UMS Artist Facilitators

Meet the UMS Artist Facilitators leading this season’s School Day Performance Plus (SDP+) workshops.

Michael Abbasspour

Michael Abbasspour is a graduate of the University of Michigan-Flint (2018) where he earned his Bachelor of Music specializing in classical guitar under the guidance of Francesco Cavallini. Along with classical guitar, Michael has also found joy in studying and performing in many other genres such as jazz, chorale, and mariachi. He is also an avid songwriter and composer.

As a mariachi, Michael has gained his knowledge and experience throughout his time as a member and educator of El Ballet Folklórico Estudiantil y Mariachi (EBFEM) since 2014. During the last decade, Michael has had the opportunity to learn about the styles, history, and vibrancy of mariachi through attending many workshops, conferences, and collaborations. This includes Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference (Las Cruces, NM), National Mariachi Workshops for Educators (Las Vegas, NV), Mariachi Extravaganza Summer Camp (San Antonio, TX), collaborations with Escuela de Mariachi Ollin Yoliztli Garibaldi (Mexico), and more. As the youth music director of El Ballet Folklórico Estudiantil y Mariachi, Michael has developed a deep passion and joy for teaching mariachi and how it empowers youth. He is always excited for any opportunity to share the rich culture and joy of mariachi.

Gean Vincent Almendras

Gean Vincent Almendras is an Ann Arbor based musician and instructor of mandolin, violin, and Philippine banduria. Gean graduated with degrees in Computer Information Systems and in Music, specializing in classical mandolin performance (under the tutelage of Francesco Cavallini) and a minor in violin; through the University of Michigan. Through the close tutelage of Maestro Antonio González from the Escuela de Mariachi Ollin Yolliztli Garibaldi in Mexico City, and his attendance of various International Mariachi Conferences and workshops taught by various professional Mariachi clinicians from prestigious groups like Mariachi Cobre, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, and Mariachi Los Camperos, Gean is also trained in the playing style of Mariachi violin and performs professionally with a Mariachi ensemble under the Flint-based folks arts nonprofit, El Ballet Folklórico Estudiantil (EBFE). In 2014, Gean helped start —now Vice-President and Music Director of — the Philippine Arts & Culture Ensemble of Michigan (PACE-MI); a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing community-based instructional programs and resources through the promotion of Rondalla music, indigenous music, and traditional folk dance. Gean, an aspiring ethnomusicologist, is also a course lecturer of Philippine Ensemble Music at the University of Michigan Center for Southeast Asian Studies (UM-CSEAS).

Erin Goldman

Erin Goldman is an Ann Arbor-based vocalist, pianist and songwriter. She recently made a shift from working in the field of mental health to forging the second half of her career creating and performing music and working with children. She has been a musician all her life and has extensive experience working with children as a musician and as a clinical social worker. Her passion is bringing creative opportunities to kids of all ages to forge resilience and connection with others.

LaDarrel Johnson

LaDarrel “Saxappeal” Johnson is a Grammy nominated recording artist, and former touring saxophonist with R&B Legend, Charlie Wilson, (of The GAP Band), a 2024 Detroit Black Music Awards “Jazz Artist of the Year” nominee, a 2014 Detroit Music Award nominee for entertainer of the year, a 2013 Crain’s Detroit Business “20 in their 20’s” Award Recipient, Michigan Chronicle’s “40 under 40” Award Recipient, and a “Who’s Who in Black Detroit” Award Recipient, this ambitious young artist has traveled from coast to coast, performing from intimate venues in Detroit, to large scale events in Chicago, Phoenix, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Indiana, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, London, Paris, South Africa, and Trinidad & Tobago just to name a few. His first trip to New York was to perform at the legendary Carnegie Hall at the age of 17. 

Andrew Morton

Andrew Morton (he/him) is a Queer British immigrant, playwright, and theatre-maker. He lives in Detroit, where he works as a teaching artist and arts consultant with various arts and social service organizations and is the founding producing artistic collaborator at Every Soul Arts, a collective of artists who believe every person deserves access to safe and affordable housing and opportunities to explore and celebrate their creativity. As an artist and educator, Morton was recognized by Kresge Arts in Detroit as a 2020 Kresge Artist Fellow, and in 2021, he received a Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for services to theatre education. In 2024, he was named one of six Detroit theatre workers you should know by American Theatre Magazine. Morton’s plays have been produced across the US and internationally in the UK, Australia, and Canada. His award-winning play Bloom, inspired by urban gardeners in Flint, Michigan, is available through Dramatic Publishing, Inc.

Seycon Nadia

Seycon Nadia is a performer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Her genres include ballet, modern, liturgical, and she specializes in traditional West African dance and Caribbean folklore. Of Jamaican and Liberian heritage, Seycon preserves her cultures through song and dance.

Kat Steih

Kat Steih is an educator, songwriter, vocalist and bandleader who specializes in movement-based music education, vocal training, somatic modalities, electronic music production and neurodiverse student education. She has worked with high school students at the after-school teen center the Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor since 2018 on the music staff, as well as maintaining both her own private teaching practice and her self-named modern rock performance project that mixes interactive performance practices like clowning, dance, and audience participation with prog – punk rock.