Artist Category: Contemporary | Page 2

Band of Friends

The Band of Friends is a Boston based group of musicians that have been creating music together ever since they started studying at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. The band features original music rooted in bluegrass and fiddle traditions as well as drawing from inspirations from around the world. Whether they are celebrating a melody or soaring high on improvisational creations, The Band of Friends offers a fresh new perspective on string band music.

Built on longtime friendship and frequent collaboration, the Band of Friends is comprised of Sam Leslie on guitar, Ethan Setiawan on mandolin, Dan Klingsberg on bass, and Julian Pinelli on fiddle.

Gustavo Assis-Brasil

Based in Boston, USA, Gustavo Assis-Brasil began playing the guitar at the age of 13. He attended the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, to get his bachelor in classical guitar in 1995. During those years, he worked as a studio musician, private teacher and played with some important bands and projects (Nocet, Bichofolha duo w/Guilherme Barros).

In 1999 he got a full scholarship to get his Master Degree In Jazz at Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory. His main teachers were Mick Goodrick (Gary Burton, Pat Metheny), Wayne Krantz (Steely Dan, Michael Brecker), Hal Crook, Ed Tomassi, Dave Fiucsynski. Gustavo also had master-classes/lessons with Pat Metheny, Frank Gambale, Mike Stern, Dave Liebman, and John Scofield. Gustavo also studied improvisation and composition privately with the late jazz-guru Charlie Banacos and South Indian Carnatic music with Prasanna.

From 2001 to 2006, Gustavo played and toured with the group Dig Trio.

In 2005, Gustavo released the book “Hybrid Picking for Guitar”. This book is the first method entirely dedicated to the art of combining pick and fingers to play the guitar. The book is in its 3rd edition and it has been receiving praise worldwide. In 2008, he released the follow up book “Hybrid Picking Exercises: Single Note Permutations”, with more than 1,400 different exercises based entirely on math permutations. In 2011, Gustavo released his third book, “Hybrid Picking Lines and Licks”. Guthrie Govan wrote the foreword for it.

In 2016, he released the album “Chromatic Dialogues”. It was in the ballot for the 2017 Grammy Awards.

Miriam Elhajli

Miriam Elhajli is a folk singer, composer-improviser, and musicologist whose work is influenced by the rich musical traditions of her heritage. Elhajli lives in New York City where she performs & works as a researcher at The Association for Cultural Equity founded by Alan Lomax. Moving in the intersection of the vibrant avant-garde and the folkloric communities of Brooklyn, she has collaborated with musicians such as Mali Obomsawin, Adam O’Farrill, Jason Lindner, and Chris Dingman. Elhajli has released four records on her label Numina Records, a label she founded to aid in the documentation of traditional women’s music in the Maghreb and beyond. Numina is set to release Moroccan chaabi ensemble, Bnat El Houariyat’s in June of this year.
“Eclectic, with a soaring voice” – New York Music Daily

“A haunting voice” – The New York Times

OKAN

Taking their name from the word for heart or soul in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, OKAN fuses Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global rhythms in songs about immigration, bravery and love.

Embracing musical roles traditionally been occupied by men in their genres of focus, co-leaders, composers and multi-instrumentalists Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne bring a fresh perspective to Latin and world jazz through their powerful harmonies, incredible musicianship and potent lyrics.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Elizabeth Rodriguez is a classically trained violinist who served as concertmaster for Havana’s Youth Orchestra. Magdelys Savigne hails from Santiago de Cuba and graduated with honours in orchestral percussion from Havana’s University of the Arts. Both are JUNO-nominees for their work with Battle of Santiago and Grammy-nominees for their contributions to Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, of which they are former members.

Living and collaborating in the beautifully multicultural city of Toronto has enriched OKAN’s compositions with influences from Brazil, Spain and New Orleans. Backed by some of the Canada’s finest jazz and Latin players including Miguel de Armas, Roberto Riveron, Jeremy Ledbetter and Alexis Baro, OKAN launched their debut recording Laberinto in October of 2018 and will release their full-length recording in 2019.

Julian Loida

Called “one of the Boston music scene’s most valuable players” by The Art Fuse, Julian Loida is a percussionist, composer, and producer. Loida’s musical curiosity and open-mindedness has propelled him towards a wide-range of sounds, genres, and artistic endeavors. He’s performed jazz, folk, and classical, collaborating with dancers, visual artists, songwriters/composers, and musicians of all stripes. The thirst to participate in and experience this range of sounds is partly a product of Loida’s synesthesia. Music is a full- body experience for him, with sounds often invoking involuntary sensations of color, texture, or even taste.

Loida often writes and arranges for his projects and ensembles (the Cuban/Brazilian band INÃ, jazz quintet Mojubá, chamber-folk band Night Tree), and his music has been featured in film, ads, and dance performances. His interdisciplinary projects aim at breaking down artistic barriers. The evening-length solo-project Recital of Dedications incorporates speech, visual media, and music into a series of dedications to individuals, historical moments, and more. In 2018, he released the album Bach LIVE!, featuring J.S. Bach’s music arranged for percussion. Loida’s 2019 release, Wallflower, marks his solo-album debut, and also provides the clearest distillation of his voice as a composer to date. Loida’s discography continues to grow with singles and EP’s featuring vibraphone and electronics to solo piano. Julian is preparing to release his second full-length solo record in the spring of 2023.

