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Kenny
Ascher
Piano
Education: Bachelor, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in
composition from Columbia University
Kenny has recorded for/with (as keyboard player and/or
arranger-orchestrator-conductor): John Lennon, Barbra Steisand,
Paul Simon, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Aretha
Franklin, Judy Collins, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Regis
Philbin, Billy Joel, Paul Williams, Harry Nilsson, Jim Croce,
Phoebe Snow, Perry Como, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Morgana
King, Bette Midler, Woody Herman, Patti LaBelle, Pat Williams,
John Tropea, Frankie Valli, Tom Scott, Yvonne Elliman, John
Prine, Don Payne, Don McLean, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Hartman, Jane
Olivor, Bill Quateman, Merry Clayton, The Nuff Brothers, Buzzy
Linhart, Lenny Kravitz, Wally Dunbar, Warren Bernhardt,
Stephanie Mills, Dave Matthews, Steve Tyrell, Susan Robkin, Meat
Loaf, Casey Cysik, Marvin Stamm, Scott Whitfield, Jane Monheit
String Arranger/Orchestrator for Billy Joel's New York State
Of Mind
With Paul Williams, nominated for Best Song of the Year "You
and Me Against The World" (Grammy)
With Paul Williams, wrote 5 songs for Streisand's A Star Is Born
(Nominated for A British Academy Award)- including "Women In The
Moon" and "With One More Look At You")
With Paul Williams, wrote all the songs for The Muppet Movie
(Nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Song Score and Best Song
- "The Rainbow
Connection")
Won a Golden Globe (with Paul Williams) for A Star Is Born (Best
Song Score)
With Carole Bayer Sager, wrote a Top Ten Rhythm and Blues hit
for The Moments ("With You")
Pianist and Arranger for Diet Pepsi/Ray Charles Campaign
- Uh-Huh, You Got the Right One, Baby
Performances with Christine Andreas, James Naughton, Art
Garfunkel, Michael Feinstein, Jay Leonhart, Luci Arnaz, Steve
Tyrell, Debby Boone, Marvin Stamm, Woody Herman, The Thad Jones-
Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Paul Williams, Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gorme, Zoot Sims, Ruby Braff, Maxine Sullivan, Jimmy
Rushing, Anita O'Day, Keely Smith, Mary Travers, Carol Channing,
Mary Cleere Haran, Scott Whitfield, and the Birdland Big Band
Songs recorded by: Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Frankie
Valli, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jerry Butler, Jack Jones,
Carmen McRae, Judy Collins, Paul Williams, Ben Vereen, The
Muppets, Helen Reddy, Lena Horne, Joe Derise, Roberto Carlos,
Cleo Laine, Helen Schneider, Teddy Pendergrass, Willie Nelson,
Karen Carpenter, Kenny Loggins, The Moments, Matt Monro, Bob
McGrath and Erich Kunzel/The Cincinnati Pops; Sarah McLachlan;
and Peter Cincotti.
Glenn
Drewes
Trumpet
Glenn Drewes is
one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the New York City
freelance scene today.
His diverse career has spanned the likes
of jazz greats Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Dizzy Gillespie and Mel
Lewis, to today's pop artists, Michael Jackson, Madonna, HarryConnick, Jr., David Sanborn and P Diddy. In addition to
being heard on hundreds of jingles, feature films, network award
shows and sports themes, Mr. Drewes can be heard every day on
the popular children's educational show, Sesame Street.
Currently, Glenn is working on his sixteenth Broadway
production, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, and is currently leading his
own jazz quintet, serving as a clinician for high school and
college festivals as well as holding the coveted jazz trumpet
chair for the Birdland Big Band.
He is also teaching at C.W.
Post University on Long Island.
Chris
Jaudes
Trumpet
Chris Jaudes has just finished playing the Broadway production
of LoveMusik directed by Hal Prince. He was
recently cited in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
for his outstanding trumpet solos in the Broadway hit production
of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters.
A much? sought after lead player, his other Broadway shows
include How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Flower Drum Song with
Lea Salonga, Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters
and Reba McEntire, Ragtime with Brian Stokes Mitchell, On The
Town, Sunset Blvd. with Glenn Close, Steel Pier, CATS and Peter
Pan with Cathy Rigby. He has toured with Evita, Peter Pan, The
Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and South Africa Rejoice.
