Bios

George Bird / Timpani

George Bird, played trumpet in grade school, drums in high school Marching Band, switched to baritone while serving in the Navy in the San Diego Drum and Bugle Corp, and played timpani as a charter member of the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic under the direction of Maestro Gary Greene. A 1985 LLS alumni, George practiced criminal law as a Certified Criminal Law Specialist until his appointment to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2015. He is assigned to the Civil division at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.

Kierra Blackstad / Principal Oboe

Kierra Blackstad is originally from Minnesota, where she has enjoyed learning and performing music her whole life.  She studied music education at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa where she played oboe and English horn in orchestra, band, and many chamber ensembles.  While there, Kierra toured nationally and internationally with the Luther College Concert Band and the Symphony Orchestra.  Kierra now works at a church in San Pedro where she loves encouraging kids, families, and young adults. She also enjoys teaching private lessons. When she isn't working, Kierra enjoys hiking, attending musicals, traveling, and rock climbing. 

John Bulda / Clarinet

John is a music professional who has received his music performance degree from CSU, Sacramento, studied a year abroad at a music conservatory in Germany and holds a Masters of Science degree in music industry at USC. His music business ties into: sync licensing, music supervision, program coordinating for Thornton School of Music Department of Contemporary Music (Screen Scoring, Music Technology and Music Industry programs), artist management, and tour management. In addition he has held several leadership roles at: The Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Disney Cruise Lines, and Netflix Animation.

Justin Cole / Principal Percussion

Justin had his first private lesson on drumset at the age of 5, and has since continued to study concert percussion, jazz drumset, and marching percussion throughout his time in school.  He currently holds a Bachelor of Music degree from UCLA, and spends his professional time performing and teaching music in southern California.

Enrique Fernandez / Associate Principal Trumpet

Enrique began playing trumpet at the age of 13 and ever since then, he fell in love with the trumpet and music. He has experience in multiple styles of music and hopes to share his love of music with everyone!

Ben Iredell / Horn

Ben Iredell is a Pharmacy Manager at Cedars-Sinai. After playing the horn in high school and college marching band, he was eager to pick it up again. He was recruited to the Loyola Law School orchestra through his partner, Oscar Sanchez, in the Admissions office!

Bradford Jackson / Principal Cello

Bradford began taking cello lessons at the age of 5, shortly after watching a performance by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Sesame Street and asking his parents to find him a cello teacher. He has played continuously since then; besides playing for live gigs, he regularly ranked highly in southern California music competitions while growing up, including first place wins in the elementary, middle, and high school divisions of the San Bernardino County Music Educators Association Solofest. As a teenager, he performed extensively with the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra and the Loma Linda Academy Consort, including two European concert tours.
He continued honing his passion for music throughout his academic studies in chemical nanoscience (University of Southern California) and intellectual property (Loyola Law School). While studying at USC, Bradford sat first chair cello in the USC Concert Orchestra. Now, following several years of laboratory chemical synthesis and patent application drafting, he’s returned to his musical roots, as a performer and arranger. In his spare time, Bradford can be found working through his reading backlog.

Shihan Jin / Timpani

Shihan Jin is a third-year PhD student studying health economics at USC. Shihan started learning piano at age 5 and continuously taking lessons through age 24. He started orchestral percussion in high school and conducting in undergraduate. He is now studying orchestral conducting with Maestro Larry Livingston at USC. Shihan now serve as the music director and principal conductor of the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC for 2022-2023 season.

Gina Longo / Cello

Gina began piano lessons at the age of 5 and played throughout her childhood and teen years. Although she took time off from her formal piano training after high school, she has always been involved in musical pursuits. She fell in love with the cello and was inspired to learn after watching a recording of cellist Jacqueline du Pré. She also has experience playing classical guitar, violin, and played keyboards in a band while an undergrad at the University of Florida. Prior to law school, Gina worked as a professional graphic designer. She is a graduate of LLS Class of 2017 and is a Deputy Public Defender with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. It has been a dream of hers to play in an orchestra, and she is very excited to be a part of the LLS Orchestra.

