"Danishta Rivero is an improviser, performer, and sound artist based in Oakland, California. She explores the artifacts resulting from heavy processing of the voice and their relationship to its acoustic resonance.

As a soloist, Rivero often performs as Caribay, conjuring the eponymous mountain spirit, whose laments cause avalanches.

She is a member of electro-acoustic duo Voicehandler with percussionist Jacob Felix Heule. She is also half of Las Sucias, a feminist tropical noise duo with Alexandra Buschman-Román."

"Kanoko Nishi-Smith is a pianist/improviser currently active in SF/Bay Area. She teaches Classical piano to children of all ages and levels, with a focus on musicality and individuality while still keeping the important basics of Classical piano training. She herself began piano studies at age three in Japan, concentrating on Classical repertoire until age 18. She then entered BA in Music Performance program at Mills College in Oakland and discovered Free-improvisation, Experimental, electronic, as well as other Contemporary music, all of which drastically broadened her interest. She now primarily performs as an improviser on both piano and her second instrument, koto (Japanese 13-string zither), in solo, as well as in collaborative contexts with various other musicians, dancers, and poets.

Since her graduation from Mills, she has also devoted much of her life to caring for children and adults with developmental disabilities. She is familiar with Applied Behavioral Analysis methods for working with children with Autism, having worked as a Registered Behavior Technician, and currently working on her graduate degree in Early Childhood Special Education. Through working in different areas of the lives of individuals with various personalities and needs, she has developed a strong intuition and versatility in building deep, individualized relationships that she draws from in her teaching practice."

"Jacob Felix Heule is a percussionist and electronic musician focused on sound-oriented improvisation following the traditions of electro-acoustic improv, noise, and 20th-century composition. His playing embraces both rough-edged intensity and disciplined instrumental technique."

"Composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann's work extends from a Western classical foundation into genre-bending gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. A busy and varied performance schedule and appearances on more than 60 recordings have led to his recognition as "an excellent composer, striking the right balance between form and freedom" (Signal to Noise), "a modern day renaissance musician" (Dusted) and "a seasoned improviser with impressive extended technique and peculiar artistic flair" (All Music Guide).

Shortly after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, he joined forces with acclaimed new music collective sfSound and with Quinteto Latino (a woodwind quintet specializing in Latin American composers). He is now also a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds. He has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area's regional orchestras remaining active in an international community of improvisers and sound artists. Current local improvising working groups include Addleds, Shudder, and mchtnchts.

From 1996 until his westward relocation, he was a fixture in Chicago's experimental music underground, with frequent collaborators Jason Ajemian, Jim Baker, Jeb Bishop, Olivia Block, Guillermo Gregorio, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Robbie Hunsinger, Bob Marsh, Weasel Walter, and Michael Zerang. Long-term affiliations include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the "rock" monstrosity Lozenge, and the Creative Music quintet Wrack (recipient of a 2012 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works award).

Bruckmann earned undergraduate degrees in music and psychology at Rice University in Houston, studying oboe with Robert Atherholt, serving as music director of campus radio station KTRU, and achieving academic distinction as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Masters degree in 1996 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he studied oboe performance with Harry Sargous and contemporary improvisation with Ed Sarath."