"Sofia Jernberg (born 5 July 1983, Ethiopia) is a Swedish experimental singer and composer.

Between 2002 and 2004, Jernberg studied jazz at Fridhems Folk High School. Later she studied for Per Mårtensson and Henrik Strindberg at The Gotland School of Music Composition. In 2008, she received the Royal Swedish Academy of Music's jazz award.

Jernberg is the leader (together with the pianist Cecilia Persson) of the chamber jazz group Paavo. The group received the "jazz group of the year" award from Swedish Radio.

Jernberg is also working on the contemporary classical music scene, in which she serves as both singer and composer. As a singer she has premiered pieces by composers such as Lars Bröndum. She was a soloist with Norrbotten NEO when they performed Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Jernberg has composed for several established ensembles such as Duo ego and Norrbotten NEO."

"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."

"Chicago based cellist, composer and educator, Tomeka Reid has been described as "a remarkably versatile player," (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune). Equally adept in classical and jazz contexts, Ms. Reid predominantly finds herself in experimental and improvisatory settings and composes for a wide range of instrumentation, from big band to chamber ensemble. Ms. Reid's music combines her love for groove along with freer concepts.

Ms. Reid is an integral part of Dee Alexander's Evolution Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble/Strings, Mike Reed's Loose Assembly, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) Great Black Music Ensemble, and co-leads the internationally recognized string trio, Hear in Now with performances in Poznan, Poland; Paris, France; Rome, Venice, Milan, Italy; Soazza, Switzerland; and in the US: Chicago, New York and Vermont. In addition to the aforementioned ensembles, Ms. Reid performs with many of today's forward thinking musicians in the world of jazz and creative music including Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, Jeb Bishop, Myra Melford, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Mary Halvorson, Denis Fournier, Edward Wilkerson and Harrison Bankhead. Ms. Reid also leads her own trio featuring guitarist Matt Schneider and bassist Josh Abrams, for which she composes. Ms. Reid can be heard on numerous studio recordings.

As an educator, Ms. Reid has led string improvisation workshops in Italy and the US. Most recently she co-directed the 2012 Vancouver Jazz Festival’s High School Jazz Intensive. For seven years, Ms. Reid co-directed the string program at the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School for students grade 5 thru 12. Ms. Reid is also an ABD doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign.

As a composer, Ms. Reid has been commissioned by the AACM, the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and has had several opportunities to showcase her work abroad at festivals such as Umbria Jazz, An Insolent Noise and Vignola Jazz. She has been nominated and awarded residencies for composition with the Ragdale Foundation and the 2nd Annual Make Jazz Fellowship hosted by the 18th Street Arts Organization. Ms. Reid was selected as a 2012 participant in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute held at the University of California: Los Angeles."

"Peter Evans is a trumpet player, and improvisor/composer based in New York City since 2003. Evans is part of a broad, hybridized scene of musical experimentation and his work cuts across a wide range of modern musical practices and traditions. Peter is committed to the simultaneously self-determining and collaborative nature of musical improvisation as a compositional tool, and works with an ever-expanding group of musicians and composers in the creation of new music. His primary groups as a leader are the Peter Evans Quintet and the Zebulon trio. In addition, Evans has been performing and recording solo trumpet music since 2002 and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field, having released several recordings over the past decade. He is a member of the cooperative groups Pulverize the Sound (with Mike Pride and Tim Dahl) and Rocket Science (with Evan Parker, Craig Taborn and Sam Pluta) and is constantly experimenting and forming new configurations with like minded players. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Yarn/Wire, the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival, the Jerome Foundation's Emerging Artist Program, and the Doris Duke Foundation for the 2015 Newport Jazz Festival. Evans has presented and/or performed his works at major festivals worldwide and tours his own groups extensively. He has worked with some of the leading figures in new music: John Zorn, Kassa Overall, Jim Black, Weasel Walter, Levy Lorenzo, Nate Wooley, Steve Schick, Mary Halvorson, Joe McPhee, George Lewis, and performs with both ICE and the Wet Ink Ensemble. He has been releasing recordings on his own label, More is More, since 2011."

