Hailed by JazzTimes as one of the most “original saxophone voices” of his generation, Gary Thomas has secured a central place in jazz history.

As a saxophonist, flutist, composer and educator, Mr. Thomas is absolutely second to none.  One of the few true pioneers of our time, his contributions place him in a class of wholly individual artists who have simultaneously set the technical standard for and reinvented the language of their art.  His resume evidences this, as he has worked extensively with the top names in the business, including:

Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, David Sanborn, Joe Lovano, Bobby McFerrin, Sam Rivers, Vanessa Williams, Betty Carter, George Benson, Randy Brecker, Greg Osby, John Scofield, Tony Williams, Jimmy Smith, John Patitucci, Ravi Coltrane, and a host of others.

Gregoire Maret was born in 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland and began playing the Harmonica at age 17. His childhood was filled with a diverse array of musical influences from his Harlem born, African-American mother and his Swiss father, a local jazz musician.

Upon graduating from the prestigious Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève, Grégoire made the critical decision to move to New York City to pursue Jazz studies at the New School University. Over time Maret honed his craft, becoming one of the most sought after Harmonica players in the world. He has developed his own unique sound and his versatile style enables him to play effortlessly across different musical genres. He is often compared to legends Toots Thielemans and Stevie Wonder and has been sought out to play with an incredible number of famous musicians including Youssn’Dour, Me' Shell Ndegeocello, Pete Seeger, David Sanborn, George Benson, Cassandra Wilson...

In 2005, Grégoire toured with the Pat Metheny Group, receiving a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. He also won the Jazz Journalists Association ‘Player of the Year Award’. After his Grammy win, Maret embarked on a two-year tour with the worldclass bassist Marcus Miller and subsequently joined Herbie Hancock’s band.

Supported by the Maclab Enterprises Endowment Fund

Adi Salant started dancing at the age of 6 at the Bat-Dor School of Dance, where she studied for 12 years. After her graduation from the dance division of the Alon High School of Art , Adi joined the Young Batsheva Ensemble for two years. She was then invited to join Batsheva Dance Company, where she danced for five years. When Adi left the company in 2001, she became Ohad Naharin's assistant and staged his work for leading dance companies around the world until 2009. Adi moved to Denmark to join her partner in 2004, and she launched her own teaching and choreography career by winning Dansolution, a choreography competition in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the following years, she was commissioned to create for various theaters and companies in Denmark, and she was invited to present her choreography in festivals throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel. In September 2009 rejoined Batsheva Dance Company as Associate Artistic Director and in January 2013 was appointed Co-Artistic Director.

Scott Stossel is the editor of The Atlantic magazine and the author of the New York Times bestseller My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind, which has been published more than a dozen countries, and Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver.  The New York Times called My Age of Anxiety  “Dazzlingly comprehensive”; the Daily Telegraph called it an “immense achievement; The Seattle Times called it “outstanding in the fullest sense of the word”; and Bookforum called it “an extraordinary literary performance.” America magazine wrote of Sarge that it “combined a reporter’s eye for detail, a storyteller’s sense of drama, and a scholar’s consciousness of history,” and the Boston Globe called it “an extraordinary achievement.”  Stossel’s articles and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The London Observer, The American Scholar, and many other publications. He lives in Washington, DC.

Toshimi and William Sembo Masterclass Artist

Born in Baltimore, Maryland USA, Jermaine Maurice Spivey began his dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts. After graduating with a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School in May 2002, he moved to Europe to begin his professional career with Ballet Gulbenkian and was a member till 2005. Jermaine then joined the Cullberg Ballet until summer 2008. He has since been a member of The LID, a production by Ayman Harper in Co-production with The Forsythe Company and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, guest artist with the Hofesh Shechter Company, a member of The American Repertory Theater's original production The Shape She Makes, conceived by Susan Misner and Jonathan Bernstein, performer in Hercules and Love Affair's music video Do You Feel the Same, guest performer in Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada at LACMA, guest artist with The Forsythe Company from 2013-15 and an active member of choreographer Crystal Pite's company Kidd Pivot since 2008. Jermaine has also enjoyed setting works of Crystal Pite for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Carte Blanche and Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden, as well as teaching various workshops and masterclasses for professional companies, schools and conservatories throughout Europe and North America.

Jermaine is a 1998 National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts 1st Level Awardee and a 2001 Princess Grace Awardee.

Tilman O’Donnell was born in the USA to a German mother and American father, and received his training at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. He joined The Göteborg Ballet under the direction of Anders Hellström in 2001. In 2002 Tilman danced at Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and thereafter joined the Cullberg Ballet from 2003 until 2007. He was a member of The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt from 2007- 2012, and a guest artist until June 2015.

