Matt Evans is a composer and percussionist who produces acoustic and electronic music, cross-disciplinary performances, and sculptural sound installations through an experimental, ambient adjacent, eco-fictional lens. His work utilizes aqueous, drum-driven, hypnotic soundscapes and cathartic, embodied improvisatory performances to question the unknowable and absurd nature of our experience.
Tristan Kasten-Krause is a bassist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY, creating immersive, extensive and transcendent sound worlds. His music has been described as “heavenly” (the Guardian), “beguilingly frictionless” (Steve Smith) and full of “beautiful, unearthly soundscapes” (WNYC’s New Sounds).
Mikael Darmanie has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Russia and the Caribbean. Recent festival appearances have included: The Weil Institute at Carnegie, Trinity Wall Street, Prototype, Bang on a Can Marathon, Close Encounters With Music, Berkshire High Peaks Festival, Cape Cod Symphony Nth Degree, Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Mozarteum, Mainly Mozart, and L’Acadèmie de Musique de Sion.
Lester St. Louis is a New York City-born and based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator. Lester has worked in, performed and created in artistic environments in The United States, Canada, South America, Europe and China with groups and artists such as Dré Hočevar Trio, Jaimie Branch Fly or Die, Ensemble Adapter, TAK Ensemble and many more. As a composer, Lester has been commissioned by artists such as the JACK Quartet, Mahan Esfahani and Stefan Jackiw, RAGE THORMBONES, Lauren Cauley and others. In the near future Lester will be continuing to develop groups such as MADD (with Dré Hočevar and Leafar) as well as TRANSFER (with Jordan Balaber, Daniel Brew and Rocío Bolaños) along with many new ventures.
a violinist moonlighting as a cider maker, maeve schallert is a sound artist, improviser, and electronic musician exploring the nuances of interaction, communication and the self and other through sound. based in kingston, ny, they are exploring the extremities of both the violin and fruit wines.
Noah Becker is an alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer based in New York. His recent activity includes releasing The Hollow Count with his band Underthought, his first record as a leader, and performing an album release show at The Jazz Gallery; releasing Retumbra, the eponymous debut from a band he co-leads; recording his third record, soon to be released as part of Henry Threadgill’s Baker’s Dozen initiative, for which Noah will also serve as a producer…
PinkNoise is a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums as a reaction and response to the conditions of our community and our society. Our mission is to reveal how improvisation in musical performances lies at the intersection of historical and contemporary works, and how it is a synthesis of multifarious cultures and styles from the past and the present that connect us to our conscience in society. We also believe in performing new works by composers in acoustic and electronic mediums and collaborating with visual artists and writers to present music as a collaborative and interdisciplinary art form.
Brooklyn based bassist / composer Ben Rolston is an accomplished and compelling performer in an eclectic range of musical styles. Ben has performed with important musical voices like Marcus Belgrave, Laurence Hobgood (Kurt Elling), Tim Ries (Rolling Stones), Dwight Adams (Stevie Wonder), Vincent Chandler, Marcus Elliot, Michael Malis, and Nick Dunston, and at world-class venues like The Newport Jazz Festival, Birdland, The Jazz Gallery, Roulette Intermedium, and The Green Mill. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ben attended The University of Michigan to study with master musicians such as Robert Hurst and Geri Allen. Immediately after graduating in 2012, Ben released his debut album Fables, described as “full of grandeur and dissonance” and “find of the week” by Dave Sumner (eMusic Contributor). Since moving to NYC in 2017 Rolston has presented three new bands, each in a different stylistic realm, and helped put on a monthly concert series with POLYFOLD (an arts non-profit Ben helped to found) featuring some of the best improvisers NY has to offer.
Dierk Peters is a Brooklyn based Vibraphonist. Originally from Germany he moved to the US in 2016, and is a now sought-after improviser and composer on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a distinctive voice on his instrument with a unique sound that emphasizes the warmth and depth of the vibraphone, and with his incomparable harmonic agility he surpasses its percussive nature.
