Gwen Laster is a nationally acclaimed musician who has been the recipient of awards by the National Endowment for the Arts, MPower Sphinx, Jubilation Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Arts Mid Hudson, Lila Wallace, and the Cognac Hennessey 1st place Jazz Search. She began her love for improvising and composing because of her parents' love of jazz, blues, soul and classical music played endlessly on the record player and her progressive jazz music educators from Detroit's public schools.
Gwen Laster is many things: A virtuoso violinist with exquisite taste. An adventurous composer, arranger and orchestrator. A classically-trained artist with a deep appreciation for America's musical history, and a scholar of African- American musical heritage. A socially conscious activist and educator who understands the power of music to reach and touch everyday people. Her playing is poignant, descriptive and always relevant.
Melanie Dyer performs and composes in creative, improvised and through-composed music spheres. She trained with William Lincer (Principal Violist, New York Philharmonic), Lee Yeingst (Principal Violist, Colorado Symphony Orchestra), John Jake Kella (NY Metropolitan Opera) and Naomi Fellows (Colorado Symphony Orchestra); and studied viola performance at the LaMont School of Music/University of Denver.
Melanie founded WeFreeStrings, an improvising string/rhythm collective rooted in improvised music in 2011. From 2004 – 2013, under her Bb Universe banner and in collaboration with the multi-generational, multi-ethnic Scientific Soul Sessions collective, Melanie’s Harlem home became the scene of underground public performances by WeFreeStrings and other large and small music ensembles. Bb Universe hosted open rehearsals and performances, recordings, lectures, one-act plays and films
Teddy Rankin-Parker is a cellist based in Brooklyn. Wearing the hats of composer and performance artist, he has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia in a variety of contexts including chamber orchestras, free improvised settings, and electro-acoustic music. Teddy has performed, toured, and recorded with artists including Primus, Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Father John Misty, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble N_JP, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta, Magik*Magik Orchestra, Renee' Baker's Mantra Blue Free Orchestra, and Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble.
Andrew Drury is a drummer, improviser, composer, and bandleader as well as a presenter, producer, educator, and a pioneer of extended techniques for percussion. Rooted in a fascination for Jazz and African-diasporic creativity that began in childhood, and further inspired by a nearly decade-long mentorship with the drummer Ed Blackwell, Drury’s work is in the tradition of those who inspired him in that it doesn’t conform to fixed limitations and always explores the infinite. Originally from Seattle, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Drury performs as a soloist, leads the quartet Content Provider, leads large ensembles, produces audio and video work, and collaborates with adventurous musicians and artists in many contexts. He has performed in 30 countries and on nearly 80 recordings. He has presented over 130 concerts (with excellent soup) in his Soup & Sound music series in his home in Brooklyn and in neighborhoods around Brooklyn and co-founded and runs the non-profit organization, Continuum Culture & Arts. He has given masterclasses in 20 universities on three continents, and has led over 1,500 workshops in schools, prisons, museums, homeless shelters, shelters for battered women, with Kurdish refugees in Germany, on Indian reservations (including the Oneida Nation where he was artist-in-residence for six months in 2000) and in remote villages in Guatemala and Nicaragua. His work has consistently received critical acclaim throughout his career.
