"Cellist-composer Tomas Ulrich received music degrees from Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music. After attending a performance by the great Soviet cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the age of eight, Mr. Ulrich was inspired to begin his musical journey on the cello. In addition to the traditional classical repertoire, Mr. Ulrich's work clearly demonstrates the influence of such diverse artists as Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Miles Davis,Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Dmitri Shostakovich and Olivier Messiaen. Mr. Ulrich has performed and recorded with such diverse artists as Anthony Davis, Joe Lovano, McCoy Tyner, Alice Coltrane, Anthony Braxton, Aretha Franklin, Derek Bailey, Ravi Coltrane, James Moody,Taylor Ho Bynum, Gerry Hemingway, Dom Minasi, Jason Kao Hwang, Dominic Duval, Ayman Fanous, Ben Allison, Ted Nash, Dave Douglas, Kevin James, Karl Berger, Hans Tammen, Coheed and Cambria, Natalie Merchant and Ivo Perelman. He is also a member of the Diller-Quaile String Quartet, which premiered his Quintet for Trumpet and Strings (featuring guest soloist Herb Robertson) in May of 1996. In 2006, Tomas began his recorded musical collaboration with the acclaimed German trombonist Christof Thewes with the release of Quartetto Pazzo "Melancholera" (with Rudi Mahall and Dirk Peter Kolsch). 2007 saw the release of Mr. Ulrich's first CD as a co-leader (Labryinths with Ayman Fanous on the Konnex label). In 2008, Mr. Ulrich released his first CD as a leader. Cargo Cult (with Rolf Sturm-electric and acoustic guitars and Michael Bisio-acoustic bass) released their first CD "If You Should Go" on the Cadence label to great critical acclaim. This ensemble has gone on to release three more CDs on the CIMP label (Tomas Ulrich's Cargo Cult (2009), Lonely House (Covers) (2010), Discovers (2011)). 2010 also saw the release of "Clear Horizons" on the German gligg record label with a new ensemble Tomas Ulrich's TransAtlantic Quartet (with Christof Thewes -trombone, Martin Schmiddi Schmidt-mandolin and Michael Griener-drums). JAZZ NOW has characterized him as "the total package ... incredible chops, great imagination and superb pitch. He fulfills the roles of bassist, guitarist, and additional horn player and is endlessly talented and creative". Jay Collins from Signal to Noise has written that "Tomas Ulrich is surely one of the most accomplished and intriguing cellists in improvised music, with a brilliant technical mastery and ability to play prickly improv, jazz, classical, film music or pretty much anything he desires." Tomas has written music for film, theater and instrumental performance and has concertized in Europe, Japan, South America and the United States. Mr Ulrich can be heard on over 100 CDs in a wide variety of musical styles and settings. Tomas has recently returned from a wonderful tour in Avignon with Bruno Bertrand percussion and Francois Grillot bass. These performances have been released as digital downloads by AMJI and are available on Itunes, Amazon, etc. . Tomas will be performing a solo cello recital in Saarbrucken on August 9th in addition to a series of concerts with Christof Thewes, Martin Schmidt, the Christof Thewes Little Big Band (Concerto for Cello, Mandolin and Big Band), Alexander Schlippenbach and Jan Roder."

"Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He leads the projects Carbon and Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane and has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction.

His collaborators have included Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; pop singer Debbie Harry; Ensemble Modern; Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Kronos String Quartet; Ensemble Resonanz; cello innovator Frances Marie Uitti; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; pipa virtuoso Min-Xiao Feng; jazz greats Jack deJohnette, Oliver Lake, and Sonny Sharrock; multimedia artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka.

Sharp is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson's Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries; created sound-design for interstitials on The Sundance Channel, MTV and Bravo networks; and has presented numerous sound installations in art galleries and museums. He is the subject of a new documentary "Doing The Don't" by filmmaker Bert Shapiro."-Elliott Sharp

"Ken Filiano performs throughout the world, playing and recording with leading artists in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical, world/ethnic, and interdisciplinary performance, fusing the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless inventiveness. Ken's solo bass CD, subvenire (NineWinds), received widespread critical praise. For this and numerous other recordings, Ken has been called a creative virtuoso, a master of technique ... a paradigm of that type of artist... who can play anything in any context and make it work, simply because he puts the music first and leaves peripheral considerations behind.

Ken composes for his quartet with Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, and Michael T.A. Thomspon; a collective with Attias and Tomas Ulrich; and for his decades-long collaborations with Steve Adams and Vinny Golia. His prolific output also includes performances and/or recordings with artists including Bonnie Barnett, Rob Blakeslee, Bobby Bradford, Taylor Ho Bynum, Roy Campbell, John Carter, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Connie Crothers, Mark Dresser, Ted Dunbar, Marty Ehrlich, Giora Feidman, Bob Feldman, Eddie Gale, Georgian Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Gonzalez, Lou Grassi, Phil Haynes, Fred Hess, Jason Hwang, Joseph Jarman, Sheila Jordan (with the Aardvark Orchestra), Raul Juarena, Joe Labarbera, Joelle Leandre, Frank London, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Tina Marsh, Warne Marsh, Dom Minasi, Hafez Modirzadeh, Butch Morris, Barre Phillips, Don Preston, Herb Robertson, Bob Rodriguez, Roswell Rudd, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Ursel Schlicht, Paul Smoker, Chris Sullivan, Peeter Uuskyla, Fay Victor, Biggi Vinkeloe, Kenny Wessel, Andrea Wolper, Pablo Ziegler. With Tomas Ulrich, Elliott Sharp, and Carlos Zingaro, he is a member of T.E.C.K. String Quartet.

Ken has been a guest lecturer, performer, and workshop leader at institutions in the United States and Europe. He earned a MM from Rutgers University and is currently on faculty at Mansfield University."- All About Jazz

"Carlos Zíngaro (or Carlos "Zíngaro" Alves, born 1948 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Portuguese violinist and electronic musician active in free improvisation.

He studied classical music in Lisbon and began working with a number of leading improvisers in the mid-1970s, becoming one of the European top improvisers presently. He has worked with such musicians as Richard Teitelbaum, Joëlle Léandre, Peter Kowald, Barre Phillips, Daunik Lazro, Derek Bailey, Jon Rose, Ken Vandermark, Ken Filiano, Rodrigo Amado, Ned Rothenberg, Rüdiger Carl, Dominique Regef, Evan Parker, Annick Nozati, Theo Jörgensmann and Paul Lovens.

Zíngaro has performed at new and improvised music festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America, produced several film scores, and collaborated with dance companies.

He is also a prolific illustrator and comics author."