He can be heard on the Grammy award winning albums of Annie Get
Your Gun and Gypsy as well as cast albums of Flower Drum Song,
Ragtime, Sunset Blvd., and Steel Pier.
Chris has been a featured soloist throughout the United States
and around the world. His versatile playing style has given him
opportunities to perform with The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra,
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Oklahoma City Symphony, New
Jersey Symphony, Carolina Pops Orchestra, as well as with a
number of ensembles in the New York area. He has performed as a
soloist at the New York Brass Conference, International Trumpet
Guild Conference and the Brass Arts Festival in London, England.
Chris is honored to be a member of The Brass Band of Battle
Creek, the premier brass band in the United States, and has been
a featured soloist and clinician at both the International
Women's Brass Conference and the National Trumpet Competition in
2006. His new solo c.d. will be available at ChrisJaudes.com in
December of 2007.
Chris serves on the faculty at the Juilliard School in the Jazz
Studies program.
Nick
Marcione
Trumpet
A respected
performer and avid educator, trumpeter Nick Marchione has spent
his entire life in music. Originally raised with a classical
background, heswitched his focus to jazz while studying at the
Mannes College of Music in NYC and has subsequently worked with
such legendary figures as Michel Legrand, Phil Woods, Aretha
Franklin, Paul Anka, and Jerry Goldsmith. Since 1999, Nick has
lived in New York City working in the jazz scene as well as
various Broadway shows including lead trumpet for Mel Brooks'
The Producersand Disneys new musical The Little Mermaid. From
2002-2006 Nick was also a member of the world renowned jazz-rock
group Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
His impressive list of credentials includes work with singers
Tony Bennett and Nancy Wilson, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the
Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, the Orquestra Jazz de
Matosinhos, trumpeters Jon Faddis and Snooky Young, saxophonists
Jimmy Heath and James Moody, and the great trombonist Slide
Hampton. Nick is also in demand as a clinician and has presented
master classes in Brass Concepts and Ensemble Playing in many
colleges and universities including the Mohawk College in
Hamilton, Ontario and the Casa de Musica in Porto, Potugal.
Raised in Philadelphia, Nick comes from a musical family. He
started his musical studies at age 8 with his father, Tony
Marchione; a renowned teacher whose pupils include Randy Brecker
and Lee Morgan. His mother, Agnes Marchione, is a pianist and
avid educator as well. Nick came to music as a classical
trumpeter, but was soon bitten by the jazz bug. "That was a day
I'll never forget," he recalls. "It was Christmas morning and as
I rummaged thru all of my presents I came across 3 cassettes;
the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, the Best of Chet Baker Sings and
Plays, and the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet. I looked up at
my father with shock and disappointment. Here all I wanted were
toys and I was being given cassettes of guys I never heard of!
He said 'Just give them a try. If you dont like their music,
then you don"t have to listen to them.' Needless to say I loved
it! Within minutes of playing the casstettes I was dancing
around my room to these amazing sounds I never even knew existed
a short time before!"
A classical major in College, Marchione knew that wasn't what he
wanted to pursue, "But the teacher I wanted to sudy with Vince
Penzerella, was only available to those students in the
classical department. It was definately the right decision."
During this time he would seek out older "more seasoned" jazz
musicians for knowledge and advice. "That's something I do to
this very day. We can learn as much, if not more, away from the
instrument as we can on, and you never know who or where
inspiration will come from."
After completing his studies at the Mannes College of Music he
became even more active in the New York scene. Nick joined the
world famous Vanguard Jazz Orchestra in 2005, joined the
Birdland Big Band at its inception in 2006, and most recently
has joined the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos based in Portugal.
Nick continues to travel the world as a performer and educator;
including upcoming performances with the Nick Marchione/Darcy
Hepner Quintet next month in Toronto, and also as a special
guest with Frankfurt Radio Big Band in April.
John
Walsh
Trumpet (photo coming)
John Walsh
(trumpet), who as a youth imagined he was born to play drums,
became a trumpet player at age 12.
He first studied trumpet with
Fred Baker of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra before
attending Western Michigan University to study with Dr. Steven
Jones. In 1985, he came to New York City to study with Dr. Eddie
Henderson at Long Island University.
