Audrey Powne

UK-based Naarm/Melbourne artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist Audrey Powne is a creative force carving out a distinctive path in the future jazz and soul world. Having honed her craft in the vibrant Melbourne music scene, Powne can now be found performing in some of the most visionary musical circles globally.

Described as "The Very Brilliant Audrey Powne," by legendary BBC Radio 6 presenter and tastemaker Gilles Peterson, Powne is known equally for her extraordinary technical skills and creative inventiveness, and for being unafraid of pushing the boundaries while simultaneously keeping musical traditions alive.

Nicol River

Born: December 3, 1997

Nicol River is a composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and director. She has recorded an album of jazz standards and has released several singles which have received an overwhelmingly positive response by her audience.

Nicol River's music can be described as 'contemporary folk', as she draws her inspiration from traditional music across the world including Balkan, Indian, Celtic and Nordic music, and translates it all to modern arrangements. Her lyrics delve into the philosophical complexities of life and death, joy and sorrow, spread across experimental harmonies and atypical time signatures.

?Nicol is the Director of River Music School London, the founder and co-organiser of the Young Cats Jazz Workshop at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, and a governor at the Wandle Learning Trust.

Yulia

Born: June 28

The roots of Yulia Petrova’s extraordinary & exquisite technique as an artist & composer today, can all be traced back to the earliest days of her childhood, when she first discovered her connection to music by learning how to play piano at the age of five.  Though extremely young at the time, it was instantly clear she had a genuinely special gift and exceptional talent for her age, and it was only three years later before Yulia began to compose her very first songs, establishing her passions & pathway forward in life.

With a natural skillset that was undeniably unique, Yulia attended a dedicated music conservatory in the city of Novosibirsk in Russia, and continued to educate herself both inside & outside of school.  While she studied Classical music during her teenage years, she also expanded her palette in listening outside of school-hours, soon learning that her interests included Rock, Blues, Fusion, and eventually, even Jazz. Yulia’s love for multiple styles of music would come in more than handy – before she was even finished with her studies, she was already writing original songs for advertising companies and teaching her own students.  Her diverse musical taste pointed towards her destiny, and helped shape her future to follow. 

Mary Louise Knutson

Born: April 19

Minneapolis-based pianist and composer, Mary Louise Knutson, has been called "one of the most exciting and innovative artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some time." Her warm, inviting tone, broad range of emotional expression, and distinctive compositions have brought her much recognition on the national music scene. Knutson's long-awaited new jazz trio CD, In the Bubble, ranked in JazzWeek's Top 10 and remained on the chart for 19 weeks straight. Six standards and four originals - which range from a swinging Oscar Peterson Trio-style "It Could Happen to You” to a smooth jazz version of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” to a Keith Jarrett style "You Are My Sunshine" - complete this highly accessible mainstream-to-modern collection.

Svetlana Marinchenko

Svetlana Marinchenko is originally from Russia, Moscow. She  started to play music when she was 17, after hearing Coltrain's Love Supreme. After 3 years of experience in music, she managed to get enrolled in the Musorgsky Colledge of Music. Svetlana studied with the famous Russian jazz pianist Andrey Kondakov. During the first year of study, Svetlana discovered herself as a composer  and organized her own combo, Svetamuzika. Svetamuzika has participated in many international jazz festivals, such as "Close Encounters" Helsinki, Rajation Jazz Festival Helsinki and "Petrojazz" Sankt-Peterburg. They also played concerts in renowned jazz clubs in Russia and Finland, such as Igor Butman Club, Kozlov Club, JFC, Jazz Philharmonic. In 2015 Svetamuzika released their first album Present Simple on the Lable Art-Beat. The recording was attended by well-known and modern musicians from Russia and Germany, such as Anton Davidyants, Martin Miller, Peter Ivshin. After successful release in Moscow and Sankt-Peterburg, Svetamuzika went on a big tour of Russia.

Daphna Sadeh

Daphna Sadeh is an Israeli born double bassist and composer now based in the UK. Sadeh studied classical music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York before joining the Israeli based East West Ensemble with whom she toured extensively while immersing herself in Middle Eastern and Arabic music. She was later the co-leader of the all female group Eve��s Women playing a blend of jazz, klezmer and rock while again touring extensively and internationally. Following a move to London 2002 saw the release of Sadeh��s first solo album ��Out Of Border��. Its success led to the formation of the Voyagers group in 2003

Summer Camargo

Born: August 18, 2001

Summer Camargo is a 23-year-old jazz trumpeter and composer who was recently named "25 for the future" rising stars of jazz by DownBeat magazine. Summer is a native of Hollywood, Florida and a Jerome Greene Fellowship recipient at The Juilliard School, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Summer is a regular performer at notable NYC jazz clubs like Dizzy’s and Birdland, as well as a member of the Mingus Big Band. In 2022 Summer became the newest and youngest member of the Saturday Night Live house band and is also enjoying her most recent role as a band member in Broadway’s new musical, Just in Time.

Emma Swift

Emma Swift is an Australian-born songwriter, currently residing in the USA. A gifted singer inspired by Sandy Denny, Marianne Faithfull and a plethora of dead poets, she is currently working on a new album, tentatively titled ��Slow Dancing With Ghosts��. The songs explore sex, death, spirituality, depression, redemption and radical self-acceptance.

In August 2020 she released the critically-acclaimed ��Blonde On The Tracks��, a feminist reimagining of some of her favourite Bob Dylan tunes on Tiny Ghost Records.

Isabel Rato

Born: December 18, 1981

Composer, arranger, pianist and producer, with a good track record working alongside leading names inn Portuguese music, Isabel Rato is already an outstanding name in the Jazz scene in Portugal. With immediate recognition for her debut album, ��Para Al��m da Curva da Estrada�� edited in 2016 by the label Sintoma Records, the composer has now her second album "Hist��rias do C��u e da Terra", released in 2019 by the label Nischo Records. Recently, "Hist��rias do C��u e da Terra" was considered by the well-known portuguese magazine jazz.pt, as one of the best Portuguese albums of 2019. Her quintet comprises Jo?o David Almeida on vocals, Jo?o Capinha on saxophones (soprano, alto and tenor), Jo?o Cust��dio on the double bass and Alexandre Alves on the drums

Dei Xhrist

Born: August, 1971

Sotto voce/art brut glossolalia, spoken word, fluxus compositions and movement. Xhrist began performing sonically in the early 00s, and now sings solo and with ensemble improvisors in the New England experimental sound/noise/improvisation/art scene.

Organizes XFest MA (www.xfestma.com) starting in 2019.