"Praised for "amazing virtuosity" by The Chicago Tribune as well as his ability to "show off the instrument's malleability and freakish extended range as well as its delicacy and refinement" by The Chicago Reader, Ryan Muncy is a saxophonist who performs, commissions, and presents new music. His work emphasizes collaborative relationships with composers and artists of his generation and aims to reimagine the way listeners experience the saxophone through contemporary music. He is a recipient of the Kranichstein Music Prize awarded at the 46th International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt, a Fulbright Fellowship in France, the Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists, the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship of the Fondation des États-Unis Paris, and has participated in the creation of more than 150 new works for the instrument.

His debut solo album Hot was released by New Focus Recordings to critical acclaim, praised as "absorbing" (Alex Ross) and "one of the year's best albums" (Time Out New York). Muncy's second solo album, ism, was released in 2016 by TUNDRA/New Focus Recordings, with his performances heralded by The Chicago Tribune for their "technical prowess."

Muncy is the saxophonist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a New York-based collective of 36 leading new-music specialists dedicated to reshaping the way music is created and experienced. During the 2018-19 season, the ensemble presented more than 180 concerts worldwide, including 45 presented through OpenICE, the ensemble's outpouring of programming which is free and public. In addition to his role as saxophonist, Muncy has served as the organization's Director of Institutional Giving (2014-present) and Co-Director of the OpenICE program (2015-2019). Additionally, he performs regularly with Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Tilted Head Ensemble, and carries out solo projects each season in the US and Europe.

Muncy has been a soloist at international music festivals including The Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart, the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany), and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City) for the U.S. premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klang, in which the New York Times described his performance of Edentia as a highlight of the entire cycle-"especially memorable... a solitary walker inside a tornado." His collaborations with composer Wang Lu have been a highlight; On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous-their ongoing collaborative project with poet Ocean Vuong and guitarist Dan Lippel-was premiered in 2017, and, in April 2019, he was soloist with the Berlin-based Ensemble Mosaik for the world premiere of Wang Lu's new work Transplant, Transpose. Additionally, Muncy has been a guest curator for the City of Chicago's Loops and Variations concert series at the Chicago Cultural Center (2013-14) and was a soloist with the Amazonas Philharmonic (Manaus, Brazil) in September 2014 for the second-ever performance of Salvatore Sciarrino's Graffito Sul Mare.

He performs frequently on major stages for contemporary music, including Wien Modern, LA Phil's Noon to Midnight, Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum (Krakow), Time Spans Festival (NYC), The Met Museum's METlive, Montréal Nouvelles Musiques International Festival, the Miller Theater's Composer Portrait Series, The Park Avenue Armory, the U.S. Library of Congress, MATA Festival, Prototype Festival, The Stone, and EMPAC at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, as well as World Saxophone Congresses in Bangkok and Montreal, TV Em Tempo (Brazil) and classical radio stations WQXR (New York), WFMT (Chicago), including Q2's Meet The Composer podcast hosted by Nadia Sirota. He has recorded for numerous labels including New Amsterdam, New Focus Recordings, Carrier Records, Kairos, Wergo, and TUNDRA.

A devoted educator and pedagogue, Muncy has served on the music faculties of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, Alberta), Northern Illinois University's School of Music as an instructor of saxophone and music business, and has held numerous residencies and conducted arts management workshops at universities and cultural institutions across North America.

Muncy has built collaborative relationships with many composers whose works he has premiered, including Ashley Fure, Tyshawn Sorey, Steven Takasugi, Chaya Czernowin, George Lewis, Wang Lu, Wojtek Blecharz, Marcos Balter, Anthony Cheung, Christian Wolff, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Matana Roberts. His goal of bringing new music to new audiences has led to continental premieres of works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Georges Aperghis, Beat Furrer, Olga Neuwirth, Mark Andre, Liza Lim, Giorgio Netti, Enno Poppe, Pierluigi Billone, Dai Fujikura, and Hans Thomalla, amongst others.

In 2012, Muncy received the Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, where he studied with Frederick L. Hemke. His past teachers include John Sampen (2006 MM, Bowling Green State University), John-Michel Goury (2007 C.O.P., CRR Boulogne-Billancourt, France), Jean-Yves Fourmeau (CNR Cergy-Pontoise, France), George Wolfe (2003 BM, Ball State University), Caroline Hartig, and Ron Jones. He is a Conn-Selmer Artist and performs on Selmer Paris saxophones."

