"Originally from Germany, Ingrid Laubrock resides in Brooklyn, NY. Between 1989 and 2009 she was active as a saxophonist and composer in London/UK. She performed and/or recorded with: Anthony Braxton, Dave Douglas, Kenny Wheeler, Jason Moran, Tim Berne, William Parker, Tom Rainey, Mary Halvorson, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Craig Taborn, Luc Ex, Django Bates' Human Chain, The Continuum Ensemble and many others.

Ingrid's current projects as a leader are Anti-House, Sleepthief, Ingrid Laubrock Orchestra, Ingrid Laubrock Sextet and Ubatuba. Collaborations include LARK,Haste,Paradoxical Frog and Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey Duo.She is a member of Anthony Braxton's Falling River Music Quartet, Nonet and 12+1tet, Tom Rainey Trio and Obbligato, Andrew Drury's Content Provider, Mary Halvorson Septet, Kris' Davis Quintet, Nate Wooley's Battle Pieces and Luc Ex' Assemblée. Ingrid was one of the featured soloists in Anthony Braxton's opera Trillium J.

Awards include the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation in 2004, a Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation in 2006, the 2009 SWR German Radio Jazz Prize and the 2014 German Record Critics Quarterly Award. Commissions include Jammy Dodgers for jazz quintet and dancers (2006), Nonet music for Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2007, SWR New Jazz Meeting 2011 and "Vogelfrei", a piece for chamber orchestra (ACO/Tricentric Foundation). She won Rising Star/soprano saxophone in the 2015 in the 'Downbeat Annual Critics Poll and won the 'El Intruso Critics Poll for tenor saxophone in 2013. Ingrid was Improviser in Residence 2012 in the German city Moers. The post is created to introduce creative music into the city throughout the year. As part of this she led a regular improvisation ensemble and taught sound workshops in elementary schools. Other teaching experiences include improvisation workshops at Towson University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Baruch College, University of Michigan, University of Newcastle and many others."

"Susanne Blumenthal is one of the most versatile conductors of her generation. She studied choral conducting and later gained further experience through masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Sylvain Cambreling and David Zinman, as well as completing several opera internships.

In 2007 Blumenthal won First Prize at the Bergische Symphoniker Conducting Competition and in 2009Ð10 was a scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy, where she conducted several concerts in collaboration with Helmut Lachenmann, Hans Zender, Nicolaus A. Huber, Friedrich Cerha and Johannes Kalitzke among others.

Blumenthal has served as musical director at the Frankfurt Theatre, and is the conductor of ensemble MAM. Manufaktur fŸr aktuelle Musik and the EOS Kammerorchester Kšln. Since 2014 she has been lecturer in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule fŸr Musik und Theater, Leipzig. http://www.susanneblumenthal.com"

"Sam Pluta is a New York City-based composer, laptop improviser, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on the laptop as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class instrumental improvisers. By creating unique interactions of electronics, instruments, and sonic spaces, Pluta's vibrant musical universe fuses the traditionally separate sound worlds of acoustic instruments and electronics, creating sonic spaces which envelop the audience and resulting in a music focused on visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds. As a composer of instrumental music, Sam has written works for Wet Ink Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, Timetable Percussion, Mivos Quartet, RIOT Trio, Ensemble Dal Niente, Jessie Marino, Mantra Percussion, TAK, Dave Eggar, and Prism Saxophone Quartet. His compositions range from solo instrumental works to pieces for ensemble with electronics to compositions for large ensemble and orchestra. In addition to acoustic and electro-acoustic works, Pluta has written extensive solo electronic repertoire ranging from multi-channel acousmatic compositions to solo laptop works with video to laptop ensemble compositions for up to 15 players.