Tilman made his debut as a choreographer in 2002 and has been awarded first prize in two major international choreographic competitions. In 2005 he was appointed both ”Dancer To Watch” and ”Choreographer To Watch” by the leading European magazine Ballet Tanz. In 2011 he created two site-specific works for Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm. In 2012 he created the piece August did not have what is commonly considered good taste as far as furniture is concerned. He has also created works for SPIRA Jönköping/Cullberg To Come, Staatstheater Graz and The Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, including the most recent work Whatever Singularity #453: Solo For Maxime / Dancing With Alain. In 2014 Tilman was invited to be artist in residence for two months by the Goethe Institut in Montreal, Canada, together with Cyril Baldy. His most recent work is titled In Life & Love & So On and was created for Corpus/The Royal Danish Ballet. He was recently nominated as “Hoffnungsträger” by the prominent European dance journal Tanz.

Toshimi and William Sembo Masterclass Artist

Stephan Laks currently works with a range of dance organizations, in a number of roles. Since 2010, he has consistently been a Rehearsal Director with the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, as well shorter periods with the Royal Swedish Ballet. The most notable ongoing artistic associations as a performer, repetiteur, and choreographer currently include Sasha Waltz & Guests, Fernando Melo, Royal Research/Royal Swedish Ballet, Project Point Blank/Hokuto Kodama, and Springboard Danse Montréal. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of Springboard Danse Montréal.

After graduation from The Juilliard School in 2003, Stephan danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, the Göteborg Ballet (now the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani), and the Bern Ballet. He then began freelancing, working with a variety of choreographers, including Adi Salant, Aszure Barton, and Luca Veggetti. He also co-founded/directed Rumpus Room Dance (2006 – 2009), which was a platform for collaborative, site-specific dance installation (Dance Magazine’s 2010 “Top 25 to Watch”).

Fernando Melo is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the age of 16 he was awarded a scholarship to train at the Vienna State Opera Ballet. He has been in Europe ever since, building his career as a dancer and choreographer and creating works around the world. Among the companies he has choreographed for are: Göteborgsoperans Danskompani (Sweden), where he is also currently rehearsal director; Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf (Germany), Introdans (Holland), Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, München (Germany), Luzerner Theater (Switzerland), Luna Negra Dance Theater, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Ballet Hispanico New York (U.S.A.), and Norrdans (Sweden).

Fernando also choreographs and directs dance film. His most recent film Nonstop screened at Cinedans in the Netherlands. Prior to this, he created Mahjong, which screened at several international film festivals and received the 2010 Audience Award at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. In addition, Fernando choreographs for opera. His recent projects include Die Schöpfung by Joseph Haydn for Vocal Futures, London, (U.K.), Daphne by Richard Strauss at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, (France), Solaris by Detlev Glanert at the Oper Köln (Germany) and L’Opera Seria by Florian Leopold Gassman at La Monnaie in Brussels (Belgium).

For nearly 30 years Ralph Peterson has been one of the most distinctive and recognizable drummers in jazz.  Peterson quickly rose to prominence after meeting master drummer Art Blakey in 1983.  A few months after sitting in, Blakey called Peterson (then a college junior) to play alongside him in his two-drummer big band.  Peterson takes seriously the honor and responsibility of being the “Last messenger Drummer” and later paid homage to Blakey on his 1992 recording “Art”.  His recording and touring resume includes jazz greats like Terrence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine, David Murray, The Count Basie Orchestra and many more of the greatest names in jazz.

Now considered to be a Master drummer himself, Peterson’s previous recording “The Duality Perspective, garnered rave reviews from major publications including the New York Times, DownBeat Magazine and JazzTimes to name a few.

Nicole Mitchell is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator.  As the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal and Sonic Projections, Mitchell has been repeatedly awarded by DownBeat Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association as “Top Flutist of the Year” for the last four years (2010-2014). 

Mitchell formerly served as the first woman president of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and has been a member since 1995. In recognition of her impact within the Chicago music and arts education communities, she was named “Chicagoan of the Year” in 2006 by the Chicago Tribune. With her ensembles, as a featured flutist and composer, Mitchell has been a highlight at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. 

Ms. Mitchell is a recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts (2011) and has been commissioned by Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra and Maggio Fiorentino Chamber Orchestra (Florence, Italy).  In 2009, she created Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama for the Jazz Institute of Chicago. She has been a faculty member at the Vancouver Creative Music Institute, the Sherwood Flute Institute, Banff International Jazz Workshop and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and in magazines including Ebony, Downbeat, JazzIz, Jazz Times, Jazz Wise, and American Legacy.