"Piano firebrand" (Brooklyn Rail) Gabriel Zucker is a pianist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist from New York, whose work combines maximalist compositions with the progressive improvisation of New York's creative music scene. His music has received two ASCAP composition awards, and has been praised in Downbeat (4.5 stars), All About Jazz (4.5 stars), Stereogum, Jazzwise, and the New York City Jazz Record. A Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Zucker has performed throughout New York at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Stone, Roulette, and the Jazz Gallery, as well as in 22 countries around the world.

Zucker's groundbreaking large ensemble, the indie jazz orchestra The Delegation, was born at the Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop. The group's debut record, a twelve-movement composition titled Evergreen (Canceled World), was supported by an American Composers Forum JFund grant and released in October 2016 on ESP-Disk' to critical acclaim. The ensemble's sophomore release, Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time, was released in September 2021 on ESP-Disk'. Zucker's small-ensemble touring incarnations of The Delegation have performed in over a dozen countries.

Zucker maintains a prolific activity with a range of other projects. In November 2018, ESP-Disk' released Zucker's third studio record, Weighting, an extended composition inspired by Rachel Kushner's novel The Flamethrowers, featuring Tyshawn Sorey, Adam O'Farrill, and Eric Trudel. The record was widely praised, recognized as a Debut of the Year by the New York City Jazz Record, listed among the Best of 2018 by All About Jazz, and featured as a runner-up in Stereogum's Best Jazz of 2018 list. Zucker and Sorey collaborated again in 2018 with the premiere of Zucker's new duo New York, USA, 2018 at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall. Zucker's avant indie band underorder released its critically acclaimed sophomore record, Other Ways To Be Apart in parts over the course of 2019 and 2020. He also performs regularly as a concert pianist focusing on twentieth century repertoire. His 2018 performance of Frederic Rzewski's Squares was listed among the New York Classical Review's best concerts of the year, and his 2019 performance of Messiaen's Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus also drew praise. Before the pandemic, Zucker was a manager and curator of the prominent experimental music venue Spectrum.

A committed social activist in addition to a musician, Zucker is currently Associate Policy Director for the tax benefits program at Code for America. He previously served as Director of Research at the progressive turnout organization VoteTripling.org; worked on homelessness and healthcare policy as a member of the U.S. Digital Service; and co-led the successful campaign to end veteran homelessness in Connecticut. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 2012, where he double majored in Ethics, Politics, & Economics and Music, and he holds a Masters in Applied Statistics from Oxford, where his research focused on applications of machine learning to social policy administration."

"Adam O'Farrill is a trumpet player and composer from Brooklyn, NY. As a trumpeter, he has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mary Halvorson, Arturo O'Farrill, Mulatu Astatke, Brasstracks, Stephan Crump, Onyx Collective, Anna Webber, and Samora Pinderhughes. As a composer and bandleader, he has led the quartet, Stranger Days, comprised of Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Walter Stinson, and Zack O'Farrill. Their eponymous debut (2016, Sunnyside Records) was inspired by film and literature, while the follow-up album, El Maquech (2018, Biophilia Records) covered everything from Mexican folk music to Irving Berlin, as well as O'Farrill's original compositions. Both were critically acclaimed, with the New York Times writing of the first release, "Marshaling a sharp band of his peers, Mr. O'Farrill establishes both a firm identity and a willful urge to stretch and adapt.". The latter album was listed as one of the best jazz albums of 2018 by the NPR Jazz Critics Poll, The Boston Globe, and Nextbop. Adam's newest project, Bird Blown Out of Latitude, is an electro-acoustic nonet, playing original music inspired by the feeling of being pushed off a perceived path.

O'Farrill comes from a rich musical background, with his grandfather being the Afro-Cuban-Irish composer and arranger Chico O'Farrill, his father being the cultural boundary-pushing composer and pianist Arturo O'Farrill, his mother Alison Deane being a classical pianist and educator, and his brother Zack O'Farrill being a drummer, composer, and educator. Adam is of Mexican, Cuban, and Irish heritage on his dad's side, and Eastern European Jewish and African-American on his mom's side. This, combined with growing up in a place of immense cultural diversity, has shaped his tendency to break stylistic borders within not only his original music, but also in terms of who he works with a sideman. O'Farrill was subject of an article in Jazztimes entitled, "Adam O'Farrill Does Not Play Latin Jazz", where he spoke about the unfair treatment and pigeonholing of Latinx musicians.

