Kristina Marinova

Kristina Marinova has been described as a virtuoso performer of extreme energy and youthful vibrance. Her clear and precise tone enhances her stormy expressions and performances, full of grace, serenity, style, and beauty. Her album 4 RHAPSODIES, which she performed live at Carnegie Hall on November 17, 2022, has been called “A Feast for the Ears” by Darren Rea of Classical Music Review Magazine. 

“Listening to works like 4 RHAPSODIES we instantly realize music is like a message from God” – Nagamag Magazine. 

Words used to describe Marinova’s efforts on her album include “dazzling, tender, virtuosic and emotional with unparalleled talent.” Her recent performance at the legendary Tarrytown Music Hall was described as “the elegant and masterful Bulgarian pianist delivered an incredible spectacular performance.”

Amber Weekes

Born: July 9, 1962

American jazz recording artist Amber Weekes has given the world a special and unique gift:  her voice.  Her producer Mark Cargill described it as “a voice from Heaven,” and hears “harps, violins, trumpets on a cloud of velvet whenever she begins to sing.”

Weekes is rising to the pinnacle of her career with the upcoming 2024 release of “A Lady with a Song – Amber Weekes Celebrates Nancy Wilson,” an homage to the legendary jazz singer and fellow storyteller.

Weekes, raised in Los Angeles, says she was “born singing” in her parents’ musical household.  At four, she stepped onto her first stage, the living room coffee table in her childhood home.  The daughter of singers from Harlem, Weekes’ home oozed with the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Streisand, Diahann Carroll, The Beatles, Leontyne Price, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ray Charles.  Generations earlier, her grandparents, Wilfred and Nettie Weekes, served musical giants Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Billy Strahorn and many others inside Weekes’ Luncheonette in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem.  These famous patrons left their musical mark on the family.  It was just a matter of time that Weekes would step into and fully claim her musical inheritance. 

Jacqui Naylor

Jacqui Naylor is not an easy artist to categorize. There are times when she performs straight-ahead vocal jazz, but at other times she favors more of a folk-rock/adult alternative approach. Depending on the mood she is in at a given moment, the northern Californian can bring to mind anyone from Cassandra Wilson or British jazz vocalist Claire Martin to Sarah McLachlan or Shawn Colvin — she is as comfortable among jazz improvisers as she is in the singer/songwriter world. During one of her live performances, Naylor has no problem singing smoky jazz one minute and folk-rock or adult alternative the next — and there are times when she blurs the line between the two.

Maria Puga Lareo

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she began her professional career in her early twenties by singing in the culturally rich city’s clubs, theaters, and at jazz festivals. In 2000, the popular Fox Sports TV program Limite 4x4, broadcast in over 25 countries, asked Maria to co-write and sing their title theme. In 2005, she released her self-produced debut album, Body and Soul, and followed in 2011 with Facetas, which was recorded both in New York and Buenos Aires with arrangements by multi-GRAMMY-winning pianist-arranger-conductor Carlos Franzetti and featuring legendary bassist Eddie Gómez, jazz producer Fernando Gelbard on flute, Ed Uribe on drums, Latin GRAMMY-winning guitarist Quique Sinesi and pianist Frank Collett. Celebrated in Argentina and particularly well-received in Japan, Facetas also received positive acclaim from Arturo Sandoval, Lalo Schifrin, and Jorge Calandrelli, among others.

Claudio Celso

Born: August 4, 1955

Claudio Celso (born August 4, 1955) is a Brazilian guitarist, composer and arranger. His work includes jazz, bossa nova and Brazilian popular music. He was considered in 2000 one of the best jazz contemporary musicians by South Florida "New Times" magazine and listed in the world´s top 100 guitarists by Brazil´s Guitar Player magazine in 2006.

