"Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb - if idiosyncratic - saxophonist." The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz states that he has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast." In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Mitchell was born in Chicago, Illinois. He also grew up in the Chicago area, where he played saxophone and clarinet at around age twelve. His family was always involved in music with many different styles playing in the house when he was a child as well as having a secular music background. His brother, Norman, in particular was the one who introduced Mitchell to jazz. While attending Englewood High School in Chicago, he furthered his study of the clarinet. In the 1950s, he joined the United States Army, during which time he was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany and played in a band with fellow saxophonists Albert Ayler and Rubin Cooper, the latter of which Mitchell commented "took me under his wing and taught me a lot of stuff." He also studied under the first clarinetist of the Heidelberg Symphony while in Germany. Mitchell returned to the United States in the early 1960s, relocated to the Chicago area, and performed in a band with Wilson Junior College undergraduates Malachi Favors (bass), Joseph Jarman, Henry Threadgill, and Anthony Braxton (all saxophonists). Mitchell also studied with Muhal Richard Abrams and played in his band, the Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band, starting in 1961.

In 1965, Mitchell was one of the first members of the non-profit organization Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) along with Jodie Christian (piano), Steve McCall (drums), and Phil Cohran (composer). The following year Mitchell, Lester Bowie (trumpet), Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (tenor saxophone), Favors, Lester Lashley (trombone), and Alvin Fielder (drums), recorded their first studio album, Sound. The album was "a departure from the more extroverted work of the New York-based free jazz players" due in part to the band recording with "unorthodox devices" such as toys and bicycle horns.

From 1967 Mitchell, Bowie, Favors and, on occasion, Jarman performed as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, then the Art Ensemble, and finally in 1969 were billed as the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The group included Phillip Wilson on drums for short span before he joined Paul Butterfield's band. The group lived and performed in Europe from 1969 to 1971, though they arrived without any percussionist after Wilson left. To fill the void, Mitchell commented that they "evolved into doing percussion ourselves." The band did eventually get a percussionist, Don Moye, who Mitchell had played with before and was living in Europe at that time. For performances, the band often wore brilliant African costumes and painted their faces. The Art Ensemble of Chicago have been described as becoming "possibly the most highly acclaimed jazz band" in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mitchell and the others returned to the States in 1971. After having been back in Chicago for three years, Mitchell then established the Creative Arts Collective (CAC) in 1974 that had a similar musical aesthetic to the AACM. The group was based in East Lansing, Michigan and frequently performed in auditoriums at Michigan State University. Mitchell also formed the Sound Ensemble in the early 1970s, an "outgrowth of the CAC" in his words, that consisted mainly of Mitchell, Hugh Ragin, Jaribu Shahid, Tani Tabbal, and Spencer Barefield.

In the 1990s, Mitchell started to experiment in classical music with such composers/artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner, and Borah Bergman, the latter two of which formed a trio with Mitchell called Trio Space. Buckner was also part of another group with Mitchell and Gerald Oshita called Space in the late 1990s. He then conceived the Note Factory in 1992 with various old and new collaborators as another evolution of the Sound Ensemble.

He lived in the area of Madison, Wisconsin and performed with a re-assembled Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 1999, the band was hit hard with the death of Bowie, but Mitchell fought off the urge to recast his position in the group, stating simply "You can't do that" in an interview with Allaboutjazz.com editor-in-chief Fred Jung. The band continued on despite the loss.

Mitchell has made a point of working with younger musicians in various ensembles and combinations, many of whom were not yet born when the first Art Ensemble recordings were made. Mainly from Chicago, these players include trumpeter Corey Wilkes, bassist Karl E. H. Seigfried, and drummer Isaiah Spencer.

In 2007, Mitchell was named Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he currently lives. Mitchell was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in March 2012 in Minehead, England."

"Composer and conductor Steed Cowart is most interested in the progressive areas of new music, especially American experimental music. His compositions are for an array of instrumental and vocal combinations, electronics and inter-media. Timbre, harmonic definition, hocket, mobiles, and chance are among his compositional interests.

