I create experiences that inspire, empower, and heal.
An Overcomer, a Lover, Wandering Home: These are themes I return to as a musician and mystic.
Despite a congenital diagnosis of otosclerosis at age 5, my passion for music never wavered.
My father taught me guitar so we could sing and play together; Mom’s contributions were songs from Christian radio and cassette tapes. My parents and maternal grandparents spent many weekends and holiday evenings with my and my siblings. We played guitars, tambourines, and sang harmony to both folk and church songs.
In school, I sang in choirs and developed an inner understanding of music as an expression of the soul and as a deeply healing force. During my teen years I explored and expanded my musical passions: I found solace for my adolescent challenges in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Handel; classical music was mixed with radiant radio divas such as Whitney Houston, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, Jewel, Lauryn Hill—I would have loved to have gone to Lilith Fair!
I faced inter-generational familial dysfunctions, substance abuse in my close family, and substance-related deaths of my father and younger sister. I came out as queer to my conservative, small-town evangelical Christian mom and grandmother. I struggled with crippling doubts about my life path, vacillating between teaching and performing professionally throughout my university and graduate school years.
In 2013, I left an academic career with brilliant scholars and mentors in the Department of Musicology at UCLA to spend more than a decade traveling and making music with Justin Honard (Alaska, Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2). I faced the frustrations of the entertainment industry while simultaneously facing the wounds and anxiety of growing up working class, without many resources for an easy career path in music.
My spiritual path grew exponentially with each risk I took. I continue to embrace and walk my path with music, and endeavored to link music to my healing practices and my experiences as a live performer. I allow the power of sound and music to transform myself and audiences.
Throughout graduate school and during my touring years, I studied sacred geometry, archetypes, the traditions of my ancestral lineages (primarily my own Euro-Mediterranean heritage), and the living mystical wisdom traditions. I have trained with incredibly wise and generous sound healers, including David Gibson, Randy Masters, Lisa Rafel, and Vickie Dodd for my certificate in Sound Healing from the Globe Institute in Sausalito, California.
One of my greatest joys is bringing sound healing and many genres of music to the world. I love bringing ritual arts-based healers and performers together to perform, heal, and create healing space for others and for all who live on Earth.
Thank you for taking a moment to read about my life and work thus far. Please reach out to me if my mission and journey have touched you, let’s connect.
Education
2020 Globe Institute Certificate in Sound Healing
2010 UCLA C.Phil., Musicology
2009 UCLA M.A., Musicology, Magna cum Laude
2006 University of Pittsburgh B.A., Music, Magna cum Laude
Performance
March 20, 2026: The Castro Theater, SF: ALASKA!
Feb 1, 2026: Alaska w/ Live Band, Love, Alaska (Plaza Theater, Palm Springs)
December 2025: A Very Alaska Christmas, 12 date North American Tour
October 2025: Halloween Weekend Tour
Summer 2025: Pride Season Live Sets (LA Pride; Alberta Pride)
Summer 2024: Cabaret tour (San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, Provincetown)
Winter 2024: Valentine’s Day Tour
December 2023: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…Alaska (11-city tour including: Town Hall (NYC), House of Blues (Chicago), Bimbo’s 365 (SF), le National (Montréal), The Neptune Theatre (Seattle), The Vogue (Vancouver)
August 2023: Alaska at Provincetown Town Hall (Provincetown, MA)
June 2023: Alaska Pride Celebration (San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts)
February 2023 Alaska: Valentine’s Day is Terrible (Houston & New Orleans House of Blues; Baltimore SoundStage
July 2022 Dragapalooza (Tel Aviv)
June 2022 Alaska: PrideFest Chicago Main Stage; Rockefeller Center Gala Love Above All Ball
July 2021 An Evening with Alaska (Town Hall, Provincetown)
Dec. 2019 Alaska & Jeremy: A Very Lilith Fair Christmas, Oasis (SF)
July 2019 Alaska & Jeremy: The Amethyst Tour, (U.K., Amsterdam, Dublin)
May 2019 Alaska: On Golden Girls, Minneapolis (Golden Girls Weekend)
July 2018-September 2019 The Alaska Show/An Evening with Alaska,
(U.K., Australia, Singapore, Philippines)
August 2017 Alaska: On Golden Girls, The Laurie Beechman Theatre (NYC)
2017 Alaska Poundcake Tour, US, UK Tour (July), Australia Tour (November)
Summer 2016 Alaska: Cher and Cher Alike
2016 Alaska ANUS album live band tour, São Paulo (The Week), Rio de Janiero (Raízes da Lapa); ANUS Unplugged / ANUS live
April 2015 Handsome Jeremy Sonic Installation at B4BELAND Gallery (Oakland, CA), Faux Real 3
Summer 2014 Alaska: Forever Stevie
December 2014 Alaska’s Blue Christmas
2013 Alaska: Red For Filth, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC début
2012 “Queer Mysticism: A Musical Redux”, Leslie Lohman Gallery, Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, New York, NY (Lecture-Performance feat. Alaska and Davina Cohen)
2011 “Queer Perspectives in French Baroque Music”, Quorum Forum, Pop-Up Museum of Queer History 1, Brooklyn, NY (Lecture-Recital)
2010 Chakra Cabaret, feat. Alaska, Brian Barefoot, Jack Waters, Peter Kramer, le Petit Versailles (NYC)
2009 Salome! Starring Brian Barefoot, Dixon Theater Hot! Festival, Living Theater (NYC)
UCLA Early Music Ensemble
Bach and the Baroque Ensemble, University of Pittsburgh
Employment
Freelance Music Director, Composer/Arranger, Musical Improvisation
San Francisco Friends School
Epiphany School (Seattle, WA)
Hope Academy of Music and the Arts (Pittsburgh, PA)
UCLA Department of Musicology, Graduate Teaching Fellow for: LGBT Perspectives in Popular Music, History of Rock, Getting Medieval, The Beatles, LGBT Perspectives in Popular Music, History of Rock, Mozart, History of Opera (three courses), Writing About Music, Beethoven
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh (now Pittsburgh Festival Opera)