Loida has toured internationally as a featured artist at Korrö, Sweden’s largest folk music festival, and played some of the most prestigious music festivals in the U.S. such as Spoleto, New World Festival, the Exit Zero jazz festival, Caramoor American Roots Festival, and Round Top Music Festival. He has performed with groups such as Alarm Will Sound, Castle of Our Skins, Parsonsfield, the Callithumpian Consort, Alkinoos Ioannidis, Veronica Robles, Fabiola Mendez, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, The New Bedford Symphony, and MassOpera.

As an educator, Loida shares his scores and deep rhythmic knowledge with students of all ages. In 2017, he received his Master’s Degree in Classical Percussion from New England Conservatory.

ATLYS

ATLYS, the classically trained, all-female string quartet pushes the boundaries of their genre to create an infinite world of possibilities for string quartet.

Hailed for being incredibly passionate and interactive, they create a concert atmosphere that is absolutely mesmerizing. By using looping pedals and extending the traditional string instrument technique to include atmospheric and percussive textures, ATLYS creates captivating twenty-first-century symphonies from just their four instruments. Since their founding in late 2016, ATLYS has performed nearly 1,000 concerts together, had their music featured on several collaborative albums and music videos, in motion pictures, and they were selected to represent New York’s Lincoln Center in performances around the world, including a private performance for Oprah Winfrey.

Sumaia Jackson

With driving groove and a smooth, open sound, fiddler and tunestress Sumaia Jackson is a quintessential modern West Coast fiddler. Jackson weaves together Celtic, Old-Time, Swing, and Bluegrass traditions with an easy virtuosity and melodic elegance.

Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Jackson studied classical violin, surrounding herself with many innovative and inimitable coastal string players. During her teenage years, Jackson’s musical path widened as she sought out roots music communities in Scottish, Appalachian, Jazz, and Bluegrass traditions, and spent years soaking up tunes and styles at vibrant fiddle camps. She still attends camps and workshops in the roles of student, teacher, helper, coach, or organizer. On a full scholarship, she holds a Bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music in the American Roots Music department.

Now living in the Bay Area, Jackson tours North America, Europe, and the UK with Jayme Stone’s Folklife and Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards—playing at the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Celtic Connections, Planet Bluegrass, and the Edmonton Folk Festival, and much more. She is also a member of the Real Vocal String Quartet (recipients of a 2017 Gerbode Special Grant in the Arts) and plays duo with award-winning Canadian fiddler, Adrianna Ciccone.

Kelly Thoma

Kelly Thoma was born in Piraeus in 1978. Since 1995, she has been studying the lyra with Ross Daly and three years later started travelling with him and his group, “Labyrinth”, participating in concerts in Europe, Asia, Australia and the U.S. She has taken part in many projects with musicians from various different traditions from other countries.

Being a member of “Labyrinth” and Labyrinth Musical Workshop she has had the chance to meet and play with many important musicians such as the Trio Chemirani, Omer Erdogdular, Derya Turkan, Zohar Fresco, Pedram Khavar Zamini, Dhruba Ghosh, Ballake Sissoko, Erdal Erzincan, Mehmet Erenler,Yurdal Tokcan, Ustad Mohammed Rahim Khushnawaz and many more. She participates in many of Ross Daly’s projects : Ross Daly Quartet, Seyir, Iris, White Dragon (…) as well as in ToksoFolk String Quartet, (with Anne Hytta, Eleonore Billy and Sigrun Eng) and has performed in Carnegie Hall, Theatre de la Ville, Queen Elizabeth Hall, San Francisco WMF, Rainforest WMF, Womadelaide, Rudolstadt and many important venues and festivals around the world.

She has graduated from the English Literature department of the Athens University as well as from the ”Rallou Manou” Dance School.

She has released three albums of her own compositions Anamkhara (2009), 7Fish(2014) and “As Τhe Winds Die Down” (2018).

Ross Daly

Many years before what we call “World Music” appeared on the scene, certain individuals had already understood the enormous value and vast variety of the world’s various musical traditions and had dedicated their lives to their study. One such person is Ross Daly.

Although of Irish descent, Ross Daly does not really fit into any particular ethnic stereotype given that his life has been spend in many different parts of the world and his home for the last 35 years is the island of Crete in Greece. Ross Daly, at a very early age, discovered that music was, in his own words, “the language of my dialogue with that which I perceive to be sacred”.

This dialogue eventually led him to the great modal traditions of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent where he finally found the musical archetypes that he had been searching for all his life. In these traditions he encountered music which was not merely a vehicle of selfexpression, but which was able to take one beyond what one normally perceived to be the boundaries of one’s self into other transpersonal realms of experience.

This discovery changed everything in Ross Daly’s life and he subsequently gave up all other activities and dedicated his life to the study of the innermost secrets of these musical traditions as well as to the art of composition. He subsequently travelled extensively, studying under many of the world’s greatest masters of modal traditions.

After many years of intensive training in a variety of musical traditions, Ross Daly turned his attention largely to composition drawing heavily on all of the knowledge which he acquired during his long apprenticeships. Today he has released more than thirty eight albums of his own compositions as well as of his own arrangements of traditional melodies that he collected during his travels. The island of Crete in Greece still provides a base for his personal and musical research as he continues travelling around the world performing his music.

Christine Delphine Hedden

Christine Delphine Hedden is an artist who draws upon many wells: traditional, classical and contemporary. She is a composer, a fiddle player and violist, a percussive dancer, an improviser and a storyteller in word and song. Her debut solo album, “When the Aster Blooms” is a diverse storybook of original tunes and songs, inspired by her native New England folk music and her love of Irish traditional music.