Adam made his professional recording debut on Chad Lefkowitz-Brown's debut album, Imagery Manifesto, in 2013. In 2015, he appeared on two critically acclaimed records; Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls and Arturo O'Farrill's Cuba: The Conversation Continues. Adam toured internationally with Mahanthappa's band from 2014 to 2017, performing at the Newport Jazz Festival, Chicago Symphony Hall, North Sea Jazz Festival, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, and more. In 2016, in addition to releasing Stranger Days, O'Farrill appeared on Stephan Crump's album, Rhombal, also garnering acclaim. Other projects he has recorded include Stimmerman (eponymous debut), Olli Hirvonen's New Helsinki, Gabriel Zucker's Weighting, and Onyx Collective's Lower East Suite Part One. Adam will also be featured on upcoming albums from Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Raf Vertessen, Thomas Champagne, and Idan Morim.

Adam studied at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, and obtained his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He's studied trumpet with Jim Seeley, Nathan Warner, and Thomas Smith, and composition with Reiko Fueting and Curtis Macdonald. In 2014, O'Farrill won 3rd place honors at the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Trumpet Competition. He was also a recipient of the ASCAP Herb Albert Young Jazz Composer Award in 2013.

"Nolan Tsang is an improvisor, trumpet player and composer based in NYC, who draws influence equally from contemporary classical and jazz pioneers alike, bringing cohesive spontaneity and excitement to every musical setting. Nolan's projects include Trumpetcello, an innovative New Music duo that integrates live electronics, dynamic improvisation and traditional chamber music experience, to forge new repertoire and synthesize the avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical genres. He also leads Body Bag, a jazz-punk band that reimagines baroque and punk musical forms in a traditional jazz quintet setting.

As a sideman, Nolan has performed at venues ranging from Dizzy's Club Coca-cola to Joe's Pub, with a slew of New York musicians, ranging from New York veterans Dave Liebman, Wycliffe Gordon, John Colliani, to the younger big band leaders of this era, Liberte-Anne, Brian Krock, Elijah Schiffer, Gabriel Zucker, Noriko Ueda, Migiwa Miyajima, and the participants of the BMI workshop, formerly lead by Jim Mcneelly and Mike Holober.

As a soloist, Nolan has recently performed at Carnegie Hall and National Sawdust as the titular character in John Palladino's reimagined arrangement of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, presented by the Eco Music Big Band, a politically minded ensemble, which whom Nolan has recorded three CD's, and most recently, an epic jazz opera commenting on the European Debt Crisis, produced by Kabir Sehgal."

"Reedist Anna Webber, a Brooklynite by way of British Columbia, is one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene in the past couple years. Her second album, SIMPLE, demonstrates the inextricable link between her improvising and her compositions; her detail-rich writing recalls the work of elders as disparate as Tim Berne and Henry Threadgill, and her busy motion evokes a fizzy sort of exhilaration.-Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Anna Webber is an integral part of a new wave of the Brooklyn avant-garde jazz scene. A saxophonist and flutist who strives for the unexpected, she has furthermore consistently proven herself to be a unique and forward-thinking composer with releases such as 2014's SIMPLE (Skirl Records) and 2013's Percussive Mechanics. Binary, the follow-up to SIMPLE which features bandmates John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell, further establishes Webber as a compelling improvisor and composer."

"Eric Trudel is a saxophonist, composer, and educator originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Eric attended Towson University on scholarship where he earned a Bachelors Degree in jazz performance before moving to New York City to earn his master's degree from NYU, also on scholarship. He was also a winner of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award grant for non-classical solo performance. Eric has nearly ten years of teaching experience, including holding faculty positions at NYU, Loyola University in Maryland, and his alma mater, Towson University. Eric has led and co-led workshops and master classes both in the United States and abroad, covering topics about music, improvisation, and creativity. Eric currently lives in Brooklyn and keeps an active performance schedule both as a leader of his own groups, and as a sideman."

"Yuma Uesaka (b. 1991) is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and improviser-composer mostly known for his work in jazz and creative music. Since his arrival to New York City in 2014, Yuma quickly built a reputation for his improvisational sensibilities and his powerful sound. As an advocate for music that celebrates modernity, hybridity, and rigor, Yuma works across diverse musical communities including jazz, creative music, and new classical music.

