Irvin Lemus
Conductor, Music Director
Irvin is a cybersecurity professional by day, and has been an avid musician for most of his life. Beginning with drums at the age of 7, Irvin developed a passion for music, picking up piano, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone, and violin, among others. As his musical proficiency grew, he became the concertmaster and lead pianist for his local community, performing and organizing performances several times a week. While largely self-taught and ear-trained, Irvin has always had a strong interest in and draw toward written music, composition, and conducting. Between 2014 and 2017, Irvin conducted 4 musicals, with styles ranging from Memphis to The Addams Family Musical. In addition to directing during showtime, Irvin also performed on the piano himself. Prior to showtime, Irvin taught amateur student musicians the content and ran rehearsals prior to the performances, in collaboration with Gardena High School’s Performing Arts Department.
Irvin’s taste and passion for music is broad and diverse. A self-proclaimed metalhead, Irvin is particularly drawn toward symphonic rock, favoring groups like Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Metallica, as well as the classics –– Bach and Mozart –– to name but a few. A common theme throughout Irvin’s musical life and interests is synthesis, or bringing together styles, ideas, and concepts in a novel and interesting way. In his more recent performances and compositions, Irvin has found his “voice,” leveraging dynamic variation, polyphony and unexpected musical flourish –– such as key changes, choice of instruments, and unusual melodies –– to create unique works that are stylistically distinct.
In the intervening years since his involvement with Gardena High, Irvin has kept up his musical proficiencies as a side hobby, all the while developing his skills as a composer and arranger, and looking for opportunities to engage more deeply with music in his community once again. That idea came to life through a hobby he discovered in 2021: Latin dance. Learning salsa and bachata dancing allowed Irvin to connect with music in a new way –– through movement –– and the desire to contribute to the lifeblood of the bachata community through music and performance, specifically the integration of classical music, spurred his latest project: arranging music for and conducting a Bachata Symphony. When he dances, he pictures harps and violins, alongside a whole suite of orchestral instruments, bringing his favorite songs to life in a new way.
As he works with his team to breathe life into this project –– which aims to collaborate with pre-professional collegiate musicians by providing them with performance experience –– Irvin is very excited to continue his musical journey as this project unfolds.
Leanna Syrimis
Arranger, Lead Vocalist
A tech professional by day, Leanna is also a seasoned musician and experienced performer. She has been drawn to the world of music ever since she can remember, singing in school choirs and learning the piano from the age of 5. Leaning heavily into her musical education, it soon became a defining aspect of her life that remains to this day – with a focus on classical piano and voice.
Throughout her childhood, Leanna’s growing knowledge of piano, structured by the Suzuki method, was accompanied by a study of music theory during her pre-teen years, culminating in her passing 3 levels of the music theory exams through the London School of Music. Vocally, Leanna’s home base is opera, as well as classic Broadway. With 7 years of classical voice training beginning at the age of 12, she is literate in a wide range of vocal techniques and with the mechanics of the human voice. Her training included developing a mixed voice, proper breathing, creating resonant chambers for the voice to create a variety of textures, sight-singing and so on. Her training and performance experience encompasses techniques for and repertoire in both the soprano and alto ranges.
As a California native, Leanna’s early life performances include participation in several competitions at the Anaheim Music Festival with Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School (SAES) and the Folsom Jazz Festival with the Archbishop Mitty High School (AMHS) Jazz Choir between 2006-2014; many of these performances included solo features. Additionally, she performed twice between 2012-2014 on the youth stages at Disneyland with the AMHS Concert and Jazz Choirs. She has also participated in several studio recording sessions, including at Columbia Records.
From private concerts to venues with hundreds, Leanna has also performed extensively as a solo musician. Trained in the Suzuki method, she performed piano repertoire from all 8 volumes of the Suzuki selections, alongside other modern classics and jazz pieces. Additionally, she has performed at the Campbell Performing Arts Center as a featured musician at Studio 10 Dance’s annual dance recital, as well as at several weddings, both in the US and abroad.
During her collegiate career (SFS ‘18) at Georgetown University (GU), Leanna maintained her musical proficiencies, participating all four years in the Professor-led GU Chamber Singers and the student-led a cappella group GU Superfood. The GU Chamber Singers, a primarily baroque choir, is where Leanna grew her ability to sing inner and lower harmonies, as she primarily sang Alto and Soprano II with this group. The GU Chamber Singers also provided her with several unique and elite performance opportunities, including but not limited to: the Kennedy Center, the Army Navy Club, the White House, and the Eisenhower Building. During her time in the group, she also traveled to Bolivia for a week in 2017 to participate in the country’s Baroque Music Festival, which entailed visiting historic mission towns and performing music recovered from these historic sites alongside local youth orchestras. The GU Chamber Singers also performed the North American premiere of this recovered music that same year.
Leanna’s time in GU Superfood was similarly challenging, and allowed her to hone and develop a different set of skills. Joining the group as a high soprano her freshman year, GU Superfood flexed a different part of her vocal range. As a student-run, primarily pop group, GU Superfood also afforded her numerous performance opportunities. Most notably, she competed in the International Competition for Collegiate A Cappella (ICCAs) in 2017, at which the group placed in the Mid-Atlantic Quarter-Finals and advanced to Semi-Finals. performing multiple times a year in GU’s historic Gaston Hall, in front of audiences of hundreds.
During her junior and senior years, Leanna was Assistant Musical Director and Musical Director of Superfood, respectively. These roles allowed her to develop her skills in arranging songs into acapella vocal lines for the group to sing, run auditions, lead rehearsals, provide the group with coaching and training on their voice parts and group blend, and conduct during performances. As Musical Director, she ran a highly successful round of auditions, and onboarded 11 new members into the group in August 2017. This doubled the group’s size and mandated that she guide the group to quickly find a new blend and balance in time for their first major performance of the year in November 2017. To bookend her collegiate music career, Leanna performed a solo Italian Aria at Georgetown University’s SFS 2018 Graduation Convocation ceremony, and led the singing of the National Anthem.
Since the start of her professional career in 2018, Leanna has maintained her passion for music, singing and performing, and has sought out opportunities to collaborate musically with others and challenge herself in new ways. She is so excited to share this passion with the Bachata community!