Roman Filiu, Sam Yulsman, Jessie Cox
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New York-based Roman Filiú has been a saxophonist, bandleader, composer for over 20 years. Born and raised in Santiago de Cuba, he has played, recorded, and toured worldwide with a great variety of artists. He is currently a member of Henry Threadgill´s Ensemble Double Up, and leads several groups himself such as Quarteria, which features David Virelles, Ralph Alessi, Matt Brewer, Dayna Stephens, Yusnier Sánchez, and Craig Weinrib as well as the Roman Filiú Quartet with Billy Hart, David Virelles, and Thomas Morgan. Among his many collaborations, Román has played in Chucho Valdés´Irakere (Grammy Award nominated Babalú Ayé, Grammy Award winning New Conceptions), has been the musical director of David Murray´s Big Band and has played with outstanding musicians Andrew Cyrille, Gonzalo Rubalcaba (Grammy Award nominated Antiguo), Steve Coleman Dafnis Prieto, Milford Graves, Miguel Zenón, Doug Hammond, Nasheet Waits, Michele Rosewoman, Omara Portuondo, Marcus Gilmore, Lázaro Ross, Alain Pérez, Iván Melón Lewis, Román Díaz, Damion Reid, Pablo Milanés, Liberty Ellman, Stephan Crump, Pepe Rivero, Adam Rogers, Rez Abassi, Roy Hargrove, and Chano Domínguez to name a few.
The musician has been a recipient of the Jazz Gallery Commission Series, the Langnau Jazz Fest Artist in Residence, the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Award, and the Lucas Artist Residency. He has established himself as a prominent and innovative composer through his work for numerous small ensembles and has written pieces for string quartet, solo piano and saxophone quartet. Roman has also released the albums Blowin’ Reflections and Musae, which were praised by the press for their quality and depth.
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Sam Yulsman (b. 1990) is a composer, pianist and multimedia artist whose work spans a wide range of musical idioms. As a pianist he has collaborated closely with composers as an interpreter of new works, and with improvisers in contexts where the boundaries between composed and improvised music are porous and easily traversed. Yulsman has performed and/or recorded in the United States and Europe with artists including Ingrid Laubrock, Pheeroan akLaff, Joe Morris, Ryan Muncy, Carla Bozulich, Bill Frisell, Biliana Voutchkova, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Cyrus McGoldrick (aka The Raskol Khan), CJ Camerieri, Art Lande, John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions), Chris Corsano, Nicola Hein, Brandon Lopez, Chris Heenan, Mark Miller and Weston Olencki. Recent and performances of new works include premieres of Kenji Sakai’s Fanfare Towards the Dusk at the Music From Japan Festival 2017, and Chris Pitsiokos’ Working from Postcards is Good Enough If You Are Francis Picabia at Art for Art’s 2017 festival, Justice is Compassion/Not a Police State.
As a composer, Yulsman’s work has been performed by ensembles including Ensemble Korea, the New York New Music Ensemble, Rage Thormbones, JACK Quartet, Wet Ink Ensemble, Mivos Quartet and loadbang, counter)induction and the Westerlies Brass Quartet. His work has been performed at Ostrava Days (2017), the Pacific Rim Music Festival (2017), the 2016 Wet Ink Large Ensemble Readings, and the Columbia Composers and Columbia Sound Arts Electroacoustic Concert (2015 and 2017).
Yulsman is currently pursuing a DMA in composition at Columbia University where he studies with George Lewis.
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“…some of the most experimental music of not just the day but the season… They held a listener’s attention with surprises and delights aplenty.“ LA Times
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Jessie Cox is, a composer, drummer, educator and scholar, currently in pursuit of his Doctorate Degree at Columbia University. He has written over 100 works for various musical ensembles including electroacoustic works, solo works, chamber- and orchestral works, works for jazz ensembles and choirs; including commissions from performers/ensembles/institutions such as LA Phil, JACK Quartet, Steve Schick, Claire Chase, String Noise, ICE, Rebekah Heller, Vasko Dukovski, Either/Or, Cory Smythe, Clara Warnaar, Ryan Muncy, Katinka Kleijn, Promenade Sauvage, Janet Underhill, TILT Brass, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, etc.
As a performer he has played in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the USA; with musicians from all over the world including Roman Filiu, Claire Day, Ras Moshe, Lisanne Tremblay, James Ilgenfritz, Julian Shore, Mark Wade, Maher Beauroy, Eric Wubbels, Miyama McQueens-Tokita, Marc Hannaford, Brian Krock, Weston Olencki, Lester St Louis, Sam Yulsman, Barbara LaFitte, Lucy Clifford, Tomas Sauter, Cehryl, etc.
Jessie has participated at the Accra Jazz Festival, the Martinique Jazz Festival, Langnau Jazz Festival, Rhythm and Thought Festival, La Phil’s Noon to Midnight Festival (Walt Disney Hall), New World Symphony’s Inside the Music (New World Center), NUNC3 at Northwestern University, New Music Gathering, Opera Omaha’s One Festival, Bang on a Can Music Series (Noguchi Museum), Roulette Interpretation Series, OpenICE Library Festival at Lincoln Center, Composers Now Festival, Frequency Series at Constellation (Chicago), Mis-En-Place Bushwick Curator Series, String Noise Sounds Series in NYC (Co-Curator), Polyfold, and won the Leroy Souther’s Award (2015), Bill Maloof Award (2017). He has been aired on NPR, WBGO, Martinique 1, Visasat 1, SRF, TSF Jazz, Fip Radio, ViaATV, France Ô.
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