"Originally from Québec City, André Lachance has been based in Vancouver since 1990. He has been a member of the Brad Turner Quartet, the Peggy Lee Band, the Guillaume Bouchard group, the Bruno Hubert Trio, the Ian McDougall Quartet/Sextet, the Chris Gestrin Trio, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, the Kate Hammett-Vaughan Quintet, Stillpoint, the Kevin Elaschuk Quartet and many more ensembles, as well as leading his own group as a guitarist, Quatuor André Lachance, with Chris Gestrin, Brad Turner and Joe Poole.

As a acoustic bassist, electric bassist and guitarist, André has toured extensively both nationally and internationally as well as recording for various labels such as Songlines, Cellar Live, Maximum Jazz, Justin Time, Spool and for the CBC and Radio-Canada. André is involved in projects in jazz, musique actuelle, funk (notably with Soulstream), pop music and has also collaborated with various dance and theatre companies. Teaching both basses and guitar at Capilano University's Bachelor of Jazz program since 1996, as well as being on faculty at the Banff International Jazz Workshop in 2004, he has also been an educator in many workshops in various high school band festivals and music camps across the country. He has also worked as a sound engineer for Radio-Canada FM in Vancouver.

Aside from being a multi-talented musician and educator, André has often had the honour of accompanying visiting international musicians, such as Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Benny Golson, Kenny Wheeler, Frank Morgan, Clark Terry, Harold Mabern, Dave Douglas, Julian Arguelles, Roy McCurdy, Jon Mayer, Kenny Werner, Jason Moran, Gary Bartz, Claude Ranger, PJ Perry, Phil Dwyer, Seamus Blake, Michael Blake, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the NOW Orchestra with George Lewis."

"Vancouver-based guitarist/composer Ron Samworth is a high profile presence on the Canadian scene, equally at home playing in the jazz tradition or the extended sound worlds of new and improvised music. Nominated for the 2002 National Jazz Writers Award "Best Jazz Guitarist", he leads the acclaimed quartet Talking Pictures and co-leads the 15-piece NOW Orchestra. He has appeared at all of the major jazz festivals across Canada, the Jazzfest Berlin, Chicago Jazzfest, New York's Knitting Factory, Vienna's Let's Cool One Chamber Jazz Festival, and at prestigious venues in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He has performed and recorded with many leading international artists including John Zorn, John Medeski, Han Bennink, Marc Ribot, Wayne Horvitz, Butch Morris, Bobby Previte, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, and Canadian jazz legend Claude Ranger. His inter-disciplinary work includes composition, performance and sound design for theatre, spoken word, film, and dance."

"Lori Freedman. Born Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1958. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (clarinet, bass clarinet)

Qualified as "a musical revolutionary in the front ranks of the avant-garde" by Alex Varty of the Georgia Straight (Vancouver), Lori Freedman (clarinets) is internationally recognized as one of the most creative and provocative performers. She is a member of a select group known as "renaissance musicians" as her artistic activities cover many fields: performer of written music (well over one hundred works have been written for or premiered by her), composer, improviser, teacher, and on occasion, writer. While managing a full performance schedule of more than 75 public appearances a year, Freedman has been receiving commissions to write music for ensembles such as Orkestra Futura, Arraymusic Ensemble, Ensemble Transmission, Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble SuperMusique, Ensemble Paramirabo, Upstream Orchestra, Queen Mab Trio, Crowbar Trio, Lott Dance, Oberlander Films, Foresite Theatre, Cooke Productions and Autumn Leaf Productions. Her current discography comprises over 59 recordings, the most recent of which include Greffes (Empreintes digitales), On No (Mode Records), Bridge (Collection QB), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné (Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact), See Saw and Thin Air (Wig). Highlight collaborations include work with Rohan de Saram, Barre Phillips, Helmut Lachenmann, Frances-Marie Uitti, Monique Jean, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, George Lewis, the Jack Quartet and Richard Barrett."