Yuma has performed at many of the notable venues in NYC such as National Sawdust, Roulette, The Jazz Gallery, Cornelia St Cafe, and Zinc Bar. He tours regularly both as a leader and as a sideman, and has performed across the US and beyond, making appearances in international festivals such as Detroit Jazz Festival (US), Lima ICPNA Jazz Festival (Peru), Otsu Jazz Festival (Japan), TU Jazz Festival (Canada), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Festival (China).

He currently co-leads Ocelot, a collaborative trio consisting of Colin Hinton and Cat Toren. Ocelot recorded their debut album in 2019, which will be released on March 26th, on 577 Records. Yuma released his debut EP, Spear and Shield, in 2015. Dave Sumner (Bird is the Worm) praises the album as a "compelling debut from saxophonist Uesaka, who susses out some powerful moments from his gentle lyricism."

As a sideman, Yuma has performed and/or recorded with Anna Webber's New Large Ensemble, Jeff Lederer and The Brooklyn Blowhards; Lex Korten's Make/Believe; Colin Hinton's Simulacra; Gabriel Zucker; Lesley Mok's Living Collection, Peter Nelson's Ash, Dust, and Chalkboard Cinema; Ken Ychicawa's Thruworld; Pravin Thompson's A Thoughtful Collapse; Alec Goldfarb's Laughing Coffin. Through these projects, he had the pleasure of working with leading musical figures such as Jorge Roeder, Allison Miller, Eric Wubbels, and Kate Gentile, as well as rising young talents such as Nick Dunston, Adam O'Farrill, and Lex Korten. He was also a part of a world premier of Monteverdi Shapero by Alvin Lucier as a part of Ensemble Evolution at Banff Center for the Arts.

Born in London, Yuma spent his early childhood in Nagoya, Japan. He moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan at the age of 8 and started playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and clarinet at age 12. He holds two bachelor's degrees from University of Michigan, where he majored in Jazz Studies and Computer Science Engineering. He studied with Geri Allen, Robert Hurst, Andrew Bishop, and Erik Santos. An alumnus of Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop and Ensemble Evolution, Yuma worked and studied with cutting edge luminaries such as Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Nicole Mitchell, Amir ElSaffar, Claire Chase, and Steve Schick. Since relocating to NYC, he has studied clarinet with Vasko Dukovski and composition with Eric Wubbels.

Yuma is a member of Polyfold Musical Arts Collective. Polyfold is a grassroots, artist-led non-profit organization that helps create opportunities for improvising musicians to present creative works."

"Joanna Mattrey, violist, sound artist.

Joanna Mattrey is a violist active in both the new music and free improvisation communities who's playing often incorporates textural gestures, preparations, and electronic alterations. She is searching for moments of ceremony and ritual in a modern soundscape.

Mattrey has played with such luminaries as Marc Ribot and the Young Philadelphians, Mary Halvorson, John Zorn, Erik Friedlander, Nick Dunston and others among New York City's Downtown scene.

Her projects are incorporative of many styles which have brought her to various venues including the Whitney Museum, the Rubin Museum, MoMa's PS1, Carnegie Hall, Roulette, Boston's MFA, The Stone, Joe's Pub, LPR, and has played at SxSW, the Newport Jazz Festival, and the NYC Winter Jazz Fest.

Mattrey has commissioned solo pieces from Nick Dunston (Vijay Iyar), Weasel Walter (Lydia Lunch), Lucie Vitkova and more to bring her improvising sensibilities to the new music world."

""Trailblazing" cellist Mariel Roberts (Feast of Music) is quickly gaining recognition as a deeply dedicated interpreter and performer of contemporary music. Recent performances have garnered praise for her "technical flair and exquisite sensitivity" (American Composers Forum), as well as her ability to "couple youthful vision with startling maturity". (InDigest Magazine). She holds degrees from both the Eastman School and the Manhattan School of Music, where she specialized in contemporary performance practice while studying with Alan Harris and Fred Sherry. Mariel is a performer of international reach who has played throughout the US and Europe appearing both as a soloist and with ensembles such as Signal, Wet Ink Ensemble, Dal Niente, SEM Ensemble, the NouveauClassical Project, and the Wordless Music Orchestra. Mariel's premeire solo album, nonextraneous sounds, was released on Innova Records in September 2012. The record, consisting of brand new works commisioned by Mariel, received high accolades from sources such as TimeOut NY, TimeOut Chicago, The American Composers Forum, New Sounds with John Schaefer, and WQXR radio."

"Artemisz Polonyi is a singer from Hungary, who lives, performs and teaches in New York City since 2012.

