Music

Music was my first language. Long before I could speak I could hum along melodies and sing the lyrics to dozens of songs, many in Croatian and Hungarian. As I look back now at music as a tool of strength and liberation, I understand that this description is not an overstatement. The four generations that I have grown up with have all used music (for different purposes and degrees) as a mode of self expression and empowerment. Both of my sets of grandparents grew up with a deep understanding of anti-immigrant sentiment, and were hesitant for their children to learn the language of their past generations. This breaking down of language and culture due to social stigma and injustice is one of the many sociatal ills that I will continue to fight against. The various projects on this site all delve into the dichotomies of joy and melancholy, fear and empowerment, and l'dor v'dor - passing culture on from generation to generation. 

Music Bio:

Janice Mautner Markham is a Los Angeles based artist/activist/violinist and arts educator and is a founding member of the Klezmer-rock band, Mostly Kosher. She is currently on faculty at the Herba Alpert School of Music at UCLA in the Ethnomusicology department.

As a violinist, Janice was proud to participate in the Los Angeles Philharmonic  Association’s Weimar Cabaret performance, “Musik! Fantasie! Revolution!” in February 2020,  conceived by Jack and Benny Lipson. She has played with the house band for the acclaimed improvisational show The Black Version at Hollywood’s Groundlings Theatre for over a decade,  with a recent performance at The Kennedy Center. Guest artists have included Wayne Brady,  Maya Rudolph, Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Janice’s string ensemble, The JAC Trio,  along with violist Amira Bennett and cellist Circe Diaz Gamero, keep up a busy performance  schedule, playing at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Pico Union Project, Molly Malone’s,  synagogues and community centers as well as other venues throughout Southern California.  She plays in the fiddle/accordion duo Zingarella, alongside multi-instrumentalist Melinda West,  with performances at The Broad Stage, headlining the opening night of the Glendale  International Film Festival in October 2019, and numerous appearances at Skirball Cultural  Center, including their Hanukkah Family Festival, December 2021.  

Janice’s compositions and violin stylings can be heard on various television and film  soundtracks, most recently for the horror film “The Black Room”. Janice’s klezmer composition  will be heard in the upcoming feature film “The Accursed”, starring Izabela Vidovic and Melora  Walters, and she and Mostly Kosher bandmates appear in the opening scene. She is proud to  be featured on some of her favorite artists’ recordings, including Chuck E. Weiss’s “Red Beans  and Weiss” produced by Tom Waits, as well as Chuck E.’s soon to be released posthumous  album. As a musician and actor, Janice has numerous regional and off-Broadway credits, and  was honored to serve as understudy for Lisa Gutkin during the Broadway touring production of  Indecent at the Music Center’s Ahmanson Theatre. 

Music Education and Social Justice are guiding forces for Janice. She is founder and  Music Director of the Jewish Youth Orchestra, a project of the Jewish Federation of San Gabriel  and Pomona Valleys. She also participates in collaboration and outreach with Urban Voices  Project, led by Mostly Kosher band leader, Leeav Sofer. UVP is a non-profit in Los Angeles’ Skid  Row that brings the healing power of music directly to individuals disenfranchised by  homelessness, mental health issues, and unemployment. Additionally, Janice has been Artistic  Director of Vox Box Arts Collective since 1991, which has included youth arts outreach, multi disciplinary arts production and Caja de Arte, a Spanish Immersion Arts Camp. She dedicates  time to perform in underserved areas in and around Los Angeles, including at The Midnight  Mission and the Skid Row Museum. Janice has performed for Cafe Europa, the Holocaust  Survivor groups in Los Angeles, for over a decade, and is now on the music outreach  administrative team. She was a 2017 fellow at American Jewish University’s Institute for Jewish  Creativity and is Artist in Residence at the Holocaust Museum, Los Angeles

Janice credits much of her early musical evolution to her father, pianist Raymond  Mautner, and violin teachers Harold Ayres and Heiichiro Oyama.  

MA, Arizona State University

BFA, University of the Arts, Philadelphia

janicemarkham.com FB/IG @janiviolin 

Janice is a proud member of AFM Local 47, ASCAP, AEA and AFTRA-SAG