"Exhilarating jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her groundbreaking recordings have garnered recognition, including "Best Western Jazz Recording 2004" for her "Special Angel" duo with legendary guitarist Sonny Greenwich.

Lerner's work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer and 20th century classical music. She composes for film, theatre, radio and television. She produced "Birds Are Returning", the first contemporary Canadian jazz recording to come out of Cuba, playing her compositions with greats Dafnis Prieto, Yosvanny Terry and Jane Bunnett.

Along with her innovative solo piano work, Lerner tours with The Queen Mab Trio (clarinettist Lori Freedman and Dutch violist Ig Henneman) across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Their fall 2006 European tour included the prestigious Wels XX Music Unlimited Festival in Austria. Marilyn also performs with Sonny Greenwich, the Mad Satie Trio (Andrew Downing, David Occhipinti), Nick Frasier and Matt Brubeck, Lou Grassi and Ken Filiano, and in the Jewish scene with Adrienne Cooper, Frank London, Alicia Svigals, From Both Ends of the Earth, and David Wall. She has appeared with Steve Lacy, Tito Puente, Michael Vatcher and Gerry Hemingway.

Lerner's original music has garnered the Montreal International Jazz Festival award for best composition. Her audio art collages have been broadcast internationally. A recent commission by CBC in honour of composer Dmitri Shostakovitch's 100th birthday entitled "Meditations on Mitya" was performed by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and in November 2006.

A prolific recording artist, her most recent work includes the independently produced "Romanian Fantasy", a solo recording of improvisations on traditional Eastern European Jewish music recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio at CBC Toronto, "Thin Air" (WIG) the Queen Mab Trio's new release based on Hector Berloiz' Queen Mab Scherzo, "Luminance" (Ambiences Magnetiques), solo improvised piano music using different microphone techniques, "Special Angel" (C.B.C. records), duo with jazz guitar legend Sonny Greenwich, and, with singer David Wall, "Still Soft Voiced Heart" (Traditional Crossroads), original settings of contemporary Yiddish poetry.

Lerner conducts workshops on improvisation and on Jewish music throughout North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. Current projects include both a recording and performances of "Shake My Heart Like a Copper Bell", Lerner's contemporary Yiddish song cycle on the poetry of Anna Margolin, scored for piano, cello, clarinet and singer Adrienne Cooper, for which she received a Hadassah-Brandeis research award, ongoing collaborations with poet Patrick Friesen, a new trio project with cellist Matt Brubeck and drummer Nick Fraser and numerous solo concerts."

"Brad Turner's phenomenal talents as a trumpeter, pianist, drummer and composer make him one of Canada's most in-demand and highly esteemed musicians. Brad has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, John Scofield, Michael Moore, Reneé Rosnes, Jimmy Greene, Terell Stafford, Ingrid Jensen, Mike Murley, Seamus Blake, Kenny Werner and Ernie Watts. Brad's groups have opened for McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry, Diana Krall, Ahmad Jamal and Tony Bennett.

As a leader, Brad has released six albums, five as a trumpeter with his quartet, the most recent being the 2007 release Small Wonder, which was nominated for a Juno in the Traditional Jazz Album category.

What Is, released in 2005, won Best Jazz Album, at the 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards. As a pianist with his trio, the 2004 release, Question the Answer was nominated for a 2005 Canadian Urban Music Award, and a 2006 Canadian Indie Music Award.

In 1997 and 1998 Brad won Juno Awards (Canadian Grammy) for Best Contemporary Jazz Album recognizing his work in the internationally established electric jazz group Metalwood.

Winner of National Jazz Awards for Jazz Composer of the Year (2000 and 2002), Brad was awarded Musician of the Year for 2005, and was a recipient of 2006 Victor Lynch-Staunton Prize for excellence in musical achievement.

In 2008 and again in 2009, Brad took home National Jazz Awards for Trumpeter of the Year and Producer of the year.

