The SZALON Tech Team

Andrea Clearfield –
Salon host and founder, composer

Andrea Clearfield (Composer/Curator) is an award-winning composer of music for orchestra, opera, chorus, chamber ensemble, dance, and multimedia collaborations. Clearfield creates deep, emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges. She has been praised by The New York Times for her “graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing,” the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “mastery with large choral and instrumental forces,” the Los Angeles Times for her “fluid and glistening orchestration,” and by Opera News for her “vivid and galvanizing” music of “timeless beauty.” Clearfield’s works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. Among her 175 works are seventeen cantatas including one commissioned and premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra in collaboration with writer and storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston. Recent works, including her choral cantata Tse Go La (At the Threshold of this Life), are inspired by Tibetan music fieldwork that she conducted in the Nepalese Himalaya. Her opera, MILA, Great Sorcerer, to libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden was presented at the acclaimed NYC Prototype Festival in 2019. Her cantata Here I Am: I Am Here  for soloists, chorus, strings and piano will be performed at Carnegie Hall in May, 2026. She is a curator of the ArtPhilly 2026 citywide multi-disciplinary arts festival during the nation’s 250thanniversary with artists responding to the theme, “What Now?”. Clearfield was appointed the Steven R. Gerber Composer in Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for their 2018-19 season, 2018 Angelfire Music Festival Composer-in-Residence and 2020 Composer-in-Residence with National Concerts at Carnegie Hall. Clearfield was awarded a 2021 Pew Center International Residency Award, a 2016 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, two Rockefeller Bellagio Center Fellowships and other fellowships from American Academy in Rome, Civitella, Montalvo, Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Copland House, Ucross and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation among others. Her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard and Seeadot, and recorded on the Bridge, Sony, MSR, Albany, Crystal, Naxos and Innova labels. She has served as Visiting Composer at numerous universities including Curtis, Princeton University, University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, Yale-National University of Singapore, CalArts, UCLA, University of New Mexico, Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, Emory University and University of Chicago. She received a D.M.A. in Composition from Temple University where she received the University-wide Presidential Fellowship. She served on the composition faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986 – 2011. As a pianist, she played keyboards with the Relâche Ensemble for 25 years, performed and recorded with numerous ensembles and held the honor of performing with the Court of the Dalai Lama. She has served on the Grammy Board of Directors, Philadelphia Chapter and currently serves on the Executive Board of Wildflower Composers, highlighting voices of young female, nonbinary, genderqueer and transgender composers. Passionate about building community around the arts, she is founder and host of the renowned Salon featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic, dance and world music since 1986. She is represented by Black Tea Music.

More at www.andreaclearfield.com
More about the Salon: http://www.andreaclearfield.com/music-salon/

Gerardo Razumney –
Technical Director

Gerardo Razumney is a musician and long time supporter of the Salon.  He has been involved in the music scene in Philadelphia for the past fifty years, both as a musician — playing folk music from Balkan, Greek, Turkish and South American traditions — and as a presenter, with the Cherry Tree Folk Music Co-op and currently with Crossroads Music.  In the lovely times of the live Salon he worked as its sound engineer and stage manager.  Currently, as Treasurer of Crossroads Music, the fiscal sponsor of the Zalon, he is helping with the collection of donations for the Zalon.  He is coordinating the remote Zalon and the hybrid SZalon tasks.  He is editing the past Salon and SZalon videos.  He is also a tango dancer and DJ, an activity that brings him back to his Argentine roots.

Joyce Lieberman –
Audio Engineer

Joyce Lieberman is the Radio Engineering Supervisor at WHYY-FM the local NPR Radio Station. She works to ensure high-quality sound over the air and on the web, maintain audio equipment and digital systems, train personnel for production and broadcast of programs, including Fresh Air, and trouble-shoot problems. Joyce began at WHYY as a volunteer in 1973 with Radio Free Women and as a trainee in 1976. Joyce took over engineering the three-hour local “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” in 1978. When Fresh Air became a national NPR program in 1987, Joyce became the Technical Director. She worked with a crew to research equipment and workflows for producing high-quality radio for a national audience, including recording many musical guests live in the Fresh Air studio. She helped oversee the transition for Fresh Air to digital editing and the Fresh Air Digital Archive. Joyce has a BA from Rutgers University and attended Philadelphia Wireless Technical Institute for basic electronic theory and audio training. Joyce’s professional recording efforts include over thirty years of recording music for the Cape May Music Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Joyce is a Life Member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and is the Co-Chair of the Philadelphia AES Chapter.

Andrew Kiefer –
Audio Engineer

Andrew Kiefer is a multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and audio engineer with a deep passion for sound and creativity. Whether crafting immersive soundscapes, producing music, or handling the technical aspects of live and recorded audio, he brings a keen ear and an innovative approach to every project. On stage, he delivers dynamic performances on guitar—ranging from original compositions to fresh takes on classics—while occasionally lending his talents to saxophone, keys, drums, and vocals. Andrew has extensive experience in audio production, including studio recording, sound reinforcement, mixing for live and in-person and virtual events, sound design, and radio production. His background includes work at Temple University’s Boyer Recording Studio, freelance audio gigs, and roles in radio—previously as Imaging Director at WRNB and currently at WHYY, where he has worked in Radio Operations and now in Sponsorship Operations. As part of the SZalon team, Andrew helps ensure that each performance sounds its best, whether in an intimate living room or beyond.