Since moving to New York,
Mr. Walsh has performed and/or recorded with Tito Puente, Mel
Torme, Lionel Hampton, Paul Simon, Eddie Palmieri, The Chico
O'Farrill Orchestra, Chris Washburne & SYOTOS, Duke Ellington
Orchestra, The Machito Orchestra, Johnny Pacheco, Wyclef Jean,
Max Roach, Celia Cruz, La India, Tito Nieves, Ray Barretto,
Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the Barrio Boyz, among many others.
John
recently became the newest member of the Birdland Big Band.
Isrea
Butler
Trombone
Isrea Butler began his career as a trombonist with
the 1st Marine Division Band in CA in 1996. While in
CA, he performed with many jazz and Latin jazz
greats as well as in various classical orchestras.
He spent a year in Tucson, AZ, attending school and
performing.
In
2000, Butler transferred to The Eastman School of
Music in Rochester where earned both his Bachelor's
and Master's degree. There, he studied with Dr. John
Marcellus, Ralph Sauer, and Clay Jenkins. While
still in school, Butler performed with both the
Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonics in addition to
many other jazz and classical groups in the upstate
NY region.
Since moving to NYC in 2006, Butler has performed,
toured, and recorded with many groups including: the
Orchestras of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count
Basie, Glenn Miller, Charles Mingus, Frank Foster,
Lionel Hampton, and Clark Terry. He also has subbed
regularly on Broadway on The Color Purple and The
Lion King.
In
NYC, he performs with The Birdland Big Band, The
Sultans of Swing, Andy Farber's Big Band, George
Gee, Valery Ponomarev, and The Harlem Renaissance
Orchestra. He can be seen regularly at Birdland, The
Iridium, Fat Cat, The Garage, Caf Iguana and Swing
46.
Rob Middleton
Tenor Sax, Flute
Rob Middleton is a
prize-winning composer and an active saxophonist and teacher in
the New York area. He has performed with many jazz greats,
including Wynton Marsalis, Branford
Marsalis, Phil Woods, Harry Connick Jr., Lionel Hampton, The New
York Voices, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Lovano, the Vanguard Jazz
Orchestra, Woody Shaw, Oliver Lake, David Liebman, Randy Brecker,
John Faddis, Joe Williams, George Coleman, Jimmy Cobb and has
recorded with Lionel Hampton and others.
Rob's performance
career has taken him to major jazz clubs and festivals in this
country and abroad, including the JVC Jazz Festival at Lincoln
Center in New York, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, and
the Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France. His recent New York
club and concert appearances include engagements at the Blue
Note, at the Village Vanguard, and numerous performances at
Birdland with the Birdland Big Band and at Merkin Hall in New
York where the BMI New York Jazz Composers Orchestra has played
his compositions. He has led ensembles large and small,
including the NewYorkestra Big Band, which performs regularly in
and around New York City, and the Rob Middleton Quartet.
His compositions
and arrangements are performed regularly in the New York area.
He writes for various ensembles including NewYorkestra, the BMI
New York Jazz Composers Orchestra and the New Jersey based
Composers Big Band. The bands of Ray Charles and Lionel Hampton
have played his compositions as well. His arrangement of
"Windmills of Your Mind", recorded by the Chico O' Farrill
Afro-Cuban jazz big band featuring Rob as the soloist, can be
heard in the 1999 hit movie "The Thomas Crown Affair". Rob's
other recordings include the recently released CD Urban
Soundscapes by the band NewYorkestra.
Rob has guest conducted his compositions as well, in such
settings as the Henry Mancini Institute at UCLA in Los Angeles
in the summer of 1999. His music has been performed by elite
college bands such as the Manhattan School Jazz Orchestra, the
Jazz Orchestra of the New Jersey City University, and McGill
University in Montreal.
In addition to
being a busy performer and composer, Rob is a professor of music
at Caldwell College in Caldwell, New Jersey and an instructor at
the Suburban Community Music Center in Murray Hill, New Jersey
and maintains an active teaching studio in the area.
Nathan Childers
Alto and Soprano Sax, Flute
Nathan Childers is a saxophonist, composer, Yamaha Performing
Artist and RICO Reed Artist. Nathan currently lives in New York
City as a freelance musician.
