Ingrid Sertso:

Through her work with such avant-jazz musicians as Don Cherry and Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso established herself as a captivating, adventurous vocalist, capable of blending jazz, African, South American and other worldbeat influences into a distinctive, hypnotic sound.

Steven Bernstein:

An impactful presence on the New York scene over the past 30 years, trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Steven Bernstein has immersed himself in such a wide array of music with his bands Sexmob, Millennial Territory Orchestra, Diaspora Soul, Universal Melody Brass Band, Spanish Fly, Blue Campfire and the Butler-Bernstein Hot 9 that he defies easy categorization. A former member of the Lounge Lizards and Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band, Bernstein has also composed works for film, theater and dance in addition to doing arrangements for a diverse list of artists ranging from Lou Reed to Lee “Scratch” Perry, Allen Toussaint, Marianne Faithfull, Linda Ronstadt, Rufus Wainwright, Darlene Love, Mario Pavone, Bill Frisell, John Lurie and the Kansas City All-Stars. His lengthy list of sideman credits includes recent recordings by Laurie Anderson (Heart of a Dog), Roswell Rudd (Trombone for Lovers), Mostly Other People Do The Killing (Loafer’s Hollow), Antony and the Johnsons (Turning) and Nels Cline (Lovers). He also continues to perform with Ray Anderson’s Pocket Brass Band, Omaha Diner and the Kamikaze Ground Crew.

Peter Apfelbaum:

Born in Berkeley, California and based in Brooklyn since 1998, multi-instrumentalist and composer Peter Apfelbaum is best known as leader of the genre-mashing big band, Hieroglyphics, which he formed while still in high school in 1977. The ensemble began to attract international attention in the 1980's for its unique fusing of elements of world music with the aesthetics of the jazz avant-garde and has remained Apfelbaum's primary vehicle for composing throughout his career. In 2013, he formed the electronica-based, vocal-driven sextet Sparkler, which released its debut EP, "I Colored It In For You," on Bill Laswell's MOD Technologies label in 2017. Apfelbaum has worked with many of the leading figures in contemporary music, including the late Don Cherry, Kronos Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Harry Belafonte, Omar Sosa and Phish. He currently performs with Dafnis Prieto's various bands - he received a Grammy award in 2018 as part of Prieto's album "Back To The Sunset" - and Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, among others. Since 2017 he has been an Artistic Director of the Woodstock, NY-based Creative Music Studio; in July 2023 he took over as conductor of the late CMS founder Karl Berger's 20-piece Creative Improvisers Orchestra, which performs monthly at the Shirt Factory in Kingston.

Brittany Anjou:

Brittany Anjou is a New York City-based multi-hyphenate pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and mixed-methods music psychology researcher. She has worked with artists such as Elysian Fields, Clark Terry, The Shaggs, and the New York Arabic Orchestra. She has produced acclaimed projects Enamiĝo Reciprokataj (Origin Records), Bi TYRANT, and Nong Voru (Chant Records). Anjou served as director of jazz and piano at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Center Music School in Kuwait from 2018 - 2020. She holds a B.Mus. from NYU in jazz performance and an M.A. in Music Psychology, Education, and Wellbeing with merit from the University of Sheffield. Anjou's research data on NYC musicians during the pandemic helped NY state legislation approve a $200M grant for independent arts workers in 2022. She currently serves on the steering committee of the fair pay advocacy group Music Workers Alliance.

Marilyn Crispell:

Marilyn Crispell is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied classical piano and composition, and has been a resident of Woodstock, New York since 1977 when she came to study and teach at the Creative Music Studio. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and other contemporary jazz players and composers. For ten years she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble and has been a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra and guest with his London Jazz Composers Orchestra, as well as a member of the Henry Grimes Trio, Tiszigi Munoz Ensemble, and Quartet Noir (with Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser and Joelle Leandre). She has toured and recorded with Anders Jormin's Bortom Quintet and with Gunhild Seim's Time Jungle. In 2018 she created a piece, ICE, for Seim's Kitchen Orchestra, performed in Stavanger, Norway. In 2005 she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra in Vancouver, Canada and in 2006 she was co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at the Banff Centre International Workshop in Jazz. In 2014 she led a three-week music residency at the Atlantic Center For the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, and in 2016 led a one-week residency at the Conservatory Manuel de Falla in Buenos Aires. In 2019 she will be a guiding artist at the Jazzdanmark Summer Session in Denmark.

Ken Filiano:

Ken Filiano is a bassist, composer, improviser, and teacher who performs around the world, fusing the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless imagination. A “creative virtuoso” (JazzValley), Ken has performed and recorded with a veritable who's who in multiple genres, from Anthony Braxton to Pablo Ziegler. Ken leads two quartets, Quantum Entanglements and Baudolino's Dilemma, and is co-leader of The Steve Adams/Ken Filiano Duo and other collective ensembles. He is also an integral member of groups led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Jason Kao Hwang, Fay Victor, Vinny Golia, Diane Moser, Karl Berger, and others, and was a key member of groups led by the late Roswell Rudd and Connie Crothers. Ken's extensive discography includes the solo CD, "Subvenire"(Nine Winds) and Quantum Entanglements's "Dreams From a Clown Car" (Clean Feed). He is a Guiding Artist and on the Board of Advisors for Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY.

Tani Tabbal:

Tani Tabbal began playing drums professionally as a teen, performing with Oscar Brown Jr., Phil Cohran, and Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Tabbal has recorded, performed and toured with a wide range of musicians, including Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, Geri Allen, Cassandra Wilson, James Carter, Karl Berger, Dewey Redman, David 'Fathead' Newman, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, Douglas Ewart, Oliver Lake, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, Richard Davis, Leroy Jenkins, Milt Jackson and Jackie McLean. Tabbal is known as a dynamic, lyrical, and energetic drummer. As a recording artist, he is on over 70 albums, and has released seven as a bandleader: Before Time After, Wizards, Mixed Motion, Triptych, Opposite Edge, Now Then, and Intentional.