Described as an “intrepid entrepreneurial player” by New York Magazine and “graceful and athletic” by The New York Times, Jessica Schmitz has collaborated internationally across a wide spectrum of musical arts as a flutist, curator, and producer.  Jessica has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player with groups including Bang on a Can, Sequitur, Alarm Will Sound, Asphalt Orchestra, Signal Ensemble, So Percussion, Ne(x)tworks, American Modern Ensemble, NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) and SEM Ensemble.  She has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, Yoko Ono, Meredith Monk, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, John King, Steve Mackey, Robert Rowe, and Eve Beglarian, among many others, and has commissioned dozens of new works premiered throughout the US and abroad.  As an active curator and producer, Jessica has partnered with organizations including Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, Warsaw Autumn, Wordless Music, MATA, Juilliard, and Unsound Festival.  Read more at www.jessicaschmitz.com

Alex Hamlin is a multi-genre multi-instrumentalist whose arsenal includes saxophones, flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, clarinet, bassoon, guitar, and keyboards. He is a founding member of the Lungcore band, Jerseyband, Amy Lynn & The Gunshow, and the Hog Trio and manages his own record label, Rangletorian Records. Alex has toured Germany and Switzerland with the West-End Production of Grease Das Musikal, and “The Spirit of Ray Charles” which was based in Monte Carlo, Monaco & Mumbai, India. In New York City he performs with artists such as the Barbarian Horde, Ken Thomson’s Nine Headed Saxophone Monster, Ben Gallina’s Salo, Fat Blaster (Ralph Alessi), HiLoFi, Asphalt Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Antibalas, Transmission, Colin Stetson (bass & baritone sax at union sq station) and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He gives private music instruction on saxophone and woodwinds and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical and Jazz Saxophone Performance from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, NY.
http://www.myspace.com/alexhamlin

Ken Thomson is a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer.  In demand as a composer and freelancer in many settings, he moves quickly between genres and scenes, bringing a fiery intensity and emotional commitment to every musical situation.  Called “the hardest-working saxophonist in new-music show business” by Time Out NY, he plays saxophone and is one of the 3 composers in the punk/jazz band Gutbucket, with whom he has toured internationally to 19 countries and 32 states over ten years, and released CDs for Knitting Factory, Enja, NRW, Cantaloupe and Cuneiform Records.  He has created a new project of exclusively his music called Slow/Fast that debuted at John Zorn’s club “The Stone” in November 2008 and was featured on Brooklyn’s Northside Music Festival and the NYC Winter Jazzfest.  He is a faculty member at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Institute, and co-leads Asphalt Orchestra. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, and others, and has received awards from ASCAP and Meet the Composer. As a saxophonist and clarinetist, he is a member of the internationally-touring punk/cabaret band World/Inferno Friendship Society, next-generation chamber orchestra Signal (conducted by Brad Lubman), Jody Redhage’s art-song/world-jazz group Fire in July, the all-improvised No Net Trio, and was a co-founder of punk/chamber composer-performer collective Anti-Social Music.  He is a frequent collaborator with new-composed music groups Alarm Will Sound (on their 2009 Nonesuch Records debut, “Arhythmia”), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), So Percussion, and more.  He has also worked as a music director, most recently directing composer Julia Wolfe’s “Traveling Music” at the Bordeaux Conservatory, France, 2009. He is a Conn-Selmer Artist, and endorses Sibelius software.
http://www.ktonline.net/

Peter Hess has lived and worked in NYC since 1997 as a composer and performer (clarinets, saxophones, flutes and percussion).  He is a member of Balkan Beat Box (Crammed Disk), Barbez (Tzadik Records), Slavic Soul Party, Bang on a Can’s Asphalt Orchestra, and World/Inferno Friendship Society, and has toured extensively in the US, Europe, Mexico and Japan.  Leader of avant-balkan quartet Guignol, Peter also co-leads Collide saxophone quartet and is a founding member/composer of AntiSocial Music.  He has also appeared with Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Darmstadt Ensemble, and James Jabbo Ware (AACM).  Peter is an active session player and arranger for numerous indie rock bands including the Hold Steady, Son Volt, the Virgins, Songs:Ohia, Hem, and many others, appearing on over 80 records and film scores.  He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (96), and taught woodwind workshops in the Brooklyn and Queens public schools from 98-06 creating curricula from scratch in neighborhoods underserved in the arts. http://www.myspace.com/29839703

“Jazz keeps slowly widening, and the young trumpeter Shane Endsley is working calmly and effectively at the perimeter.” – NY Times
Shane resides in Brooklyn, NY, where he is steadily building his reputation as one of the most unique voices on the trumpet today. Downbeat Magazine named him as one of the “Top 25″ trumpeters of his generation in 2007. A truly modern and dynamic musician, he can be found on recordings ranging from modern instrumentalists Steve Coleman, Dave Binney, Ben Allison, Chris Speed, and Donny McCaslin, to folk and rock icons like Ani DiFranco, Erin McKeown, and Pearl Jam. Shane is an accomplished drummer and composer who is constantly expanding his musical vocabulary with the rich experiences offered by NewYork. He dove into the intricate ornamental style of the Balkan brass bands with the powerhouse 10 piece group, Slavic Soul Party and is now venturing into the lilting rhythms of Brazilian Forro and Maracatu with Scott Kettner of Nation Beat and Maracatu NY.