Jason Lopez / Clarinet

Jason Lopez is a clarinetist from Long Beach, CA. He received his Master of Music in Instrumental Performance while Studying with Burt Hara at California State University, Fullerton in. He also studied with Dr. Michael Grego, Dr. David Lopez and Paul Bambach. Currently, Jason is serving as the Communication and Operations Director for Designated Exceptional Services for Independence (DESI), a nonprofit based out of East LA that provides direct care services for individuals with disabilities.

Jordan Mao / Violin 1

Jordan is from New Jersey and graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Environmental Science. She has been playing the violin for 18 years and picked up the piano and singing along the way. In her free time, she enjoys practicing yoga, hiking, camping, climbing, and reading. Her favorite composers are Strauss, Chopin, and Grieg. She works in Los Angeles for the Climate Action Reserve, an offset registry for global carbon markets.

Aida Marasli / Violin 1

Aida Marasli is a 2L at Loyola, with a concentration in Entertainment/Media Law Advocacy. She has always been involved in music and performance, and received a B.S. in Music Industry at USC. In the past, she worked with various performing arts organizations including the New West Symphony in Thousand Oaks and MUSE/IQUE in Pasadena, and continues to support local arts organizations in Los Angeles. She has always been passionate about bringing music and the arts to the local communities, and she’s thrilled to continue that at Loyola Law School. Currently, she’s hoping to pursue a career in music law.

Wietske Merison / Violin

Wietske is a doctoral candidate at UCLA law specializing in Islamic Law, Environmental Law and Human Rights Law. Music has always been a big part of her life. She comes from a family of musicians and started playing the violin when she was 5 years old. She is also a singer, guitarist and composer. 

Libby Morehouse / Flute

Libby is an LLS alumna currently working at a law firm in LA. She started playing flute at age 10. From a young age, she took private lessons, attended workshops and regional music festivals, and offered recitals. A classically trained flutist, Libby also has experience at the collegiate level playing jazz flute. After a few years of being without an ensemble, she is excited to be playing as a part of a group again within the LLS Orchestra.

Dorian Mynatt / Violin

Dorian graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a bachelors in Performing and Visual Arts. With a passion for screenwriting, Dorian currently works as a production manager at a film studio in Los Angles. 

Edward Parson / Cello

Parson played cello professionally in Canada 30-odd years ago, and am now looking for playing opportunities in LA at a high-amateur/borderline-professional skill level. He spent 1975 – 1978 and 1981 – 1986 working to get to professional-level skills on the cello from a weak and late start, got there, then gave up my professional ambitions in 1986 when I came to the US to do a PhD.  As I’ve pursued my academic career since then, I have continued to play as opportunities have presented themselves, usually in infrequent intense episodes. I’m now looking to play more regularly, whether in orchestral or chamber-music settings. 

Dan Persoff / French Horn

Dan Persoff is a graduate of Loyola Law School (Class of 1982). While at Loyola Law School, Dan was a student of Prof. Christopher May, in both Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law. Dan has been a civil practitioner in Los Angeles since 1983, now specializing in trusts and estates litigation. Dan has three children. His son, Joseph S. Persoff, an attorney in Los Angeles, is a former student of Prof. Simona Grossi in Civil Procedure. Dan’s pro bono activities include volunteering twice a month at the LA County Bar Association Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and teaching twice a year for the PBBR no cost bar review course, covering the subject of Constitutional Law in two lectures. In this position, Dan replaced well known Constitutional Law scholar Erwin Chemerinski when Prof. Chemerinski assumed deanship of the UC Berkeley School of Law. In order to brush up on his Constitutional Law, Dan studied the book Examples and Explanations in Constitutional Law by Loyola Law School professors Christopher May, Alan Ides, and Simona Grossi.

Dan played Second Horn with the Reseda High School Orchestra (Reseda, California), 1972-1974. In recent years, with some occasional playing, Dan’s French Horn has been mostly gathering dust. Dan is hoping that through participation in the Loyola Law School Orchestra, he will be provided musical “Examples and Explanations” by Professor Grossi which will allow him to brush up his horn playing to reach the performance level.

Julia Ramos / Associate Principal French Horn

Julia Ramos is a classical French Hornist in Long Beach, California. Her influences come from her horn instructors Jenny Kim, Gabby Cross, and Brian Shetland who are all studio musicians. Julia has studied at Long Beach City College and is currently studying at Cal State University of Los Angeles.

