About Sherele band members
Violinist Lisa Gomes plays several genres of music—aside from klezmer, she also plays Irish, Scottish, Cajun, blues, rock, Medieval, and Balkan music. She first heard klezmer music growing up in New York, and was introduced to it again as an adult at a music camp. Lisa, Anita and Marcia first formed the Sherele band as a trio over 20 years ago, and Lisa is thrilled to have the band recently resurrected with the addition of Norm Foster and Rafael Amaral. Lisa has played Balkan music in the Pleasant Peasant Band and in Foreign Exchange, and has also performed in several other local bands—Irish Hearts (which she co-founded), Doolin Rakes, Bon Ton Roule, and the Celtic Pipes and Drums of Hawai‘i. She has played in festivals on the U.S. mainland and in Canada and Europe.
Clarinetist Norm Foster studied clarinet in Illinois and Michigan and has always enjoyed music of many styles. His first job with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra preceded his joining the Honolulu Symphony in 1985, now the Hawaii Symphony. In addition to symphonic and classical chamber music, he has also been active playing jazz, pop, Balkan, Middle Eastern, and klezmer styles, appearing with Sherele, Gypsy 808, and Island Oasis Ensemble. He and his wife, singer/songwriter and pianist Ruth Shiroma Foster, often perform together online as 7@7 Wednesdays and have a teaching studio for voice, piano, ukulele, clarinet and composition. Norm enjoys composing piano rags in his spare time. Accordionist Anita Trubitt was trained in classical piano and earned an MM degree in music composition with piano as her major instrument. She also developed a love for Eastern European and Near Eastern music, partly due to its connection to her Russian-Jewish heritage. She originally took up the accordion in the 1970s in order to provide live music for Balkan folk dancing, and has performed with the Pleasant Peasant Band, Partners in Time, and Foreign Exchange. She also accompanies an informal recreational Balkan singing group. She was one of the co-founders of the original Sherele band when it operated as a trio many years ago. Guitarist Rafael Amaral is from São Paulo, Brazil. As a composer, he has received commissions from orchestral institutions such as the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Wind Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra São Pedro, Orquestra Experimental de Repertoire (OER), and the Baccarelli Institute Percussion Group. His primary work and research interests focus on folkloric and intercultural aspects of music. Rafael has received fellows and awards from groups including Funarte (Brazil Contemporary Music Bienal) and SBME 2012 (Electroacoustic music Brazilian Society), and also from music festivals including the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik (in Germany), Acht Brücken – Musik für Köln (in Germany), and the Forum Nueva Musica (in Argentina). He was also a composer in residence for the Ensemble Mise-en (NY) in 2015. He holds a master’s degree in music composition from Boston University, and is currently a PhD candidate in music composition at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Percussionist Marcia Kemble plays dumbek (hand drum) and tambourine, and has played Balkan, Eastern European, and Near Eastern music since the early 1980s with the Pleasant Peasant Band, Partners in Time, and Foreign Exchange. She began studying and playing Balkan music as an outgrowth of her interest in Balkan folk dance. She has been a recreational international folk dancer for decades, and in the 1980s and ’90s she was a member of the folk dance performing group called the Omega Dancers. She also has had a longtime love of klezmer music, which incorporates many aspects of Eastern European folk music. Click on Menu icon at upper-left to go to Home, Sample Tunes, or Contact pages. |