2026.02.01 | Don Was Program

Presented in partnership with BluePort Jazz

Don Was

And The Pan Detroit Ensemble Sunday, February 01, 2026 | 3PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America

Don Was And The Pan Detroit Ensemble

Featured Performers

Don Was

bass guitar, guitar, vocals, piano, songwriter, producer,

The Pan Detroit Ensemble double bass

This concert is presented in partnership with BluePort Jazz

In partnership with KCRW and KJAZZ

ABOUT THE ARTISTS DON WAS AND THE PAN DETROIT ENSEMBLE You could fill both a record store and a hat store with the albums DON WAS has touched and the lids he’s donned on the way to six GRAMMY®s, an Emmy, a BAFTA, and the respect of musicians and fans of all ages worldwide. In nearly 50 years in the music business the Was (Not Was) bandleader has collaborated with an astonishing list of top-flight artists in pursuit of making a truthful, transcendent, healing and joyful noise. As a producer, songwriter, recording artist, music supervisor, documentarian, musical director, radio host, multi-instrumentalist, and President of Blue Note Records, Was has been enthusiastically and fearlessly genre fluid, moving freely across rock, pop, jazz, country, reggae, R&B, and world music.

For his work as a record producer, he has won six GRAMMY® Awards – including Album of the Year in 1989 for Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time and Producer of the Year in 1994.

Records that Don has produced have sold close to 100 million albums for a wide array of artists like The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Ringo Starr, Wayne Shorter, The B52s and Charles Lloyd. In 1995 he produced and directed a documentary about the life of Brian Wilson, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, that won the San Francisco Film Festival’s Golden Gate Award. As a film composer, he won the 1994 British Academy Award (BAFTA) for Best Original Score in recognition

of his work on the film Backbeat.

He won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction for his work on the CBS TV special The Beatles: The Night That Changed America. In 2018 Don was invited to join Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir to form the Wolf Brothers. They continue to consistently tour the US. In 2011 Was became President of the iconic jazz label Blue Note Records. He fiercely protects the company’s eighty-five-year-old legacy, meticulously caretaking the revered catalog of Black American Music. This includes maintaining the availability and quality of vinyl reissues in the Tone Poet and Classic Jazz audiophile release series. He also signs and produces many of the label’s recent roster of artists including, Robert Glasper, Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Dr Lonnie Smith, Gregory Porter and Jason Moran.

Don’s deep Detroit roots keep him anchored to the city where, where for the last 15 years he has music directed and played bass in the Don Was Detroit All Star Revue concerts which are part of Detroit’s annual diversity festival, The Concert of Colors. From 2009-2012 Don hosted a weekly Sirius XM radio show on the Outlaw Country channel called The Motor City Hayride.

Since 2021, he co-hosts a weekly, live radio show on Detroit’s NPR station, WDET-FM called The Don Was Motor City Playlist. Don is also the voice of Neville the Dog in the hit Amazon Prime Video children’s show, Pete the Cat.

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SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER TICKETS & INFORMATION HERE

soka.edu/pac tickets@soka.edu 949-480-4278

CONCESSIONS

Concessions A wide variety of wine, beer, soft drinks and freshly prepared snacks will be available before the concert.

Artist Drink Pick

Electrifying Mojo We asked the artists for their favorite drink pick to feature at concessions!

Electrifying Mojo was selected and will be available for purchase before the performance.

Click here for menu and to order Pre-order your concessions and skip the line!

Concessions provided

by FPG Events

Soka Performing Arts Center Mission Statement

Our mission is to Engage, Educate, and Elevate the Human Spirit Soka Performing Arts Center is dedicated to elevating the human spirit through transcendent live experiences.

Discover the unmatched beauty of our acoustics.

Expand your understanding and appreciation of music through our programs that illuminate new perspectives.

Build community and forge deep connections through the shared experience of live performance. We invite you to become a part of our Soka Performing Arts Center family and to Listen. Feel. Transform.

Listen.

Feel.

Transform.

ABOUT SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Soka Performing Arts Center is located on the beautiful hilltop campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo. Our facility includes the 1,042seat Concert Hall featuring world-class acoustics designed by master acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, designer of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, among many others. We also have an intimate 350-seat Black Box Theatre that allows for multiple seating configurations including club seating with bistro tables.

More than 800 performances have taken place since the center’s dedication on May 27, 2011. The 2025-26 season marks our fifteenth season presenting first-class programming in our world-class concert hall. We are continuing to expand our programming and outreach with the addition of a Children’s Concert Series and the only Great Pianists Series on the West Coast. From classical and jazz to world and contemporary music, the Soka Performing Arts Center has become a prized space for artists and audiences alike.

We are proud to be the home of the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

Our Sundays @ Soka Series with Pacific Symphony continues to be one of our most popular series year after year. Our presentations with other Orange County arts organizations have enabled us to reach further into our community to offer arts education and programming. Our partnership with the Philharmonic Society of Orange County includes our Philharmonic Society Series, which brings superlative artists to our stage. We also partner with Philharmonic Society for our Outreach Program, bringing over 7,000 school children to Soka Performing Arts Center to experience live performances with outstanding musicians.

With its world-class acoustics and first-class performances, Soka Performing Arts Center is quickly becoming one of the cultural jewels of Orange County.

SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER DONORS

OUR SUPPORTERS

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE ($75,000+) Dr. Kenneth & Sandra Tokita Sam* & Lyndie Ersan CONCERTMASTER ($10,000+) Ms. Emi Maeda STAGE CHAMPION ($5000+) Yoshitomo & Takemi Daido STAGE BENEFACTOR ($1000+) Anonymous OC Chinese Cultural Club John and Sue Prange Terumi Saito Jochen Schumacher Alex & Sandy Scott Scott A Shuping Anson and Marilyn Wong PLATINUM CLEF ($500+) Anonymous Jeffrey Hendrix Edward D. Jones Jane A. Lynch GOLD CLEF ($200+) Judy Kaufman Lorraine Leiser Naomi Uchiyama SILVER CLEF ($100+) Renée Bodie Sam Chang Masako Inage Debrah Jiang Chiharu Nagai Paul Porto Thomas Prigorac Jonia Suri Joseph Whittaker BRONZE CLEF ($25+) Raquel Bruno Kenneth Hanawa Ryosuke Iga Jeannette Pease Joyce M Wrice Taro Yamanashi

* Deceased List current as of 09/26/2024 The Soka Performing Arts Center deeply appreciates the support of its sponsors and donors, and makes every effort to ensure accurate and appropriate recognition. Contact Renée Bodie, General Manager at (949) 480-4821 to make us aware of any error or omission in the foregoing list.

SUPPORT SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

DONATE TO SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Your support helps ensure Soka Performing Arts Center fulfills its purpose: to engage, educate, and elevate the human spirit. Your gift supports the programming of world-class performances, provides transformative educational outreach experiences, and opens the opportunity to build engagement with our community by sharing the joy of live music.

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CREATE YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE

Our subscription and renewal program provides you with even more flexibility in our season packages*. With our enhanced program, you now have the power to curate your very own unique experience.

• 15% Discount for a 3 performance package • 18% Discount for a 4 performance package • 20% Discount for a 5+ performance package *full details online at soka.edu/pac

OUR PARTNERS • Blueport Jazz • Philharmonic Society of Orange County • Pacific Symphony • Parnassus Society SOKA PAC MANAGEMENT TEAM Renée Bodie General Manager & Artistic Director John Morgan Box Office Manager Antoinette Rossman House Manager/Assistant to the General Manager Steve Baker Production Manager Jarmil Maupin Internal Events Manager Ian Smith Technical Services Manager Katie Ohrn Lighting Supervisor

Piano Tuners Kathy Smith Lead Tuner Ron Elliott David Stoneman David Vanderlip

@SokaPAC @SokaPAC SokaPerformingArtsCenter Website soka.edu/pac

SOKA UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Soka Performing Arts Center resides on the beautiful campus of Soka University of America.

We thank the SUA Board of Trustees and the SUA Leadership Council for all of their support.

SUA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Stephen S. Dunham, JD | CHAIR Vice President and General Counsel Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University | Baltimore, Maryland Tariq Hasan, PhD | VICE CHAIR Chief Executive Officer, SGI-USA | New York, New York Andrea Bartoli, PhD President, Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue | New York, New York Matilda Buck Benefactor | Los Angeles, California Lawrence E. Carter, Sr, PhD, DD, DH, DRS Dean, Professor of Religion, College Archivist and Curator, Morehouse College | Atlanta, Georgia Andy Firoved CEO, HOTB Software | Irvine, California Jason Goulah, PhD Professor of Bilingual-Bicultural Education and Director, Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education, Director of Programs in Bilingual-Bicultural Education, World Language Education, and Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship, College of Education, DePaul University | Chicago, Illinois Clothilde V. Hewlett, JD Commissioner of Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, State of California | San Francisco, California

Karen Lewis, PhD Sondheimer Professor of International Finance and Co-Director, Weiss Center for International Financial Research, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Luis Nieves Founder, Chairman Emeritus AUL Corp, Benefactor | Napa, California Isabel Nuñez, PhD, MPhil, JD Professor of Educational Studies, Dean of School of Education, Purdue University Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne, Indiana Gene Marie O’Connell, RN, MS Health Care Consultant, Associate Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing | Corte Madera, California Adin Strauss General Director, Soka Gakkai International-USA | Santa Monica, California Yoshiki Tanigawa Benefactor, Soka Gakkai | Tokyo, Japan Gregg S. Wolpert Co-president, The Stahl Organization | New York, New York Edward M. Feasel, PhD President, Soka University of America (ex-officio member) | Aliso Viejo, California

SUA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Edward M. Feasel, PhD President Chief Academic Officer Professor of Economics

M. Robert Hamersley, PhD Dean of Faculty Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry

Archibald E. Asawa Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Chief Financial Officer Chief Investment Officer

Hyon J. Moon, EdD Dean of Students Title IX and Section 504 Deputy Coordinator for Students

Katherine M. King, PHR Executive Vice President of University Community Chief Human Resources Officer Title IX and Section 504 Coordinator for Faculty, Staff and Others Michael Weiner, PhD Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Professor of East Asian History & International Studies Bryan E. Penprase, PhD Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations Professor of Physics and Astronomy Tomoko Takahashi, PhD, EdD, LHD Vice President for Institutional Research and Assessment Dean of the Graduate School Professor of Linguistics and Education David Welch, JD Vice President University Counsel

Michelle Hobby-Mears, MBA Associate Dean of Students Director of Student Activities Andrew Woolsey, EdD Dean of Enrollment Services Martin Beck, MA Executive Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications