Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Questlove is an American drummer, DJ, music journalist, and record producer. He is best known as the drummer of the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots.

As the son of doo-wop star Lee Andrews (of Lee Andrews & the Hearts), Thompson was exposed to music at an early age. He was performing on drums by the age of seven, and by 13 had become a musical director. His parents then enrolled him at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where he was exposed to a wide range of music and other performing arts. In 1987 Questlove co-founded The Roots with high school classmate Tariq Trotter. He has been with the group ever since. The group is now the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Questlove has also maintained an active career in music outside of his work with The Roots. He has produced for artists such as Common, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and Jay-Z, and more recently, Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and John Legend. He has played drums on albums by Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, and Joshua Redman, to name a few, and was one of a handful of musicians picked to back Hank Williams Jr. on a new version of "All My Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" for the season premiere of Monday Night Football.

The list of Questlove's side projects is equally impressive. In 2001 he helped create The Philadelphia Experiment, a collaborative instrumental jazz trio with bassist Christian McBride and avant-garde jazz pianist Uri Caine. In 2011 he teamed up with Parisian star Keren Ann to present Philly-Paris Lockdown, a one-night celebration of 1900s Paris that took place at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. The two were joined by a slew of artists to present an event awash in jazz, classical, and hip-hop styles. The collaboration reworked compositions by Satie, Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky.

In addition to the list of awards and nominations he has received as a member of The Roots, Thompson was awarded an Esky for Best Scribe in Esquire magazine's 2006 Esky Music Awards, was ranked #2 in the "50 Top Tweeters in Music" by Rolling Stone, and placed 8th as Rolling Stone Reader's Pick for "Best Drummers of all Time."

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Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka is a harmony creator on the piano. Keenly sensitive to emotions in music, combined with pitch-to-color Synesthesia, Ayaka brings colors and sensibility to her musical storytelling. Classically trained as a pianist in Tokyo, Ayaka has journeyed through jazz, rock, funk, pop, metal, experimental and improvisation over the past 30 years. Ayaka translates energy, colors and emotions into harmonies, which serve as a container for stories to flow through the audience. Her collaborative platform Flow in Harmony showcases musical meditation, poetry piano improvisation, and live painting to music improvisation. Her art always pushes the boundaries of existing art mediums to expand sensory experiences.

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Adam November

Adam November

Adam November is a creative technologist and musician living in Brooklyn, New York. Adam combines electronics, code, sound, and light to create new experiences and products, often centering on music technology and LED art. Currently he is Director of Physical Technology at NYC-based innovation lab Future Colossal, and tours with bassist Karina Rykman on guitar and electronics.

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Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and moved to the U.S. at an early age. A graduate of The Juilliard School in composition, Ricardo’s music synthesizes his major musical influences and passions: classical music and electronic music. The New York Times described his work as “a blissful and compelling mix of Minimalist-derived rhythmic ecstasy and nightclub beats.” Ricardo is the co-founder of an audiovisual studio called SUBHAZE, creating immersive concerts, festival installations with an array of artists, brands, ensembles, and venues that transcends the traditional forms of presentation experience.

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Hannah Sumner

Hannah Sumner

Hannah Sumner has already established herself as one of New York’s finest alternative artists. As a producer, vocalist, and songwriter, the triple-threat has performed on a myriad of the city’s stages including sold-out shows at Barclays Center, National Sawdust, Perez Art Museum, Miami’s Art Basel, Le Poisson Rouge (LPR), Webster Hall, and House of Yes.

In the winter of 2015, Sumner released her debut EP ‘To The Almost’ - a work consisting of Sumner’s original songs arranged and produced by Avi Gunther (Snarky Puppy, Lalah Hathaway) to critical acclaim.

"An absolutely incredible voice" - BBC Radio 

“Sumner creates pop music of a beautiful atmospheric hue” - Clash Magazine

With her long list of her own performances and recordings, Sumner has also managed to expand into creating with a variety of well-known names such as, Bravo TV, Tori Burch, Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, FL creating original compositions for Lululemon’s ‘Beats Per Moment’ tour, composer Ricardo Romaneiro (Terrence Malick, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), producers J Chris Griffin (Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Kanye West), Avi Gunther (Snarky Puppy, Lalah Hathaway), Gazzo, Pool Cosby, Adam Neely, and Kastra, as well as pianists Julien Marchal and Ola Gjeilo.