Originally from Vermont, Nathan
has been playing the saxophone since he was ten-years-old. He
began his musical study as a pianist at the age of seven. 
As a young musician, Nathan
started playing professional gigs by the age of 13. He learned
the ropes by tagging alongside his father (jazz trumpeter Gene
Childers) as a sideman. After discovering a love for the
saxophone, Nathan went on to earn three degrees in music,
including an M.M. degree in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media
from the Eastman School of Music; B.M. degree in Jazz Studies
and Afro-American Music from the University of Massachusetts;
and B.M. degree in Classical Saxophone Performance from the
University of Massachusetts.
Nathan works with many of the
world's finest performers and ensembles. He currently performs
every Firday with the outstanding Birdland Big Band, directed by
Tommy Igoe. As a soloist and composer, Nathan has been
recognized by several national organizations such as Downbeat
Magazine, The Saxophone Journal, BMI Composers
Workshop, ASCAP, Hilton Head Jazz Society and the US State
Department.
In addition to a full performing
schedule, Nathan is an active educator and composer. He is
currently the Coordinator of the MILES Winds and Brass program
at the Third Street Music School Settlement (the oldest
community music school in the United States). Nathan is the
founder of the Horizons Music Academy in New Canaan,
Connecticut. He has also been an artist in residence at The
University of Massachusetts, Amherst College and Ithaca College.
Nathan has been commissioned to compose on several occasions and
is currently the staff soundtrack composer for the Visual
Learning Company.
As an artist, Nathan strives to
immerse himself into all types of music. He believes firmly in
the process of collaboration and mutual respect across the
musical spectrum. As written by Shaun Dale of the Jazz Review,
Nathan has a "willingness to explore some unusual approaches
that leave me wondering, in a positive way, what directions he
may take in the future, but the place he's in right now is well
worth your attention."
Performances and Recordings
Include: Birdland Big Band, Buddy Rich Memorial Live Concert &
DVD, Franki Vali, The Funk Brothers, The Temptations, The John
Fedchock Big Band, Deana Martin (Daughter of Dean Martin), The
Steve Schirripa TV Show for Fox Television (Band Member),
Broadway Theater League Orchestra, Come Fly Away (Broadway: Pit
Musician), Memphis (Broadway: Pit Musician), The Wedding Singer
(Broadway: Pit Musician), Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love
(Off-Broadway: Pit Musician), 2007 Gracie Awards (Band Member),
Sex And The City 2 (Motion Picture: On-Camera Band Member), Wall
Street 2 (Motion Picture: On-Camera Band Member), Mike Stern
(Guitarist: Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, Brecker Brothers), Dave
Weckl (Drummer: Paul Simon, Madonna), Will Lee (Bassist: Late
Night With David Letterman), Conrad Korsch (Bassist: Rod
Stewart), Molly Ringwald (Actress & Singer), Ana Gasteyer
(Actress & Singer: Saturday Night Live), Neil Peart (Drummer:
RUSH), Chad Smith (Drummer: Red Hot Chili Peppers), Terry Bozio
(Drummer: Frank Zappa), Peter Erskine (Drummer: Weather Report &
Steps Ahead), James Genus (Bassist: Saturday Night Live, Michael
Brecker, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock), Daryl Hall (Singer: Hall
and Oats).
Matt
Hong
Alto saxophonist
Alto saxophonist Matt Hong
graduated from Harvard University and received a Masters from
Manhattan School of Music.
In the early 1990s, he taught
jazz history at Harvard while maintaining a freelance music
career in Boston. Hong has lived in NYC since 1993, and has
played around the world with many bands including Guillermo
Klein, Illinois Jacquet, and David Berger's Sultans of Swing.
He has worked in the orchestras
of many hit Broadway musicals, and currently appears nightly in
the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys. He continues to lead
his own projects as well.
Jeff Nelson
Trombone
Jeff
Nelson has become one of New York�s busiest bass
trombone players since arriving in the city
after graduating from the Fredonia School of Music.
Originally from the upstate village of Scotia, NY,
he has toured all over the world with artists such
as Dizzy Gillespie, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Dave Holland,
Lionel Hampton, Maria Schneider, Slide Hampton,
Stefon Harris, and Louie Bellson, as well as with
the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Mingus Big Band,
Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall Jazz
Band.