His work has been performed around the United States and Canada by such groups as the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, SONOR, Ensemble Nova, Mills Contemporary Performance Ensemble, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz New Music Works, Heliotrope, the Club Foot Orchestra, the Ellen Webb Dance Company, the Gus Solomons Dance Company, Sincronia, performers Ellen Ruth Rose (viola), Paul Vorwerk (tenor), Curtis Nash (trumpet), William Winant (percussion), Bernhardt Batschelet (flute), Gino Robair (percussion), Andy Connell (clarinet), and at the CalArts Contemporary Music Festival.

Born May 11, 1953 in Shelbyville, a small town in the rolling hills of middle Tennessee. He grew up in the country outside Dalton, Georgia, a textile producing town nestled in the red clay foothills of the southern-most Appalachians near Chattanooga. At about age ten he began school band at the urging of his mother. He initially played cornet, later trumpet, then French horn. Although a resident of a rural community, he had very good early teachers. Herman Johnson, then William R. Lee were band directors who were his earliest contacts with musicians. In fact, his first attempt at writing music was in response to an assignment from Johnson to his sixth-grade band to compose a solo to play for the class. Early in high school he began piano lessons with Richard Winchell, a composer. In addition to piano, Winchell taught him elementary music theory, and sparked his interest in composition.

Cowart's education included study at Florida State University (composition with Roy Johnson, Harold Schiffman, and John Boda). It was here in Tallahassee the first public performances of his original compositions took place. These earliest pieces included Fanfare and Ricercare for brass quintet, Movements for piano, and a choral work, Dona Nobis Pacem. He transferred to The College of Wooster (composition with Ruth Still, conducting with Marshall Haddock), where he earned a BMus degree. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Bernard Rands, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, and Edwin Harkins. Further professional studies include: the Centre Acanthes 1983 at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in Aix-en-Provence for a program devoted to the music of Luciano Berio (Berio, David Osmond-Smith, Stuart Dempster), The Dartington Summer School of Music near Totnes, England (Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Maxwell Davies, Charles Rosen), the Composers' Summer Seminars at California State University Long Beach (Donald Erb, Miles Anderson), The Conductors Institute Workshop (The Camellia Symphony Orchestra, Harold Farberman, Conductors Institute Director/Instructor). He surreptitiously attended the Fromm New Music Weeks at Aspen in 1985, hearing lectures and concerts by Berio, Subotnick, Rands, Druckman, Brown, Lucier, Sperry, and the Kronos Quartet.

His musical life has been fortunately and profoundly influenced by associations with some of the most remarkable musicians of our time. After an auspicious meeting over frozen Finlandia vodka chased by Guinness stout during Cage's guest lectureship at UC, San Diego in 1980, he remained a friendly acquaintance of John Cage until the elder composer's death in 1992. Also at UCSD he became friends with Toru Takemitsu, worked with the amazingly virtuosic [THE] - Edwin Harkins and Philip Larson, and established enduring and enriching friendships with his teachers Bernard Rands and Pauline Oliveros that are invaluable to him. At each juncture, there have been amazing composers, performers, and musical intellects -- either teachers, colleagues, students, or others -- far too numerous to name, who have made a deep and lasting impact on his artistic and personal life.

A California resident beginning in 1977, Steed Cowart currently lives in downtown Oakland near Lake Merritt. Since 1986, he has taught at Mills College where, along with Fred Frith, he co-directs the Contemporary Performance Ensemble, and is the Concert Coordinator for the Music Department Concert Series. He also worked at UC Santa Cruz where he taught musicianship studies, composition, conducted the faculty new music group Ensemble Nova, and was director of the new music festival April in Santa Cruz.