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Mélanie Genin

Mélanie Genin

Hailed as “a globe-trotter” and “singular harp virtuoso” by L’Union France and the Epoch times of New York, Mélanie Genin is known for her “desire to re-shape and re-invent classical music” (Justine Philippe, L’Union, France).

Since her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the International Shining Stars, Ms. Genin has performed in some of the most prestigious halls in the world, including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall London, KKL Luzern, Audi Hall München, Avery Fisher Hall, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, and Théâtre des Champs Elysées, under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Matthias Pintscher, Alan Gilbert, Pablos Heras-Casado, and Leonard Slatkin.

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Terry Sweeney

Terry Sweeney is an avid chamber musician and collaborator. In addition to Sandbox Percussion, Terry is a member of quaquaqua, and The Percussion Collective and has performed over 250 concerts across the United States.Recent projects include a world premiere of Seven Pillars, a percussion quartet by Andy Akiho, QUIXOTE – a multi-year collaboration with the theatrical ensemble HOWL, and a world premiere piano/percussion quintet by Chris Cerrone. Terry’s 2021/2022 season will feature world premieres by composers: Jessica Meyer, Tawnie Olson, Loren Loiacono, Molly Joyce, Tyshawn Sorey, and David Crowell. 

Sandbox released their debut album And That One Too on Coviello Classics in 2020. In 2021, Sandbox released Seven Pillars which was subsequently nominated for two GRAMMY® awards.

As an educator, Terry directs the percussion studies for the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, is a faculty member at the University of Missouri Kansas City, co-directs the NYU-Sandbox Seminar, and during the 2019 Spring semester was a visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts. Terry holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music and endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.

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Victor Cacesse

Victor Caccese is the founder of the Brooklyn-based percussion quartet, Sandbox Percussion. As a member of Sandbox, Victor has performed over 150 concerts worldwide and taught at institutions such as The Peabody Conservatory, The Curtis Institute, Michigan State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Kansas, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Victor has collaborated with composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Andy Akiho, David Crowell, James Wood, John Luther Adams, and Thomas Kotcheff. In the Spring of 2020, along with Sandbox Percussion, Victor will give the world premiere of an evening-length work by Andy Akiho entitled Seven Pillars at the Mondavi Center in Davis, CA. Next summer Victor will teach and perform at the fifth annual NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar, a chamber music festival accepting students from around the world to study and perform some of today’s leading contemporary percussion pieces. 

Also a composer and arranger, Victor has written a number of pieces for percussion. His works have been performed by Sandbox Percussion more than 50 times throughout the United States. While music and percussion is at the core of his professional life, Victor has also worked as a photographer and videographer. As head of media and content development for Sandbox Percussion, he has developed and maintained a YouTube presence consisting of performance videos, workshop documentaries, and travel vlogs.

Victor holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. He is also a member of The Percussion Collective, a stunning ensemble founded by performer and pedagogue Robert van Sice. Victor serves on faculty at the Dwight Conservatory in Manhattan and was a visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with Sandbox Percussion as the ensemble in residence in the Fall of 2019. Victor endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth drumsticks and Remo drumheads.

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Stephan Crump

Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with twelve critically-acclaimed album releases in addition to numerous film scoring contributions.

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Paul Wiancko

Paul Wiancko has led an exceptionally multifaceted musical life as a composer and cellist. As a performer, he has collaborated with Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Nico Muhly, and members of the Guarneri, Takács, JACK, Parker, Orion, and Juilliard quartets. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the Future”, Paul’s own music has been described as “dazzling”, “compelling” (Star Tribune) and “vital pieces that avoid the predictable” (Allan Kozinn). His 25-minute quartet LIFT is featured on the Aizuri Quartet’s Grammy-nominated album Blueprinting, one of NPR’s top 10 classical albums of 2018.

