Sergio Cabada
The work of composer and multi-instrumentalist Sergio Santiago Cabada (b.1994) encapsulates a fusion of American musical traditions. He has studied piano under prof. Mazdak Khamda at Napa Valley College, and further studied at UC Berkeley. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the Intermission Orchestra at Berkeley, the Napa Valley College and U.C. Berkeley Undergraduate Composer’s Clubs, the Solano Community College Piano Quartet, the Napa Valley College Jazz Band, and the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble.
In addition to concert music, he often collaborates in other performance arts such as orchestrating and staging colleague Eleanor Hammond’s (B.A. in Theater, 2021) full length original musical “Walls” (2019) as assistant musical director, editing and directing the remotely recorded music videos for the UC Berkeley Mariachi Luz de Oro (2020), playing keyboard in Missouri Street Theatre’s productions of “Legally Blonde” (2022) and “Assassins” (2022) and second piano in “Side by Side by Sondheim” (2022) with the Pinole Community Players. Recent and upcoming projects include elementary piano and mariachi arrangements, “Peruvian Suite” for concert band (premiered by the UC Berkeley Wind Ensemble in February 2022), “Ollantay” the Incan opera set in the Quechua language, a trio nocturne (for soprano, clarinet, and piano), a viola sonata, and salsa charts for jazz big band and nonet.
Sergio holds degrees in Music from Napa Valley College (A.A.-T. 2016), and the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. 2020). He currently serves as music instructor for the Live Music Center in Vacaville, mariachi instructor at Willis Jepsen Middle School, Music Director and Organist at Grace Episcopal Church, Collaborative Pianist for the Vallejo Choral Society, and freelance pianist, percussionist, and piano tuner.