Cowart discovered an aptitude for conducting in his mid-teen years. Experienced almost exclusively with conducting new music, his conducting is informed by his compositional knowledge, and vice versa. With the SONOR ensemble at UCSD he was Bernard Rand's assistant conductor. At UCSC he conducted Ensemble Nova and many performances of student compositions and student ensembles. He led the San Francisco-based Club Foot Orchestra in touring performances accompanying silent films, beginning with the premiere of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 1988. He has appeared as guest conductor with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and has conducted many ad hoc ensembles in performances of new music. Christian Wolff, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Lou Harrison, Luciano Berio, David Behrman, Luc Ferrari, James Tenney, Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, John Bischoff, Wadada Leo Smith, Alvin Curran, José Maceda, David Rosenboom, Malcolm Goldstein, Bun-Ching Lam, Brenda Hutchinson, Amy Denio, Philip Collins, David Felder, George Barati, Robert Morris, Olivia Block, Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, and Roscoe Mitchell are but a few of the many composers whose music he has conducted or directed with the composer's supervision."

"James Fei (b. Taipei, Taiwan) moved to the US in 1992 to study electrical engineering. He has since been active as a composer and performer on saxophones and live electronics. Works by Fei have been performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, MATA Micro Orchestra and Noord-Hollands Philharmonisch Orkest. Recordings can be found on Leo Records, Improvised Music from Japan, CRI, Krabbesholm and Organized Sound. Compositions for Fei's own ensemble of four alto saxophones focus on physical processes of saliva, fatigue, reeds crippled by cuts and the threshold of audible sound production, while his sound installations and performance on live electronics often focus on electronic and acoustic feedback. Fei received the Grants for Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2014. Fei has taught at Mills College in Oakland since 2006, where he is Associate Professor of Electronic Arts. www.jamesfei.com

Works by Fei have been performed at Merkin Hall, The Kitchen, Knitting Factory, Tonic, Roulette, Experimental Intermedia, MATA Festival, Engine 27, The Stone, Issue Project Room (all New York), SFMoma, Empty Bottle (Chicago), Akedemie der Künste (Berlin), Beurs van Berlage (Amsterdam), Steim (Amsterdam), Overtoom 301 (Amsterdam), JFC Club (St Petersberg), Super Deluxe (Tokyo), Shinjuku Pit Inn (Tokyo), Osaka Arts-Aporia, Bridge (Osaka), and National Recital Hall (Taiwan). Fei has lectured at Columbia University, Wesleyan University,The Art Institute of Chicago, Taipei Normal University,Taipei National University of the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Theremin Center (Moscow), Pro Arte (St. Petersberg), Krabbesholm (Denmark), IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan) and NUAS (Nogoya, Japan)."

"Stacey Pelinka is a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and a founding member of the Eco Ensemble, CNMAT's new ensemble-in-residence. She also performed contemporary chamber music with the San Francisco Symphony's Mavericks Festival, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Earplay, and the Silk Road Ensemble, among others. Stacey is principal flutiest with San Francisco Opera's Merola Program productions, and plays second flute with the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Midsummer Mozart Festival. [...]"

"Jesse Barrett (oboe) is an East Bay native and currently plays as principal oboe for the Merced Symphony and Townsend Opera Players, as well as oboe and English horn for the Reno Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Napa Valley. Mr. Barrett plays regularly with many Northern California and Central California area ensembles, including the Fresno, Reno, and Sacramento Philharmonics in addition to the Stockton, Monterey, and Santa Cruz Symphonies.

Mr. Barrett is an avid chamber music, new music enthusiast, and teacher. He frequently finds himself involved in new ensembles and musical start-ups, teaching at music camps, making school visits, and collaborating on solo and chamber concerts. Mr. Barrett studied with Thomas Nugent at University of the Pacific where he was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and thereafter obtained a Master of Music from Boston University where he studied with Laura Ahlbeck and was inducted as a member of Pi Kappa Lamba."

"Composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann's work extends from a Western classical foundation into genre-bending gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. A busy and varied performance schedule and appearances on more than 60 recordings have led to his recognition as "an excellent composer, striking the right balance between form and freedom" (Signal to Noise), "a modern day renaissance musician" (Dusted) and "a seasoned improviser with impressive extended technique and peculiar artistic flair" (All Music Guide).

