"Rob Mazurek is an American electro-acoustic composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Illinois. As a composer, Rob Mazurek has written over 300 original compositions over the past 30 years, and has released 55 recordings on various labels. He currently leads a number of ensembles, including Exploding Star Orchestra, Pharoah and the Underground (featuring Pharoah Sanders), Chicago Underground, Pulsar Quartet, São Paulo Underground, Skull Sessions, Sound Is Quintet, Starlicker, Mandarin Movie and Throne of the House of Good and Evil, each of which possesses its own distinct musical personality.

He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists, such as Bill Dixon, Pharoah Sanders, Mike Ladd, Roscoe Mitchell, Yusef Lateef, Fred Anderson, Naná Vasconcelos, Mamelo Sound System, Kassin and Marcelo Camelo and others. Additionally, Rob Mazurek works as a visual artist (incorporating sound, painting and video) with numerous international performances, exhibitions and artist residencies."

"In parallel to his engineering studies in artificial intelligence, he followed classical musical studies at the Conservatory of Clichy. He finally decides to devote his life to music, and learn many kinds of improvisation, jazz and writing music / composition with Guillaume Orti, Fabrizio Cassol (Aka Moon), Steve Coleman and others, he developed his ability on clarinet with Jacques Di Donato. Since the 90s, he is developing his own musical voice, with BernardLubas alongside or in collective such as Aerophone of Michel Doneda, or Circum. Living in Britain, he develops very strong links with the Breton musicians. He takes part on "The Bridge", French-American creations network led by AlexandrePierrepont. Christophe has created in recent years, among others, Extenz'O Trio (with Olivier Benoit and Edward Perraud), the comic-concert "Un Homme est mort", " Le Passage Secret ", show with Elise Caron and Christofer Bjurström, Boreal Bee Sylvain Thevenard. He played in the Circum Grand Orchestra, a duet with Jacques Di Donato, Erwan Keravec or Daunik Lazro, and many groups of jazz and improvised music in France and abroad. I plays or played with Jeb Bishop, Rob Mazurek, Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Joe Fonda, Jeff Parker, Bernard Lubat, Assif Tsahar, Edward Perraud, Olivier Benoit, Paul Rogers, Mike Ladd, Beñat Achiary, ..."

"Stephen Berry has performed throughout the world and has recorded or performed with such artists as Tony Bennet, Lou Rawls, Frank Sinatra, the Dells, the O'Jays, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne and Edward Wilkerson's Shadow Vignettes. As an educator, he taught trombone and theory classes at the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) School of Music, and he coordinated the Jazz Express and Classical Express music education programs in Chicago Public Schools for WBEZ-FM. In the Chicago area he performs with the New Horizons Ensemble, Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and Malachi Thompson's Africa Brass and Freebop Bands, Chicago Sinfonietta, Ensemble Stop-Time, New Black Repertory Ensemble and Orbert Davis' Chicago Jazz Philharmonic.

He has performed with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Mike Mason's Exploratory Ensemble and Marshall Vente's Project 9. Berry has several compositions recorded and released on the Delmark label. Recent highlights include a series of workshops and performances with New Horizons Ensemble at the Banellieu Blues Jazz Festival in Paris and the Debrecen Jazz festival in Hungary, as well as performances of the South African Opera, Princess Magogo at Ravinia with The Chicago Sinfonetta.

Along with Ernest Dawkins and Sherman Storey, Steve formed Chicago Creative Arts Online, Inc. an online video streaming company featuring legendary and young Chicago creative improvisers on its website, chi-creates.tv. Stephen Berry received his Bachelor of Music in Performance from Roosevelt University."

"After a training in classical piano and chamber music, Christofer Bjurström quickly directed his curiosity towards multiple musical forms (pop, traditional music, jazz, contemporary music, acoustics and electronics). Beyond the pure music, it is also towards the link between show and live music that he oriented his eclecticism, composing for the theater and the cinema, more particularly for the silent cinema in cine-concert.

To remain oneself, to preserve and to develop one's personal universe, while attending other musicians, other artists, other arts, has always been the motor of its activity. Whether working with singers (Karin Trow, Eva Schwabe, Celine Caussimon, Annie Papin, Manu Lann Huel), directors (short films by Frédéric Tangy from 1984 to 1997), theatrical companies (Théâtre de la Mascara, Eric Frey, Daniel Mesguich, Jean Bollery, Jacques Destoop, Chelier Mychel, Guy Abgrall, Pascal Guin and the Blue Theater ..), storytellers (Colette Avril) or by composing music of cine-concerts for silent films ( some forty films are in his repertoire), Christofer Bjurström has always been keen to dig his own universe while putting it at the service of others.