As an improviser, Sam has collaborated with some of the finest creative musicians in the world, including Peter Evans, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Craig Taborn, Jim Black, Anne La Berge, and George Lewis. Sam is a member of multiple improvisation-based ensembles, the jazz influenced Peter Evans Quintet, the free improvisation-based Rocket Science (with Evan Parker, Craig Taborn and Peter Evans), the analog synth and laptop duo exclusiveOr (with Jeff Snyder), his longstanding duo with Peter Evans, and the New York City-based power group Sonic Overload (with Jim Altieri, Dan Peck, Tom Blancarte, Peter Evans, and Jeff Snyder). Sam has also performed with the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. With these various groups he has toured Europe and America and performed at major festivals and venues, such as the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Moers and Donaueshingen Festivals in Germany, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and The Vortex in London. Sam is the Technical Director for the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group for whom he is a member composer as well as principal electronics performer. As a performer of chamber music with Wet Ink and other groups, in addition to his own works, Sam has performed and premiered works by Peter Ablinger, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Katharina Rosenberger, George Lewis, Ben Hackbarth, Alvin Lucier, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels among others.

Dr Pluta studied composition and electronic music at Columbia University, where he received his DMA in 2012. He received Masters degrees from the University of Birmingham in the UK and the University of Texas at Austin, and completed his undergraduate work at Santa Clara University. His principal teachers include George Lewis, Brad Garton, Tristan Murail, Fabien Levy, Scott Wilson, Jonty Harrison, Russell Pinkston, Lynn Shurtleff, and Bruce Pennycook. A dedicated pedagogue, Sam teaches Composing with Sound and Technology and Improvisation at Bennington College. From 2011-15 he directed the Electronic Music Studio at Manhattan School of Music, and has taught Music Humanities and The History of Sound Art at Columbia University. For the past 15 years he has taught composition, musicianship, electronic music, and an assortment of specialty courses at the Walden School, where he also serves as Director of Electronic Music and Academic Dean."

"Pianist Cory Smythe works actively in new, classical, and improvised music. He has performed widely, making appearances as soloist and chamber musician at the Darmstadt International Festival for New Music, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago, and the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center. In recent seasons, Smythe has played alongside violinist Hilary Hahn in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. A Washington Post review of the duo's performance at the Kennedy Center praised Smythe for "...the ferocity and finesse of his technique." Their Grammy-winning album, In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, documents Hahn's diverse collection of newly commissioned encores for violin and piano.

As a core member of the new music group the International Contemporary Ensemble, Smythe has given numerous premieres, collaborated in the development of new pieces, and worked closely with composers John Zorn, Philippe Hurel, Dai Fujikura, George Lewis, and Alvin Lucier among many others. ICE's 2013 release on Mode Records features Smythe as the piano soloist in Iannis Xenakis's 'Palimpsest'. Smythe has also been a featured guest and soloist with many new music ensembles throughout the United States, including Milwaukee's Present Music, the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He performs regularly in collaboration with many of the leading concert artists of his generation, appearing this last season with the cellist Joshua Roman, violinist Karen Gomyo, the Imani Winds, and members of the Providence and Rubens string quartets.

An innovative improviser, Smythe performs as a soloist and in collaboration with a wide array of jazz and creative artists, among them, most recently, Peter Evans, Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, and Anthony Braxton. This season will see the release of recordings featuring Smythe in projects led by Tyshawn Sorey and Nate Wooley. Smythe's own album, Pluripotent - described by celebrated jazz pianist Jason Moran as "hands down one of the best solo recordings I've ever heard" - is available for free download at corysmythe.bandcamp.com.

Smythe holds degrees in classical piano performance from the music schools at Indiana University and the University of Southern California, where he studied with Luba Edlina-Dubinsky and Dr. Stewart Gordon, respectively. He currently resides in New York City."

"Robert Landfermann Doublebass born 1982 in Bonn.

Studies:

1998 - 2002 Doublebass lessons in Bonn with Gunnar Plümer

2002 - 2007 Jazz-Doublebass in Cologne "Musikhochschule für Musik und Tanz"

2007 - 2009 special degree "Konzertexamen" with Prof Dieter Manderscheid

since 2011 teaching Jazz Doublebass at the Folkwang university of arts in Essenworked with:

Joachim Kühn, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Yo-Yo Ma, Django Bates, Tomasz Stanko, Barre Philips, John Taylor, Lenine, Dave Liebman, Simon Nabatov, Chris Potter, John Hollenbecks 'Claudia Quintet', Hilmar Jensen, Urs Leimgruber, Jim Black, Peter Evans, Manfred Schoof, Tobias Delius, Achim Kaufmann, Julian Argueilles, Frank Gratkowski, Thomas Lehn, Mederic Collignon, Gerd Dudek, Stephane Guillaume, Charlie Mariano, Kinan Azmeh, Markus Stockhausen, Cino Palagliesu, Rudi Mahall, Tetsu Saitoh, Claudio Puntin, Steffen Schorn, Axel Dörner, Wolfgang Haffner, Ian Thomas, Ben Perowski, Danny Gottlieb, NDR BigBand, Rhani Krija...Concerts:

In about 50 Countries on 5 Continents:

China, Indonesia, Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, South Corea, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominicanian Republic, Salvador, Brasil, Bolivia, Equador, Columbia, Tunesia, Maroc, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Cape Verde, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Danmark, Luxemburg, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Zyprus, Kasachstan, Kirgistan, Bulgaria, Albania, Rumania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway...

In famous Concerthalls:

Sydney Opera, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Mozartsaal Wien, Cité de la musique Paris, Megaron Musikis Athen, L'auditori Barcelona, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Theatre Marni Brussels, "stone" NYC, Beethovenhaus Bonn, Bozar Brussels, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Brucknerhaus Linz, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Philharmony Essen, Philharmony Cologne, Philharmony Luxemburg, Filharmonia Krakowska, Krzysztof Penderecki Centre for Music, NOSPR Concert Hall Katowice, Konserthuset Stockholm...

On national and international Festivals:

Vancouver Jazzfestival, North-Sea-festival, JazzNow Sydney, Kopenhagen Jazzfestival, Jazzfest Berlin, Casa del Jazz Rom, London Jazzfestival, Glasgow Jazzfestival, JazzNoJazz Zürich, 12points! 2010 Stavanger Norway, 12points! 2008 Dublin, Moers Jazzfestival, Jazz.pt Lissabon, Duketown Festival s'Hertogenbosch, Coimbra Jazzfestival, The Hague Den Haag, Portalegre Jazzfestival, Salzau Jazz-Baltica, Jazzfestival Burghausen, INNtöne, Leverkusener Jazztage, Elbjazz, Hamburger Jazztage, Münster Jazzfestival, Jazzrallye Düsseldorf, Traumzeit Festival, Gnaua festival Essauira...Awards:

SWR-Jazzpreis 2014

NRW-Förderpreis 2013

WDR-Jazzpreis 2009

New German Jazzaward 2009 with Frederik Köster Quartett

Horst und Gretl-Will Stipendium - Culture-Price of the City of Cologne 2009

German Member of the European Jazz Orchestra connected to the EBU in 2008"

"Thomas "Tom" Rainey (born 1957, Santa Barbara, California) is an American drummer.

After attending Berklee College of Music he moved to New York in 1979. He has played with American jazz saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, and also with Nels Cline, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Tom Varner, Drew Gress, Kenny Werner, Mark Helias, and Simon Nabatov. A prolific session musician, he has appeared on close to eighty recordings over a career spanning over 25 years.

He released his own first album, Pool School (Clean Feed), in 2010."

"Multi-instrumentalist/composer/improviser, Zeena Parkins, pioneer of contemporary harp practice and performance, reimagines the instrument as a "sound machine of limitless capacity." Parkins has built three versions of her one-of-a-kind electric harp and has extended the language of the acoustic harp with the inventive use of unusual playing techniques, preparations, and layers of electronic processing.

Inspired and connected to visual arts, dance, film, and history, Zeena follows a unique path in creating her compositional works. Through blending and morphing of both real and imagined instruments, crafting, recombining, and layering mangled, sliced, massaged or possibly disengaged sounds, drawing from extra-musical sources for unusual scoring and formal constructions as well as utilizing multi-speaker environments, Zeena remains in process with sound as material and music, engaged in translations of sonic states in the concert hall, the black box theater, the dance studio, the recording studio, the classroom, the cinema, the skyscraper, the ocean and the gallery. Zeena has a particularly strong commitment to making scores for dance and continues to re-evaluate the nature and issues of the body's imprint on sound and sound/music's imprint on movement.

