Allison Burik: "Saxophonist - Vocalist - Composer - Arranger

Kansas City native Allison Burik is a saxophonist and composer based in Boston. During her time in Kansas City she performed as a featured artist at venues such as the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts, Take Five Coffee+Bar, and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Burik attended Berklee College of Music and received her Bachelors Degree in Performance in 2016. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory while maintaining an active career as a performer. She seeks to explore differing worlds of sonic possibilities through her many projects. Burik has released a solo EP, "Some Days Like This," (2019) a quartet album, "Mythos," (2016) and will be releasing a duo album fall of 2019 with guitarist Magdalena Abrego. Their duo goes by the name Umbrella Pine and since 2013 the two have been steadily cultivating their sound through original compositions and improvisation. Since arriving in Boston in 2013, Burik has become an internationally known artist, having performed in festivals, residencies, and concerts in places as far reaching as France, South Korea, and Canada. Burik has been on tour with a number of bands, including Jonah Francese's Thinkin' Big Band, which actively plays in venues across New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Burik went on tour in South Korea with the Dabin Ryu Quintet in July 2019. They played in venues throughout Seoul, Busan, and Gwangju. Over the years Allison has studied with notable musicians including George Garzone, Joe Morris, Ingrid Laubrock, Ran Blake, Carla Kilhstedt, Anthony Coleman, Frank Tiberi, Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw, Shannon LeClaire, and Tia Fuller. In August 2017, she attended the Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop in Alberta Canada, under the curation of Vijay Iyer. There, she participated in ensembles led by internationally known musicians including Tyshawn Sorey, Imani Uzuri, Matthew Stevens, and Jeremy Pelt."

"Max Ridley is musician, composer and educator based in Boston. He first started participating in music by singing in the school choir and playing bass guitar in a punk band after school. He began his formal studies in high school at the Boston Arts Academy and it was there that he first fell in love with improvised music and the upright bass. While at Boston Arts Academy, he was selected out of many other young musicians to perform at Boston's Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops three years in a row. Also during these years, he joined the Berklee City Music program and was able to travel to New York to play for Quincy Jones and his foundation. He was awarded full-tuition scholarships to study at Berklee College of Music for both an undergraduate and graduate degree, earning his graduate degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the direction of master pianist and educator Danilo Perez. An equally important part of his education was down the street from Berklee at Boston's historic Wally's Jazz Cafe. He began going to jam sessions there in high school and more recently, has been the house bass player every Friday and Saturday night with the Jason Palmer Band.

Ridley has shared the stage with renown musicians such as Jeff Coffin, Kenny Werner, Tia Fuller, Ralph Peterson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack Dejohnette, Bruce Molsky, Perico Sambeat, Walter Smith III and Jerry Bergonzi. He has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival. He has played many different styles of music all over the US, Canada and Europe, traveling by plane and staying in hotels, as well as by van and sleeping on couches and floors. Today he is active in New England as a sideman, leader and co-leader for many different groups, both on stage and in the recording studio. He also teaches music as a guest lecturer at different colleges around New England (such as Longy School of Music and the University of New Hampshire) and at the Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy. He has also spent some time living in Valencia Spain and considers that his second home and musical community."

"Francisco Jose Mela is a Cuban drummer and percussionist who has performed with a wide array of prominent international Latin and jazz artists including Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, JoAnne Brackeen, Jane Bunnett, Regina Carter, Anat Cohen, Paquito D'Rivera, George Garzone, Larry Grenadier, Stefon Harris, Lionel Loueke, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, John Patitucci, John Scofield, Esperanza Spalding, Mark Turner, McCoy Tyner, Chucho Valdés, Kenny Werner, and many others.

Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Francisco Mela studied at the Music School of Arts El Yarey as a teenager before furthering his studies at the National School of Arts for Teachers, el CENCEA. He taught at Rafael's Cabrera Conservatory of Music and played with some of the country's top Latin jazz musicians, as well as leading his group, MelaSon Latin Jazz Band, that toured throughout Mexico. In 2000, he moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music and was invited to join the percussion faculty. He became the house drummer at the Wally's Café. It was here where he developed the concept for what would later be his own group.

In 2005, Mela joined the quartet of saxophonist Joe Lovano. Of particular note was the group's 2008 album on Blue Note entitled Folk Art.Later that year, Mela was approached by McCoy Tyner to join his trio.

Mela was named the Twin Cities Jazz Festival's first artistic director in 2014, Before appointment, he served as artistic director for the Xalapa Jazz Festival in Veracruz, Mexico (2010-2013).

In late 2016, Mela was part of an inaugural ensemble that joined Afro-Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and saxophonist Joe Lovano for an international tour throughout Europe and North America. He also leads his own group, The Crash Trio."

Mina Kim, Cello: "Hailed as "eloquent" by the Boston Globe, Korean-born cellist Mina Kim has been making music in the Boston area since 2010. As an active performer and educator, Mina enjoys performing with the Rasa String Quartet and teaching at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Mina has performed at Carnegie Hall with ROSIN, her partners-in-music-crime, for a fundraiser for the New York Women's Foundation. She has also been a featured soloist with USP Chamber Orchestra and Busan Philharmonic Orchestra. Mina has attended various music festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and Lyricafest. A former member of the Hartford Symphony, Mina also enjoys being part of the cello sections of numerous orchestras around New England.

Mina has met amazing mentors along her musical journey, including Yeesun Kim, Mike Block, and Terry King, who have helped her become the cellist and musician she is today. Her dream is to become one of the great mentors for emerging cellists and to help them find their own musical voices just as her teachers did for her. She is currently working toward a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at New England Conservatory with a minor in musicology."

"Pianist/composer Eunhye Jeong is a creative musician with a critical mind that keeps expanding her musical world with diligent research. She has performed with legendary Wadada Leo Smith, a multiple awards-winner, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and an innovative composer/trumpeter as a pianist of NDA ensemble which performed one of most ECM's celebrted albums at the third CREATE Festival. She also performed duo with highly acclaimed cellist/improviser/composer Okkyung Lee and recorded with Pansori master Il-dong Bae. As a composer, she co-wrote the score for a short film "Ancestry" with Munyungo Jackson, the Stevie Wonder's percussionist. She also performed in a renowned places such as Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), UN Headquarter (NY), colleges such as Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, Boston College, etc.

Followed by her previous albums Turtle Suite (2014), Chi-Da (2018) and 2 Begets 3 (2018) that are each in a disparate musical language, she is soon releasing her fourth album , a live recording of her latest concert in Seoul, Korea. She currently performs two major projects Chi-Da and TVV Quartet and is working on a new piece that features visuals and electronics called KM-53.

In 2019, she was a panel in the colloquium hosted by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) in British Columbia University in Vancouver, Canada. She presented her talk , which encompasses the philosophical basis of Korean traditional music and of contemporary musical improvisation practice altogether.

Jeong continues to hold and develop her ongoing theme since 2011 that is to to revive the historical and cultural continuum severed both forcefully and voluntarily over time, through her musical practice."