Marina Kifferstein (she/they) is a violinist and generative artist based in NYC. Equally comfortable in major international venues and DIY performance spaces, Marina enjoys a diverse career that encompasses contemporary chamber music, improvisation, composition, and classical performance…
Grounded in the traditions of the Djembe Orchestra, Kweku Sumbry is a multi-percussionist from Washington, DC. With the djembe, drumset, and a multitude of West African Percussion instruments, Kweku is bringing forth a new sound to the jazz world…
“Theodore Swanson began studying trombone at the age of 11. In 10th grade, he began private study with Dr. Anthony Williams from the University of Northern Iowa. Following this, he placed second in the final round of the 2019 Northern Festival of Bands Solo Competition…
Trombonist Levi Boylan began his musical journey studying the piano at the age of four. He turned to the trombone at age ten, studying with Ann Arbor low brass teacher Jonathan Holtfreter. During middle and high school, he performed in many recitals and school band and orchestra programs under the direction of David Leach at Pioneer High School…
Deandre Desir is a fourth year undergraduate at the Juilliard School and recipient of the Jerome L. Greene full tuition scholarship. Mr. Desir is the principal tubist of the Montclair Orchestra and serves as tuba faculty for the Metropolitan Concert Artists and ECTA Organization. He also serves as an Ear Training and Music Theory faculty for the Juilliard Pre-College as well as Teaching Fellow for the Juilliard Graduate Ear Training program…
Neta Raanan is a tenor saxophonist and composer raised in New Jersey. As a teenager, Neta was drawn to the mysterious black and white photos of Bird and Dizzy, Thelonious Monk and Lester Young perched on the walls of the record stores in New York City. She began attending creative music workshops all over the east coast, participating in youth orchestras and ensembles…
Kayvon Gordon was born and raised in Detroit. At a young age, he was taken under the mentorship of legendary trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. Later, he went on to the University of Michigan where he studied with Robert Hurst and Benny Green. Gordon has performed In Europe, Africa, South Asia, The United Arab Emirates, and North America…
Dave Adewumi is an award-winning trumpet player, composer, and educator captivated by the intangible nature of music. His work is derivative of the great black improvisers and composers of the past yet pushes forward to capture the totality of the human experience…
NYC artist Sami Stevens harnesses Jazz, Singer-Songwriter, and classic RnB influences to create truly intimate original music. In writing songs, singing and accompanying herself on keyboard, she crafts a musical world based in silence, delivering dynamic, personal performances. Though performing solo is where she takes complete control of the stage, Sami is also an avid collaborator...
Miriam Parker has been Working within the avant-garde jazz community as an artist and collaborator since birth, she uses movement, installation, paint, and media to build modular kinetic environments that become extensions of the choreographed body. Through re-organizational practices, Parker refines her understanding of individuality, outside of traditions built from oppressive ethics…
JOSH HENDERSON is enjoying a multi-faceted career as a cross-genre violinist, violist, and composer. As a classical soloist, he has performed with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, China Performing Arts Broadcasting Troupe, Starling Chamber Orchestra, Accent X Festival Orchestra, Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Bard Conductors Festival Orchestra…
Elias Stemeseder is a pianist, electronic musician and composer working in a wide-ranging variety of contemporary musical idioms. He has worked with Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Joe McPhee, Anna Webber, Hamid Drake and Christian Lillinger, among others. Elias’ debut album Piano Solo was released by the acclaimed Swiss label Intakt Records in 2022…
Aliya Ultan (b. 1996) is a composer/improviser, cellist and vocalist from Brooklyn, NY. Born into a family of artists and musicians, Ultan was immersed in a variety of creative mediums and environments. Ultan grew up, periodically homeless with her mother and sister traveling across the U.S. and Canada. At age 12, Ultan fell in love with the cello turning it into her way out of poverty…
Julián Muro's music is the result of the encounter between at least two personalities, the one of a singer-songwriter-poet and the one of a composer-producer-researcher. He has released two albums of songs and instrumental music and has been featured as a composer, musician, and spoken word artist in albums in the US, Canada, and Argentina…
Ezra Gans is a performer currently residing in Ridgewood, New York. His work is grounded in tenets of experimental improvisation, placing an emphasis on spontaneity and real-time communication between performers and audiences…
Asher Herzog (b. 1995) is a Baltimore based drummer, composer and improviser whose primary interest lies at the intersection of composition and improvisation. An active leader and sideman, Herzog approaches every performance with the intent of creating powerful moments within the ensemble…
Kate Gentile is a Brooklyn-based drummer and composer. As a leader, Kate released Mannequins (Skirl Records) in 2017 with Jeremy Viner, Matt Mitchell and Adam Hopkins. Her current band, Find Letter X, features Mitchell, Viner, and Kim Cass on bass…
Guggenheim Fellow, USA Fellow, Doris Duke Artist, multilingual vocalist-composer-multi-instrumentalist-dancer Jen Shyu is “one of the most creative vocalists in contemporary improvised music” (The Nation). Born in Peoria, Illinois, to Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrants, she’s produced eight albums, performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Theater of Korea, Rubin Museum, was named Downbeat’s 2017 Rising Star Female Vocalist, and is a Fulbright scholar speaking 10 languages…
Chris Tordini is an in-demand bassist in the jazz and experimental music scene, touring and recording both nationally and internationally. He has toured and recorded with Andy Milne's ‘Dapp Theory’ for over a decade, and he has been a close collaborator with MacArthur fellow Tyshawn Sorey since 2005, most notably as a member of Sorey’s long standing piano trio. Tordini is a founding member of the Becca Stevens Band…
Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.”…