Steve Rudolph

Born: April 10, 1949

Born in Evansville, Indiana, Steve studied trumpet and composition under scholarship at Butler University. He switched his instrumental focus to the piano at age 22 and was hired by Buddy Morrow to perform with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1977. Since moving to Harrisburg PA in 1978, he has been largely responsible for the growth and development of the thriving jazz scene in Central Pennsylvania. Steve is Past President and a founder of the Central PA Friends of Jazz, one of the most successful jazz organizations in the country. Presented as an “Emerging Artist” at the Jazz Times Convention in New York City in 1998 and winner of the 1999 Jazziz Magazine - Seven Springs Jazz Festival Piano Competition, Steve also received the prestigious 2002 Harrisburg Arts Award for his service to the community

Lyn Stanley

Born: March 10

Discovered in 2010 by world class jazz pianist and legend, Paul Smith, Lyn Stanley entered singing with the world’s most famous accompanist, Paul Smith and his trio, four months after meeting her. Lyn was born in Tacoma Washington, the same birth town as singers Diane Schuur and Janis Paige. Her dad played piano by ear in the style of Erroll Garner, and Lyn was an attentive listener at an early age. She also had a grandfather who was an opera singer and an uncle who sang tenor roles in local theater groups in Long Beach, CA. Lyn Stanley entered the singing world through a side door—ballroom dancing

Dan Redner

Dan is an active musical director, pianist, & educator in the Austin community and the owner of Dan Redner Music LLC, teaching weekly piano lessons to 60+ students of all ages and experience levels, in addition to presenting various concerts and clinics to students at schools and universities.  Dan is active nationally as a contributing member to the Austin District Music Teachers Association (ADMTA), the Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA), the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), the Jazz Education Network (JEN), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and American Artists Project (AAP).  Recent performances include the National Broadway Tour of Disney’s the Little Mermaid, Disney’s Aladdin the Musical, and Tina Fey’s smash hit Mean Girls the Musical at Bass Concert Hall, in addition to newly released albums The Heights Life and Redner/Durham/Parks Live to Two.  Last summer, Dan performed at the famed Rose Theater @ Jazz At Lincoln Center in NYC as the MD & Pianist for the Broadway musical revue, Sing out. 
 
As a 2007 alumnus of Grand Valley State University (hometown - Grand Rapids, Michigan), Dan was a founding member of the New Music Ensemble.  Their album of Steve Reich’s composition Music for 18 Musicians, (Innova Recordings label) was named among the top recordings of 07’ by the New York Times, L.A. Weekly, The Rest Is Noise, and New York Magazine while reaching the top of iTunes’ and Amazon’s classical charts and spending eleven weeks on Billboard’s top 25 classical crossover chart.  The ensemble performed at the 2007 “Bang on a Can” New Music Festival at the World Financial Center in NYC and are featured on National Public Radio.
 
Previously, Dan performed around the world for 6+ years with Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Azamara Cruises, directing various Broadway, revue, and cabaret shows.  In August 2011, Dan relocated to Austin, Texas in pursuance of a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies & Performance from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.  Dan can be heard performing solo, with the Dan Redner Trio, the Gil Del Bosque Quintet, and with Austin’s premier 10-piece funk, soul, & Motown group the Matchmaker Band.
 
Credits include: Maria Schneider, Ann Hampton Callaway, The Drifters, The Coasters, Tony Tillman, Yakov Smirnov, Marty Allen, Lenny Welch, Toby Beau, Pearl Kaufman and countless other singers, comedians, and stage acts.  Dan continuously shares the spotlight with the best musicians Austin has to offer, performing at weddings, receptions, churches, clubs, restaurants, theaters, and more. A tour schedule, media, lesson information, and more can be found via www.danrednermusic.com. 

Guy Paz

Born: July 14, 1992

Drummer, Composer, and Producer Guy Paz is one of the most accomplished musical voices emerging on the Israeli and US jazz, indie, funk, folk, pop, soul and R&B music scenes today. In his short time in the United States, Mr. Paz has gained international recognition as one of the most exciting and unique artists in the NYC music scene. Mr. Paz has recorded, performed and toured with many world renowned musicians and bands such as: Daryl Johns (Goodfight, The Lemon Twigs, Macy Gray), Nick Rashad Burroughs (��Kinky Boots��), Daniel Carter (William Parker, Federico Ughi, ��Test��), Dida Pelled (Roy Hargrove, Gregory Hutchinson, Helik Hadar, Sam Yahel), Yuval Cohen (3 Cohens, Lee Konitz, Lew Soloff, Arnie Lawrence), Tamika Lawrence, Modern Diet, Mustardmind, Elizabeth Wyld, Courtney McKenna, and Naama Gheber