"Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, and qigong practitioner living in Brooklyn, New York and southern Vermont. Laplante leads Battle Trance, the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet as well as Subtle Degrees, his newest project with drummer Gerald Cleaver. He is also known for his solo saxophone work and his longstanding ensemble Little Women. Laplante has recently performed and/or recorded with Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Michael Formanek, Buke and Gase, Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. He has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. As a qigong student of master Robert Peng, Laplante has undergone traditional intensive training. His focus in recent years, under the tutelage of Laura Stelmok, has been on Taoist alchemical medicine and the cultivation of the heart. Laplante is passionate about the intersection of music and medicine. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Brooklyn, New York and Putney, Vermont."

"Antonina Styczeń, flute (Bielsko-Biala, Poland), is a First Prize and special prize winner for the Best Performance of a New Work at the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, a two time Second Prize and William H. Grass Memorial Prize winner at The James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition winner, and Third Prize winner in the Mid-South Flute Society Young Artist Competition. Her debut album, with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, was nominated for the International Classical Music Award and the Prize of German Critics. She performs in classical, jazz, rock, and improvisatory idioms, and creates recital projects that include electronics, deejay, her own compositions, and works by female composers. A four-time recipient of the prize for extraordinary artistic achievements from the Polish Ministry of Culture & National Heritage, she studied at Warsaw's Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Madrid's Escuela Superior de Musica de Reina Sofia, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee."

"Ansel Norris, trumpet (Madison, WI), has distinguished himself as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician of enthusiasm and diverse taste. He currently resides in Naples, Florida, where he enjoys an eclectic musical career with the Naples Philharmonic. Ansel comes to Naples via Rice University, the New World Symphony, and Northwestern University, from which he received a Bachelor's degree in Music in 2016.

Ansel finds additional inspiration as a soloist, and in 2019 he was the first ever American prizewinner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition's Brass division. Prior to this he was twice the first-prize winner at the National Trumpet Competition, a YoungARTS Gold Award recipient and a winner of the New World Symphony's Concerto Competition, among others. Playing as soloist with orchestras is a special pleasure for Ansel, and he has enjoyed performances in front of the Mariinsky Orchestra, New World Symphony and his hometown Madison Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Also a chamber musician, Ansel won a Bronze Medal at the Fischoff International Competition with his friends from the Lincoln Chamber Brass.

Ansel is deeply grateful for the mentors who encouraged him to search for his voice. These include Barbara Butler, John Aley, Charles Geyer, Thomas Rolfs, Christopher Martin, and Stephen Burns."

"New York-based Oliver Barrett, trombone (Houston, TX), has quickly established himself as a leading voice in both performance and pedagogy. As a performer, Oliver has been a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony from 2015-2016, with a guest appearance as principal of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2016, Oliver was selected as one of the 18 musicians to join Carnegie Hall's prestigious Ensemble Connect. Oliver has been heard at many music festivals around the country, including the Round Top Festival Institute, Aspen Music Festival, and National Repertory Orchestra. Additional orchestral highlights include performances as principal trombone with the Princeton Symphony and American Symphony Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Oliver is a member of the New York-based brass sextet The Brass Project. As an educator, Oliver has served as Lecturer of Trombone at Princeton University, and is currently the assistant director of brass bands at St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's as well as a teaching artist with the New York Philharmonic. Oliver received his B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, M.M from The Juilliard School, and is completing his D.M.A at Stony Brook University. This past year Oliver developed and launched a mobile instrumental education app called Upper Neighbor."

"Steven Mackey, composer (Princeton, NJ), was playing the electric guitar in rock bands based in northern California when he started including the electric guitar and vernacular music influence in his concert music. He regularly performs his own work, including two electric guitar concertos and numerous solo and chamber works. Steven's orchestral music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco and Chicago Symphonies, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Austrian Radio Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic. As a guitarist, Steven has performed his chamber music with the Kronos Quartet, Arditti Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Nexttime Ensemble , Psappha, and Joey Baron. A Grammy Award-winning musician, Steven has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. He has been composer-in-residence at major music festivals, including Tanglewood, Aspen, and the Holland Festival. Steven is currently Professor of Music and chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. He was the recipient of Princeton University's first Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991."

"Charles Overton, harp (Glen Allen, VA), attended the Berklee College of Music where he was the first harpist to be accepted to Berklee's Global Jazz Institute. In addition, he has participated in the Pacific Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Castleton Festival. As a jazz musician he has played in festivals abroad like the Harpes au Max festival in Ancenis, while locally frequenting jazz series like Jazz at Indian Hill, and Mandorla Music's Dot Jazz Series. As a classical musician, he appears frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with Boston-based ensembles including the Walden Chamber Players and Collage New Music, as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival. Charles now serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee."

"Marcus Elliot Gaved, double bass (London, UK), started studying music at an early age, eventually choosing to continue with the double bass at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he was principal double bass of the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music, where he was principal bass of the RCM JD Symphony Orchestra and won the Angela Bull Memorial Competition, before moving to Philadelphia study in the Curtis Institute with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer. Marcus has performed in concert halls all over the world in orchestral, chamber, and solo capacities including Victoria Hall in Singapore, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Bozar in Belgium, St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong, and Wimore Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London. Marcus is also an original member of the Alderney Chamber Music Festival in the UK Channel Islands."

"Eduardo Leandro, percussion (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), has performed with many ensembles, including the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He is part of the percussion duo Contexto, an ensemble which was in residence at the Centre International de Percussion in Geneva. He won the New Music Contest in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the second prize in the Eldorado Competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His festival appearances include the Suita Music Festival in Osaka, Ferienkurse für Neue Muzik Darmstadt, and Festspiel in Salzburg. Also a conductor, he has led new music ensembles in Brazil, France, Switzerland, South Korea, and the US. He teaches percussion at SUNY-Stony Brook, where he is the artistic director of the Contemporary Chamber Players. Previously, he taught at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Geneve and directed the percussion program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst."

"Matthew Overbay, percussion (Glade Spring, VA), has commissioned pieces from emerging voices such as Tanner Porter, Max Esformes, and Kyle Krause. Some recent premieres include the world premiere of James Wood's "Kalavinka Duos" and the North American premiere of Karin Rehnqvist's "Dådra". Matthew has co-founded three percussion groups (Milieu, MoRF, Culper) and one mixed chamber collective (Syzygy) that have performed at festivals such as Nief-Norf and the So Percussion Summer Institute. His percussion trio, Culper, was selected to compete at the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg. Matthew has performed Xenakis's solo music at the World Science Festival and attended the Aspen Music Festival as a full-scholarship recipient. Matthew finished his doctoral residency at Stony Brook University and accepted a Percussion Teaching Fellowship at Bard College Conservatory of Music, where he assists percussion program co-directors Eric Cha-Beach and Jason Treuting. In addition to chamber coaching inside the Conservatory, Matthew also regularly performs with The Orchestra Now."