SOLABEL is exploding on to the music scene and for good reason. With sold out shows, a band of powerhouse musicians ranging from a former touring, Disney Lion King performer, to professional jazz musicians, and folk and bluegrass super stars, this band has everything you could possibly want to hear and so much more.
Solabel’s intention is to push the boundries of a music category by blending all their musical talents into one. With everyone in the band writing music, you simply never know what type of brilliance you’re going to get next.
Solabel released their first album in 2021 with filled with all original music.
They then received a grant from the city of Sacramento for $10,000 to write, record, and release a second album on social justice, and messages around love, hope, and equality.
This second album was released in 2022.
With brand new material written, album three is on the way.
Is there anything this band can’t do?
I think not.
Born into a musical family, Brenden started playing the piano at the age of 5 and studied classical for 13 years. His father, is now the retired Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has played a significant musical mentor role in his life.
At the age of 14, Brenden switched to learning jazz piano because of his creative and spontaneous desire to play music from his heart.
He pursued jazz piano performance in college by getting his 4 year, BFA degree from The New School University in Manhattan, NY. Since graduating he’s gone on to play solo piano concerts, duo concerts, trio, quartet, big band, and everything in between at all sort of venues nationwide.
He currently owns and runs and online jazz piano education website which he started in 2014 and has now become one of the major, leading, online jazz piano education websites around.
He also coaches musicians in business and teaches the strategies and methods he used to build his business so that other musicians can make the income they want and deserve in order to support their artistry without being broke.
He is also the music director and leader of Solabel.
Omari Tau is Co-Founding Artistic Director of Rogue Music Project (RMP) and Professor of Vocal Music at Cosumnes River College (CRC) in addition to his career as performing artist, composer, and director. His degrees are from Michigan State University and the Moores School of Music-University of Houston in Music Education and Vocal Music Performance. At home in operatic, musical theatre, jazz, and pop genres, Mr. Tau has proven a versatile artist/educator.
Tau served as Director of Opera Theatre at Sac State from 2012 to 2018 before establishing RMP. With RMP, Tau explores compact operatic and music-theatre works that challenge audiences in soundscape, setting, and subject material. Since its launch in 2017 it has tackled material from operatic monodramas in restaurants to world premiere genre-bending dance-theatre hybrids such Bones of Girls (2020).
While in Houston, Tau directed the Houston Grand Opera Education and Outreach touring ensemble Opera To Go! which prepares young professionals for the stage creating works for young audiences.
As a performing artist, Mr. Tau toured internationally with Disney’s The Lion King for nearly nine years, performing the role of Banzai with both the Cheetah and Gazelle companies before returning to Sacramento to take part in its growing arts community. Other credits include roles at the MUNY, Theatre Under the Stars, the Tony Award-winning TheatreWorks Palo Alto, as well as Sacramento’s own Broadway at Music Circus. He appears on Albany Records in Roger Nelson’s operatic adaptation of A Room with a View and Disney’s A Lion King Christmas recordings.
As a composer, Tau’s one-act operas A Night At the Algonquin, Lucky Hans, and The Pre-Show Opera Lecture were commissioned by Lone Star Lyric and his works have been heard at Lieder Alive in the Bay Area. His arrangements for voice and woodwinds were created for MôD Artists, a consortium of collaborative artists who were recipients of a Sacramento Region Community Grant Foundation’s Creative Economy Grant to explore the history and community of Sacramento’s Oak Park.
California native, Natalie Hagwood, was born into a musical family that nurtured her curiosity for numerous genres resulting in the multi-style cellist and singer that she has become.
She is currently a member of Dear Darling, a folk trio known for its “harmonies tight enough that these three could be sisters.” While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in cello performance at the University of Nevada Reno, she attended the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, the Montecito International Music Festival, and toured Germany with the Helmuth Rilling Weimar Bach Academy.
In Seattle, WA, she won the University of Washington Concerto Competition, soloing with the UW Symphony in 2018. In 2019, she performed with the piano-cello duo, Duo Libra, and LA Phil Concertmaster, Martin Chalifour and held benefit concerts raising funds for the Paradise Campfire victims.
Currently based in Sacramento, CA, Natalie enjoys teaching cello lessons, song-writing, recording, and playing in multi-style bands.
Benjamin Kopf is a professional Bassist and Producer living in Sacramento. While attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, he studied Contemporary Writing and Production, as well as earning a minor degree in Conducting. After graduating in 2014, Ben has worked as a freelance musician, playing with band leaders such as Vivian Lee, Byron Colborn and Joe Mazzaferro.
He has also secured regular spots in bands The Henry Robinett Group, One Button Suit, and Shawn Thwaites Rebel Quartet, as well as at The Table UMC, and Solabel. As a producer, Ben has recorded singles and albums for artists Darci Phenix, Commerce TX, and SloCoast.
