Bios

Originally from Uniondale, New York, 25-year old first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (they/them) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently based in NYC. Jay is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, a section member of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony in C, substitute violist with the Portland, Memphis, Virginia, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, and has been invited to play with the American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, PROTESTRA, and the Metropolis Ensemble. They have shared the stage with Broadway singers, pop stars, and classical music’s hottest young talents in performances from Washington D.C. to the Philippines, and can be heard on Captured Tracks, Fiendish Endeavor, and Broadway Records. They appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts, recently performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and have been invited by British icons Foreigner to join their California orchestral performances. Their compositions and arrangements have been heard at the Cannes Film Festival and at New York Fashion Week and performed by soprano-double bass duo confluss.

Festival appearances include the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Cabrillo, Aspen, Pacific, Thy, Spoleto and Lake Tahoe music festivals; they have also spent summers at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute as a Young Artist of Color. They have served as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, coached the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, and have been on faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp. Jay currently serves as teaching assistant and instructor at the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ Viola Intensive, and as substitute viola and chamber music instructor at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division.

A prizewinner in national competitions held by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Teachers National Association and recipient of a 2019 Juilliard Career Grant, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for their past support through instrument and bow loans. They were recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail, which was also recently awarded a 2021 Juilliard Career Grant to further an upcoming recording project highlighting string quartet music of Florence Price, George Walker, Yaz Lancaster, and Dorothy Rudd Moore.

After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Other important mentors include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.

They are a proud member of the American Federation of Musicians, the Justice Committee, and the International Workers of the World.

Connie (she/they) is an artist and writer currently living and working on the unceded land of the Susquehannock and Piscataway peoples, aka Baltimore. Her work utilizes recorded improvisation sessions, field recordings/found sound, and audio processing to explore the fluidity of our relationships to place/the earth, webs of memory and embodied knowledge, and the formation of community/kin. Alongside her sound practice, she studies Chinese medicine and other traditions of plant medicine, believing these frameworks of healing touch upon the above themes and invite deeper thinking on solidarity.

Matthew Jaimes (he/they) is a Chinese-Mexican, genderqueer musician, educator, and arranger in the Greater-New York area. They perform regularly in orchestras, chamber ensembles, pit orchestras, recording studios, and contemporary music ensembles. Known for his versatility, Matthew plays regularly with groups such as the Albany Symphony, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and more. Currently, Matthew is performing with the International tour of Sound of Music.

In addition to their large ensemble performances, Matthew is an active chamber musician.They are a founding member of Quartado (horn quartet), Caught in a Snare (mixed quartet), and most recently an all LGBTQIA+ horn collective. Matthew performs regularly with each ensemble in concert, educational, and casual settings as well as arranging music for these ensembles. Through each ensemble, they perform a wide range of music such as contemporary (including several world premieres), pop, jazz, and soundtrack.

Outside of performing and teaching, Matthew loves baking deserts and pastries, playing with his two cats, Grey and Boba, and playing video games. They can often be found taking walks in Inwood’s Fort Tryon Park and drinking coffee at their local coffee shop, Kuro Kirin. An advocate for equality and equity, Matthew can also be found supporting local grassroots organizations such as PROTESTRA.

Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a Black transdisciplinary artist. They are most interested in practices aligned with relational aesthetics & the everyday; fragments & collage; and liberatory politics.

Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist & steel-pannist in a wide variety of settings; and their work is presented in many mediums & collaborative projects. It often reckons with specific influences ranging from politics of liberation & identity to natural phenomena & poetics. Their ongoing independent studies navigate politics/poetry of horror, Marxist theory, and digital (sub)cultures.

Yaz has had the privilege & opportunity to build community & create with artists like A Far Cry, BAKUDI SCREAM, BRKFST Dance, Contemporaneous, JACK Quartet, Jacolby Satterwhite, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Massa Nera, Miss Grit, and Skiffle Steel Orchestra. They are currently in post-genre duo laydøwn with guitarist-producer Andrew Noseworthy. Yaz's debut record of music for violin/voice & electronics with video "AmethYst" is forthcoming in April 2023.

Yaz holds degrees in violin and poetry from New York University. In addition to their work at Sound Off, Yaz is the visual art editor of Peach Mag, a contributing writer at I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, and newly-appointed Co-Manager of experimental DIY label people places records. They live in Lenapehoking (NYC) with their little dog Nori; and they enjoy chess, anime/manga, and jalapeños.

Exploration lies at the center of the work of Brooklyn based performer and artist Gabriel Garcia (he/him). Through the work of new composers and use of extended performance practices, he focuses primarily on the communication and delivery of human emotion and expression through uncommon means. In addition to performing, Gabriel is a metal sculptor; expanding on aforementioned themes and incorporating his own reflections on identity and spirituality, he combines both disciplines in multimedia work.

Gabriel is a recent graduate of the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music, and received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2020, he has lived, studied, and worked in New York City.