Tom West –
A/V Engineer

When 12 years as Chief Engineer and Project Manager for an industrial machinery company became boring, I shifted to full time work with my formerly part-time 'hobby' and lifetime love, Stage and Movie technical production.
Currently semi-retired, although still building occasional electro-mechanical and electronic Props and set pieces, consulting, and enjoying my 7 Grandchildren.
And, of course, providing Zoom camera/monitor assistance with Andrea's wonderful, and eclectic SZalon programs!

Lex Simakas –
Website Manager

Lex Simakas is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and music editor. He received a B.M. in Piano Performance from Ithaca College with a concentration in Jazz Studies, graduating summa cum laude, and a M.S. in Music Technology at Temple University, receiving the Dr. Cynthia Folio Award. He is currently working as a freelance composer and as a music editor for NFL Films. At NFL Films, he has recently worked on shows such as Hard Knocks, Quarterback, A Football Life, Inside the NFL, Peyton’s Places, and others. In his music, he strives to strike the perfect balance between the synthetic and organic, the immaculate and imperfect, and complexity and accessibility. He embraces a vast array of musical inspiration, and is always seeking out new worlds of sound.

Website: lexsimakas.com

Vartan Sarkissian –
Stage Manager

Vartan Sarkissian is a musician and stage manager based out of Philadelphia.  He attended the Main Line School of Rock for 10 years where he honed his drumming skills and stage management.  He went on to further his education in Audio Engineering at Temple University achieving his degree in media studies and production studying under industry professional including Phil Nicolo, Joseph Kraus, and Joseph Donio. He met Andrea during his time at Temple through the Grammy University program and started as an intern in 2022 during the end of Covid. After starting off learning about the audio aspect of The Salon, he soon found his calling when given the opportunity to manage the stage.  He finds pride in keeping Andrea’s stage as clean as possible and making each transition on stage smooth and fast. Outside of the Salon, Vartan and his band “Greydyent” play with a variety of singers performing anything from originals to good ol’ bar covers.  He hopes to find a career as a professional drummer and looks forward to moving to Nashville to achieve this dream! 

Alex Glass –
Engineer

Alex Glass is a composer and pianist from Cherry Hill, NJ. He started composing at the age of seven and was encouraged to pursue composition by his piano teacher and mentor Michael Nikolidakis. Over the years, Alex has written for solo piano, solo guitar, small chamber groups, and jazz big band, performed in both classical and jazz ensembles, and accompanied numerous performances and musicals. He can also be seen playing keyboard in the Sonorants, a Bollywood/jazz fusion group based in South Jersey. Alex is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, and has studied with Dr. Matthew Greenbaum, Dr. Cynthia Folio, Dr. Maurice Wright, and Dr. Emiliano Pardo-Tristan. 

Bill Houston –
Video Engineer

Bill Houston is a retired pediatrician with a 35+ year passion for supporting music and musicians as a volunteer live sound and live recording engineer for folk, world, classical and jazz. He spent many years as a sound engineer for the Cherry Tree Music Co-op and Crossroads Music and continues to do archive recording for the Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music and Dance. He’s also the recording engineer for the Chestnut Street Singers and the Wayne Oratorio Society. He has recording credit for six live recordings plus partial credit for others. More recently he has added live performance videos by the jazz singer Phyllis Chapell to his credits.

Shrish Jawadiwar –
Engineer

Shrish Jawadiwar is a composer, double bassist, viola da gamba player, and violone player from South Brunswick, NJ. His first foray into music was learning Hindustani (North Indian) classical singing as well as tabla, the pair of Indian drums. He started composing at age ten and had his first premiere at age fourteen: one movement from his String Quartet for beginning musicians. Since then, Shrish has composed for orchestra, choir, solo voice, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, including piano, bass saxophone, and double bass. He has also played double bass and violone in various ad hoc chamber ensembles. As a tabla player, he has accompanied family members and friends. Shrish holds a bachelor's degree from The College of New Jersey in political science and music, and a master’s degree in music composition from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, where he studied with Dr. Ellen Fishman, Dr. Andrew Litts, Jan Krzywicki, and Dr. Maurice Wright. Given his interest in early music and historical performance, Shrish has been a member of Temple University’s Early Music Ensemble, playing both tenor and bass viola da gamba, violone, and percussion. He is currently serving as the Young Players’ Representative on the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s board of directors.

Miranda Peak -
Engineer

Miranda Peak graduated from Mills College with a BA in computer science in the Spring of 2022. Her choice of major came as a surprise to many, as she expressed interest in music and studio art prior to this new passion. She is now a full stack developer with startup company Art Hub Studio LLC. 

Afraid of completely abandoning the arts, she recently picked up cello and enjoys doing crafts over the weekends. Miranda’s current, specific interests include wikipedia diving, reading books on web hacking, and solving Dell math and logic puzzles. 

A Wilmington, Delaware native, Miranda now resides in Southern California where she is currently learning how to “person” as a tech worker, art hobbyist, and Renaissance Faire enthusiast.