An emerging bright talent to the world of new and improvised music, trumpeter and composer Stephanie Richards is rapidly establishing a place for herself as a fresh voice. From international broadcasts with hip hop artist and Grammy winner Kanye West, to a solo trumpet debut at Carnegie Hall, to collaborations with comedian Denis Leary, Stephanie is orchestrating a unique trajectory. She is winner of the International Trumpet Guild Young Artist Award, earned first prize in both the National Canadian Music Competition and the National Kiwanis Festival, is a McGill University Fellowship recipient and in 2004 was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.  Stephanie has performed internationally on television (MTV, ABC, ATV) and throughout the US and Canada, Mexico, France, Sweden, and the UK, and appears as an upcoming artist in “Das Trompeter-Taschenbuch”, a compilation of trumpet players of yesterday and today published by Schott-publishing house.  To read more, visit www.stephrichards.com

Alan Ferber is known internationally as a jazz trombonist, composer and bandleader.  He has released four albums, all of which blur traditional boundaries through an intriguing mix of influences.  The Wall Street Journal affectionately describes his music as “somehow both old school and cutting edge”.  Alan’s latest project with his nonet and string orchestra, called Chamber Songs was released in May 2010 on Sunnyside Records. Alan has released two additional recordings featuring his nonet on the reputable Fresh Sound New Talent label, The Compass and Scenes From An Exit Row.   He has performed and recorded with artists including: Charlie Hunter, Sufjan Stevens, Dr. Dre, David Binney, John Hollenbeck, Don Byron, Kelly Clarkson, and They Might Be Giants.  He also played lead trombone in the Broadway production of Ragtime, named best musical of 2009 by Time magazine, and has subbed on many others including South Pacific, West Side Story, and The Producers.  As an educator, Alan is currently adjunct professor of trombone and jazz studies for the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University and the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University.  He also teaches adjunct at the New School in New York City and has been artist-in-residence at the University of Oregon and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Trombonist Jen Baker has performed internationally in a variety of ensembles spanning from orchestra to free jazz.  Through Meet the Composer Baker recently commissioned and performed Pat Muchmore’s THS on the east and west coasts. Baker’s solo project, Lyrical Vibrations, has been performed around the country and can also be heard on her solo album, Blue Dreams.  Recording projects include Werner Herzog’s soundtrack Encounters at the End of the World, the Mountain Goats Get Lonely album, Music + One -solo improvisations- on Rastascan Records, and Untitled 1959, on Jerusalem-based label Kadima.  Baker has performed in the International and Eastern Trombone Workshops, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, No’west Improvised Music Festival, Kennedy Center’s Women in Jazz Festival, International Society of Improvised Music Conference, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Santa Cruz Symphony, and Vermont Symphony.  She has performed and collaborated with Stuart Dempster, Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, LaDonna Smith, Cecil Taylor, and Alvin Curran. http://www.myspace.com/jenbaker7

Kenneth Bentley was born in Round Rock, Texas on August 26, 1976.  He graduated in the spring of 1999 with a Bachelor’s degree in Orchestral Performance from The University of Texas at Austin.  During his summers at UT Austin, he worked for the Walt Disney Company at the theme parks in California, Paris and Tokyo.  In the fall of 1999, Kenneth moved from Texas to New York where he completed a Master’s degree in Classical Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2001.  Kenneth joined the Young Blood Brass Band in 2004 and toured America and Europe with Young Blood from 2004-2006 and 2009.  Currently, Kenneth resides in New York City where he freelances on Tuba and Electric Bass and plays sousaphone with the SugarTone Brass Band and the Asphalt Orchestra.

Sunny Jain is a highly respected drummer, composer and educator quickly establishing himself as an Indian-American musical trailblazer. He leads Red Baraat, and his Sunny Jain Collective has been touted as a leading voice for the new music Indo Jazz.  In 2002, Sunny was designated a Jazz Ambassador by the U.S. Department of State and The Kennedy Center and received the Arts International Award in both 2003 and 2005. Sunny was commissioned in 2006 by Chamber Music America’s New Works and in 2007 he performed with the famed Sufi-rock group Junoon at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway, playing for Al Gore. Sunny was also commissioned by the Aaron Copland Fund in 2008 Sunny played dhol in the first ever Indian Broadway show, Bombay Dreams (2004) and has since gone on to perform with Masala Bhangra, Sarina Jain, and jazz legend Dewey Redman.  He will make his Hollywood debut playing dhol in the movie, Accidental Husband, starring Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, and Isabella Rossellini.
http://www.sunnyjain.com/

Born in Charleston, SC, Nick Jenkins is a percussionist and composer with an extensive musical presence along the East Coast.  A graduate of the College of Charleston, Nick plays an integral role in driving the pulse of the Charleston music scene, co-founding, recording and touring genre-blending bands such as Morimoto, Run Dan Run, Leah Suarez’s Toca Toca, Lindsay Holler’s Western Polaroids, Short Shorts, and Jack of Knives among others. Nick is a recent recipient of the New Music Collective’s “New Works Program” Commission Award (Summer 2009.  He also volunteers with Charleston’s Jazz Artists of Charleston. Reaching outside of SC, Mr. Jenkins took his first international tour with Toca Toca playing alongside former Duke Ellington drummer, Emmanuel Abdul Rahim.  He performs with New York-based marching band Asphalt Orchestra, which debuted in summer of 2009 at Lincoln Center’s Out Of Doors Festival.
http://paperjenkins-music.blogspot.com/

Percussionist/singer Yuri Yamashita is involved in a wide variety of musical genres. She performs new music, world music, orchestral, Broadway musicals and sings Brazilian music. She has worked closely with the composer Tan Dun performing with the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia and other works of his with the Munich Philharmonic, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Teatro Carlo Felice, and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a member of new music/rock band Newspeak and new music street band Asphalt Orchestra and has worked with Wordless Music Orchestra, VisionIntoArt, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. On Broadway, she has been performing in The Lion King and has played in Monty’s Python’s Spamalot. A native of Kobe, Japan, Yuri has degrees from the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, and Kobe College. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

http://www.myspace.com/yurijeans