"For pianist, composer and Guggenheim fellow Myra Melford, the personal and the poetic have always been intimately and deeply connected. Raised outside Chicago in a house designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Melford grew up literally surrounded by art. Where most of us find the beauty in our childhood homes through the memories and associations we make within its four walls, Melford saw early on that aesthetic expression could both be built from and be a structure for profound emotions.

Over the course of a career spanning more than two decades, Melford has taken that lesson to heart, crafting a singular sound world that harmonizes the intricate and the expressive, the meditative and the assertive, the cerebral and the playful. Drawing inspiration from a vast spectrum of cultural and spiritual traditions and artistic disciplines, she has found a "spark of recognition" in sources as diverse as the writings of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi and the Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano; the wisdom of Zen Buddhism and the Huichol Indians of Mexico; and the music of mentors like Jaki Byard, Don Pullen, and Henry Threadgill.

The latest incarnation of this ever-evolving cross-disciplinary dialogue is Language of Dreams, which will premiere in November 2013 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The multi-media work is inspired by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy, a history of the Americas told through indigenous myths and the accounts of European colonizers. The piece will combine music for Melford's quintet Snowy Egret with narration by a multi-lingual actor, dance by Los Angeles-based choreographer Oguri, and video by Bay Area filmmaker David Szlasa.

While Language of Dreams is her most ambitious project to date, it is not the first time that Melford has constructed a piece from such a wealth of disciplines. In 2006, the Walker Arts Center premiered Knock on the Sky, a piece inspired by Albert Camus' essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" and Kobo Abe's novel Woman in the Dunes, in which Melford collaborated with New York City-based choreographer/dancer Dawn Akemi Saito and Austrian architect Michael Haberz.

Snowy Egret, Melford's latest working group, made its debut in 2012. The quintet comprises some of creative music's most inventive and individual voices: trumpeter Ron Miles, guitarist Liberty Ellman, bassist Stomu Takeishi, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Melford's spacious, contemplative, exploratory compositions have long attracted and almost demanded such forward-thinking artists. Her past ensembles have included Be Bread, with Cuong Vu, Ben Goldberg, Brandon Ross, Stomu Takeishi, and Matt Wilson; The Same River, Twice, with Dave Douglas, Chris Speed, Erik Friedlander, and Michael Sarin; Crush, with Takeishi, Vu, and Kenny Wolleson.

Melford also currently is one-third of the collective Trio M with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson; their most recent CD, The Guest House, was one of 2012's most acclaimed releases. She also performs in the duo ::Dialogue:: with clarinetist Ben Goldberg and will release her first solo album in October 2013, a collection of work inspired by the paintings of the late visual artist Don Reich.

Melford's musical evolution has long run in parallel with her spiritual search, a personal journey that has led her to Aikido, Siddha Yoga, and the wisdom traditions of the Huichol people of Mexico's central highlands. Sonically, that quest is expressed via her wide-ranging palette, which expands from the piano to the harmonium and electronic keyboards or to amplifying barely audible sounds in the piano's interior. Her playing can build from the blissful and lyrical to the intense and angular, with accents from Indian, African, Cuban and Middle Eastern musics or the cerebral abstraction of European and American jazz and classical experimentalism.

While Melford's music continually reaches toward a state of transcendence, it still remains deeply rooted in the blues traditions she heard growing up in the Chicago area. In 1978, she first encountered violinist Leroy Jenkins, her introduction to the AACM, whose boundary-free, adventurous approach to jazz remains an influence. She would go on to study with Jenkins, together forming the collective trio Equal Interest with multi­reedist Joseph Jarman in 1997.

Melford moved to the east coast in 1982 and began performing in New York City's thriving Downtown scene, making her recorded debut as a leader in 1990; she has since released more than twenty albums as a leader or co-leader and appeared on more than 40 releases as a side-person. In 2000, she spent a year in North India on a Fulbright scholarship, immersing herself in the region's classical, devotional, and folk music. Melford relocated to the west coast in 2004, joining the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley as an associate professor of contemporary improvised music. There, she engages students in the theory and practice of improvisation, employing diverse creative strategies.

Her work has earned Melford some of the highest accolades in her field. In 2013 alone, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow and received the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Performing Artist Award and a Doris Duke Residency to Build Demand for the Arts for her efforts to re-imagine the jazz program at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She was also the winner of the 2012 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music. She has been honored numerous times in DownBeat's Critics Poll since 1991 and was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association as Pianist of the Year in 2008 and 2009 and Composer of the Year in 2004."

"Bassist Lindsey Horner is one of the more versatile musicians in jazz and modern music. He has most often been heard with musicians on the cutting edge recording and performing with artists such as Greg Osby, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas, Don Byron and Muhal Richard Abrams, to name but a few.

Lindsey co-leads a band with fellow multi-instrumentalist, Andy Goessling, singer and guitarist, Timothy Hill and percussionist, Randy Crafton called SLEEPING BEE and their first recording, HEYDAY MAKER, is out and winning critical and popular acclaim.

As a leader, his most recent recording is a solo bass set called ONE MORE FOREVER. He has also produced five previous recordings, UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, DON'T COUNT ON GLORY, BELIEVERS, MERCY ANGEL and NEVER NO MORE. He has also produced several records as a co-leader and has played on literally hundreds more as a sideman.

He was a member of the co-operative group JEWELS AND BINOCULARS which focused on improvised takes of the music of Bob Dylan. Their final recording, SHIPS WITH TATTOOED SAILS, found its way onto many critics' "best of the year" lists.

Through the '90's he performed as a member of the Myra Melford trio, an association which yielded four highly acclaimed discs.

He also has deep roots in Irish music and is currently a member of fiddle master Eileen Ivers' band. Lindsey has toured and recorded extensively with singer/songwriter Susan McKeown including two unique duo CD's, MIGHTY RAIN and a perennially well-received holiday/winter set entitled THROUGH THE BITTER FROST AND SNOW. He has also collaborated with late Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham and traditional Irish music legend Andy Irvine."

"Reggie Nicholson, drummer, percussionist and composer is a native of Chicago, Illinois. While performing with many musicians in Chicago, such as Jon Logan, Von Freeman, Vince Willis, Byther Smith, Fred Nelson III and Orbit Davis, Nicholson's reputation as an outstanding drummer was established. In 1979, Nicholson became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). During this time, Nicholson developed a musical relationship with all the members of the AACM including Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve McCall, Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Henry Threadgill, Phil Cohran, Joseph Jarman, Mwata Bowden, Ernest Dawkins, Douglas Ewart, Rita Warford, Amina Claudine Myers and Anthony Braxton.

Since relocating to New York City in 1988, Nicholson has performed with a wide variety of Jazz and New Music luminaries such as Don Pullen, Jon Hendricks, Billy Bang, Butch Morris, Reuben Wilson, Melvin Sparks, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sonny Rollins, Hamiet Bluiett, Myra Melford , Wilber Morris and Roy Campbell. Nicholson has performed in many noted festivals throughout Europe, Asia and the United States including, Chicago, North Sea, Saalfelden, Verona, Knitting Factory- NYC, Red Sea, Tampere, Moers, Nancy, just to name a few.

The instantly recognizable style and sound of his drumming and his music has elevated Nicholson as one of the most distinctive, inventive and inspirational composer and percussionist of his generation."