Meet DVC’s Newest Music Faculty, Cava Menzies
Jul 26, 2022
Diablo Valley College is thrilled to announce new faculty member, Cava Menzies, to the DVC music department! Cava will be working with our choral and vocal students beginning fall term 2022.
Cava is a multidisciplinary musician, visual artist, and educator who resides in Oakland, California. She is a Bay Area native and hails from a long line of creators. Her grandmother was a pioneer in the New York jazz scene as a dancer at the Cotton Club, and her father, Eddie Henderson, was an accomplished jazz trumpeter and early member of the Herbie Hancock sextet. Her mother, additionally, was a classically trained flautist and music enthusiast.
Cava holds a BA from the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studied jazz piano and music education. She received her MM from the University of Miami where she studied composition and music production and recording.
She is a founding music faculty member at the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) and served as the Artistic Director of the school from 2015 - 2018. Her musical directing and arranging work have been featured in performances with Chris Martin, Coldplay, Daveed Diggs, Rafa Casal, Dave Grohl, Kehlani, and Adrian Marcel. Through her cumulative work at OSA, Cava has led four concert tours to Italy, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans and has taught over 2000 young musicians from Oakland.
Cava is a 2014 National Artist Teaching Fellow. She has been a guest faculty member for Berklee College of Music’s weeklong music intensives in LA and Puerto Rico. She serves on the board of the SF Chapter of the Recording Academy and was a quarterfinalist for the 2018 Grammy Music Educator Awards.
Cava is also the founder of the brand COLORQUEEN, a multidisciplinary platform that highlights her integrated visual art, music, and travel work.
Read more about Cava and hear one of her singles.
We’re excited to welcome Cava to DVC and look forward to her fresh perspective with students, and especially with the DVC Chamber Singers this academic year!
For more information about DVC’s music department, visit www.dvc.edu/music.
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