Trumpet player Olivia Pidi is currently a member of New York City quintet Calliope Brass, subtle cheetah brass, and 2nd trumpet of The Montclair Orchestra. In addition to performing, Olivia teaches a full studio of trumpet students. As a chamber musician and soloist, Olivia has received the Alsop Family Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Award and placed in the 2019 International Women’s Brass Conference audition competitions. Olivia holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music (MM) and Oberlin Conservatory (BM), where she received the Carmine Caruso Scholarship, the Cecil Collins Award for brass performance, and the James “Jimmy” Stamp Award for trumpet performance.

Based in New York City, trumpeter Rebecca Steinberg has a career marked by her warm, inviting sound and stylistic versatility. She performs regularly with staged productions, including Off-Broadway runs of “The Sorceress” and the renowned Yiddish-language production of “Fiddler on the Roof” (and can be heard on Fiddler’s 2018 cast album by Warner Music Group). Other notable performances include: City Center Encores! Production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Roadshow,” Symphony Space’s “Wall to Wall” Leonard Bernstein tribute, Adele at Radio City Music Hall, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She most enjoys her work with Calliope Brass, her ensemble that collaborates with creatives ranging from composers to Sesame Street puppeteers. Rebecca won the 2018 Liz Swados Inspiration Grant, an annual award honoring influential female music educators in New York City, on behalf of the ensemble.

Henry Mermer (b. 1999) is a drummer, improviser, and composer of instrumental and electronic music currently based in Ridgewood, Queens. As a collaborator and improviser, he has performed at venues including The Stone, The Jazz Gallery, The Blue Note, happylucky no. 1, Spectrum NYC, Public Records, and The Bar Next Door…

Aaron Quinn (Stamford, CT 1986) is a composer/performing living in Brooklyn, New York. As a performer, Aaron has given concerts internationally and has collaborated with a wide range of ensembles, including Realicide, Fields and Planes, Liver Quiver, and Team Players and artist such as Wadada Leo Smith, Ted Brown, and Miho Hazama. Notable performance and premiere locations for Aaron's compositions include the Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution and The Manhattan School of Music.

Hailed as "the capital city's contemporary cool king" (Giovanni Russonello, Capitalbop), Brad Linde is a saxophonist, educator, bandleader, and impresario in the Washington DC metro area. He is the director of Jazz and Creative Music at Georgetown Day School and founder of the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra.

Saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Michael Thomas has been active in New York City since arriving in 2011. Michael has released three solo albums, and he has co-led the Grammy-nominated Terraza Big Band since its inception in 2015. According to the New York Times, Michael writes "energetic, tuneful music for both combos and large ensembles", and his compositions have been performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Japan. As a sideman, Michael has performed on Grammy-winning albums by Brad Mehldau and Dafnis Prieto, and he has had the privilege of sharing the stage with Miguel Zenón, Nicholas Payton, Etienne Charles, and Jason Palmer. Currently, Michael is an Artist Teacher of Jazz Saxophone in the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music.

A sought after soloist and collaborator, violist Jocelin Pan enjoys a diverse career as a performer and teaching artist. She has played and recorded for film, television, pop, jazz, and contemporary classical projects. She currently holds the viola chair for Mrs. Doubtfire on Broadway and has performed in numerous theatrical productions. From Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden, she champions the music of living composers from all genres. Jocelin is currently on the viola faculty at the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School and the piano faculty at The Nightingale-Bamford School.

Hsuan Chen is an emerging violinist based in Chicago, performing both as a chamber musician and an orchestral member. An avid advocate of early music and contemporary sounds, Chen has performed with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble regularly. Chen has also performed at the Carnegie Hall as the assistant principal with the Oberlin Orchestra. Graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory, Chen is now pursuing her Master's degree with Prof. I-Hao Lee at DePaul University School of Music, while serving as a regular member at the Civic Orchestra in Chicago.