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Ayane Kozasa

Hailed for her "magnetic, wide-ranging tone" and her "rock solid technique" (Philadelphia Inquirer), violist Ayane Kozasa is a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet, whose GRAMMY-nominated debut album “Blueprinting” was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2019. Her duo with composer and cellist Paul Wiancko—known as "Ayane & Paul"—actively performs and commissions new works for viola and cello and recently collaborated with Norah Jones on her album “Pick Me Up Off the Floor.”

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Emi Ferguson

Emi Ferguson can be heard live in concerts and festivals with groups including the Metropolis Ensemble, Handel and Haydn Society, AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Manhattan Chamber Players.

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Caleb Smith

Performer and composer Caleb A. Smith is a multi-faceted artist who hopes to use his art to present relevant, relatable, and thought-provoking narratives to his audience. Caleb received his Bachelor’s in Jazz Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he was able to attend on a full-tuition scholarship. Currently, Caleb is pursuing his Master’s Degree from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. He has been fortunate enough to study with musicians such as trombonist Robin Eubanks, as well as with performer composers like Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Gary Bartz, and Billy Hart.  

As a performer, Caleb has played with a vast selection of artists including five-time Grammy Award winning American visionary Lauryn Hill at the 2018 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony presented by HBO, a performance with trumpeter Terrance Blanchard as part of Cleveland’s Annual Tri-C Jazz Festival, and at the New England Conservatory of Music with bassist Dave Holland. He has played with an array of different ensembles ranging from small jazz-based combos, concert/marching bands, a symphony orchestra, jazz big bands, Gospel groups and as part of a horn section in pop groups. Caleb has also given numerous performances in and around Cleveland at venues such as The Bop Stop at the Music Settlement, Severance Hall, and Akron’s acclaimed BLU Jazz+ Club.
Composition is an integral part of Caleb’s artistry and artistic process. He hopes that, through his original work and collaborations with others, he will make himself vulnerable to his audience and not only present themes and narratives associated closely with his heart and personal life, but also those that are associated with being Black in America. He has had the privilege to study composition at prestigious programs such as the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead (where he had his original work performed on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage) and at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music.  

‍Caleb firmly believes that teaching is an integral part of any society and is very passionate about spreading the knowledge he has obtained to other people on their journey.

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Kalun Leung

Kalun Leung (he/him) is a collaborative trombonist, augmented instrumentalist, and sound artist with an extended practice in instrument building, electronics, and movement. His projects are motivated by the exploration of new and unexpected contexts in which the trombone can thrive, an interdisciplinary and research-based approach that has led to the invention of new electronic trombone augmentations, the study of Balkan brass band music in Guča, the premiere of never-before-seen Keith Haring computer art, the mounting of a Fluxus-inspired trombone sound sculpture, and site-specific improvisations with landfills and robots. 

As a performer, he is a major proponent for the presentation of new work through commissioning, collective creation, and improvisation, and performs in new music, improvised, jazz, inter-arts and folk music ensembles in New York City and Tiohtià:ke/Montréal where he is based. He has premiered works by George Lewis, Bekah Simms, and Lesley Mok, and has contributed to a GRAMMY-winning album with the Experiential Orchestra. He has collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Nation Beat, Slavic Soul Party, Zlatne Uste, David Taylor and Felix del Tredici (So Wrong it’s Right), Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), John Aaron Cockburn (Bruce Cockburn, Little Suns), and many others.

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Eleonore Oppenheim

Eleonore Oppenheim

“Quietly virtuosic” (Alan Kozinn, the New York Times) upright and electric bassist Eleonore Oppenheim is equal parts valued ensemble player and engaging soloist. Her “…subtle expressivity” and “…particular eloquence” (Joshua Kosman, the San Francisco Chronicle), coupled with her New Music advocacy, have made her a go-to muse for some of the best composers of her generation, and she has built a rich repertoire of solo pieces, some of which will be featured on her debut album, “Home,” which will be released on Innova Recordings in Spring of 2016.

