AURORA NEALAND
Aurora Nealand is a sound artist and multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, accordion, voice) based in New Orleans, LA . Nealand has become a prominent force in the New Orleans music scene since she first arrived in 2004 and is the founder and leader of the non-traditional Traditional Jazz band, The Royal Roses, which draws its approach to collective improvisation from both the New Orleans Jazz traditions, as well as the AACM, and collage-sound art. Nealand’s other musical projects include The Monocle Ensemble – her original music project and installation ensemble, Redrawblak Trio, and the Instigation Orchestra. She is an avid devottee of the musical mystery alter-ego band, Rory Danger & the Danger Dangers. Nealand has toured as a featured artist to national & international festivals including Montreal Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, MPB Jazz Festival (Natal, Brazil), Lincoln Center, Summerstage NYC & The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Nealand is deeply interested in the embodiment and sonification of everyday objects and knowledge-generation. Her “formal” education includes studies in Music Concrete at Oberlin Conservatory, and experimental physical theatre studies at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris. Her “informal” education for the past 15 years includes playing music in the streets and clubs of New Orleans, touring in crammed vans to squat houses & bike co-ops around the world, and working with dancers/theatre artists in improvisational and composed contexts. She has studied/worked with Pauline Oliveros, Jonathan Hart Makwaia, James Singleton, Liz Lerman, Arto Lindsey, Germaine Bazzle and many more.  

Nealand regularly works as a musical facilitator with Found Sound Nation (under Bang on a Can) – an organization which facilitates international musical collaboration and sonic diplomacy, and she has taught at the Walden School for Young Composers. Nealand was voted “Best Female Performer” (2016 Gambit awards), and “Best Traditional Jazz Band (The Royal Roses)” in the 2015 & 2017 Big Easy Awards. She is the co-founder of SONO (Sound Observatory New Orleans) which facilitates workshops of new music in the New Orleans region. She has been awarded residencies at the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, the MacDowell Colony, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She will debut a new 75-minute musical/visual performance piece The Mathematics of Emotion at the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans in March 2019.

NASHEET WAITS
Son of percussionist Freddie Waits, Nasheet Waits is a New York native who has been active on the jazz scene since early in his life. Before pursuing a music career, he studied psychology and history at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He also holds a degree from Long Island University in music. While studying at L.I.U, instructor Michael Carvin secured Waits a spot in the percussion ensemble M’Boom, started by drummer Max Roach and Freddie Waits, in 1970. Waits has recorded or performed with Fred Hersch, Antonio Hart, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Andrew Hill, Ron Carter, Tony Malaby, Bunky Green, William Parker, Eddie Gómez, Casimir Liberski, John Medeski, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Mark Turner.[1]

GREGG BELISLE-CHI
“A guitarist of impeccable technique and broad imagination…” – Nate Chinen

Gregg Belisle-Chi is an Asian-American guitarist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York, who over the past decade has been “busily establishing himself as an important and distinctive new voice in the contemporary guitar world” and “has emerged as one of the most creatively dexterous musicians.” – Earshot Jazz

Described by the New York Times as “a subtle stunner,” his work draws from the spaces between the spiritual and the analytical, the ethereal and the tactile, inviting listeners to a place of pause and reflection; music that “oozes beauty both in concept and execution, making us luxuriate in its immersive sonorities.” – Part-Time Audiophile

Within a career of mercurial interests, he has performed with Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Reid Anderson, Steve Swallow, Cuong Vu, Ted Poor, Eyvind Kang, Ben Goldberg, Wayne Horvitz, and many more in the Jazz, Improvised, Rock, and Chamber music worlds.

TIM BERNE
Tim Berne is a composer, saxophonist and educator specializing in improvised music.

He has been performing internationally since 1982 with various ensembles including Caos Totale, Fractured Fairy Tales, Bloodcount and Snakeoil among others.

He has made over 50 recordings as a leader for labels such as Soul Note, Sony, JMT and currently ECM records.

Tim started his own label Screwgun records in 1996 and most recently released is Angel Dusk with Matt Mitchell.

He has taught extensively since the late 90’s giving workshops in South America, Europe and America.

Recent awards and residencies include:
New York State Council on the Arts New York State Foundation for the Arts Readers Digest/Meet the Composer (for the Kronos Quartet and the Rova Saxophone Quartet) McDowell Colony Djerassi Foundation Civitella Ranieri

He is currently active with his Snakeoil group and Sun of Goldfinger.