He is also a member of
the Gotham Wind Symphony, Hora Decima Brass
Ensemble, and Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble. In
demand in various musical genres, he has appeared on
stage with a diversity of performers including
Luciano Pavarotti, Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, Michael
McDonald, Frankie Valli, Korn, and the Manhattan
Transfer.
On Broadway, he has held chairs in the orchestras of
�Sunset Boulevard�, �Titanic�, �Fosse�, �Thoroughly
Modern Millie�, �Sweet Charity�, �White Christmas�,
�West Side Story�, �Come Fly Away�, and �Elf�, and
has subbed in many others. He has recorded with many
artists, such as Dave Liebman, Terence Blanchard,
Sting, Kenny Werner, Vanessa Williams, James Carter,
and Harry Connick, Jr.
He has
also been heard on numerous TV and radio jingles,
sports themes, and movie soundtracks. A CD with his
own group, the New York Trombone Conspiracy,
entitled �A Matter of Time� was released several
years ago to critical acclaim.
Nelson joined the Birdland Big Band in the Summer of
2010.
Dan
Willis
Woodwinds
Dan Willis, one
of New York City's most active and versatile
woodwind specialists, performs
regularly across a wide spectrum of music from Jazz
to New Music. He is the newest member of the multi
media ensemble 'VIA' (Vision Into Art) and is
featured on their latest recording "Traveling Songs"
playing Saxes, Oboes, Duduk (traditional Armenian
folk double-reed instruments) and the EWI
(electronic wind instrument).
Dan was also a
featured performer on the Dukuk and the Zurna, at
the New York premiere of "Strophes," a work composed
by Yakov Koslov. Dan is also a member of The Gotham
Wind Symphony Dan and also been a regular addition
to the N.Y Pops and N.Y. Philharmonic.
All of these
endeavors attest to the rich vocabulary within Dan's
musical language. In addition to his work in the
classical genre, he has toured Japan and the U.S.
with Michael Brecker's Grammy winning Ensemble
'Quindectet', performed with Wynton Marsalis and the
Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, toured with
Don Henley, and arranged for Bone, Thugs and
Harmony.
Dan is also a
member of the Roland Vasquez Bigband, the Grammy
Nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and
recorded on the Duduk as a featured artist for the
Rob Thomas solo CD single "All That I Am."(Grammy
Nominated) Dan is also a frequent collaborator to
the Baby Einstein Classical Music Educational Series
performing on Flute, Oboe, English Horn and
Clarinet.
A graduate of
the Eastman School of Music, Dan studied the Oboe
with Dr. Richard Killmer, Jazz with Bill Dobbins and
Ramon Ricker, and arranging with Rayburn Wright.
Willis joined
the Birdland Big Band in the Summer of 2010.
Andy
Hunter
Saxophones
Andy Hunter is
an exciting, bold new voice on the New York music
scene. A highly experienced
leader and in-demand side man, he performs around
the world with high profile artists such as the
Mingus Big Band/Dynasty, Richard Bona, Nnenna
Freelon, T.S. Monk’s tentet, and recently Dave
Holland’s Big Band and the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew
Tabackin Big Band.
Hunter is very
active in New York City with bands ranging from the
Birdland Big Band or the Bill Lee Natural Spiritual
Orchestra to several popular Cuban groups, Colombian
folkloric, salsa and funk bands. He is a prolific
composer and highly awarded soloist, with credits
such as first prize in the 2002 International
Trombone Association Jazz Competition, the 2005
Antti Rissanen International Jazz Competition in
Helsinki Finland and the ETW national jazz trombone
competition in Washington D.C. in 2006. He was also
a popular finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz
competition of 2003.
Originally from
the small town of Grayling, Michigan (located,
notably, half way between the uniquely named cities
of Paradise, Michigan, and Hell, Michigan), Hunter
has since lived in Cleveland and Shanghai, and since
2004 has called Brooklyn, New York home. As both a
sideman and a leader, his performing, composing, and
arranging can be heard on numerous recordings and in
a wide variety of musical styles.
