Michael Smolens
tenor / music director
(founder, ensemble member 1993-98/since 2005)

photo credit: D. Ross Cameron, montage by Jason Martineau

A composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist for nearly four decades, Smolens’ artistic sensibility freely incorporates colors, moods, and arranging concepts from a multitude of influences. His primary sources of inspiration include: contemporary jazz (Art Lande, Paul McCandless, Nguyên Lê), modern vocal flights (Bobby McFerrin), 20th-century classical (Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Gabriel Faure), North Indian Classical (Hindusthani), African music (West African, Afro-Cuban), modern Brazilian music (Egberto Gismonti, Heitor Villa-Lobos), accompanied Sufi poetry (Hafiz, Rumi), and stage magic (Jeff McBride).

Michael holds two music degrees from UC Santa Cruz, and has studied with some of the most innovative jazz teachers, including Art Lande, Allaudin Mathieu, and Kenny Werner. His works have been comissioned by Meet The Composer, National Public Radio, the Occidental Choir, UCSC Dance Dept., and numerous Bay Area solo vocalists. They've also appeared on the "Critics' Choice" lists for the S.F. Chronicle, S.F. Weekly, East Bay Express, KCSM-FM, and KPFA-FM.

Michael has recorded six CDs in various formats from duo to large ensembles. His recordings feature jazz legends Stefon Harris (vibes), Paul McCandless (reeds), and Zakir Hussain (tablas), and he has also performed and recorded with members of Bobby McFerrin's "Voicestra." His most recent release is with his jazz octet “Kriya – Live at Yoshi’s”. Additionally he co-leads the John Thomas-Michael Smolens Duo. Both the Kriya Octet and earPlay Jazzquintet are soon to be releasing studio recordings of his works scheduled for late 2008.

Today, Michael is a senior-level teacher, and has been working with people from all backgrounds, skill levels, and interests for over three decades. He has published and lectured extensively on the art of practicing, and is adjunct faculty at Sonoma State University and JFK University.

David Worm
tenor / bass/ vocal percussion
(ensemble member since 2005)

David Worm began his singing career in 1985 with the Bay Area groups Jazz Mouth and Vocal Front. In 1989 he became a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra ensemble and has remained a regular performer with McFerrin. David can be heard on Bobby's recordings, videos and touring with the early Quartet Hard Choral, and his most recent project, Circlesongs. David is also one of the original founding members of the a cappella group SoVoSo, an internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble which has released six albums and tours worldwide. Other current projects include collaborations and recordings with Bowl Full of Sound, an innovative quintet with vocal powerhouses Rhiannon and Joey Blake, and David’s own original acoustic rock duo band, Glass House, which has recorded on Organelle Records. David has over 50 record credits as a session singer and vocal percussionist, and has appeared in music videos for Kawasaki and Levi Strauss. He taught improvisational singing and vocal percussion in the spring of 2005 at the Omega Institute in New York.

David has also worked extensively with the Bay Area dance community, having scored or co-written original works for ODC, Robert Moses Kin (a recipient of an Isadora Duncan Award), Tandy Beal, Project Bandaloop (an Isadora Duncan Award nominee), Axis Dance (Meet the Composer grant recipient and Isadora Duncan Award nominee), Cherie Carson, June Watenabe, and Suzanne Gallo. David’s music has also been used in scoring the film documentaries “StepUp” for Canadian director Tamas Wormser, “Love Francesca” for producer Julie LaSalle, and “Forgiveness” for director Kenya Briggs.

Bryan Dyer
bass / tenor
(ensemble member since 2005)

Bryan's musical career began at an early age when he sang in the children's choir at his church at the age of six and went on to learn trumpet, percussion, baritone horn, and piano. He then spent several years singing and training with the Oakland Youth Chorus (where he currently teaches) and began traveling to places such as British Columbia, Jamaica and Japan.

Bryan currently performs with several Bay Area groups including Street Sounds, SoVoSo, Chelle and Friends, Rankin' Scroo and Ginger, Slammin, and the R&B group 510. He has managed to travel the world and perform with or open for such artists as Michael McDonald, Ladysmith Mamabazo, and Bobby McFerrin to name a few. He has worked in radio, television and stage over the course of his musical career and is always seeking a new musical challenge whenever it presents itself.

