Recently named by Wynton Marsalis as one of the top five jazz musicians under 30 to watch, Chris Pattishall is quickly generating a powerful presence in the jazz world. Combining an impressive technique and patient sensitivity, Pattishall embodies a music that is at once intelligent, soulful and joyous.

 

Active as both a pianist and composer, Chris holds an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's Award, and participated in the Kennedy Center's Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program and the Ravinia Festival Stean's Young Artist Program.

Pattishall is an engaged music educator, teaching privately and in university settings. Chris also conducts masterclasses with high school jazz ensembles throughout the United States, and he regularly presents masterclasses on jazz and its socio-historical context in the New York City public school system.

 

 

An intimate voice full of valiant whims, Alina Engibaryan is a novel vocalist within a modern improvisational tradition. She has passionately developed a sensibility that enables her to communicate emotions instantly to the audience and her fellow musicians. With both a technical mastery and an audacious attitude, Alina is a live experience to be heard.

In 2012, She was a finalist in the Prinses Christina Jazz Concours in Amsterdam, one of the largest jazz competitions in the country. The following year Alina was a finalist in the Dutch Vocal Competition, establishing her prowess in the European jazz scene.

 

 

Young South African jazz vocalist, Vuyo (Vuyolwethu) Sotashe, is gradually making his mark in the New York jazz scene. Sotashe moved to the NYC in 2013 after being awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to pursue Master of Music (Spring 2015) at William Paterson University. Since then, he has gone to win first prize at the very first Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Vocal Competition in 2014 and performed on the festival's main stage in February of 2015. More recently, he won the Audience prize award and placed second overall at the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in 2015, held at the annual Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In the same he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocal Competition, where he was the very first male vocalist ever to place in the competition's finals.