Brandon Wozniak is one of Minnesota’s most exciting saxophonists. He returned to the Twin Cities in 2006 after six years in New York City and a six month stint in Shanghai, China. Wozniak studied music at Indiana University with David Baker and privately with Tom Walsh. Brandon performs regularly with Dave King’s (Bad Plus, Happy Apple) Dave King Trucking Company with saxophonist Chris Speed, the Atlantis Quartet (City Pages Best Jazz Artist 2011, Star Tribune Best Jazz Artist 2012), the great drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt (Weather Report, McCoy Tyner), Bryan Nichols Quintet, Chris Bates Red 5, Vector Families, Lars Larson’s Mancrush, Cory Healey’s Beautiful Happy Sunshine Band, Steve Kenny Quartet, and DD7. Brandon has also performed with singer Nellie McKay, toured with the Tommy Dorsey Jazz Orchestra, Francisco Mela (Joe Lovano’s US Five), Steve Davis, David Berkman and Dennis Gonzalez.
Bruce Thornton
Dr. Bruce Thornton is an Associate Professor of Music at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University. He also serves as a clarinet and saxophone artist/clinician for the Conn/Selmer Company. Dr. Thornton appears frequently as guest conductor, clinician, and soloist, and most recently was a guest soloist with the University of Notre Dame Concert Band at Carnegie Hall. He leads an active career as a free-lance professional musician in the Twin-Cities area, including recent performances with Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton John, Bobby Caldwell, Johnny Mathis, Marvin Hamlisch, and Bernadette Peters, groups such as Kansas, the Four Tops, and the Spinners, as well as numerous Broadway musicals at the Ordway, State, Guthrie, and Orpheum Theaters in the Twin Cities. He has also performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, North Star Opera, JazzMN, and the Plymouth Music Series. He has a deep interest in Klezmer and Bulgarian music and has performed with the group Klezmerica in New York, Miami, and Israel. He also performs with Leisure Valley (jazz quartet), JC Sanford’s Triocracy, and the Thornton Jazz Quartet. With Leisure Valley, he recently released a CD of his own compositions entitled “Welcome to the Valley.”
JC Sanford
Trombonist and composer JC Sanford, a protégé of legendary composer and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, has performed with the likes of Danilo Pérez, Matt Wilson, Donny McCaslin, and George Schuller and has regularly been recognized as a “Rising Star” trombonist, arranger, and big band in DownBeat Magazine’s Critic’s Polls over the past several years. He has been a member of several diverse NYC-based ensembles including the Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orchestra, Nathan Parker Smith’s prog-rock big band, Andrew Green’s film noir tribute Narrow Margin, British singer-songwriter Joy Askew’s New York Brass, and Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.’s jazz/new music hybrid Numinous. He has appeared on over 30 recordings as a trombonist, conductor, composer, and producer. His 2014 debut CD with the JC Sanford Orchestra entitled Views from the Inside yielded international acclaim and was awarded a 2014 Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant. He is also the leader of three small groups: the JC Sanford Quartet (who has two records out on Red Piano Records and Shifting Paradigm Records), the chamber jazz trio Triocracy (also Shifting Paradigm Records), and the Imminent Standards Trio. He is conductor of the thrice-Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, John Ellis’ jazz opera ICE SIREN, the Alan Ferber Nonet with Strings, and is musical director of the JazzMN Orchestra. Since returning to MN with his family in 2016, JC has performed around the Twin Cities area with JT and Chris Bates, Davu Seru, Anthony Cox, Babatunde Lea, Zacc Harris, and others.
Catherine Ramirez
Dr. Catherine Ramirez is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician and teacher who aims to bring hope, connection, and inspiration through music to others. Recognized for her “sensitive and artistic” (Flute Talk Magazine) performances as “a communicator through music” (American Record Guide), Catherine has captivated listeners from her humble roots along the U.S. Southern border to audiences around the world. A three-time international prize-winning flutist and Artist-in-Residence at St. Olaf College, she has concertized on four continents, served communities through outreach endeavors, and published her work on optimal musical communication in major print and online magazines. For more, please visit, www.catherineramirez.com.
Esther Wang
Esther Wang is an active soloist and collaborator and has played in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. The San Jose Mercury News has called Wang "a forceful, take-charge kind of artist with personality...spirited and vital," and the Double Reed journal called her a "magnificent accompanist.
Wang is a devoted chamber musician and has collaborated with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as with colleagues from around the country.
Wang received the Bachelor of Music at Baylor University, where she studied with Roger Keyes. She continued studies with Frank Weinstock at the University of Cincinnati, earning the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. She also studied privately with renowned pianist Lilian Kallir and attended the Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, and Taos Chamber Music summer festivals.
Wang is an enthusiastic teacher and adjudicator. She has served on faculties at The University of Texas at Austin, University of WI-Oshkosh, University of WI-Platteville, Baylor University, Lutheran Summer Music, the New England Music Camp, and Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT. She performs and lectures on J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier as a member of The Bach Four and has recorded solo and chamber works by Jan Radzynski on the Centaur label. In the summers, she teaches at the Interlochen Arts Camp and the Adamant Music School (VT). She is an Associate Professor of Piano at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Francesca Anderegg
Violinist Francesca Anderegg graduated from Harvard University in 2005. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School, where she also received a Master’s in Violin Performance. Her former teachers have included Robert Mann, Nicholas Mann, Ronald Copes, Naoko Tanaka, Lynn Chang and Betty-Jean Hagen. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Violin at St. Olaf College, and teaches at Interlochen Center for the Arts in the summers.
Lauded for her “exceptional performances” and “fiery interpretation,” Ms. Anderegg delivers sensational accounts of contemporary and classical music. Her playing has been praised by the New York Times for its “dark, mournful tone” and “virtuosic panache.” She has collaborated with the leading musicians of the concert stage, and regularly performs throughout the United States.
Anderegg recently performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the St. Olaf Orchestra, and was the featured soloist on the orchestra's 2016 tour to Argentina and Uruguay. As winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, she performed the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra.
A versatile musician, Ms. Anderegg is equally at home as a soloist and chamber music artist. Her chamber music credits include performances with Itzhak Perlman in major venues throughout the country, for which the Chicago Sun-Times praised her “astonishing assurance.” In 2008, she had her Carnegie Hall debut, performing in Weill Recital Hall as a participant in the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop series with Pamela and Claude Frank.
In 2016, Ms. Anderegg was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, given to artists with a "distinctive musical voice." She is a past recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing Arts. Her debut CD, with pianist Brent Funderburk, was released by Albany Records in 2012, and her second album of contemporary American music, "Wild Cities," will be released in July 2016. She is represented by Ariel Artists (www.arielartists.com).