Monday May 19 * 7pm * $20-25 * TICKETS
Join Transparent Productions for an evening of music with solo sets from Caroline Davis (saxophone, voice, electronics) and Janel Leppin (cello, electronics).
Caroline Davis’s dream for playing music comes from a wish to connect, yearning for curious listeners to expand their ears, hearts, and minds. Her musical journey began in humid Singapore, hearing sounds underwater that she would recreate by singing to her German shepherd dogs. Their Swedish-British family moved to the US -- Atlanta, Georgia -- around age 6, where she enjoyed R&B and gospel music, full of horns that lured her to choose the saxophone 6 years later. Drawing from these early influences, Caroline’s musical expression covers a wide range of styles. She has released eight of her own albums, to much acclaim, and is a collaborator on countless recordings. She has worked with Lee Konitz, John Zorn, Angelica Sanchez, The Femme Jam, Miles Okazaki, Nicole Mitchell, Rajna Swaminathan, Matt Mitchell, and Terry Riley. Caroline has been a resident fellow of MacDowell, The Jazz Gallery, The Rockefeller Estate, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians, ICE Ensemble Evolution, UCross, and Civitella Ranieri. She is a recipient of Jerome Hill, Chamber Music America, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Jazz Gallery, and NYFA fellowships, and was the winner of Downbeat Critic’s Poll Alto-Saxophone Rising Star Award. Her teaching practice centers around gender studies in jazz at The New School and she has a private saxophone studio at Manhattan School of Music. Caroline is an active advocate for gender equity (This Is A Movement) and current/formerly incarcerated people (Justice for Keith LaMar, Keys Beats Bars, Creatives Beyond Incarceration).
Janel Leppin is a musical force in multiple genres on her primary instrument the cello. Her free jazz chamber group Ensemble Volcanic Ash called “Revelatory” by the New York City Jazz Record has released two albums on Cuneiform Records (2022 and 2024). Her duo Janel and Anthony with her husband guitarist Anthony Pirog (Dischord, Impulse) released Where is Home (2012) called “Exquisite” by Downbeat Magazine and New Moon in the Evil Age in (2024) on Cuneiform Records. Her trio Skullcap with Pirog and drummer Mike Kuhl is releasing “Snakes of Albuquerque” on Cuneiform Records in Spring 2025. Shiny Boy Records in Baltimore released her solo cello record, The Brink in 2023 and she has three solo vocal and multi-instrumental recordings Mellow Diamond, Songs for Voice and Mellotron and American God released between 2016 - 2018 "Instrumental intimacy swept up in arrangements that cluster around her voice as delicate and as imposing as a sheet of falling ice.” - NPR Music. Leppin's music can be found on Cuneiform Records and on bandcamp. From the Monterey Jazz Festival to the New York Winter Jazzfest Leppin performs widely as a cellist with a unique voice and artistic vision. She tours internationally as a soloist and in her duo with husband, Anthony Pirog. Her artwork which she weaves out her worn out vintage performance clothing appears on several of her record covers, are in private collections and are hung at D.C. music venues the Black Cat and at Comet Ping Pong.