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Performer Bios

Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award. Selected works include: Bark of Millions (a fifty-five song—and counting—parade trance extravaganza for the living library of the deviant theme); A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (a 24-hour performance-art concert about communities building themselves because they’re torn apart); and An American Dionysia (four plays about the polarization of America: Prosperous Fools; The Fre; Gary; and Hir). The Emmy Award-winning concert-doc, Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, is currently streaming on HBO/Max. 

 

Matt Ray is a composer, arranger, theater maker, pianist, singer, songwriter, and music director living in New York. He is a fixture of New York’s downtown cabaret and nightlife scene, having collaborated with luminaries such as Taylor Mac, Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, and Joey Arias. For his composition and music direction on he and Mac’s jazz-based theater piece The Hang (2022, HERE Arts Center), Matt received a 2023 Obie Award. The show also received 4 Drama Desk and 2 Drama League nominations, including a Drama Desk nomination for Matt Ray for Best Music. Other Ray and Mac collaborations include The Lily’s Revenge (2009, HERE Arts Center), Bark of Millions (2023, Sydney Opera House), and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2016, St. Anne’s Warehouse). For his work on 24-Decade, he and Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired By American History.

About the Hume Fellowship

Bill Hume ’50 M’52 taught music, speech, and history at Occidental before being named director of Thorne Hall in 1958. He spent almost 20 years at Occidental, also serving as director of student activities.

The Hume Fellowship provides a rich experience for �������� students. In addition to the public performances given by these exceptional artists, the Fellowship funding supports residency activities in which the visiting artists work with our students in master classes, writing and performance workshops, and class visits. These high-impact opportunities enhance the educational and artistic experience of students in music, theater and across the campus.

Previous Hume Fellows in Music include percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Larmore and Frederica von Stade, the Marian Anderson String Quartet, jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist Awadagin Pratt, Jeffrey Kahane and members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, bassist-singer-songwriter Esperanza Spalding, and multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, and composer Cory Henry. Hume Fellows in Theater have included Culture Clash, Roger Guenveur Smith, Will Power, Daniel Alexander Jones (aka Jomama Jones), Universes and Actors From The London Stage.