Coming from jazz background it`s no wonder that her main approach on music is improvisation. She is a vocalist, who has mastered many different possibilities of using her voice and can often be seen in crossover projects of jazz and early music, in a cappella groups, and providing live music to dance performances.

Currently Artemisz is leading her own jazz trio with their debut album on the way, and is a member of the award-winning jazz a cappella quintet, West Side 5; the folk a cappella group, Asaran Earth Trio; sings as a section leader at various churches in New York City; and is a member of the choral composer/conductor collective, C4.

She earned her bachelor's degree in voice performance in the prestigious Royal Conservatorium of The Hague in The Netherlands, then moved to United States with the help of a Fulbright Scholarship and received her masters degree in jazz voice performance from William Paterson University, where she studied with Nan Guptill Crane, Armen Donelian and Pete McGuinness."

"Lorena del Mar (Madrid (Spain), 1983) started her music career when she was 6 years old taking classical piano lessons. Then she continued in the Rodolfo Halfftler Conservatorium (Madrid) with Eloy Terrero. During her younger years her teachers would always point out her musicality. Although she started singing just for herself, at the age of 16, she was asked to join as the lead singer of "Rodolfo Halffter Conservatorium's Big Band", conducted by Alexandre Schnieper, where she would discover jazz music and performed in many important venues and festivals in Spain, such as the National Auditorium in Madrid or the International Festival of Jazz in Galapagar.

In 2007, she decided to deepen her knowledge and auditioned in Het Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague (The Netherlands) where she was accepted to study Jazz singing. She has studied there with Rachel Gould, John Ruocco, Fay Claassen, Sanna Van Vliet, Hein van de Geijn, Manon Heijne, Yvonne Smeets, Eric Gieben, Toon Roos, Jarmo Hoogendijk, actress Guuske Kotte and many more. She has attended as well masterclasses and workshops from various international artists, such as Deborah Brown, Norma Winstone, Lilian Viera, Jocelyn B. Smith, Mike Manieri, Jen Shyu, Joshua Redman, Judy Niemack, Gretchen Parlato, dancer Michael Schumacher, among others.

In 2011 she got the audience price in the semifinals of the competition Leiden Jazz Award 2011. In the same year she finished her Bachelor degree of Jazz Music cum laude with a distinction in artistry and got the publieksprijs from the NEW Festival in De Regentes Theater. In 2013 she graduated cum laude with distinction with Master's degree in Jazz Music, focusing on developing her skills as an arranger/composer.

In 2014 Lorena moved to New York where she explored other genres and vocal techniques. She was the singer of The Delegation, an indie jazz ensamble. Besides, she sang in the C4 ensemble as a soprano, co-founded the pop duo Artemisz and Lorena and sang in different choirs in New York. During these years she developed herself further into free jazz, electronics and other improvised music.

In 2015 she released her debut CD "My Resistance is Low" with her quartet with the label Clever Tree Records. In June 2016 the title song of her CD was listed in the top 10 of Allaboutjazz website, both editor pick's and downloads.

In August 2016 she moved to Brussels (Belgium) where she continues her musical adventure presenting her CD in Belgium and France."

"Bam Rodriguez is a musician, bass player, synthesist, composer and origami artist from Venezuela/Aruba, living today in NYC. He started with music at the prestigious "El Sistema", where he shaped his love for music and for sharing it with others. Then he went off to study in Belgium, in the Netherland and then finally off to live in NYC, where he is an active piece of the musical community, recording, touring, performing, teaching and trying to share the love for music with as many people as possible. Throcughout his career he has performed with the likes of Chucho Valdés, Paquito de Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Deepak Chopra, Claudia Acuña, Ray Santo, toured in about 30 different countriesand played at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Barbican, Davis Hall, Birdland and his own living room.

Bam is part of the community of artists at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem. A Smithsonian Affiliate, this thriving center for jazz stimulates hearts and minds and reaches out to diverse audiences to enjoy this quintessential American music. The Museum was founded in 1997 with a mission to preserve, promote and present jazz by inspiring knowledge, appreciation and the celebration of jazz locally, nationally and internationally."