Over the past
decade, an earnest desire to share the truly
international music of jazz with wider and wider
audiences has found him as an advisor and M.C. for
jazz festivals in China, as a jazz educator on four
continents, and as a host on Shanghai's recently
launched jazz station, Soulfire Radio. Recently he
has been involved with growing frequency in teaching
and and performing in South and Central America, in
such countries as Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and
Panama.
During this
calendar year alone his music has brought him to
India, Peru, Colombia, Morocco, Ghana, Martinique,
Senegal, China, twice to Japan, Canada, and more
than a dozen states across the United States.
Additionally, he teaches at Rutgers University while
Conrad Herwig takes a year leave on sabbatical.
Some of the
musicians he feels honored to have performed or
recorded with include: The Saturday Night Live Band,
The Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty and Mingus
Orchestra, The Dave Holland Big Band, Richard Bona,
T.S. Monk, The Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big
Band, The Birdland Big Band, Ruben Blades, The
Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Slide Hampton and the
World of Trombones, The Temptations, Martha and the
Vandellas, The Drifters, Nnenna Freelon, Billy Hart,
Marcus Belgrave, Cui Jian, Dave Binney, Michael
Mossman, Robin Eubanks, Conrad Herwig, Dave Kikoski,
Monday Michiru, Alex Sipiagin, Gene Jackson, Jeff
Tain Watts, Bill Lee, Ralph Bowen, Jonathan Blake,
Frankie Negron, Peter Dominguez, John Fedchock,
Leslie Gore, Terry Gibbs, Wendell Logan, Ernie
Krivda, Nils Landgren, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra,
The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Sam Moore (Sam and
Dave), Dick Contino, Dennis Mackrel, Tito Nieves,
Gilberto Santa Rosa, Johnny Rivera, Adalberto
Santiago, Yomo Toro, Albita Rodriguez, Greg Bandy,
Donald Walden, and Dan Wall.
Hunter holds a
M.M. in Jazz from Rutgers university where he was a
student of Conrad Herwig, a B.Mus. from Oberlin
Conservatory where he studied with Robin Eubanks,
and is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy. He
also holds a B.A. in Chinese from Oberlin College.
Hunter joined
the Birdland Big Band in the Summer of 2010.
Barbara
Cifelli
Baritone Sax, Flute 
Barbara has a bachelor's degree from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA from Suny Purchase. Barbara is the
baritone saxophonist for the Birdland Big Band, however, she can
freqently be heard playing other members of the saxophone family
in addition to flutes and clarinets. An active freelance
musician, Barbara has worked in a variety of settings from
broadway show pits to the stage of Buster Poindexter to the
Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. She is a member
of the New York Nonet, The Ed Palermo Band, and the Diane
Moser's Composers Big Band. She is the leader of the classical
trio, Skylark. She has taught for Concordia and Hunter Colleges,
as well as for NYU.
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assistant conductor with Disney's production
of The Lion King, Broadway New York -
recipient of six 1998 Tony Awards including
Best Musical, as well as the 1999 Grammy for
Best Musical Show Album. Mr. Morales-Matos
is a member of Ron Carter Foursight Jazz
Quartet, an Extra- Percussionist with The
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and The
Philadelphia Orchestra. Rolando is a well
sought after Latin and Classical
Percussionist, he performs and records
regularly in New York City with various
Latin jazz groups and Chamber Orchestras.
acoustic and electric
bassist/multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and educator.
Born and
raised in Philadelphia until age 22, he earned a Bachelor's
Degree in Jazz Bass Performance from Temple University, where he
attended on scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude and with
other honors. 
scene for many years. He began
playing the Acoustic Bass at age 9, and it was only one year
later that Tom was building a high profile career in his
hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. By his late teens, he had
already performed with Jazz veterans James Moody, Sonny Stitt,
Freddie Hubbard, Barney Kessel, Eddie Harris, Nat Adderly and
Stan Kenton, to name a few.
Davis' muted trumpet on the stereo
drift into the bedroom of three-year-old
Will Lee... From that point on, music was in
his blood. His father plays piano - "His
Bebop chops are the best" according to Will
- and has also played trumpet and bass
violin professionally. Will's mother sang
with big bands. Since his birth in San
Antonio, Texas in 1952, his parents' talents
led Will on a circuitous route from one
instrument to another -- torturous piano
lessons, a short relationship with violin,
demanding trumpet lessons taught by Dad, and
French horn... 