Parkins's compositions have been commissioned by NeXtWorks Ensemble, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Roulette Intermedium, The Eclipse Quartet, William Winant, Bang on a Can, The Whitney Museum, The Tate Modern, Montalvo Arts Center, The Donaueschinger Musiktage and Sudwestrundfunk/SWR.

Parkins has released four solo records featuring her electric and acoustic harp playing and has released her compositions and band projects on six Tzadik recordings, with a new Tzadik CD with Ikue Mori and Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Trouble in Paradise, to be released in November 2012. As a sought-after collaborator Zeena has worked with: Fred Frith, Björk, Ikue Mori, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Maja Ratkje, Hild Sofie Tafjord, John Zorn, Butch Morris, Chris Cutler, Elliott Sharp, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, William Winant, Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay, Matmos, Yasunao Tone, So Percussion, Bobby Previte, Carla Kilhstedt, Tin Hat, James Fei, Kim Gordon, Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore.

Awards: The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship, NYFA Music Fellowship, Meet the Composer Commission, NYSCA Composer Commission, Multi-Arts Production Fund Grant, American Music Center, BAFTA award for best interactive media with visual artist Mandy McIntosh and sound artist Kaffe Matthews, Peter S. Reed Fellowship, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Commissions, Arts International, Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention for Phantom Orchard in the Digital Music category.

Curatorial: Guest curator for The Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, co-curator of the Movement Research Festival: Sidewinder, in NYC and curator for a month + a week of shows at The Stone in NYC

Residencies: Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Oxford University, Harvestworks, Steim, Paf: Performing Arts Forum, Wooda Arts Residency, Montalvo Arts Center, RPI/iEAR and The Watermill Center.

Teaching: Zeena has given lectures at Oxford and Princeton Universities and has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Bard and Mills College. Currently, Zeena is a Distinguished Visiting Professor, at Mills College Graduate Music Department."

"Adam Matlock works as an accordionist, composer, vocalist, and educator living and working in New Haven, CT. Matlock writes songs under the name An Historic, building narratives accompanied by musical inspirations from Balkan music and Klezmer, Soul, and various strains of rock. An Historic exists as a solo project, but is reinforced live and on record with the members of Dr. Caterwauls Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, a folky/jazzy band adding trombone, fiddle, banjo and accordion to the standard rock instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums. He also composes under his own name, most notably the opera Red Giant(2014) for 6 piece ensemble and three singers, and Earthseed Songs (2012) for voice and two instrumentalists. Matlock also began to expand his role as a performer in 2009, playing original music and interpretations with projects including An Historic, Broadcloth, Gzara, and Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps. He has recorded, performed, or improvised with artists including Anthony Braxton, Mario Pavone, Ceschi, Vinny Golia, Sigh, and Clara Engel, and works as a group and private teacher in the New Haven area."

"Josh Modney is a violinist devoted to creative musicmaking. A "new-music luminary", "superb violinist" (The New York Times) and "multitasking virtuoso" (The New Yorker) hailed for "brash, energetic performances" (The New York Times), Josh has performed at festivals and concert series across four continents and presented hundreds of premieres.

Josh is violinist and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a unique collection of composers, improvisers, and interpreters committed to making adventurous music, and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), "America's foremost new-music group" (Alex Ross). Josh performed internationally with the Mivos Quartet for 8 years, a vital new-music string quartet that he co-founded in 2008.

Josh has collaborated closely on new work with composers including Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Andrew Greenwald and Rick Burkhardt, and worked with major figures including Kaija Saariaho, Mathias Spahlinger, Helmut Lachenmann, George Lewis, Christian Wolff, and Peter Ablinger.

As an improviser, Josh has performed with artists including Sam Pluta, Nate Wooley and Patrick Higgins (ZS), among others, and recently recorded "Engage", his debut album of original music for solo violin. Josh has a passion for large-scale performance projects, and has presented evening-length chamber works including Mathias Spahlinger's "extension", for violin and piano (with Wet Ink's Eric Wubbels) and Wolfgang Rihm's "Musik für Drei Streicher" (with ICE), as well as adventurous interpretations of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin informed by his work with Just Intonation.

Josh has recorded for Carrier Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Sound American Publications, hat[now]ART, Nonesuch, Ex Cathedra, and Tzadik Records. He holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (M.M. in contemporary performance) and Ithaca College."