Brooklyn-based composer Sana Nagano has a highly distinctive approach to violin playing, grounding chaotic improvisations with restrained precision. Formally trained in both jazz and classical traditions, she rips up the rulebook with projects such as the avant-bluegrass trio Astroturf Noise and 2021's Smashing Humans, which bears the name of her explosive prog-jazz quintet.
Chris Ryan Williams is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based between NYC and LA often found collaborating with contemporary improvisers and experimentalists. His work explores the dyad of ancestral trauma and power existing in all Black Americans. Williams uses a mix of trumpet, electronics, and text to create lush sonic tapestries in his performances with a wide range of artists including Pink Siifu, Luke Stewart, and Patrick Shiroishi.
“A vibraphonist to watch out for…” mentioned the New York City Jazz Record. Mexican born vibraphonist, marimbist, improviser and composer Patricia Brennan “has recently started to make her presence known on the New York avant-garde, working with such prominent bandleaders as Matt Mitchell and Michael Formanek.” observed The New York Times. Patricia is a member of Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus. Patricia released her debut single “Sonnet” under Valley of Search, and released her solo debut album “Maquishti” in January 2021 also under the label Valley of Search. Patricia Brennan is a Valley of Search artist, BlueHaus Mallets artist and currently teaches at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and at the Jazz Studies program at NYU Steinhardt.
Bassist and composer, Anna Abondolo was raised in Los Angeles and currently resides in Boston. She is in her fourth year at the New England Conservatory as a jazz performance major. Anna has studied under the instruction of Donald Palma, Frank Carlberg, and John Clayton. She will be currently studying under the instruction of Anthony Coleman, Jason Moran, and John Mallia. Anna has performed with artists including Sean Jones, Dianne Reeves, and Tom Kubis in addition to her own groups and projects.
DoYeon Kim is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning virtuoso of the gayageum (a traditional Korean string instrument). In addition to traditional Korean music, DoYeon specializes in free jazz, jazz, and improvisation. She regularly performs solo and group concerts worldwide in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America…
Allison Philips is a Brooklyn-based trumpet player, composer, and educator. From the traditional trio setting to genre-bending explorations via electronics, Allison is always searching for new ground. Philips holds a BFA in Jazz Performance from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City and an MM in Jazz Performance from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Between teaching and performing throughout Europe and North America, Allison spends her time commuting on her bicycle in Brooklyn and eating at B&H Dairy in the East Village.
Zekkereya (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist originally from the Los Angeles Area. They are a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and has also worked with West Coast Luminaries such as Busdriver, JMD, Trevor Lawrence, William Roper, Zeroh, MAIA, and Michael Session. They have also shown animated films internationally, most of them exploring visual music. They also make graphic scores both animated and still.
eddy kwon (b. 1989 – aka edi kwon) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, New York). Her practice connects composition, performance, improvisation, dance, and ceremony to explore transformation & transgression, ritual practice as a tool to queer ancestral lineage, and the use of mythology to connect, obscure, and reveal.
Pianist/Improviser Joey (Ian-Joe) Chang has performed improvisation in venues including The Stone at the New School, Roulette, and Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center. He has presented fully improvised concerts at the Sparkhill concert series and the Clayton Piano Festival in NC and has composed structured improvisation for art installations as well as dance choreography. He is co-founder, with violinist Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, of "The Moving Orchestra", a multidisciplinary improvisation organization. Joey obtained his B.M. and M.M. from the Juilliard School.
Based in New York City, South Korean violinist/improviser/teacher Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim has been presented by acclaimed organizations such as Chamber Music America, House of Yes, International Contemporary Ensemble, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Metropolis Ensemble, The Juilliard School, Prague Conservatory, and Music..
Miriam Elhajli is a folk singer, composer-improviser, and musicologist whose work is influenced by the rich musical traditions of her Venezuelan, Moroccan and North American heritage. Elhajli currently lives in New York City where she performs and works as a researcher at The Association for Cultural Equity founded by Alan Lomax…
