Living Jazz Staff

Executive Director

Lyz Luke is a futuristic leader with over 15 years of dedicated work amplifying the intersection between arts, culture, and community empowerment. A resident of Oakland, Luke has presented concerts and events throughout the Bay Area and has worked with over 150 diverse local bands and over 2,000 local musicians. Her passion is building a stronger community through music and the arts. Lyz started as a member of Living Jazz’s Advisory Council in 2019 and officially joined Living Jazz as Associate Director in early 2020. In February 2023, she was selected to step into the Executive Director role. Luke’s performance management, production, and development background is bolstered by extensive experience nonprofit fundraising, event planning, and public relations. Lyz is known for founding the award winning series UnderCover Presents in 2010 and has since released 15 studio recorded albums and showcases as part of the series. She has also worked with Oakland Symphony, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), Embodiment Project, Red Poppy Art House, ArtSpan (SF Open Studios), AIDS Walk, The San Francisco Marathon, and others. Lyz Luke achievements include being a certified mediator, serving on the board of Californians for the Arts/Californian Arts Advocates, serving on the Advisory Board of the California Jazz Conservatory, former three-term Governor on the SF Board of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs); Leadership Oakland Class of 2017, serving as an Oakland Rotarian, 2017’s YBCA 100 List; East Bay Express "Best of", SF Weekly's “Best of” (2x), and SF Guardian "Best of", Grants Panelist for Oakland Cultural Funding Program and City of Denver Music Advancement Fund, 3 Oakland Mayoral Proclamations presented at UnderCover shows to Sly & The Family Stone, Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest, and Green Day, B.S. in Economics from St. John’s University, NCAA Championship ring in fencing.

Marketing and Development Manager

Julianna Cressman joined the Living Jazz staff in 2022, but has been part of the Living Jazz community and programs since she was a child. She graduated from UC Irvine’s Dance Department with a BA in Dance and a Minor in African American Studies. She also has a background in production and hospitality from 10 years on the production staff at SFJAZZ, and team building facilitation from her roles at Culinary Artistas and Jam Camp West.

In her first year at Living Jazz, Julianna has been an integral part of providing and maintaining 20 years of institutional knowledge, updating operating systems, implementing best practices in marketing, and leading successful fundraising campaigns. Her deep understanding of Living Jazz and the Bay Area arts community has enabled her to be a key member of organizational strategy during an era of expansion in 2023.

As a dance artist, Julianna performed professionally with Sarah Bush Dance Project and Alayo Dance Company. Julianna maintains her dance career alongside Living Jazz: she teaches jazz dance at City Ballet School and weekly adult contemporary class at City Dance in San Francisco.

Operations Manager

Phil Katague joined Living Jazz as Operations Manager in late 2023 and brings a background and perspective from managing operations at several prominent local music venues to continue his work creating the space to uplift and empower the next generation of the Bay Area’s musicians, artists, and creators.

As a lifelong musician and East Bay resident, Phil found his passion for building community around music when he and his friends started putting on DIY backyard punk shows in his hometown of Walnut Creek, CA. Shortly after graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Sociology, Phil moved to Oakland and joined the inaugural cohort of The UC Theatre’s Concert Career Pathways Program (nonprofit) in Downtown Berkeley. He went on to become their Front of House Manager, overseeing the operations and budgets for around 300 different concerts across all genres and audiences, as well as managing daily administration of the venue. In 2021 Phil moved on to become the Venue Manager of Starline Social Club, a regular stop for a wide variety of national and international touring acts, as well as a space to showcase Oakland’s diverse art and music scene.

Phil is excited to continue his work of supporting a wide variety of music and arts, both local and beyond, with Living Jazz.

Education Manager

Claire Phillips, born in San Francisco, is an Oakland, California-based saxophone & flute player, composer, song-writer and educator, passionate about music education for all. She earned a BA in Music from UC Santa Cruz and a Master’s in Contemporary Music Composition from the University of Sheffield, England. Claire furthered her jazz performance studies at the IMEP Paris College of Music (a Berklee College of Music Global Partner) in Paris, France. After a stint in France and England, she returned to her roots in the SF Bay Area in 2008.