During her career, Julia has performed in a wide variety of locations including Carnegie Hall in high school, Bob Cole Conservatory of Music for honor band, Music Association of Community College, the Long Beach Symphony, and Live @ 5 with the City of Long Beach.

Julia performs classical horn band pieces, solo pieces, and orchestra excerpts. Her goal is to play alongside her horn instructors and be a studio musician.

Elisabetta Russo / Soprano

Elisabetta masterfully combines her passion and enchanting Belcanto while warmly embracing audiences all over the world with her elegant grand-gala style arias.

She is widely acclaimed for her leading roles in both Opera (Don Pasquale by Donizetti, Così Fan Tutte by Mozart, Rigoletto, and Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi) and Musical Theatre (The Phantom of the Opera by Webber and Carousel by Hammerstein II). She is also praised for her collaboration with film composers and Oscar winners such as Ennio Morricone and Nicola Piovani, and world renowned artists such as Andrea Bocelli, David Foster and Carlo Ponti.

Best Female Vocal at the Hollywood Music Awards, Elisabetta moves to Los Angeles from Italy in 2013 following her extraordinary success at a special concert held at Paramount Studios with Andrea Bocelli and David Foster.

She performs in Europe and North America receiving numerous accolades while proudly celebrating both her Italian heritage and international artistic background. Her most successful and recent appearances include the New York Fashion Week, the Los Angeles Staples Center as guest singer of the National Anthem for the LA Clippers, and recitals at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and the Chicago Cultural Center.

She also counts herself blessed and is honored to be part of wonderful events for nonprofit, and charity organizations such as Caterina’s Club, California Hospital Medical Center Foundation, Desert Arc, Saint Pio Foundation, UKRO Foundation, Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind, Eastwood Ranch Foundation, and LA Virtuosi Orchestra.

Ourhay Shamoon / Flute

Ourhay Shamoon graduated with a degree in biology (CLU ‘08) before launching into a 12-year career in the Cancer Diagnostics industry. This work allowed her to collaborate with pathologists around the world, publish scientific literature, and visit cancer centers in  more than 20 countries on every continent except Antarctica.  Now back in school for a new challenge, Ourhay is teaching Pilates in her free time and playing flute again. Since the age of 10,  Ourhay participated in every orchestra and wind ensemble she possibly could, attending summer music camps, honor bands, and the like. She was principal flutist of the Sacramento Premier Youth Symphony Orchestra and her high school and college ensembles.  The LLS orchestra is an exciting opportunity to play with other musicians again.

Yoo Hee Shin / Piano

Yoo Hee Shin has been playing the piano since the age of six and has both bachelor's and master’s degrees in music from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Piano is not just a musical instrument to her; instead, it has been her passion, mouthpiece, and an extension of her mind, body, and soul. Now, as a JD degree candidate at LMU Loyola Law School, Yoo Hee also plans to play the symphony of law, with the goal of providing harmonious resolutions to those who are out-of-tune and in discord with the law. 

Joshua Su / Piano

Joshua Su is a “semi-retired” concert pianist, having formerly majored in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto and is currently pursuing a J.D. degree at Loyola Law School. As a musician, Joshua began playing the piano at the age of 4 and holds both an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music diploma as well as a Licenciate of the London College of Music diploma. In 2015, Joshua was awarded the National Gold Medal of Achievement for attaining the highest exam score in Canada. Since then, he has performed internationally and played in various masterclasses with renowned musicians including Jerome Lowenthal, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Richard Goode. His favourite party piece is “Room with a View” by Yiruma.

Isabella Villalta / Saxophone

Isabella Villalta is a 2L at LLS. She began playing saxophone in middle school and continued throughout her middle and high school career. There she competed in various state competitions, her school’s marching band, and jazz band. She played Alto Saxophone in concert and marching band. For jazz band and quartets, she played Bari Saxophone. After taking a two-year break from performing, Isabella is very excited to be joining the LLS orchestra.

Emily Wood / Clarinet

Emily graduated from Cornell University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering. She moved to LA in order to work on projects related to water reuse for the purpose of creating resilient drinking water sources in the face of drought and climate change. She began playing the clarinet at the age of 9 in various wind ensembles, marching bands, chamber groups, and orchestras. In 2017 she had the privilege of touring Italy with the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Simeone Tartaglione. She is grateful for the opportunity to play with an orchestra again at LLS.