Shortly after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, he joined forces with acclaimed new music collective sfSound and with Quinteto Latino (a woodwind quintet specializing in Latin American composers). He is now also a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds. He has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area's regional orchestras remaining active in an international community of improvisers and sound artists. Current local improvising working groups include Addleds, Shudder, and mchtnchts.

From 1996 until his westward relocation, he was a fixture in Chicago's experimental music underground, with frequent collaborators Jason Ajemian, Jim Baker, Jeb Bishop, Olivia Block, Guillermo Gregorio, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Robbie Hunsinger, Bob Marsh, Weasel Walter, and Michael Zerang. Long-term affiliations include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the "rock" monstrosity Lozenge, and the Creative Music quintet Wrack (recipient of a 2012 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works award).

Bruckmann earned undergraduate degrees in music and psychology at Rice University in Houston, studying oboe with Robert Atherholt, serving as music director of campus radio station KTRU, and achieving academic distinction as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Masters degree in 1996 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he studied oboe performance with Harry Sargous and contemporary improvisation with Ed Sarath."

"Rachel Condry is an Oakland based clarinetist, improviser, composer and educator. Her musical interest span from pop to classical to free improvisation to acousmatic composition. She is often found collaborating with other disciplines such as art, poetry and dance. She writes open scores and performs with the improvising quartet, Gestaltish who are preparing to release their first album. In 2005, Rachel made her Carnegie Hall debut with The Matt Small Chamber Ensemble, a group that blends jazz and classical approaches with free improvisation. She is also a founding member of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra with whom she has frequently been featured as a soloist. Rachel is also the principal clarinetist of the Golden Gate Park Band, the oldest civic band in the nation. Rachel holds an MFA from Mills College and a BA and BM from Oberlin College and Conservatory."

"William Harvey currently serves as Principal Trumpet with both the Oakland Symphony and Opera San Jose. He is also a regular member of the California Symphony and the orchestras of Lamplighters Musical Theater, Festival Opera and the San Francisco Opera Center. As an early music performer, he performs with such period instrument ensembles as American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque. He has also been a faculty member at Patten and Santa Clara Universities.

Mr. Harvey was born in Berkeley, California, where he received his first trumpet lesson from Robert Chacona at Malcolm X School. While attending Berkeley High School he was a member of its award-winning Jazz Ensemble and also performed with the California High School All-Star Band at the Monterey Jazz Festival. At San Francisco State University, he studied trumpet with Donald Reinberg, and appeared as soloist with both the University Orchestra and Symphonic Band. He later transferred to Boston University where he studied trumpet with Roger Voisin and chamber music with members of the Empire Brass. His summers were spent performing at the Aspen Music Festival, the Chautuaqua Festival, Oakland Municipal Band, and Woodminster Summer Musicals.

Before graduating from Boston University (1986) he joined the Epic Brass Quintet of Boston, with whom he made frequent tours of the United States, recorded two albums, and as a result of winning the Shoreline Chamber Music Competition, performed a New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

From 1991 to 1994 he held the position of Sub-principal Trumpet with the Cape Town Symphony in South Africa, with whom he performed the Haydn Trumpet Concerto. While in South Africa, he performed recitals in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and at the National Festival of the Arts in Grahamstown, and recorded recitals which were broadcast on radio and television by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

In the United States, Mr. Harvey has appeared as soloist with the California Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Ohlone Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.

He resides in Oakland with his wife, violinist Josepha Fath."

"Andy grew up in Lincoln Nebraska, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Performance at the University of Nebraska in 2001 under Dr. Scott Andersen. He then studied in southwest Germany with Prof. Abbie Conant, performing in various orchestras and ensembles around Europe and Mexico.

In 2006, Andy moved to the Bay Area to study free improvisation at Mills College, where he received a Master of Arts. He recorded and spent two years on the road performing with harpist Joanna Newsom. Andy has been a featured soloist with various orchestras, including Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, for which he wrote and performed a Family Concert for young listeners.

Andy directs an after-school trombone choir, assists in 4th and 5th grade band rooms, and performs as a trombone storyteller in parks, libraries, and schools across the country. He can be heard every third Saturday at Woods Brewery playing with East Bay Brass Band in Oakland."

"In 2016, Winant was awarded a large unrestricted grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts in recognition for his groundbreaking work as a contemporary percussionist. In 2014 he received a Grammy nomination for his recording of John Cage's historic solo work, 27' 10.554" for a percussionist, on Micro Fest Records.

He has collaborated with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, Frank Zappa, Keith Jarrett, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, James Tenney, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Steve Reich and Musicians, Nexus, Charles Wuorinen, Jean-Philippe Collard, Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, Marc Ribot, Keith Rowe, Joey Barron, Bill Frisell, Yo-Yo Ma, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, and the Kronos String Quartet.

He has recorded and toured worldwide with his own groups including ROOM, w/Chris Brown and Larry Ochs, CHALLENGE, w/Anthony Braxton and David Rosenboom, WAKE, w/Frank Gratkowski and Chris Brown, the ABEL/STEINBERG/WINANT TRIO, and the WILLIAM WINANT PERCUSSION GROUP.

He is principal percussionist with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, he has been closely associated with NYC composer John Zorn, and has made numerous recordings, and performed in many projects throughout the world with the composer. Starting in 1995 he has been the percussionist with the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle, has made two recordings ("Disco Volante" and "California" on Warner Brothers), and has toured throughout the world with this group. For many years he had worked with composer Lou Harrison, recording and premiering many of his works, and in March of 1997 he participated in the world premiere of Lou Harrison's quintet "Rhymes with Silver" featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has toured the piece throughout the United States and Great Britain.

In the fall of 2011, he joined Mike Patton's Italian pop music project "Mondo Cane" which features a 12 piece band + string orchestra, and have recently completed tours of South America and Australia.

In the fall of 2003, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Mr. Winant, along with composers Takehisa Kosugi and Christian Wolff, created music for a series of eight special "Events" staged by Merce Cunningham and Dancers at London's Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Winant continued to tour throughout Europe and the United States with the dance company until 2009

He has made over 200 recordings, covering a wide variety of genres, including music by Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Butch Morris, James Newton, Frank Gratkowski, Pauline Oliveros, Luc Ferrari, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Danny Elfman ("Batman Returns"), Siouxse and the Banshees, Secret Chiefs 3, ICP, Han Bennik, The Ex, White Out with Jim O'Rourke, Lou Reed, Thurston Moore, and Mike Patton.

[...]

Mr. Winant has premiered many new works written specifically for him, by such noted composers as John Cage, Christian Wolff, Lou Harrison, John Zorn, Zeena Parkins, Bun-Ching Lam, Barbara Monk Feldman, Hi-Kyung Kim, Roscoe Mitchell, Wendy Reid, Ralph Shapey, Peter Garland, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher, Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Chris Brown, David Rosenboom, Larry Polansky, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Somei Satoh, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Mr. Winant has been featured as a guest artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (under the direction of Pierre Boulez), the San Francisco Symphony, and the Berkeley Symphony (Kent Nagano, director), as well as at Cabrillo Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, SF Jazz Festival, Central Park Summerstage, Ravinia Festival, Salzburg Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, Victoriaville, Holland Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Ojai Festival, Sonar Festival, All Tomorrow's Parties, Taklos, Other Minds Festival, Lincoln Center, Melt Down Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Library of Congress, The Barbican, The Kennedy Center, Paris Opera, Disney Hall, Miller Theater Composer Portraits Series, Merkin Hall, Guggenheim Museum, and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

For ten years he was principal percussionist with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra (Dennis Russell Davies, director), and timpanist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra 1985-1988 (Nicholas McGegan, director).

He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and teaches at Mills College and the University of California at Berkeley. For eight years Mr. Winant was Artist-in-Residence at Mills College with the critically acclaimed Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio. Formed in 1984, the ASW Trio has premiered over 25 new works for violin, piano, and percussion at major festivals and recitals throughout the world. Their recordings can be heard on the New Albion, Tzadik, and CRI/New World labels."