"Mat Muntz is a composer, bassist, and improviser based in Brooklyn, NY. Embracing a polystylistic approach inspired by Charles Mingus, Alfred Schnittke, and Ornette Coleman, Mat's work seeks to bring together a wide range of musical influences: the great experimental lineage of jazz and Black American Music, the maximalist mysticism of late J.S. Bach, and a microtonal sensibility that draws as much on the 20th-Century experiments of Ivan Wyschnegradsky and Harry Partch as it does on obscure folk traditions from Croatia and Central Asia. When joined in a performance practice centered on collaborative improvisation, the result is an aesthetic of dynamism, volatility, disruption, and collective expression.

Mat graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 2016 and has performed across North America, Europe, and China, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz Standard, Blue Note Beijing, and the Umbria Jazz Festival. His compositions have been premiered at The Shed and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival in New York. In addition, Mat has been the recipient of awards from Brooklyn Arts Council and NYC City Artist Corps.

A central aspect of Mat's practice is the integration of traditional, experimental, and improvisational forms - most actively explored in his work with the collaborative ensemble The Vex Collection. Co-led with composer and percussionist Vicente Hansen, the ensemble has been commissioned by The Shed and Brooklyn Arts Council and features traditional Korean, Scottish, and Croatian double-reeds alongside newly developed experimental wind instruments.

In addition to double bass, Mat has studied primorski meh - a traditional Croatian bagpipe. Since 2019, Mat has been working to develop a new technical vocabulary for this instrument in order to draw on the full range of its unique pitch and timbral characteristics. This constantly evolving practice can be heard on the releases meh. (2020), ghostly.ridiculous (2021), and on more projects in the near and distant future."

"Percussionist Gabriel Globus-Hoenich blends a multitude of musical influences together in his work as a performer and educator. During his residency, audiences will explore rhythms, melodies, songs, and dances from around the world, ultimately discovering the inherent joy of music and culture. A Montreal native, Gabriel is now based in New York City where his career continues to reflect a deep love for the worlds of jazz, classical music, and world music. Gabriel has performed on drumset and percussion with a wide variety of artists including Morgan James, Jim James, Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Omara Portuondo, Telmary Diaz, Roberto Fonseca, Tirso Duarte, Steve Hackman, Tessa Lark, the Philly Pops, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, among others. He collaborates frequently with Teddy Abrams and the Sixth Floor Trio, serving as principal percussionist and education director at the trio's chamber music festival, GardenMusic, in South Miami. An active composer and arranger, Gabriel has written for Achilles Liarmakopolous of the Canadian Brass, grammy nominated Tiempo Libre, and the Louisville Orchestra. In 2018, Gabriel performed Julia Wolfe's percussion concerto riSE and fLY with Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra with the composer present.

In 2017 Gabriel founded People of Earth, a 15 person Latin fusion group filled with some of NYC's best musicians representing a myriad of countries. People of Earth has performed at Brooklyn Bowl, Rockwood Music Hall and other top NYC venues. For more information visit www.peopleofearthmusic.com

In addition to his work in the orchestral and jazz music worlds, Gabriel has completed extensive world percussion studies having studied Afro-Brazilian percussion in Salvador, Bahia with Gabi Guedes and Mario Pam, as well as Cuban percussion with Girardo Piloto, Rociel Riveron, and Adonis Panter.

Gabriel continues to work as a teaching artist for the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, Philadelphia Orchestra, 92nd Street Y, and Marquis Studios. He was formerly a teaching artist with Play On Philly! as well as musician-in-residence at The Please Touch Museum. He is a co-founder of PlasticBand, a community drumming group based in Harlem, New York and received a Carnegie Hall NeON Arts Grant to build this program. He is a 2008 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Don Liuzzi and Robert van Sice."

"Kate Gentile is a Brooklyn-based drummer and composer interested in forward-thinking creative music, including the synthesis of elements from many kinds of music.

In addition to her quartet with Jeremy Viner, Matt Mitchell and Adam Hopkins on her debut album Mannequins (June 2017, Skirl Records), other projects Kate is a part of include Snark Horse, in which she co-leads and shares compositional duties with pianist Matt Mitchell; Mitchell's projects Phalanx Ambassadors and A Pouting Grimace, Dustin Carlson's septet Air Ceremony, and Davy Lazar's trumpet/drums duo Pluto's Lawyer.

Kate has also worked with Michael Attias, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Marty Ehrlich, Michael Formanek, God Is My Co-Pilot, Helado Negro, Chris Speed, Anna Webber, and John Zorn."

"Matteo Liberatore is a boundary-pushing guitarist and composer working at the intersection of free, contemporary classical, electronic, and noise music. Based in Brooklyn, Liberatore spent much of his life in the medieval region of Abruzzo, Italy, amidst dramatic landscapes reflected in a playing and composing style of "unsettling beauty" and "striking physicality" (The New York City Jazz Record).

