Bay Area native Dr. Nicholas Vasallo picked up the electric guitar while in high school and formed Antagony, later credited as birthing a popular subgenre of metal music called “deathcore”. A graduate of California State University, East Bay, Vasallo completed his doctorate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where in 2010 he was given the President’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship Award – the first arts student to receive that honor. Other honors include the American Prize, International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, MACRO composition award, and the San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices award. He has helped make Diablo Valley College “California’s finest community college for music” and a top 10 Music Industry School in California. Dr. Vasallo created the music composition programs at Diablo Valley College and Cal Poly Pomona. He has also taught at UC Santa Cruz, CSU East Bay, and Gavilan College. His students have went on to have successful careers as media composers, concert music composers, and graduate students at prestigious composition programs throughout the Unites States. Dr. Vasallo is the recipient of the San Francisco Classical Voice Music Educator Award 2013. His music is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishers and available on Innova Recordings and Unique Leader. Vasallo is also a passionate martial artist, he practices Jiu Jitsu and is the head instructor of Muay Thai at Danville Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, and Kickboxing. He is a CMAT (Certified Martial Arts Teacher) and creator of the Muay Thai program at Global Martial Arts University. Vasallo is sponsored by and an affiliate of Zebra Athletics, Iron Neck, RXT-1, DoubleUP Roller, and Punch King. He lives in Danville, CA with his wife, Denise, and their two children: Madison and Lucas.