"Jordan Glenn is a drummer, percussionist, composer, band leader, conductor, video maker, and general craftsman who lives in Oakland, California.

Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon drawing cartoons, taking dance classes from his aunt, and putting on plays with his sisters. As he got older he began making movies with his friends and studying jazz, classical, and rock music. In 2003 Glenn received a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon.

In 2006 he relocated to the Bay Area, received a masters degree from Mills College and since has worked closely with Fred Frith (FF Trio and Gravity Band), William Winant, Zeena Parkins (The Adorables), Roscoe Mitchell, ROVA Sax Quartet, Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, John Schott, Dominique Leone, Aaron Novik, Darren Johnston, Aram Shelton, Cory Wright, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Michael Coleman, Matthew Welch, Rhys Chatham and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Arts & Sciences, Young Nudist, 20 Minute Loop, Beep!, tUnE-yArDs, and the Oakland Active Orchestra. He also leads and conducts the project Mindless Thing, a collaboration with poet/free-jazzer/sage Jim Ryan, as well as the long standing trio Wiener Kids and the ten piece expansion, The Wiener Kids Family Band."

"Brett Carson explores the dynamic intersection of materials and the excavation of myth through his compositions, at once volatile and highly structured. Using architectural elements borrowed from composers such as Braxton, Cage, and Messiaen, and deriving inspiration from such fields as mysticism, science, and archaeology, his work aims toward the deconstruction of a musical reality, to be reassembled in a way that is fragmented though still recognizable.

A native of Georgia, Brett became active in Atlanta's experimental music scene while working in more conventional contexts, particularly as a jazz pianist. In 2012, he released two independent recordings with his group Alembic Circle. He moved to Oakland the same year, and is currently involved with his project Quattuor Elephantis in addition to several Bay Area groups including the Medium-Sized Band and Noertker's Moxie. As a performer he has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including Bill Baird, Nicolas Collins, George Lewis, Rent Romus, Wolter Wierbos, and William Winant. He holds an MA in Composition from Mills College, where he studied with Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith, Les Stuck, Joan Jeanrenaud, and Robert Schwartz."

"A leading interpreter of contemporary chamber music, violinist Kate Stenberg has performed in a dozen countries across the globe. NewMusicBox describes her playing as "highly virtuosic and deeply communicative...full of character and presence". As a champion of new music, Stenberg has premiered over a hundred solo and chamber works including compositions by Gabriela Lena Frank, Peter Sculthorpe, Chinary Ung, Ronald Bruce Smith, Tania León, Charles Amirkhanian, Per Nørgård, and Kui Dong. Her recordings are available on New World Records, Sono Luminus, Newport Classics, New Albion and Other Minds Records. Her latest CD release with Other Minds Records includes a world premiere recording of Lou Harrison's Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin.

Currently, Stenberg performs regularly with pianist Sarah Cahill. The Stenberg|Cahill Duo is dedicated to promoting the American experimental tradition and expanding it through the commissioning of new work. "Contemporary music fans are fortunate to have this simultaneously authoritative and approachable pair," writes the San Francisco Classical Voice. Stenberg|Cahill Duo appearances include performances at the Mendocino Music Festival, San Francisco Performances PIVOT, Berkeley Chamber Performances, Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival, Berkeley Museum of Art and Pacific Film Archive, Mills College's Music in the Fault Zone Festival, and Other Minds New Music Séance,. The duo has recently commissioned works from Pamela Z, Roscoe Mitchell, and Aaron Gervais.

Kate Stenberg's passion for chamber music led her to develop and commission new chamber music as co-founder of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (1993-1998) and Real Vocal String Quartet (2004-2006). From 1995-2015, she served as first violinist of the award winning Del Sol String Quartet, which actively commissioned new quartet repertoire. The Del Sol Quartet twice earned the top prize of Chamber Music America's ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Her festival performances have included Other Minds, Ojai Music Festival, Cabrillo, Centre Acanthes (France), Banff (Canada), Nirmita Composer's Institute (Cambodia/Bangkok), and Chengdu Contemporary Music Festival (China).