Praised by the New York Times for his “graceful touch,” “rhythmic precision,” and “hypnotic charm,” pianist Han Chen has established himself in both the classical music and contemporary music worlds with his versatile programming and effortless technique…

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Joe is a performer, educator, audio engineer, repair tech, and general musical mercenary. A multi-faceted percussionist, Joe has performed with Talujon, Innovox, the Curiosity Cabinet, S.E.M. Ensemble, and others. He also plays in Gamelan Dharma Swara and Gamelan Yowana Sari, as well as playing in various jazz combos, Balkans groups, and accompanies Arabic dancers.

Nate Jasensky is a guitarist, composer, producer, arranger, and music educator born and raised in sunny Tucson, Arizona, and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan first started his music education at the age of three, when he was enrolled in regular music classes with musicians in the local symphony orchestra. Learning how to read music before written english, Nate quickly became proficient in the guitar and the saxophone…

Titilayo Ayangade, cellist, has spent more than two decades behind the instrument, enjoying performances in orchestras and chamber ensembles as well commissioning new music. Holding degrees in performance from University of Cincinnati-CCM and University of Texas at Austin, she has also worked closely with members of the Artemis Quartet at Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium. Titilayo currently resides close to Washington, D.C. and is pursuing a D.M.A. at the University of Maryland as part of the fellowship ensemble in residence, Thalea String Quartet.

Dominican-American saxophonist and composer, Alfredo Colon is a proud New York City native. His distinct sound lives at the crossroads of a wide range of experiences and inspirations, from his upbringing in Upper Manhattan, to his Dominican heritage, to his love of musicians with melodic approaches to improvisation, including Sonny Sharrock, Ornette Coleman, and Pharoah Sanders…

Radical self-love, compassion, laughter and the drive to promote and amplify Black art-makers and noise-makers are at the core of Clifton Joseph Guidry III’s work. The New York City-based bassoonist, composer, and activist excels in many spheres, with performances hailed by the San Diego Tribune as “lyrical and haunting… hair-raising and unsettling…” Clifton is not only a versatile and acclaimed bassoonist, but they are also an improviser and composer of experimental and daring new works that proclaim Clifton’s love of storytelling. In all aspects of his work, Clifton is supporting, hiring and promoting Black artists within their practice. In honoring their ancestors and those who came before them Clifton’s compositions channel their inner child.

Kalia Vandever is a trombonist, composer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She released her debut album, "In Bloom" in May, 2019 which features all of her original compositions written for quartet and duo with guitar. She has toured and performed internationally with her quartet, as well as a side-woman. Kalia is also an active composer and arranger. She has been commissioned to write works for groups and individuals including Tesla Quartet, The Westerlies, Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, and Hats & Heels Duo.

Flutist, singer, and occasional visual artist Justine Lee Hooper (she/they) covers the music of Soul greats, Black spirituals, and meditative improvisations over live looped beats. She has performed for the United Nations and has been featured in The New York Times.

(They/Them: Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation) Olivia Shortt is a Tkarón:to and US-based multi/trans-disciplinary performing artist. They are a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, noisemaker, improviser, composer, sound designer, curator, administrator, and producer. Highlights include their Lincoln Center (NYC) debut in 2018 with the International Contemporary Ensemble, their film debut performing in Atom Egoyan’s 2019 film ‘Guest of Honour’, as well as recording an album two kilometres underground with Stereoscope in the SnoLAB (Neutrino Lab in Sudbury, Canada). Recent commissions include Long Beach Opera (Songbook 2020), the JACK Quartet (JACK Studio), a new opera for Loose Tea Music Theatre (Toronto), and Arraymusic Ensemble (Toronto, 2022). Shortt was a finalist for the 2021 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award as well as awarded and named one of the 2020 Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's Emerging Queer Artists. Shortt is featured in the 2020 Winter edition of Musicworks Magazine.

Kenny Warren grew up in Denver CO, where he was inspired at a young age by local trumpet greats Ron Miles, Al Hood and Greg Gisbert. In 2002 he moved to New York to study jazz at SUNY Purchase where he met collaborators like Bobby Avey and JP Schlegelmilch. After graduating in 2006, he moved to Brooklyn and quickly became an active member of the improvised music scene. He has performed with a who’s who of improvisors from his generation as well as with luminaries like Tony Malaby, Chris Speed, Angelica Sanchez and Brad Shepik.