"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."

"David Leon is a Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwinds player, and composer/improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His diverse musical output is guided by an exploration of nuance: in timbre by creatively manipulating saxophone technique, in pitch by tampering with equal temperament and employing microtonality, and in texture possibility through orchestration and improvisation.

As the winner of the 2017 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer's Award, David debuted a new quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival in August of that year. In November 2018, he performed alongside pianist Kris Davis as part of The Jazz Gallery's Mentoring Series. Most recently, David was selected by New Music USA's 2021 Creator Development Fund to further develop his ensemble Bird's Eye - a new trio with Doyeon Kim on kayageum and Lesley Mok on percussion.

Other solo endeavors include Aire De Agua - a quartet which released it's debut recording in August 2021 on Out Of Your Head Records, the Current Obsession series - which documents improvisations with current collaborators, Trio, and the co-led chamber project Sound Underground. An active sideperson, David has collaborated with artists including Dafnis Prieto, Ingrid Laubrock, Francisco Mela, Kris Davis, Justin Vernon, Brian Lynch, Adam O'Farrill, Cory Smythe, Jim Black, Chris Pitsiokos, Arturo O'Farrill, Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek, Matt Mitchell, Henry Fraser, Kalia Vandever, Michael Attias, Tom Rainey, and others.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, David discovered a love for music in his uncle's collection of global percussion instruments. After starting formal instruction on piano he found the saxophone by chance, and was accepted into the prestigious New World School of the Arts high school to study jazz. He quickly garnered national recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation, the GRAMMY Foundation, the ASCAP Foundation, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Band of America. His trio #bicmnrosfulmfrenh was recognized as the Best Small Ensemble by Downbeat Magazine's Student Music Awards in 2016.

David graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, as a member of the cross-genre Henry Mancini Institute. In addition, David is a two-time alumni of the Kennedy Center's Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program and the Banff Centre in Canada. He has been mentored by Terence Blanchard, Kris Davis, Manley "Piri" Lopez, and Ira Sullivan."

"Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated bassist/composer Stephan Crump has lived in Brooklyn since 1994. An active bandleader and composer, he has released ten critically-acclaimed albums in addition to numerous film scoring contributions. As bassist, known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many of the leading lights of his generation.

Shunning barriers of genre, Crump has performed and recorded with a diverse range of musicians, from Portishead's Dave McDonald, The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, to Patti Austin, Jim Campilongo, Jorma Kaukonen, Lucy Kaplansky, Big Ass Truck, Sonny Fortune, and late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. Currently, he can be heard as a long-standing member of Vijay Iyer Trio and Sextet, Jen Chapin Band, Ches Smith Trio, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Sextet, Secret Keeper (with Mary Halvorson), his own Rosetta Trio, as well as groups with Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, Eric McPherson, Mat Maneri, and Okkyung Lee.

Stephan comes from a family of architects, sculptors, painters, storytellers, musicians, civic leaders, and craftsmen. He was raised in music and the arts by his Parisian mother, an amateur pianist, and his Memphian father, an architect, painter, and jazz drummer. After six years of classical piano study and two years with the alto saxophone, he got his first bass guitar at age thirteen and spent his high school years playing in rock and funk bands around Memphis. During the summers, he worked in the studio of his uncle, Stephen, a wood sculptor.

Crump received his Bachelor of Music degree from Amherst College, where he studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlin and was awarded the Sundquist Prize for performance and composition. It was at Amherst that he began his acoustic bass journey, with a focus on classical training that culminated in a year of study in Paris with Gary Karr-protégé Patrick Hardouineau. His jazz studies at Amherst included work with Max Roach, Frank Foster, and Ray Drummond.

Crump launched his solo performance career as an invited artist at the 2009 International Society of Bassists conference and has since released several recordings documenting his duo collaborations with alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist James Carney, and guitarist Mary Halvorson. His all-string Rosetta Trio, with Jamie Fox and Liberty Ellman, is working toward their fourth album, while and his Rhombal quartet, with Tyshawn Sorey, Ellery Eskelin, and Adam O'Farrill, recently released its eponymous debut.

Stephan is an enthusiastic endorser of Velvet strings, Aguilar bass amplifiers, AMT acoustic bass microphones, and David Gage Czech Ease travel bass."

"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."