About the Artist
Billy Martin’s band, Medeski Martin and Wood, bridges the harmonic complexities of jazz and has garnered international acclaim through albums and high-profile collaborations with John Scofield, John Zorn, iggy Pop, Natalie Merchant, among others. Much of his work is available through Amulet Records, which recently released the Road to Jajouka, featuring collaborations with Ornette Coleman, Flea, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, and more. Martin is also an accomplished filmmaker and visual artist, whose work has been exhibited in solo and group installations around the world including Cartegena de indias Bienal in Colombia and The Drawing Center in NYC (2015). Martin is currently associate director and has recently been elected President (for 2018) of the Creative Music Studio.
Payton MacDonald is a composer/improviser/percussionist/singer/educator. MacDonald was a founding member of new-music chamber orchestra superstars Alarm Will Sound and has also toured internationally as a solo marimbist and a member of various chamber ensembles including Galaxy Percussion, NJPE, Present Music, and Verederos. He has commissioned many works from today’s leading composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Don Freund, Elliott Sharp, and many others. And many of the world’s best ensembles have performed MacDonald’s music, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, JACK Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, et al. MacDonald has performed in the world’s best venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Barbican, and many more. MacDonald serves as a Full Professor of Music at William Paterson University and he is a Co-Artistic Director of SHASTRA, an organization the brings together the great music of India and the West.
Kalun Leung is a New York-based trombonist, improviser, and a member of the award-winning Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, Little Suns, Eco-Music Big Band, and people.of.earth. He led the Salsa Montréal Collective and Trubači McGill, the latter which earned him the Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC) for his research in Serbia. In March 2017, Kalun recorded his first concept album at National Sawdust with the improv troupe So Wrong it’s Right, featuring the avant-garde trombonists David Taylor, David Whitwell, and Felix del Tredici. He is currently exploring the use of smart textiles in the performing arts as a Research Fellow at Tek-Tiles, the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator R&D lab at Pratt Institute. In 2017, He was awarded the Exemplary Service to the Community and State by the New York State Senate.
Drummer and singer/songwriter Misia Vessio is a recent graduate of The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and is a touring musician who’s anticipated debut EP will be released in Spring 2018.