Tom Nazziola

The music of Grammy®-nominated composer Tom Nazziola has been featured on virtually every medium in the world of composition.From "live film music" to choral and orchestral pieces, his work has been performed in France, Ireland, Slovenia, Guatemala, Croatia and throughout the United States—as well as broadcast nationally and internationally on radio and television. His music has been performed by several ensembles including: Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Eastman Percussion Ensemble, VocalEssence, New York University Percussion Ensemble, Cantori NY, and the New Jersey Youth Symphony among others. His highly praised film score for "The Golem" was featured on John Schaefer’s "New Sounds" (WNYC); his compositions have also been aired on NBC, ABC, ESPN, BET, and CBS. In addition to composing, he is also the musical director and composer for The BQE Project, a celebrated New York-based chamber ensemble known for its original compositions performed live-to-film throughout the world.

Andrea Marcelli

Andrea Marcelli: born in Rome, Italy. During his career he performed in USA, Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tunisia, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, France, Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Lebanon and others. More than 190 of his compositions have been recorded in CD. Two of his compositions have been included on both the "European Real Book" and "The Digital Real Book part 2" by www.shermusic.com. Graduated in 1986 from the L. Refice Conservatory in Frosinone (Rome) in Classical Clarinet, Jazz Composition and Arrangement

Stephan Maass

Born: June 22, 1967

Maria Karathanasopoulou

Poncho Sanchez

Born: October 30, 1951

GRAMMY-winning bandleader, conguero, and percussionist Poncho Sanchez is among the most influential percussionists in jazz.  For more than four decades, he’s stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. Throughout his career, Sanchez has held aloft the torch lit by such innovators as Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente and Cal Tjader, embraced by each of those icons and entrusted to carry forward the traditions of Latin Jazz.

Sanchez was born in Laredo, Texas, in 1951 to a large Mexican-American family, but grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, where he was raised on an unusual cross section of sounds that included straightahead jazz, Latin jazz and American soul. By his teen years, his musical consciousness had been solidified by the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cal Tjader, Mongo Santamaria, Wilson Pickett, and James Brown. Along the way, he taught himself to play guitar, flute, drums and timbales, but eventually settled on the congas. Sanchez landed a permanent spot in Cal Tjader's band in 1975, and remained with him until the bandleader's death in 1982.  Sanchez then shifted his focus to his own group, which he had formed in 1980, and signed with powerhouse label Concord for the release of ‘Sonando’, beginning a musical partnership that has spanned nearly four decades and yielded more than two dozen recordings. 

Michel Seba

Born: December 29, 1973

  Michel Seba was born in 1973 nearby Arlon and grew up there amidst a family of passionate musicians. The sounds of his childhood are the bagpipe and the hurdy-gurdy. He starts his education with many traineeships at the Academie Internationale d’Eté thanks to Chris Joris and Didier Labarre. After he finishes secondary school, the next logical step for him is to leave the south of Luxemburg and to go the Royal Conservatory in Brussels to study under the direction of Frank Michiels and Diederik Wissels.

His ability to mix different styles and his growing talent make him famous in no time and he is asked to join the greatest: Eric Legnini, Eddy Louiss, Toots Thielemans or even Eric Truffaz, Paco Sery and many others. He feels comfortable in every register, whether it is jazz, folk or world music. He proves that regularly when participating at festivals such as the Jazz Festival in Montréal, the Jazz Marathon in Brussels or the very famous Montreux Jazz Festival.  Having gained his place in the Belgian music scene, he is often asked to give classes and workshops in Belgium at the Aktd of Libramont and abroad, more particularly in Burkina Faso and Vietnam.

Daniel Ferreira

Born: May 20, 1998

Born in Hollywood, FL, Daniel showed an interest in music at an early age and was gifted his first drum kit at the age of 10. He immediately fell in love with the instrument and joined the band programs in middle and high school, where he was a part of the marching band, percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, and jazz band. He went on to win multiple superior awards at the state level and first place at competitions and participated in All-County and All-District Honor bands. Daniel has competed with the WGI indoor percussion ensemble Revelation Percussion and was a semi-finalist at the 2017 Percussion World Championships in Dayton, Ohio. Daniel is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he finished with a B.M

Phillip Haynes

Born: June 15, 1961

A veteran artist based in New York for 25 years, Phil Haynes is featured on more than 85 LP, CD, and DVD releases by numerous American and European record labels. Haynes’ debut, The Paul Smoker Trio’s QB with Anthony Braxton, was named the #1 recording of 1985 by esteemed critic Kevin Whitehead. The international media have compared his drumming to masters Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones, and his compositions to Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, Charles Mingus and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. His performances were recently noted to be “The perfect middle between tradition and avant-garde, between power and sophistication, between accessibility and adventure. . . standards with a new sense of drama, dynamics, and true moments of fun.”

Jeremy Steinkoler

Born: October 5, 1970

Jeremy has been playing drums professionally for over 25 years. He performs regularly with a wide array of musical projects, including his award-winning saxes-and-drums funk trio Mo��Fone, pop-jazz group Jenna & the Charmers, the Bait & Switch Blues Band, Jennifer Jolly & Friends, the Erika Oba Trio, Jean Fineberg's JAZZphoria, his own J. Steinkoler Quartet, and various other jazz players and singer/songwriters. His groovy, feel-based approach to the drums has earned him prodigious credits as a sideman, including performances and recordings with members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dave Ellis, Kirk Joseph, Clarence Bucaro, Jenna Mammina, Mamadou Sidibe, Chelle & Friends, Guru Garage, Valerie Orth, Rachel Efron, Flyover States, the Kevin Beadles Band, Featprints, Hot Links, Phatlip, the Jolly Gibsons, Sam Rudin, and many other top musicians around the Bay Area

Pedro Isea Herrera

Born: October 28, 1971

Pedro Isea is a Venezuelan musician born in Caracas in October 28th 1971 who very early started to make vocal music and play the venezuelan cuatro and percussion for vocal groups in his school and university. He began music studies in 1982 in Padre Sojo music school in Caracas and developed a ten years career singing and making percussion for different choirs.

Since 1994 he studied afro-venezuelan and latin percussion (congas) for five years with the professors Alexander Livinalli (multiple participations), Jesús Paiva (Vasallos del Sol), William Troconis (La Banda Sigilosa, Grupo Maroa, La Platabanda...) and Manuel Moreno (Grupo Herencia) at the Popular Culture School of Bigott Foundation and in the UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela). In 1995 he founded “Mestizos Ensamble” with the pianist and singer Alicia Dávila recording 6 tracks which were showed in radio and TV programs. In that year he studied Jazz history and vocal percussion.