In 2022, Stenberg founded The Mycos Project with Irene Sazer - a collective of multi-media artists, educators and scientists whose mission is to expand climate change awareness through the arts, ecological sciences and Indigenous practice. She has also collaborated and premiered work alongside choreographers Janice Garrett, Charles Moulton and Nancy Karp. She frequently plays in the San Francisco Symphony and can be heard on recordings with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, New Music Works and Maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Bay Area native Kate Stenberg holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. She maintains and active teaching schedule and when she is not immersed in her music scores, she can be found enjoying Taiji or hiking trails in her beloved Sierra Nevada."

"Crystal Pascucci is a cellist, composer and improviser. She began playing her instrument at age nine and has always had a strong connection to music. While studying chamber music, she was assigned to play, "December 1952" by Earle Brown. This was an introduction to graphic notation and the start of an intense interest in the relationship of notation and improvisation.

Crystal's approach to improvisation and composition are influenced greatly by her training in chamber music. Her music utilizes delicate communication amongst performing musicians, draws clear phrase lines, and uses orchestration found in small ensemble compositions. There is no one traditional tone or sound found at the aim - there is only musical intention, regardless of timbre or technique. In this way, statements are presented through a large palette - through an unconventional lens.

Music that is improvised has a certain life, character, and attentiveness that is unattainable through fixed notation. The performers are engaged in a totally different type of musical experience when improvising, one where the future is unknown and musical decisions are that of the performer. In Crystal's compositions, she aims to create a particular musical space with fixed notation, in order to provide a musical setting for the improvising sections, or independent improvising lines.

An active performer in the Bay Area, she has recently performed the work of Roscoe Mitchell at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, as a featured solo performer at both the NextNow Music Series and the Light A Fire Music Series, at the SIMM Series (duo with Eric Glick Rieman), the graphic-score work of Christina Stanley at the 11th Annual Outsound Summit New Music Festival, and at the 11th Annual Transbay Skronathon with Matt Davignon - performances with Aaron Bennett's Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra, Oakland Active Orchestra, the work of Polly Moller at the Soundwave Festival, with Opera Wolf as guest artists for the New Music Works: CAGE 950, John Cage 100th Birthday Celebration and more. Crystal is a Co-founding member of the Oakland Composer's Union and performing with renowned clarinetist, Rachel Condry, in the improv duo, Chocolate for Breakfast.

rystal holds a Bachelor's of Music Performance from SUNY Fredonia, a graduate professional degree from The Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford and has attended Mills College. Her past teachers include, Fred Frith, Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Joan Jeanrenaud, Robert Black, Marion Feldman, Mihai Tetel, Bryan Eckenrode and David Rudge. Some of her musical influences include Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Dvorak, Barber, Ginestera, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Osvoldo Golijov, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Dorothy Ashby, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Erik Friedlander, KRONOS String Quartet, Frances-Marie Uitti, Bjork, RZA, Air, Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Andrew Bird, The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, David Bowie, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Fuck Buttons, and Deerhoof."

"Double bassist Richard Worn has performed extensively with the San Francisco Opera and Symphony. Currently, he serves as Assistant Principal Bass of the Marin Symphony and Principal Bass of the Sanse Chamber Orchestra as well as with the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, ECO Ensemble, Other Minds sfSound, Empyrean Ensemble, Earplay, and Composer's Inc. Richard is also former Principal Bass of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. With his Worn Chamber Ensemble, founded in 1996, has performed works for both solo bass and ensemble by such composers as Andreissen, Cage, Harrison, Henze, Reveultas, Scelsi, Varese, and Xenakis. Richard holds degrees in double bass from California State University, Northridge and the New England Conservatory. He currently teaches and provides orchestral coaching at UC Berkeley. Richard joined SFCMP in 2002."