South Bay native Brendan Rawson has worked in the local arts scene for more than twenty years. Since joining SJZ in 2012, Brendan has worked to increase the impact of our education programs and conceived many of our most successful initiatives, including Jazz Beyond programming and our mobile Boombox Truck stage. These initiatives reflect Brendan’s conviction that SJZ’s greatest strengths lie in its resourcefulness and adaptability, and that one its most important measures of success is its relevance to the community. Prior to his current role, Brendan served as Director of Cultural Participation at 1stACT Silicon Valley, where he helped launch the Left Coast Live music festival, spearheaded shared facilities and services strategies for the sector and led the organization’s research work. Prior to 1stACT, Brendan served as Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC Santa Cruz Extension. He has also held positions at Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley, MACLA Center for Latino Arts and Collaborative Economics. Brendan holds a Masters of Public Policy from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University. Brendan has served on the Boards of Teatro Visión, Bay Area Glass Institute, and Valley Verde.

Bruce Labadie has over 40 years of experience in Performing Arts Management and festival production. He directed all programs at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga for 18 years, and has served as the performing arts director at the Montalvo Arts Center, in Saratoga, Calif., for 12 years, and as the director of many festivals in San Jose. As the founder, artistic and festival director of the San Jose Jazz Festival, now the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, since 1990, and San Jose Jazz Winter Fest, Labadie programs over 120 concerts annually for San Jose Jazz. He was recently named the 2019 Cornerstone of the Arts, the City of San Jose’s highest honor bestowed on an arts administrator. He is currently programming consultant for the Musco Center at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, Calif. He also served as artistic director for San Jose’s Music in the Park and Music in the Other Park summer series for 22 years, was producer for San Jose’s 01SJ Festival of art and technology, is artistic director of the Jazz on the Plazz, and Music in the Park series in Los Gatos, and has been director of the Redwood City Salsa Festival and Cultural Concerts, and past president of California Presenters. He has produced most of the major festivals in San Jose including the San Jose Mariachi Festival, the San Jose America Festival, Brew Ha Ha and many others.

Vera Gert moved to Silicon Valley from Russia in 2001. She has more than 15 years of experience in public accounting and financial reporting, including IAS and GAAP practice. After receiving her degree in Financial Analysis, Vera worked as Controller for ExxonMobile official dealer in Moscow for two years. From 2006-2016, she participated in various projects including accounting system development for Lutronic Inc, the U.S. office of the Korean company; accounting consulting for DeLeon Realty, a Palo Alto real estate agency; and financial reporting consulting for AeroFund Financial, Inc., a San Jose-based factoring company. For three years, Vera served as an auditor for the San Francisco Bay Area and Peninsula nonprofit sector, including various community service centers, education institutions and performing art organizations.

Hugo Garcia joined the Progressions team in August 2017. Hugo received his BA in Music from University of California, Davis and his MM in Music Education from San José State University. He has performed and conducted with various groups including the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, the San Jose State Latin Jazz Ensemble, and many others. While at SJSU, Hugo was the director of the Young Musicians’ Project, where he focused on program evaluation, mission-alignment, and music program sustainability. Hugo is a local musician, music educator, and arts education advocate. In 2019, he was selected to be in the 11th cohort of the year-long Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI) training program through the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. Through this and other important networks like the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force, local education agencies, and other community partners, he also strives to highlight and advocate for music in education and the various music traditions, styles, and cultures that make up the rich music community of the Silicon Valley.

Massimo Chisessi was brought on board as marketing manager for the 2011 Summer Fest and was named San Jose Jazz’s Director of Marketing in September 2011. In this tenure, Mr. Chisessi drove a major institutional rebranding; increased PR efforts, resulting in national and international coverage; strengthened a relationship with the regional jazz radio station, paving the way for live broadcasts from Fest stages, created Summer Fest’s first responsive website optimized for mobile devices; and instituted tiered pricing, resulting in increased revenue. After a recent stint at San Francisco Ballet, Mr. Chisessi returned to San Jose Jazz in January 2017. He brings with him extensive experience in marketing non-profit arts organizations in the Bay Area including San Jose Museum of Art and Montalvo Arts Center.

Tricia Fornesi originally joined SJZ in 2010 and left in 2012 to spend more time with her growing family. In 2017, she returned as the director of sponsorship development and corporate engagement where she works with local and national brands for Summer Fest, Winter Fest and our year-round activities. Tricia grew up in Silicon Valley, attending Santa Clara University and then SJSU for her Masters in Public Administration. Working for the City of San Jose for 17 years, she oversaw hundreds of outdoor events for the Office of Cultural Affairs and helped to navigate the challenges larger events brought to the community as a lead partner for the LIVESTRONG Challenge, Amgen Tour of California, San Jose Grand Prix, and Cirque de Soleil. She has also worked with the Ironman series as the Volunteer Director for the Santa Cruz Triathlon. She has traveled to assist at a variety of events, races and parades in Washington, DC, Houston, San Antonio, and Chicago. One of her proudest accomplishments is growing the Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot from 10,000 participants to over 25,000 in the four years she was the Program Manager, helping to raise millions of dollars for local charities. Tricia loves the diversity of SJZ’s stakeholders and performance programs, along with our important education work.

His own ensembles have performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Hong Kong Jazz Festival, Beishan China Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and San Francisco’s Jazz in the City series. As a sideman, he’s played with Phil Woods, Eddie Daniels, Ernie Watts, Med Flory, Dave Pell, Bill Henderson, Etienne Charles and Mary Wilson. He performs and teaches in many genres, including Latin, funk, and rock and blues, but the bulk of his work is in jazz and fusion. Wally has ten recordings of original compositions in release and has also received commissions from Santa Clara University and the California Arts Council. He has been a writer and editor with Drum! magazine for over 20 years. Wally earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Jazz Performance at San Jose State University. He uses and endorses Pearl Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Earthworks Microphones.

A Grammy winner for his collaboration with Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Aaron was the recipient of the Sammy Nestico Award. He was named the 2011 Jazz Educator of the Year by the California Music Educators Association, and has been recognized multiple times in the both the DownBeat Magazine Critic’s Poll and Reader’s Poll. In 2015 he was named as a Silicon Valley Artist Laureate. His performing and compositional credits include collaborations with the San Francisco Symphony, Maynard Ferguson, the BBC Radio Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, Doc Severinsen, Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Jamie Davis, Tommy Igoe and many others. After receiving his Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Houston, Aaron received his Master’s of Music in Jazz Studies and DMA in saxophone performance from the University of North Texas, where he studied with James Riggs. Aaron Lington is a Saxophone Performing Artist for Selmer Saxophones and is a D’Addario Performing Artist. He performs exclusively on Rico Reeds.