Claire has led and managed education programs for SFJAZZ as the Education Program Manager and Teaching Artist, and taught jazz and classical instrumental music as faculty for the SF Community Music Center, Oakland School for the Arts, and the Academy of Alameda.

As a performer and composer, Claire has worked with a variety of ensembles ranging from jazz sextet (Vague A Lame), contemporary classical piano/sax duos (with Charlotte Torres in France and Emily Tian in Oakland), saxophone quartets (The Naked Sax Quartet and London Fields Saxophone Quartet), to big band (UCSC JO, SUJO and the SFJAZZ Monday Night Band), funk band (Stymie & the Pimp Jones Love Orchestra) and currently plays with the Klezmer and Balkan band, Hernandez Hideaway and SF-based brass band, Mission Delirium, among others. She also wrote the music for a full-length musical, The Line (Book by Kevin Causey), that premiered at Piano Fight in San Francisco.

She is thrilled to be working with Living Jazz managing the Children’s Project at OUSD and WCCUSD schools!

Founder, Camp Director

Stacey Hoffman founded Living Jazz in 1985 with an extensive background in music, dance and fine arts, along with 7 years of experience in business management. She is thrilled to continue with Living Jazz as the Camp Director for both Jazz and Jam Camp West in 2023.
Stacey started Living Jazz originally to save a faltering music camp, Jazz Camp West, from extinction. Through Living Jazz, she has gone on to design and launch several Bay Area music programs, many of which have become Bay Area treasures. She has produced Jazz Camp West since 1984, co-founded the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir in 1986; the Fall and Spring Music Series in 1988; RhythmVoice in 1990; and Jazz Camp Weekend in 1991. She created the Oakland Jazz Choir in 1992, “In the Name of Love”, The Annual Musical Tribute honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 2001; The Living Jazz Children’s Project in 2005, and Jam Camp West, a music camp for 10-15 year olds, in 2007. Through her love of the arts, commitment to Living Jazz and dedication to her work, Ms. Hoffman has been responsible for bringing literally thousands of people together, fostering a sense of inspiration and community within the Bay Area’s jazz scene.

Stacey has also worked as an MFT licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Berkeley since 1988 and is the mother of two adult sons.

Artistic Director, Jazz Camp West

NYC-based drummer/composer/teacher Allison Miller engages her deep roots in improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music. Described by critics as a Modern Jazz Icon in the Making, Miller won Downbeat’s 67th Annual Critics Poll for “Rising Star Drummer” and JazzTimes’s 2019 Critics Poll for “Best Jazz Drummer.” Boom Tic Boom, Allison’s longtime band, won Jazz Journalists Association’s 2019 award for “Best Mid-Sized Ensemble.” Her composition, “Otis Was a Polar Bear”, is included on NPR’s list of The 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women+. She is also the first recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Commissioning Grant. In January 2020 Miller along with her band, Boom Tic Boom, tap dancer-Claudia Rahardjanoto, and video designer- Todd Winkler premiered this new multimedia suite, In Our Veins, with a seven show tour sponsored by Jazz Touring Network and Mid Atlantic Arts. The project explores multimedia performance as a vital form of knowledge production through the poetic interpretation of historical events and their association with the geography, ecology and flow of specific rivers. Learn More about Allison at allisonmiller.com.

Grant Writer

Julie Kanter is an independent grant writer, with close to 20 years of experience working with Bay Area performing artists and arts organizations. She is a former development manager at Quinn Associates. Former and current clients include the San Francisco Film Society, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Epiphany Productions, Dancers' Group, Fifth Stream Music, Dimensions Dance Theater, San Francisco Live Arts, Cutting Ball Theater, Z Space Studio, Robert Moses' Kin, Rova:Arts, Word for Word, Trey McIntyre Project, Playwrights Foundation, University of Washington World Series, and many others.