A musical omnivore and polyglot, Eleonore is at home in a wide range of musical idioms, and has worked with a variety of different artists and groups, among them the Philip Glass Ensemble, Tyondai Braxton (Battles), the Wordless Music Orchestra, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Ensemble Signal, Bryce Dessner (the National), Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead).
Eleonore also performs and records regularly with the “All-star, all-female quintet” (Time Out NY) Victoire, whose debut album Cathedral City reached top-10 and best-of lists in the New York Times, Time Out NY, and NPR in 2010, and whose new album Vespers for a New Dark Age, a collaboration with Wilco drummer and percussionist Glenn Kotche, was released on New Amsterdam in 2015.

She has appeared at a number of national and international festivals and venues, most notably the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, Spoleto USA, the MADE Festival in Sweden, Festival de Otoño Madrid, and Carnegie Hall, BAM, Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums, the Barbican Centre, the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Disney Hall, and the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia.

Eleonore was a Bang on a Can Fellow in 2006, where she met many of the fantastic musicians and composers she now collaborates with. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook, and is also an alumna of the Yale School of Music and the Juilliard School.

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Topu Lyo

Topu Lyo

Topu Lyo is a Korean-American multi faceted composer, producer, and cellist. He uses cello and electronics as his primary tool to compose and perform. He has been a co-leader of two piece band Live Footage for over 12 years touring throughout Europe, Asia, and the US. The band has scored documentaries for HBO, BET, VICE, UNICEF as well as done commercial work for many other brands including BMW, VOLVO and Arpel. He has held a 10 year residency at NYC's Apotheke every Sunday night.

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Samer Ghadry

Samer Ghadry

Samer Ghadry is a Brooklyn-based musician and healing sound practitioner. He uses a variety of droning and overtoning instruments such as gong, voice, bowls, and forks to craft relaxing, rejuvenating, and holistically transporting sound journeys in various settings. Samer has a background in percussion and improvisation and has toured and recorded with musicians Matthew Dear, Angel Deradoorian, and Dave Harrington, and has appeared in recent works such as Alanis Morsette's The Storm Before the Calm and the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

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Sara Serpa

Sara Serpa

A native from Lisboa, Portuguese Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Serpa has been working in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music, since moving to New York in 2008. Literature, film, visual arts, nature and history inspire Serpa in the creative process and development of her music. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by the JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,”  Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist, Danilo Perez, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist, Ran Blake, and Greg Osby.

Her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released ten albums, the latest being Intimate Strangers (2021) and Recognition (2020).

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Pieta Brown

Pieta Brown is hailed as a "self-styled poetess, folk goddess and country waif" by the BBC, and over the course of the past decade-and-a-half, she’s released eight critically lauded records, prompting NPR to applaud her "moody, ethereal" songwriting, and the NY Times to praise her “sweet, smoky voice.” Her work garners praise and support from a wide array of peers and mentors, including legendary producer Don Was, filmmaker Wim Wenders, and Bon Iver mastermind Justin Vernon, who called Brown’s 2014 album Paradise Outlaw his “favorite recording made at our studio.” More »

Greg Chudzik

Greg Chudzik is an active performer across numerous genres on the double bass and electric bass.  Currently, he can be seen performing regularly with several new music groups, including Signal Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Talea Ensemble.  Greg is also a member of several bands, including Empyrean Atlas, Bing and Ruth, and The Briars of North America. He has worked with numerous influential figures in contemporary music, including Steve Coleman, Steve Reich, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, Helmut Lachenmann, Charles Wuorinen, Alex Mincek and Tristan Perich.  Greg’s recording credits include playing on the Grammy-nominated “Barcelonaza” by Jorge Leiderman, “Pulse / Quartet” by Steve Reich on Nonesuch records, “Morphogenesis” and "Synovial Joints" by Steve Coleman on Pi Recordings, “No Home of the Mind” and "Tomorrow Was the Golden Age" by Bing and Ruth on RVNG records, the album “Americans” by Scott Johnson (Tzadik records), multiple recordings with Signal Ensemble on New Amsterdam and Mode Records, the album “Grown Unknown” by Lia Ices (Secretly Canadian records), the album "Inner Circle" by Empyrean Atlas, and the album “High Violet” by The National on 4AD records.  Greg's debut album "Solo Works, Vol. 1" was released in July of 2015 and features original pieces of music written for bass guitar and electronics. His follow-up album “Solo Works Vol. 2” features original compositions for double bass quartet and will be released in 2019.

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