Thank you for your interest in Pandion Music Foundation’s inaugural Teen Camp coming this June! We are honored to be able to provide this educational and community-building opportunity for these amazing students.
The camp will be held at the beautiful Earthstar Creation Center studio in Venice, founded by Pandion’s own CEO, Rebecca Trujillo Vest, and Michael Vest who had a dream to build a safe, creative space where they could explore the spiritual side of music. The studio has hosted a myriad of reputable acts, including Beck, P!nk, André3000, The National, Lily Allen, The Lonely Island and many more!
This year’s Teen Camp will feature three days of intensive hands-on music workshops led by incredible professionals in the music industry who have direct experience working with youth. Each day will also include guided wellness and mindfulness activities designed to highlight the importance of wellness in a music career, and demonstrate that mental health doesn’t need to suffer for our art.
Listed below, you can read more information about each of our wonderful mentors:
Born to musician and producer Steve Porcaro, Heather Porcaro grew up alongside his Grammy Award-winning band Toto, doing homework in the studio as he worked with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. Her family’s impeccable standard for musical skill and songwriting traces back to her grandfather, Joe Porcaro, a renowned session drummer and member of “The Wrecking Crew.”
Growing up in Los Angeles immersed in the music and film industries, she was shaped by countless time spent with renowned actors, musicians, and producers who became her educators, collaborators, and lifelong friends. Her work reflects her almost intuitive understanding of the intersection of film, theater, and music: she’s written music for film and theatre, filmed and directed music videos, and performed in music videos throughout her career.
Together with her husband, she owns a recording studio in Los Angeles where she’s had the pleasure of developing several artists and contributing to tracks. Her prolific music career includes work with Wanting Q, Broken Bells, Dylan Cooper, John Wicks, Tony Berg, and more.
Melodic.net
Wendy Parr is a Holistic Vocal Coach & Artist Development Specialist, who has spent 20+ years in the music industry empowering recording artists to express their authentic voice. She has coached artists including Melanie Martinez, Regina Spektor, Sara Bareilles, Marc Bassy, and helped take A Great Big World from first vocal session to a GRAMMY.
Founder of six-month artist development program, Compass, takes professional and emerging artists on a deep dive into who they are — archetypes, childhood heroes, life experiences — to emerge with a clarity surrounding their identities and the language to communicate this with their teams. Compass provides the process and tools for serious musical artists to develop their authentic brand with consistency across all platforms.
Prolific singer-songwriter, Eleni Mandell has been publishing albums through Zedtone Records in Toronto Since 2000. In 2012 she began licensing her releases to Yep Roc in the US, and Make My Day in Europe. She is also a member of folk supergroup The Living Sisters with Inara George and Becky Stark, and has worked with producers and artists including, Jon Brion, Joe Chiccarelli, Tony Gilkyson, Nels Cline, DJ Bonebrake, and Joey Waronker.
Sonnet Simmons is a full-time singer-songwriter, music licensing coach, mother, and co-founder of 2Indie with Nashville-based producer/songwriter and coach, John Clinebell. She was a former VP of music licensing company Catch The Moon, run by Cathy Heller.
Sonnet is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the world of music licensing and coaching, and has earned song placements in ads such as Coca Cola, T-Mobile, Microsoft, and TV shows like Riverdale, Younger, and more. Through her company, 2Indie, she has helped thousands of indie artists to “flip the switch from learning to earning,” supporting songwriters around the world find success in sync.
First-generation Indian American, Tejal Patel (she/they) is a yoga teacher, educator, writer, podcaster, social justice advocate, and community organizer who lives and works on Tongva and Chumash Land, Los Angeles, California. Tejal advocates for yoga through a social justice lens and educates and empowers individuals and groups around the world to do the same.
Tejal is founder of ‘Tejal Yoga,’ an online studio, organizes the abcdyogi global community, and leads the ‘Yoga is Dead Podcast.’ They travel the US and abroad sharing their yoga and wellness techniques through workshops, events, and retreats.
Norwood Fisher is co-founder, vocalist, and bassist of legendary band, Fishbone. Norwood and the band formed strong friendships in their early years with other local Los Angeles bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thelonious Monster, and Psi Com. The band used their platform to speak out about political and social inequities and incorporate left-leaning social commentary to their lyrics, covering topics such as the breakup of families, contemporary racism, fascism, nuclear war, and oppression in lower income housing projects.
Norwood’s slap bass style has inspired and influenced many to come after him, and he now teaches bass lessons for the next generation of bassists.
Farmer Dave Scher is an artist from Southern California who specializes in the music and sound healing mediums. As a multi-instrumentalist, Farmer Dave enjoys working with universal frequencies, bridging the gap between contemporary popular music and the use of sound in sacred, healing, ceremonial, and shamanic traditions.
After losing many close musician friends and colleagues (and experiencing many of the profession’s challenges firsthand), Dave enrolled in grad school at Antioch University, Santa Barbara, earning his MACP degree (Clinical Psychology) with an emphasis in somatic studies. After graduating in 2023, Dave has begun to build a practice and is very excited to give back and advocate for musician’s mental health. He is also a surf therapy practitioner, working with Hydro Theory / Heart Theory and Waves of Grief in Ventura, CA.