Matteo is known for his nuanced treatment of timbre, texture, gestures, and rhythms, and his work aims to convey precise musical ideas--whether through the elegant immediacy of unadorned instrumentation or the affecting dislocations of electronics and preparations. The latter approach can be heard in his first solo album--aptly titled Solos--released on Innova Recordings in 2018: "This is not just sonic novelty or gratuitous use of extended techniques; each of the pieces, while largely improvised, [has] clarity and purpose" (Avant Music News). Solos was included in Ted Gioia's best albums of 2018.

An active member of New York's improv scene, Liberatore has performed with Ralph Alessi, Elliott Sharp, Tony Malaby, Ingrid Laubrock, Jon Irabagon, Tom Rainey, Nina Dante, Brian Chase, Andrea Parkins, Ava Mendoza, Amirtha Kidambi, Sandy Ewen, Weasel Walter, Joanna Mattrey, Brandon Lopez, Carlo Costa, and Michael Foster. Liberatore also partners with performance artists and dancers such as Dia Dearstyne and Rachel Mckinstry.

In his formative years Liberatore studied classical guitar under Maestro Marco Salcito at Conservatorio di Foggia; obtained his M.M. in Jazz Performance at NYU, working with Jean-Michael Pilc, Wayne Krantz, and Peter Bernstein; and toured the U.S. and Europe in art-rock and electropop projects such as Una Lux, with a debut EP produced by former Sonic Youth producer Nick Sansano and reviewed favorably by NPR, WNYC, and Magnum Magazine."

"Traveling the borders of genre and style, guitarist and composer Tal Yahalom seeks to weave a wide spectrum of aesthetic elements into a distinct musical language - committed to engaging storytelling and attentive interplay.

Born in Israel and based in New York City since 2014, Yahalom has been exploring and fusing the worlds of hard bop, alternative rock, free improvisation and impressionistic classical music. Looking to expand the sonic and textural vocabulary of the guitar, he pursues unconventional, creative ways of instrumental playing - both acoustically and through a flexible array of effects. He is drawn to the elusive balance between composition and improvisation, clarity and mystery, the subtle and the intense.

Yahalom is the co-leader of KADAWA, a collective trio with bassist Almog Sharvit and drummer Ben Silashi, rooted in powerful grooves, distinct moods and adventurous improvisations. Founded in Tel Aviv in 2013 and working together dedicatedly to this day in Brooklyn, the band performs original compositions as well as new arrangements of music by the likes of David Bowie, Bjork and Nick Drake. The three create song-like instrumental pieces as commentary to various bizarre incidents, disappointing films and the weather, among other things...KADAWA performs regularly at many of NYC's finest venues, and has toured internationally across Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, UK and Israel. The band released its debut album in October 2017, and since then collaborated with John Escreet, Jon Irabagon and Adam O'Farrill, while working on the production of their 2nd album, to be released in summer 2019.

Tal leads various trios as part of an ongoing performance residency at New York's 'Bar Next Door', which featured musicians such as Caroline Davis, Dan Weiss, Eivind Opsvik, John Hebert and Tom Rainey. The trios perform his original compositions alongside loose interpretations of tunes by Paul Motian and Thelonious Monk.

Additionally, he is currently developing a new solo program which integrates sampling and prerecorded material into the spontaneous live performance - unexpectedly combining multiple parts and soundscapes to maximize the element of surprise. A debut solo EP is set to be released early 2019.

Yahalom is the winner of the 2015 Detroit Jazz Festival National Guitar Competition, 3rd prize winner of the 2016 Montreux Jazz Festival International Guitar Competition, scholarship recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Siena Jazz Foundation (IT), and has performed at notable music events such as the 2016 Bern Jazz Festival (CH) and the 2015 Alternative Guitar Summit 'New Generation' concert in Brooklyn.

Besides his own projects, he is thankful to be a part of fruitful collaborations with Nick Dunston, Gaya Feldheim Schorr, Lisa Hoppe, Sagi Kaufman, Assaf Salhov and Gabriel Zucker, and to have studied with highly influential and inspiring teachers such as Richard Boukas, Shai Chen, Hal Galper, Tony Malaby, Bill McHenry, Andy Milne, Miles Okazaki, Gilad Ronen, Robert Sadin and Dan Weiss."