MARGOT JONES, ​Founder and Director

Margot is a Director, Choreographer, Independent Filmmaker, Dance Teacher, and a thirty year veteran of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and The Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She has won national acclaim as a director and choreographer. She is the Founding Director and president of West Coast Arts.

 

Ms. Jones has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, The San Francisco Foundation, The George Balanchine Trust, The Rita & Leonard Sperry Foundation and the E.L. Weigand Foundation.

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GINI WILSON, Performance Program Coordinator
 

Gini Wilson, called The Duchess, is well known in San Francisco and the Bay Area as a first class jazz pianist and entertainer. Her new cabaret show, From Bach to Bebop, An Evening of Jazz and Wisecracks, met with acclaim from audiences and critics alike. She is also known for concert performances and has appeared in jazz festivals including Jazz by the Bay; Jazz in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the San Miguel de Allende International Festival in Mexico.

 

Her latest CD "Left Coast Local Time", duo piano and bass, introduces a new conception of jazz which she calls Chamber Jazz. She can often be heard on NPR Radio as house pianist for "West Coast Live", where she is known for her irreverent sense of humor. Gini has also acted as music director and performer at clubs such as STARS San Francisco, Moose's, and One Market. Gini was also music director for the documentary film "Encore for Ruby", produced by Margot Jones and recently seen on PBS television stations

nationwide. "(at STARS San Francisco) ... you'll get a dose of Gini's fantastic piano playing ... she has charm, a sense of humor, and also the technique of a classical pianist which shines through ... What talent ! "

Contact Gini through her web site www.giniwilson.net

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BUFFY FORD STEWART, Event Coordinator

Buffy has a long list of credits that include her singing, dancing, acting, motion picture and television writing as well as her poetry. She began at an early age appearing in Summer stock in Sacramento as well as numerous productions at the Festival Theater in San Anselmo and the Sausalito Little Theater. Her musical career spans from her early days as a member of the Young Americans touring with Johnny Mathis. She has also sung with Carole King, Janis Joplin, Andy Williams, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, John Denver as well as her husband of thirty years, song writer John Stewart.

 

Some of her recording include Signals through the Glass, Hearts Together and The Essential John and Buffy. In the late sixties Buffy and John joined Robert Kennedy on his ill fated campaign for the Presidency. She has recently published her first book of sketches and poetry "Angel Rain".

 

Currently Buffy is working on several projects for television and motion pictures with her partner Nirmaia Heriza. Buffy and John live in Northern California with their dogs PeeWee and Shirley, and their cat Cosmos. Their son, Luke, is a Martial Arts champion and lives in San Francisco. Learn more about Buffy at her website http://www.buffyfordstewart.com/