His career is marked by group creations under his (co) responsibility (Bjurström Sextet, Quartet Ookpik, duets with Christophe Rocher, Agnès Vesterman, and Vincent Raude) and participation in other projects ("North-South" group, Short Connection project by Gualtiero Dazzi, Nautilis ensemble). While digging the work of writing and improvisation, he also multiplies the meetings (coorganization meetings of improvised music "Les Luisances" in Brest including Michel Doneda, Ramon Lopez, Pascale Labbé, Edward Perraud, Hughes Germain ... .) and meetings in the framework of the Arch project, led by the Nautilis ensemble (Matt Bauder, Hélène Labarrière, Famadou Don Moye, Eric Echampard, Fabrice Martinez, Lou Malozzi ....)."

"Fréderic Briet began his musical career in the Spiral Quartet Simon Goubert, then in Magma - Offering and Alien Quartet / Trio Christian Vander. Until 1990 he played in many formations as a sideman with musicians such as Emmanuel Bex , George Brown, Steve Grossman, Michel Graillier, Alain Jean Marie, Aldo Romano, Queen Alvim ... Around 1990, he met Benoit Delbecq, Guillaume Orti, Olivier Sens, GeofroyDemasure Hubert Dupont, Gilles Coronado and Steve Argüelles and Stéphane Payen. These fundamental meetings will be responsible for the creation of the Hask Collective, and will determine the number of collaborations and projects until today. Teacher, producer, he moved to Brest in 2000 built the jazz class of the Conservatory of Brest. It is in this context that he created and directed for 10 years the Nimbus Orkestra : pedagogic orchestra who gave the chance to many students to play with professionals. Since the beginning of his musical activities, he works punctually with contemporary music ensembles and classical music orchestras because of his interest in these sets and the expressive range of the bass in these directories."

"Fervent follower of Lester BOWIE, in love with Louis ARMSTRONG, Philippe Champion currently plays in different musical contexts, from the oldest jazz with the Repris de Justesse to free improvisation with the duo Shampoo. Trumpet player and pedagogue, Philippe Champion has studied music at the CNR Metz and has been teaching jazz at the Conservatory of Music, Dance and Dramatic Art in Brest since 1997. When he arrived in Brest, he founded the quartet "Champ'libre With whom he continued to explore particularly the synergies between music and painting (with the painters Jean-Paul THAERON, Yvon DANIEL ...). In 2000, he founded the jazz department of the Conservatoire de musique de Brest with his colleague Frédéric Bargeon-Briet, with whom he developed a pedagogy centered on orality and collective practices (big bands "Stratus", "Cumulus", "Nimbus" and "Toh-UBO-hu") Since 2001 he has been playing or playing with Lulu Jazz Band, Taken by Fear, West End Jazz Quintet, Apsis, Farokestra, Nemo, Art Ensemble of Brest. Since 2004, he has participated in the Nimbus Jazz Orchestra's experiments with Guillaume ORTI, Bo VAN DER WERF and Magic Malik. In 2008, he founded the duo "shampoo" with drummer Nicolas POINTARD, with whom he recorded the album "Champêtre" published in 2009. In 2012, as part of the ARCH, Philippe Champion plays duet with Hamid DRAKE. Following this meeting the two musicians decide to form a duet and record an album (to be released in 2014). In April 2013 he went to Chicago where he was invited to perform the concert "The brotherhood of Fred", 3rd annual Fred Anderson birthday tribute, with Hamid DRAKE, Tatsu AOKI, Harrison BANKHEAD and Ernest DAWKINS. He also plays with Jason ADASIEWICZ, Nate Mc BRIDE, Avreeayl RA, Josh BERMAN and Fred JACKSON."

"Lou Mallozzi is a Chicago-based artist known primarily for his work in sound, often with a focus on dismembering and reconstituting language, gesture, and signification. His work includes performances, installations, music works, recordings, and radio works. In addition, he has a visual art practice that includes drawing and other media. He has performed and exhibited in the U.S. and Europe, including projects at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Arts Club in Chicago, the Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University Bloomington, Experimental Intermedia New York, "Le Cri du Patchwork" on Radio France, Ausland Berlin, Podewil Berlin, TUBE Audio Art Series Munich, and the Radiorevolten Festival Halle. In addition to his solo works, Mallozzi often collaborates with artists, filmmakers and musicians. These have included Sandra Binion, Michael Vorfeld, Alessandro Bosetti, Michael Zerang, Frédéric Moffet, Antonia Contro, Jacques Demierre, Vincent Barras, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Charlotte Hug, Jaap Blonk, Vincent Raude, and many others. He has received support for his work that includes several fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, and artist residencies through the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Chicago-Lucerne Sister Cities Program, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, Ragdale Foundation, and Spritzenhaus Hamburg. He is on the faculty of the Sound Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is co-founder and director emeritus of Experimental Sound Studio."

