With seamless vocal harmony, classical guitar resonance, and the primal song of flutes crafted from tree branches, Dryad takes you on an enchanting musical journey home to a oneness with nature. Blending Jon Sherman's decades-long experience as an eco-musician with the science education background of the musically gifted Dr. Sabina Kurz-Sherman, Dryad weaves into their lyrics the natural wonders and ecological concerns of the California oak woodland—the adopted muse behind their music. During their performance, introductions to each of their original, nature-inspired songs are presented as a captivating, educational dialogue between Jon and a charming oak tree spirit who sings and speaks (with artistic license) through Sabina.
As a symbiosis of music, theater, art, science and spirit, Dryad represents the avant-garde of nature interpretation and is currently performing in concert on the first Sunday of each month, at 12 noon, inside the beautiful Elfin Forest Interpretive Center.
January's June
(Dryad's first official song release)
Amazing Creek
(recorded live at Elfin Forest)
Dryad also offers a purely instrumental sound, blending the etherial voice of Sabina's Celtic harp, sonically dancing like a woodland stream, with the primal song of Jon's branch flutes made with the spirit of the tree, remembering, revealing and restoring the enchantment of life!
"What a pleasure it was to have you at our event. I heard so many wonderful things about your music from those who were there. I hope you are available to join us again next year."
Stephanie Bidegain, San Diego Brain Injury Foundation
Sabina Kurz-Sherman has nurtured a lifelong love for music and nature, beginning with classical piano studies as a young girl enchanted by the green forests of Germany. Her early scientific work included biotope mapping as a field biologist and electron microscopy research. Excelling academically, Sabina earned her PhD in biology from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, graduating magna cum laude. As a scientist, Dr. Kurz published fourteen peer-reviewed articles and presented her research at twenty-two national and international conferences.
When her scientific career brought her to the States, Sabina’s heart opened to the beautiful yet increasingly endangered ecology of California—her home for the past twenty-four years. Professor Kurz-Sherman has taught biology and environmental science at the college level for over two decades. She also leads free interpretive walks at the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve where she blends scientific insight with sensory engagement, inspiring participants toward deeper awareness and respect for their natural community. Certified in yoga instruction and shinrin-yoku (“Forest Bathing”), Sabina invites you to walk with her on the third Sunday of each month at Elfin Forest—to open your mind and heart to nature.
Musically, Sabina performed for eleven years with the Latin jazz band Cadencia, contributing lead vocals, keyboards and percussion across three recorded albums. Inspired by the beauty and the deep, primal spirit of old-growth forests, she took up the Native American flute to better express her love and concern for the natural world. Upon discovering the branch flutes crafted by Jon Sherman, a musical collaboration blossomed—one that has grown into a shared life and creative partnership. Blending original music, storytelling and ecological reverence, they co-wrote their environmental education show Dryad, which premiered at Mission Trails Regional Park in 2017.
Sabina and Jon are currently performing their Dryad show on the first Sunday of each month at the Elfin Forest Interpretive Center, at 12 noon, free to the public. Sabina also shares the peaceful, healing voice of her Celtic harp on Sundays at Elfin Forest and on Mondays in the beautiful lobby of the Kaiser Permanente San Marcos Medical Center.
Jon Sherman's bond with the natural world was kindled at age two when the meadow behind his Idaho home shimmered with a welcoming life force. That early seed memory became a guiding light, shaping his path through landscapes both wild and wounded. When his family relocated to California, Jon sought out the nature trails of this wondrous ecoregion that led through cedar and pine forests, chaparral covered hills, oak riparian woodlands and coastal wetlands—grieving what had been lost to insensitive development yet listening for the enchantment that still sang around the scars.
Jon's gifts in the performing arts led to a professional career as an actor in residence at South Coast Repertory Theatre where he performed for two seasons in their hit production of Godspell, also touring Orange and Los Angeles Counties with SCR’s mime and children’s theater troupes. In 1987, yearning to merge his talents with his love for nature, Jon designed and built an outdoor stage under oaks at Descanso Gardens—a tansformative event in his life. This volunteered offering was inscribed as A Gift to the Spirit of Harmony at Descanso Gardens. In return for his gift, Jon was inspired by the oak trees to write songs of ecological wonder and environmental concern. Embracing his new purpose as a musical voice for the natural world Jon composed from an ecocentric perspective, expressing the expanded ecological self he experienced as a felt oneness with nature. After writing January’s June in 1987, a song about the greenhouse effect, he pioneered the use of a solar-powered sound system for his concerts and has shared this system at hundreds of Earth-friendly events over the years.
In 1993, after inviting the Native American flute-duo Elk Whistle to perform on his stage at Descanso Gardens and helping them record their first album there, Jon was gifted a Native American flute by Gary Lemos of that duo. Enchanted by the reverance for nature that this style of flute represented, Jon recorded two flute albums of his own: Under The Oaks and On The Marsh. In 2006, he began crafting his own flutes from tree branches—his Dryad Flutes highly sought after now for their quality of craftsmanship, unique natural beauty and ecological integrity. When Sabina Kurz reached out to request a branch flute, their shared reverence for the natural world sparked a deep connection and their kindred spirits soon intertwined through musical partnership and marriage, harmonizing their talents in service of the natural world.