Daniel Tucker
tenor
(ensemble member since 2007)

Daniel was raised by a multi-instrumentalist ethnomusicologist mother, so it’s no surprise that his musical journey has been multifaceted. As a high-school student, he toured Europe as the principal alto saxophonist in the Sound of America Honor Band. While at Brown University in Providence, Daniel clung to the clavé while playing saxophone at local dives and corporate functions with a Latin jazz combo. While traveling in India, he encountered Kirtan devotional chanting, and has enjoyed fusing those soul-rattling chants with Western instruments and harmony. Daniel has torn a path littered with dozens of instruments (including alto and soprano saxophone, flute, trombone, baritone horn, fiddle, djembe, guitar, piano, harmonium, and a nose flute) through four continents to eventually return home to his most beloved instrument – the voice.  He is now studying voice with Michael Smolens, Jane Sharp, and Greg Murai and is thrilled to be the newest member of Mirabai.

Pollyanna Bush
soprano / dance
(ensemble member since 2005)

Pollyanna Bush was born in Texas and began singing and improvising on the piano at age four. A year later she began singing in her first choir. Her travels eventually led her to Northern California, where she studied at College of Marin, Mills College, and San Francisco State University. She also studied with renowned teacher/composer/author Allaudin Mathieu and North Indian raga singer Pandit Pran Nath. Later, while living in New York, Pollyanna danced for Martha Graham, and explored collaboration with singer/composer Meredith Monk. She also directed and composed for the cutting-edge quartet Obiba which featured two vocalists, piano, synthesizer, bass, and tabla.

Recent awards and acclaim for Pollyanna include first place honors for Pollyanna's song "Innocent Heart" which just won the 2005 award for "Best Pop Song" in the West Coast Songwriters International Songwriting Contest, and “Best Song of the Year” for her newest song “Strange” in the West Coast Songwriters 2005 Open Mic Playoffs. Pollyanna has also received of The Marin Arts Council Individual Artists Grant.
Recognized as a powerful voice for peace, Pollyanna directs the 20-voice Marin Street Choir, which is devoted to singing songs of Truth and Peace. She has co-directed the 24-hour New Year's Vigils at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, an event founded by Bobbie McFerrin and members of Voicestra. Pollyanna is Music Director and core faculty member for the Chaplaincy Institute of Creative and Healing Ministries in Berkeley, CA. Pollyanna has been a student of the Diamond Heart Approach to Spiritual Awakening for 12 years and was a student of Sufism 8 years prior to that. She brings her practice of presence and inquiry to all aspects of her work.

She teaches privately, specializing in creating the conditions that allow students to free their voices and express their essence. She offers workshops and corporate seminars that focus on the voice and improvisation as a vehicle for invoking Presence, and enhancing communication and cooperation. Her company is called Truth Works, where authenticity and passionate expression happen through live and recorded music works and educational programs.

Becca Burrington
soprano
(ensemble member since 1996-98/ since 2005)

Becca Burrington graduated in trombone performance with honors at Oberlin Conservatory, where she received the Conservatory Dean's Talent Award. She also studied at Interlochen Arts Center and received the Governor's Scholar and Outstanding Brass Performance award. An active freelancer both on trombone and voice, she is the co-music director of Solstice, a female vocal sextet that features music written by women (or for women voices) from across the globe. Ms. Burrington has also been a frequent soloist with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble, an exceptional chorus that has premiered many contemporary scores by major composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Meredith Monk, and Dave Brubeck. Other performances have included the Silk Road Project with Yo-Yo Ma, San Franciso Sinfonietta, California Chamber Symphony, Women's Philharmonic, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Dulce Mambo (salsa), and the Montclair Women's Big Band. Becca has been featured on numerous recordings including the Bernstein Mass (with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester), two CDs by Solstice, and trombone with the sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster. Ms. Burrington is on the faculty for trombone at the Community Music Center in San Francisco.

