Hailed for her "sweeping and bristling" sound and “impassioned” playing by the New York Times, Tema Watstein is an active chamber musician, educator, and psychology student based in New York City. Formerly a violinist in ETHEL, New York's premier "downtown" string quartet, she took great pride in her mission as a cultural and musical “pollinator,” bringing collaborative discoveries to audiences through multi-dimensional musical repertoire and community engagement. Through her tenure, ETHEL served as Ensemble in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Denison University. Tema also composed and performed works for the world premiere of Documerica at BAM.
David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. He has appeared at London’s Barbican Centre, at Miami’s Arsht Center.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, cellist Estelle Choi has garnered top prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She has gained international recognition as a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, praised by the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct.”
Mike Tierney is a Brooklyn-based, three time Grammy nominated audio engineer and producer. He has worked with a wide range of groups and genres, pulling from a diverse taste and experience to bring a unique musicality to each project.
Praised for his “excellent” and “precisely attuned” performances by the New York Times, percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years.
Alexander is the founder and CCO of Edgeworks Entertainment, an indie video game and entertainment company, based on the success of TerraGenesis, the hit terraforming game for iOS, Android, and Windows.
Alex LoRe has been praised by The New York Times as a saxophonist who is “making the connections among about 70 years’ worth of contemplative, articulate and light–toned players.” He has released three albums of his own and recorded as a sideman on over two dozen releases…
Andrew Stephens is a trumpeter and educator based in NYC since 2021. He is currently pursuing a masters at Juilliard, and performed Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall this February…
Ethan Cohn is a bass player, composer, improvisor, and avid explorer of the unknown. Known for his versatility across genres and his love of musical cross-pollination, Ethan has performed with groups from all over the musical map. As a sideman, he has carved a distinct voice for himself through his clear sound, strong groove, and consistently melodic approach to playing the bass. His own projects echo his sincere desire to spread joy to others through music.
A Bengali-American and native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Neel Ghosh's artistic work has embodied many forms within the comedic, musical and improvisational space. Neel attended the University of Southern California and Emory University where he studied with Gary Motley, Randy Hunter, and Bob Mintzer, respectively…
Samantha Kochis is a New-York-City and Pittsburgh–based flutist and improvisor who explores various creative environments as a performer of experimental music. Samantha combines recordings from the natural world to new genres of music in order to remind society of where its roots are and encourage listeners to connect to them on a personal level…
Kosi is a passionate storyteller with a penchant for content strategy and narrative design. He is driven by a sincere desire to effect positive change in digital media publishing and holds a B.A. in Transmedia Storytelling, a major he created through the Individual Studies program at the University of Maryland - College Park. He is currently pursuing an M.S. in Media Management at The New School.
Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and bassist. An “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde" (New York Times), his performances have also spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe…
Ishmael Ali is a first generation Filipino-Arab-American cellist, guitarist, improviser, composer, and electronic artist currently residing in Chicago. His work centers on exploring sound through improvisation, experimentation, collaboration, as well as a wide array of idiomatic approaches in an ever-changing, always-growing list of projects with diverse focuses and influences.Though varying drastically from group to group, a common thread in his work is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements to create something new: both foreign and familiar.
Shane Simpson (https://www.shanesimpsonpiano.com) is a pianist and keyboardist of jazz and experimental music and a devoted music educator. His eccentric solo EP My Digital Wife (2021) highlights his digitally processed “cyborg piano music” alongside novel acoustic piano performances. Shane’s piano playing can also be heard on the soundtrack to popular virtual reality game I Expect You to Die 2…
Andres Abenante is a guitarist and recording engineer based in New York City. He was born in Venezuela and studied at the New England Conservatory, where he received a Masters in Jazz Performance. He is concerned with finding novel ways to play the guitar, interested especially in the physical limitations of the instrument…
Travis Bliss is a Brooklyn based saxophonist, improvisor, and composer from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. As an avid historian of 1920’s jazz, Travis has developed a unique saxophone style, re-purposing the wide vibrato, rhythmic sensibility and timbral nuances of the 20’s, re-contextualized for 21st century musical situations….
Priya Carlberg (www.priyacarlberg.com) is a New York City and Helsinki based vocalist/composer working mainly within the free improvising, rock and jazz scenes. Her unique sound is shaped by her exposition to a variety of genres from her classical piano studies, jazz-centric childhood to her active involvement in the rock and experimental underground scenes…