"Nicole Mitchell (b. 1967) is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. As the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal and Sonic Projections, Mitchell has been repeatedly awarded by DownBeat Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association as "Top Flutist of the Year" for the last four years (2010-2014). Mitchell's music celebrates African American culture while reaching across genres and integrating new ideas with moments in the legacy of jazz, gospel, experimentalism, pop and African percussion through albums such as Black Unstoppable (Delmark, 2007), Awakening (Delmark, 2011), and Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler (Firehouse 12, 2008), which received commissioning support from Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works.

Mitchell formerly served as the first woman president of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and has been a member since 1995. In recognition of her impact within the Chicago music and arts education communities, she was named "Chicagoan of the Year" in 2006 by the Chicago Tribune. With her ensembles, as a featured flutist and composer, Mitchell has been a highlight at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada.

Ms. Mitchell is a recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts (2011) and has been commissioned by Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra and Maggio Fiorentino Chamber Orchestra (Florence, Italy). In 2009, she created Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama for the Jazz Institute of Chicago. She has been a faculty member at the Vancouver Creative Music Institute, the Sherwood Flute Institute, Banff International Jazz Workshop and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and in magazines including Ebony, Downbeat, JazzIz, Jazz Times, Jazz Wise, and American Legacy.

Nicole MItchell is currently a Professor of Music, teaching in "Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology," (ICIT) a new and expansively-minded graduate program at the University of California, Irvine. In November 2014, ICIT was approved for the unleashing of a new MA/PhD program, which will be offered starting fall 2015. Mitchell's recent composition, Flight for Freedom for Creative Flute and Orchestra, a Tribute to Harriet Tubman, premiered with the Chicago Composers' Orchestra in December 2011 and was presented again with CCO in May 2014. She was also commisisoned by Chicago Sinfonietta for Harambee: Road to Victory, for Solo Flute, Choir and Orchestra in January 2012. Her latest commission was from the French Ministry of Culture and the Royaumont Foundation in October 2014, which supported the development and French tour of Beyond Black - a collaboration with kora master Ballake Sissoko, Black Earth Ensemble and friends. Currently Mitchell is preparing her next commission supported by the French American Jazz Exchange, entitled Moments of Fatherhood, featuring Black Earth Ensemble and the Parisian chamber group L'Ensemble Laborintus, to premiere at the Sons d'hiver Jazz Festival in late January 2015.

Among the first class of Doris Duke Artists (2012), Mitchell works to raise respect and integrity for the improvised flute, to contribute her innovative voice to the jazz legacy, and to continue the bold and exciting directions that the AACM has charted for decades. With contemporary ensembles of varying instrumentation and size (from solo to orchestra), Mitchell's mission is to celebrate the power of endless possibility by "creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar and the unknown." She is endorsed by Powell flutes."

"Jeff Parker (born April 4, 1967) is an American jazz and rock guitarist based in Los Angeles. Parker is best known as an experimental musician, working with avant-garde electronic, rock, and improvisational groups.

Parker currently plays guitar in the post-rock group Tortoise and also was a founding member of the ensembles Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground Trio in the 1990s and early 2000s. He is also a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, as well as working with musicians George Lewis, Ernest Dawkins, Brian Blade, Joshua Redman, Fred Anderson (musician) and Jason Moran. He has released three solo albums: Like-Coping, The Relatives and Bright Light in Winter."

"Tenor saxophonist-Irvin Pierce [...] is often compared to John Coltrane. He made his recording debut at the age of 15 on "The Drive" a CD produced by his mentor Robert Irving III for the Jazz Links Ensemble on the Jazz Institute of Chicago label. Irving says, "At that age one could hear the sound of a promising young kid. Today, in just five-years, I hear a young master soloist." Irvin recently toured in France with Rob Mazurek's Third Coast Ensemble."

"He started to learn drums at the age of 9 years and will turn to jazz andimprovised music at the end of the last century with bands like "Kassiopée" or "A cheval dans le désordre", in festivals like "Gleam" ( Brest) , Beta Project (Pau) or Pannonica (Nantes). He also evolves into traditionnal band like "Faro". In 2005, he directed and wrote the music of the sextet "Apsis", and created the duo "Shampoing" with the trumpeter Philippe Champion. Since 2006, he played in various projects : the band Art Ensemble of Brest led by Christophe Rocher, the cine-concert Christofer Bjurström, "the Krautrock" with Tank, the electronic music with DJ Naab in Brest. Since 2007 he plays in "Dekoe ", a choreographic and musical play inspiration, in the rough jazz quartet Oko and polyrhythms mestizo African jazz "Rah-Slup". Today, he leads the new Nautilis nonet, " Evergreen ", and wrote all the pieces of this new creation."

