Ashkenaz presents its first semi-annual Cal Music Spotlight, an opportunity for UC Berkeley-related musicians to showcase their talents through this contest based on popular votes, with the winner(s) receiving a chance to open tonight for Will Sprott (the Mumlers). Musicians and bands boasting at least one Cal-associated member competed in early October, through uploaded music and/or video on YouTube. The winners of the inaugural Spotlight contest are Hot Flash Heat Wave and Molly Roth. 

Will Sprott hails from San Jose, where for some years he led the Mumlers, an ever-changing band where he was the only constant. In 2012 he has mostly worked under his own name. Finishing a solo album, he brings his latest original songs that draw strongly from the Sixties folk era with rock mixed in. In his Ashkenaz debut, Sprott plays in a four-piece band. His musical travels have led him from sea to shining sea, performing everywhere from the Warfield in San Francisco to the Bowery Ballroom in New York City and lots of towns in between, sharing stages with luminaries of the musical underworld along the way. Daytrotter reports: “Sprott is a writer’s writer, turning glorious phrases and crafting storylines that employ classic sentiments and themes but tackle them with a unique touch that feels ancient and natural, as if he’s got a playbook full of secret audibles that can be claimed for his own.”

Molly Roth is studying music composition at UC Berkeley. Classically trained in piano since she was 6, and schooled in composition, singing, dancing, and painting, Molly has forged her natural gifts with multi-disciplined training to become a genuine performer with something real to say. Following a stint in Los Angeles, where she held three professional internships and performed on keyboard and backup vocals in numerous bands, she has returned to Northern California and is developing her solo career.