Valentina Osinski
mezzo-soprano / assistant music director
(ensemble member since 2005)

Valentina Osinski’s “golden mezzo” (San Francisco Examiner) has graced the stages of San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the San Francisco Symphony, Midsummer Mozart, Eugene Opera, and other companies through out the United States. Regional finalist for the prestigious MacAllister Awards and a winner of Marin Symphony’s Wishard A. Brown award, Ms. Osinski is far more than an opera singer--she has also performed at other notable non-operatic venues including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, MTV, the Fillmore Auditorium, the Shoreline Ampitheater, Villa Montalvo, and the Palace of Fine Arts, appearing with artists as diverse as John Cale (Velvet Underground), Dana Carvey, George Benson, Todd Rundgren, and Helen Hunt.

As an actress, she created the role of "Maria" in the world premier of Charles Mee's "Summertime" at the Magic Theatre. She also co-founded and arranged for San Francisco's acclaimed a capella group, The Screaming Divas, garnering the Best Arrangement award from the Harmony Sweepstakes competition for her a capella take on Ravel's Bolero. As a studio vocalist, she has contributed to numerous recordings in San Francisco and New Orleans, in addition to national radio jingles and television shows. Ms. Osinski earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering, which led immediately to her degree studies in Vocal Performance. Also a song writer, photographer, and oil painter, she is dedicated to the art of the human voice and to the power of music to bring about transformation.

Alexis Lane Jensen
mezzo-soprano
(ensemble member since 2006)

Alexis was raised by a church organist mother who also conducted a local singing group (the Point Richmond Madrigal Singers) and sang with various local choruses. She has fond memories of hearing everything from the Beatles, Steely Dan and Blood, Sweat & Tears to Mussorgsky, Ravel, Pachelbel and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” played on the home stereo, and her mom playing Joni Mitchell and Carole King on the piano. How could she NOT grow up singing? After a youth filled with time spent in community musical theater, high school vocal jazz ensembles, CMEA All-State Jazz Choruses, UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program and the Oakland Youth Chorus, she went on to study voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and California Institute of the Arts. After leaving CalArts and returning to the Bay Area, Alexis put her new found love of Cabaret style music to work by performing the works of Brecht, Weill, Eisler and others with a small combo in various local venues such as the Café du Nord, Above Brainwash and the Exit Café. She’s also a Prize Winning Karaoke Artist and won 1st Prize in a Leonard Cohen Songbook Contest sponsored by Sony and the Paradise Lounge. She could also be found in the Soprano section of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under the baton of Herbert Bloomstedt for several seasons.

Meanwhile, she has also ventured into the Contemporary Opera world, having sung with Oakland Opera Theater in Akhnaten (Glass), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky) and White Darkness (Prokofiev/Dean), the Exit Theater in Three Sisters Who Were Not Sisters (Stein/Rorem) and the Berkeley Opera in Bat out of Hell (Strauss) and the World Premiere of Chrysalis (Suprynowicz). Sprinkle throughout the years several collaborative performances--the West Coast premiere of Danny Elfman’s Serenada Schizophrana with the Santa Rosa Symphony, ODC Pilot program with choreographer Lisa Russ and the World Premiere of Bitter Harvest by Kurt Rhode with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony to name a few. Most recently, Alexis joined the Pacific Mozart Ensemble and was extremely blessed to sing with them at Carnegie Hall in a concert celebrating Meredith Monk’s 40th Anniversary and with a smaller PME ensemble (under the leadership of fellow MIRABAI member Eric Freeman) at Zellerbach Hall with Indie/Alternative rocker Sufjan Stevens.

Last, but not least, she runs her own uniquely personalized singing telegram service, Divagram.

Jessica Rice
alto
(ensemble member since 2007)

Jessica Rice is a singer-songwriter from the rolling farmland of Western Pennsylvania.  An Oakland resident for the past eight years, Jessica has sung and soloed with the gospel choir at First Congregational Church of Oakland under the direction of Trente Morant and Kelly Orphan.  She has also been a regular in Rob Brezsny's uplifting rock’n’roll spectacular, Sacred Uproar.  Currently she performs solo (acoustic) and with the rock band Les Lapins.