throughout North America. Based in Seattle, Rebekka is currently developing improvisation-based curriculum for middle and high school music educators. She holds a theater degree from Rutgers University and a certification through the Partnership for Youth Empowerment's Heart of Facilitation program (www.pyeglobal.org).
Emile Hassan Dyer
Los Angeles, CA
www.emilehassan.com
Emile is a vocalist, multi-percussionist, and storyteller, raised in France and Senegal, who offers a multicultural perspective to music, drawing on his Cherokee and African heritages while performing the percussion instruments and vocal styles of many cultures. Currently living in LA, he co-directs the Golden Bridge Community Choir, teaches a vocal percussion and improvisation workshop called VoiceDance, and is a founding member of “Fish to Birds”, a vocal ensemble dedicated to 100% improvised vocal performances.
2008  
Laurel Murphy 
Vancouver, BC, Canada
laurelmurphy.com
Laurel has worked with Rhiannon since 1992 as student, assistant and collaborator. Her background includes voice and jazz studies as well as trainings with Ruth Zaporah and others. Laurel is passionate about improvisation as a pathway to authenticity, musical magic, freedom and connection. It inspires her work with loopers and technology, jazz performance, inter-disciplinary collaboration and sound healing. Laurel has been teaching vocal improv and leading circle singing events since 1995.
Kate Richards Geller
Los Angeles, California
www.singforyourself.com
After 15 years facilitating vocal improvisation sessions in NYC, Kate enjoyed a ‘walk-about’ sharing her experiences as student, teacher, music therapist, and performer with musical communities along the way, nurturing creativity and musicality and well-being through circle singing. Her approach is body-centered, music-centered, and explorative - using the body's natural musicality and the mind’s music library as the bases for building self-awareness and creating change. Kate currently leads a weekly 'Community Sing' in an art gallery in DTLA every Thursday night.