"Nicolas Peoc'h's musical career begins at the ENM in Quimper, where, alongside the classical saxophone study with Jean Luc Preneta, he discovers jazz and improvised music during workshops and creations with musicians such as Gerard Marais, Pascal Salmon or Michel Goldberg. From 1998, he obtained a master's degree in musicology, he performed in different bands such as Mango Verde (salsa), Lorient Big Band (Breton jazz band), Zest (street jazz), Mohawk (free-jazz) ), or Ain Soph Aur (progressive rock), in France and abroad.

From 2004, he is particularly interested in the music of Steve Coleman and is familiar with alternative current jazz in the orchestras Nimbus successively led by Guillaume Orti, Bo Van Der Werf, Stephane Payen, Fabrizio Cassol, Geoffroy De Masure and finally Steve Coleman in 2011. In 2006, with Lionel Mauguen, Alex Argouarc'h and Nicolas Pointard, he created the quartet Oko, which has been collaborating since 2008 with two percussionists at Rah-Slup. In 2011, he created the Duo "Clouds" with Frederic Briet

Besides Oko and Rah-Slup, Nicolas Peoc'h currently plays with the Lorient Big Band, the quartet Nemo, led by Frederic Briet, the street group Sambaka.

He holds a master's degree in musicology and a jazz DEM."

"Chicago master drummer/percussionist Avreeayl Ra was born in Chicago and still lives there today. He is a renowned musician always in demand among visiting jazz artists in Chicago. Avreeayl's father, Arthur 'Swinglee' O'Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who was mentor to many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore, later the mainstay of Sun Ra's Arkestra. Avreeayl is a long-term member of the Chicago AACM, and has performed and/or recorded with Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Henry Butler, Henry Byrd ('Professor Longhair'), Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many more."

French improvising musican Vincent Raude, also known as Lower Groundz, Upwellings, performs on electronics and guitar, and produces music on labels including Deepindub.org, and has albums on ZeECc, Klique Netlabel, Telrae, MOSHItaka, &c. He is a member of Nautilis, and Third Coast Ensemble.

"Chicago based cellist, composer and educator, Tomeka Reid has been described as "a remarkably versatile player," (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune). Equally adept in classical and jazz contexts, Ms. Reid predominantly finds herself in experimental and improvisatory settings and composes for a wide range of instrumentation, from big band to chamber ensemble. Ms. Reid's music combines her love for groove along with freer concepts.

Ms. Reid is an integral part of Dee Alexander's Evolution Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble/Strings, Mike Reed's Loose Assembly, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) Great Black Music Ensemble, and co-leads the internationally recognized string trio, Hear in Now with performances in Poznan, Poland; Paris, France; Rome, Venice, Milan, Italy; Soazza, Switzerland; and in the US: Chicago, New York and Vermont. In addition to the aforementioned ensembles, Ms. Reid performs with many of today's forward thinking musicians in the world of jazz and creative music including Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, Jeb Bishop, Myra Melford, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Mary Halvorson, Denis Fournier, Edward Wilkerson and Harrison Bankhead. Ms. Reid also leads her own trio featuring guitarist Matt Schneider and bassist Josh Abrams, for which she composes. Ms. Reid can be heard on numerous studio recordings.

As an educator, Ms. Reid has led string improvisation workshops in Italy and the US. Most recently she co-directed the 2012 Vancouver Jazz Festival’s High School Jazz Intensive. For seven years, Ms. Reid co-directed the string program at the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School for students grade 5 thru 12. Ms. Reid is also an ABD doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign.

As a composer, Ms. Reid has been commissioned by the AACM, the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and has had several opportunities to showcase her work abroad at festivals such as Umbria Jazz, An Insolent Noise and Vignola Jazz. She has been nominated and awarded residencies for composition with the Ragdale Foundation and the 2nd Annual Make Jazz Fellowship hosted by the 18th Street Arts Organization. Ms. Reid was selected as a 2012 participant in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute held at the University of California: Los Angeles."

"Violin/Vox/Freestyle Composition artist Mazz Swift is critically acclaimed as one of America's most talented and versatile performers today and engages audiences worldwide with her signature weaving of composition and improvisation called MazzMuse. Aside from her work as a performing artist, Ms. Swift is a composer. Her works include commissions by The University of Delaware, Neues Kabarett (through a Meet-the-Composer grant), The New Harmony Music School & Festival, and the Blaffer Foundation. Several of her pieces for atypical chamber ensemble have been performed live and also replayed on National Public Radio. Mazz is also a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall's Musical connections program, conducts workshops on free improvisation in the States and abroad, and has traveled to Suriname, Mozambique, C™te d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Albania and Siberia as cultural ambassador on behalf of the United States Department of State."