Leathery control room vet, John X has worked at some of the finest world-renowned recording studios with an ever-growing roster of incredible talent. John X’s discography demonstrates his versatility with a huge cross-section of styles. As an engineer/mixer, he has accumulated quite a bit of platinum & has taken on The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, P!nk, Bonnie Raitt & Ice Cube and many more.
As a producer, he has worked with Joe Strummer, Blackgrape, David Coverdale among others. John X is also an Emmy nominated songwriter, has also scored a number of indie films, and now works primarily out of Earthstar Creation Center — the Los Angeles recording studio of Pandion’s CEO, Rebecca Trujillo Vest.
Chris Berry is a music educator and audio engineer based in Southern California. Through Live Nation’s Music Forward Foundation, Chris presents music industry focused workshops for high school students and youth development organizations interested in the music industry. Outside of this, Chris continues to showcase creative pursuits as a music producer and audio engineer by managing a recording studio in Torrance and helping artists realize their artistic vision.
Jared Oluwa is an Independent Music Creative from Los Angeles who works in the TV & Film Industry. Growing up in a musical family, it was evident that it would play a big part in his life in many ways. Over the years, he has been featured on networks like BET, HBO Max, Facebook, KFC and more. Since reaching different levels in his career, the goal has always been to help creatives see a return on their activity.
When it comes to advocacy, Jared is involved with organizations such as SONA (Songwriters of North America) The LA Recording Academy, Youth Mentoring Connection & The Guild of Music Supervisors (FOG). Jared has a personal drive to be more involved in several initiatives to help create impact on the ground and across the globe, and is always looking forward to being an asset to the current and next generation.
Melissa Shah (she/they) deeply believes in applying the culture and teachings of yoga to bring to light the long standing disparities in wellness spaces. She is passionate about bringing yoga and Ayurveda back to its roots, and reclaiming representation within the wellness community.
Originally from unceded Munsee Lenape land (Queens, NY) she currently lives on unceded Kizh, Chumash, and Tongva land (Los Angeles, CA) where she works to make yoga accessible through yoga therapy, mentoring yoga teachers, and mantra. Melissa also utilizes their background in public health to integrate yoga into schools and clinical settings.
Sam Knaak is a recording studio owner, engineer, mixer, producer and film production teacher. He founded Ear Witness Records in 1999 in Whittier, CA as a space to record and release local music from singer-songwriters and hiphop artist compilations that Sam was producing. In the early 2000’s, he started working as an engineer with other labels including True American Records.
Artists that have been serviced through Ear Witness include Sammy Johnson, Dead by Noon, The Wonderstrikes, King Klio, Royal Ruckus, Paulie Pesh, Tyrone Wells, Sara Lindsay, the VooDoo Fix, LA Symphony, and more.
Chrissy Tignor is an audio engineer, producer, educator, writer and musician. Her YouTube audio production tutorials have been viewed over 400,000 times, and her free Coursera course ProTools Basics has reached over 28,000 students worldwide. She is the founder of Audio Upcycle, a project where she built a recording facility entirely out of donations at El Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Chrissy produces music under the pseudonym Data Child, and offers mentorship and educational content through her production company, Data Child Music. She is also a course author and instructor for Berklee Online.
Jasmin is a Black, queer, invisibly disabled, multi-gifted storyteller who currently lives in South Los Angeles. She enjoys uplifting the experience of folks from marginalized backgrounds in her work.
Prior to founding Madden Flow Entertainment, Rashad Richardson worked at Universal Music Publishing for nearly 5 years while licensing music for Film/TV. He has pitched and licensed music that has landed in projects seen on Amazon Prime, Hulu (FX), ABC, CBS, Netflix, and more.
Harpinder Mann (she/her) is a yoga asana and meditation teacher, mindfulness educator, and community builder currently living on unceded Tongva Land (LA). She is actively working to decolonize wellness by creating community and providing real accessibility to ancestral practices for people of color.
Harpinder’s practice is rooted in her spiritual background of Sikhism and Buddhism and ancestral roots in Panjab, India – this informs her desire to teach yoga authentically as a spiritual practice. She has been teaching since 2018 and practicing since 2013 in a way to help people mindfully connect to their bodies with curious awareness, to bring a sense of healing peace and stillness, and create more meaning in their lives.
You can check out the Pandion Music Foundation staff and Board Members here, some of who will be present throughout the camp days.
Lunch, snacks and drinks will be provided throughout the day, and students will be sent home with Pandion “swag bags” that will include contents such as songwriting journals, handouts, and Pandion merch!
For Roosevelt students: Transportation to Earthstar on the days of camp will be provided via charter bus starting from Roosevelt High School. Pickup at 8am.
Parents are more than welcome to drive their kids directly if they’d like to see the studio. Students will be asked to arrive between 8-8:30am at Earthstar on their designated days of camp.
Busses are available for pickup at Earthstar at the end of the day at 5pm, which will drop off at Roosevelt High.
Parents are also welcome to pickup at 5pm from Earthstar.
For Happy Trails students:
Buses will not be available. Individual drop-off and pickup must be arranged.
If you, or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring a student or a full day of camp, please contact us at hello@pandionmusicfoundation.org.
For any questions or concerns about Pandion Music Foundation Teen Camp, or if your child has any unique needs requiring special accommodation, please reach out to jordan@pandionmusicfoundation.org.
Earthstar Creation Center is wheelchair accessible.
Thank’s for contacting us!