Tuesday September 26 * 7pm * TICKETS
Simone Baron is a polyglot pianist, accordionist, improviser and composer whose work “ego-less, genre agnostic and without expectations” (JazzTimes) engages curiously and charismatically with a broad spectrum of idioms. Educated at Oberlin and Tel Aviv University and joyfully de-educated at festivals and performances across Europe and the Americas, Simone has won grants, fellowships and residencies from Chamber Music America, South Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Hambidge Center, Sacatar Foundation, iPark, Strathmore, VCCA, ArtOMI, UMD, Avaloch Farm, the Banff Centre, and Spectrum Toronto. In 2016 Simone founded Arco Belo, a diasporic chamber music ensemble. Simone is a Victoria Artist and plays a Poeta XB Accordion, and is a founding member of the Boulanger Initiative.
One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics. Though known for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisers Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burt, Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2017, she received the Baker Artist Award and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, the Instant Award in Improvised Music.
Will Yager is a versatile bassist/improviser committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with living composers in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass. He has worked directly with composers Michael Gordon, Scott Wollschleger, David Lang, Miya Masaoka, Jean-François Charles, Sivan Cohen Elias, and Amy Williams, among others. He is a founding member of the soprano/double bass duo LIGAMENT and improvising trio Wombat. Performance highlights include appearances at the University of Iowa Center for New Music, High Zero Festival, Experimental Sound Studio’s Quarantine Concerts, Omaha Under the Radar, SEAMUS National Conference, Nief-Norf Virtual Marathon, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, where he was a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow. Yager is also a founding member and currently serves on the board of the nonprofit organization Bass Players for Black Composers.
Dave Sewelson was born in Oakland, California, in 1952. He has specialized in the baritone saxophone since the early seventies. He arrived in New York City in the summer of 1977, settled in the East Village becoming a stalwart of the downtown scene, played in many bands of the area including the 25 O’Clock Band, Jemeel Moondoc’s Jus Grew Orchestra, Saheb Sarbib’s Multinational Big Band ,Noise R Us, Mofungo, Freedomland and Fast ‘n Bulbous. He was a founding member of the Microscopic Septet. Lifetime member of William Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. He has played with many wonderful musicians, including, Billly Bang, John Zorn, Peter Kuhn, Alex Cline, Roy Campbell, Sonny Murray, Kidd Jordan, Daniel Carter, Will Connell and Stephanie Stone. Current projects include, Two Sisters Inc., Sewelsonics, the MFAFWQ, Trio Dave, and Orchestra Dave and the Jesse Dulman Quartet.
Jim Ryan is a jazz inspired, free-form multi-instrumentalist who has performed for several decades in Paris, France, The San Francisco Bay free improv scene, and currently in the Washington D.C. Area. He plays winds, brass and small percussion. While living in the Bay Area he formed Green Alembic, an eight piece chamber group that improvised to projections of art and poetry.
Nik Francis is an improvising musician. His music focuses on the drum kit, often incorporating electronics and small acoustic instruments.
Steve Arnold is a bassist, composer, producer, and arranger based in Washington, DC. Originally hailing from Greenfield, Massachusetts, Arnold studied the upright bass with Herman Burney Jr. at the George Washington University, where he majored in Music and English. Since then he has gone on to play both upright and electric bass with many great artists including Todd Marcus, Fran Vielma, Sarah Marie Hughes, José André, Brian Settles, Sharón Clark, Thad Wilson, Dana Hawkins, Jared Sims, Simone Baron, Donvonte’ McCoy, Abe Mamet, Alfred Yun, Alex Hamburger, and Elijah Jamal Balbed and was a member of the 2018 class of Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center. He is a member of acclaimed punk-jazz band ¡FIASCO! as well as a free-jazz trio with Sarah Marie Hughes and Kelton Norris, who released their debut recording Still Life in 2021.