GRAMMY Camp
Los Angeles

Born in Oakland, California, Chase Jackson began playing music at an early age at local jam sessions and venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Jackson studied jazz composition and performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, political science at Oberlin College and completed his Master’s in music at the University of Southern California.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Chase has performed across the United States and internationally throughout Europe and Asia. As a producer, Chase has produced, co-written, and recorded instruments with a wide cast of major artists such as Juice WRLD, The Soweto Gospel Choir, Chanté Moore, Dimash Kudaibergen, Mike Taylor, Unlike Pluto, Kelechi, VINCINT, James Reid, TNT, 1Mind, Capper, Victor Ma, Rex Kudo, and Cruel Santino to jazz-influenced improvisers such as Kiefer, J3P0, Donny McCaslin, Tim Lefev, Mark Guiliana, and Makaya McCraven. Chase has composed music specifically for Riot Games: League Of Legends, Tencent: Honor of Kings & The Honor of Kings International World Championships, Papergame: Love and Deepspace, China’s Singer 2024 International Competition, TiMi Studio Group, Hello Kitty, The Teenage Ninja Turtles, Blue Poch, FunPlus: State of Survival, Yuan Meng Star, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more. He recorded instruments on the score of Sundance Award-winning film Didi, and his original music has been licensed on major TV networks including Netflix, BET, ABC, ESPN, The CW, Hulu, Peacock NBC, TNT, and MTV.

As an educator, Chase served as a program director at Icon Collective College of Music for over five years, where he managed over 50 instructors, taught courses, and designed curriculum at the college level in Music Theory, Ear Training, Live Performance, Ableton Live, Studio Techniques, Songwriting, and Synthesis. He also has years of experience teaching music at the Windward School, Fusion Academy, Cazadero Music & Arts Camp, Bandworks, and a consistent studio of private students. Chase currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is involved in a multitude of original projects as a multifaceted producer and performer on vibraphone, marimba, guitar, bass, and keyboards, including pop, funk, and electronic crossover group Wake The Wild.

Jason Goldman has gained prominence as a saxophonist, composer, producer, and songwriter in the fields of popular music and jazz. He was selected by multi-GRAMMY-winning producer/songwriter David Foster to be the featured saxophone soloist for Michael Bublé. Goldman has toured extensively with Bublé and has arrangements on three of Bublé’s multi-platinum-selling records, solidifying himself as a top-tier, in-demand writer and musician.

Internationally acclaimed musician JJ Kirkpatrick is a standout multi-instrumentalist with a jazz trumpet conservatory background and extensive experience in the pop industry. He was named by Rolling Stone as one of the “15 Best Things We Saw at Governor’s Ball 2021.”

JJ recently joined Phoebe Bridgers on tour and was featured on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. His diverse collaborations span stadiums to studios with notable artists like Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, AJR, and Laufey. His work also extends to the big and small screens, with impressive credits that include numerous live TV appearances and the Oscar-winning film Whiplash. He has a broad list of film-score credits as a composer and performer.

When not on the road, JJ is actively recording and producing music from Boyfriend Recordings in Pasadena, which he owns and operates. Over the last decade, JJ has thrived as a touring musician and has stood tall on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including Coachella, Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Carnegie Hall, and Rose Garden Arena in his hometown of Portland, OR.

Natasha Pasternak is an artist in the most honest sense of the word. As a songwriter, composer, musician, producer, and performer, to a professor and founder of her company, Desert Dream Creative, Natasha has fully embodied what it takes to be a successful musician and entrepreneur in today’s music industry.

Classically trained at the Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto, she went on to excel in the local music scene with various projects. In 2010, she co-founded the acclaimed Toronto indie-pop band, Hands & Teeth. One part Broken Social Scene, one part Arcade Fire, Hands & Teeth dominated festivals across North America (SXSW, POP Montreal, Halifax POP, CMW, M for Montreal, and NXNE, to name a few). Their songs found homes locally and internationally, featured on various radio and television stations, including the CBC, BBC, Much Music, and MTV, as well as in various publications, including a 5/5 star review in NOW Magazine for their first release. In 2016, Natasha did her first vocal arrangement for film for the Warner Bros official trailer for The Legend of Tarzan, now with over 16,000,000 plays.

Natasha was a co-founding committee member for Women In Music L.A (WIM LA chapter) and a juror for FACTOR Canada, funding over $40,000,000 to artists across Canada in various musical disciplines. In 2021, she launched her own songwriting workshop and masterclass business, Desert Dream Creative, bringing the art of songwriting to all students. Over the years, Natasha has been selected for various prestigious workshops and mentorships, including ASCAP’s Harold Adamson Workshop. Natasha worked one-on-one with top industry professionals (Mr. Hudson, Autumn Rowe, Jayson De Zuzio, Nicole Morier, Andrew Cider, and Daniel Werman).

For the past seven years, she has been building programming and lecturing as well as serving as the Assistant Director, program designer, and lead instructor for the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Summer Songwriting Intensive, now in its 4th year. In June 2021, she was the Program Director in collaboration with Alicia Keys’ Foundation, She Is The Music, for the Emerging Artist Writing Camp. On top of lecturing and developing curriculum at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Natasha spent most of 2019 working for the non-profit, Jail Guitar Doors, bringing songwriting and music into correctional institutions as a part of their rehabilitation. There, she lectured basic guitar and songwriting classes, as well as designed programming and organized concerts with her students within the correctional facilities.

Natasha is now the Director of Popular Music Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Performing Arts and a lecturer of Songwriting at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and USC Thornton School of Music.

Ryan McDiarmid is a drummer, recording artist, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. In 2011, he was selected as a Louie Bellson Scholarship recipient at USC’s Thornton School of Music, prompting a move to Los Angeles. While at USC, he had the great fortune of studying privately under the direction of Peter Erskine, Russell Ferrante, Roy McCurdy, and Jeff Hamilton. Since graduating, he has maintained a busy touring and recording schedule with various artists, including HAIM, JMSN, A.G. Cook, Fuji Kaze, Lizzy McAlpine, Alan Pasqua, and Bruce Forman, among others.

Haleigh Bowers, a prolific songwriter based in Los Angeles, California, is an unparalleled storyteller. Uniquely inspired by authors and musical artists alike, she combines potent lyricism and evocative melodies to transcend the boundaries of modern folk rock.

Bowers captivates audiences in venues across Los Angeles, including the historic Troubadour and local hot spot, Hotel Café. Bowers has worked with both local and international artists, gaining placements on over 300 episodes of television spanning 10+ networks. These placements include (but are not limited to) Netflix’s hit show, “Queer Eye”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “Grace and Frankie”, “Love Island US”, “The Voice”, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Will and Grace”, “American Idol”, and “Dancing With The Stars”.

In addition to teaching songwriting at the GRAMMY Museum’s prominent GRAMMY Camp and GRAMMY Summer Session, Bowers is also an esteemed faculty member at the University of Southern California in the Popular Music Program where she teaches core songwriting curriculum classes as well as individual instruction. She has a passion for teaching students how to tell their stories and access their fullest potential as songwriters.