Brad is a member of the jazz studies faculty at Capilano University, in North Vancouver, B.C."

"Jeremy Berkman has held the position of Principal Trombonist for the Vancouver Opera Orchestra since 1993. He is also currently the Artistic Co-Director of the Turning Point Ensemble of Vancouver. He is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College, where he received degrees in both music and economics. In addition, Mr Berkman earned a Masters Degree at the Juilliard School, and moved permanently to Canada after a post-graduate residency at The Banff Centre for the Arts. He was the Principal trombonist for the Juilliard Orchestra's inaugural tour of mainland China and has recorded with many famous ensembles, including the Turning Point Ensemble, and with numerous film and television session orchestras. A strong advocate for today's composers, Mr Berkman has commissioned chamber music featuring the trombone from noted British Columbia composers such as Owen Underhill, has presented contemporary chamber works with outstanding ensembles such as Continuum (New York) and the St Lawrence String Quartet. Through these and other ensembles, Mr Berkman has collaborated with internationally acclaimed late twentieth and twenty-first century composers John Cage, John Adams, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jacob Druckman, and Vinko Globokar."

"On the Vancouver jazz scene, the Talking Pictures era began in the '90s, not the '30s. Trumpeter Bill Clark has been recording and performing with the ensemble of that name since its initial formation in 1993; his collaborative gait reliably pliable; his long-term dedication a hallmark of his own career as well as the ensemble itself. Clark has been intrinsic to a series of invitations involving musicians from outside Vancouver to work on specific projects with Talking Pictures, a casting call which has brought forth respondents from across the border in the United States as well as across the ocean in Europe -- such as Wayne Horvitz and Jorrit Dijkstra, respectively.

The other original members of Talking Pictures are cellist Peggy Lee, guitarist Ron Samworth, and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Clark has also performed with another cooperative venture, the Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation. He is a freelance composer who is particularly proud of "Pavel and the Puck," a piece originally written to be performed by a theater group on ice. Having contributed to the unusual genre of "ice theater" makes this artist distinct among other performers named Bill Clark, something a trumpet by itself cannot. Thus, this trumpeting Clark should not be confused with the one in the horn section of the Esther Phillips band, nor is he the same William Clark who played drums on many mainstream jazz records."

"Cellist, improviser, composer Peggy Lee was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She studied classical cello, completing a bachelors degree in performance at the University of Toronto as a student of Vladimir Orloff and Denis Brott. She furthered her studies on the cello with lessons with Martha Gerschefski in Atlanta Georgia. In the fall of 1988 Peggy began a year residency with a string quartet at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta. It was here that she first became interested in collaborating with artists from different mediums and in veering away from the classical path. This led to a decision to move away from the known and thus to her relocating to Vancouver, B.C. where she now makes her home.

Peggy's first forays into improvisation in Vancouver happened with dancers at the EDAM (experimental dance and music) studio at the Western Front and eventually led to her meeting and joining guitarists Ron Samworth and Tony Wilson in their respective bands; as well as becoming a member of the New Orchestra Workshop, which went on to have interesting and fruitful collaborations with Butch Morris, Wadada Leo Smith, René Lussier, Barry Guy and George Lewis.

Peggy continues to collaborate frequently with Ron and Tony and with her husband, drummer Dylan van der Schyff, as well as with many other longtime musical associates including Dave Douglas, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Veda Hille and Lisa Miller. She also leads or co-leads a number of musical projects: The Peggy Lee Band, Film in Music, Waxwing (with Tony Wilson and Jon Bentley) and Beautiful Tool (with Mary Margaret O'Hara).

She has also collaborated extensively in theatre and dance with companies and artists such as Ruby Slippers, Rumble Theatre, Presentation House, David Hudgins, Peter Bingham and Delia Brett.

In 2005, Peggy received the Freddie Stone Award for integrity and innovation in music and in 2010 she was awarded a Jesse Richardson Theatre Award for outstanding composition."