
I’m Director and co-founder of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) where we study and teach A Course in Miracles and meditation under the guidance of CRS Founder Yasuko Kasaki. I’m also a multi-disciplinary artist and curator/producer of music, dance, theater, film and visual arts events and the organizer of the Sufi Dance NYC meetup group. You can explore my music/dance/theater performance photography and video here.
Kalia Vandever
12/3/23 at Sisters in Brooklyn
While performing with Tilt
and Careful in the Sun
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Kalia Vandever is an American trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her approach to the trombone is distinctive and defined by her sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational voice. She leans into the challenges of the instrument and allows patience and melody guide her process. Kalia received her Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School in 2017. She is an awardee of the 2022 Next Jazz Legacy, a program founded by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
https://www.kaliavandever.com
Her quartet will perform at The Jazz Gallery on 12/8.
#kaliavandever #trombone #femaletromboneplayer #womeninjazz #womeninmusic #misicohotography #tilt #carefulinthesun
Merhnam Rastegari & Galen Passen, 11/14/23 House Concert
Mehrnam Rastegari is a prominent Persian musician, film score composer, singer, violinist, and master Kamancheh player. She has been featured in some of the most prestigious music festivals worldwide, including GlobalFest in NYC, USA, Secret Planet in NYC, USA, Fajr International Music Festival in Tehran, Iran, the WOMEX (World Music Expo) in Tampere, Finland, Ragas Live Festival in NYC, USA, the International Competition named after Tlep Aspantaiuly in Astana, Kazakhstan, and numerous concerts across The United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, Iran, and more.
https://mehrnamrastegari.com
Galen Passen is a sitarist, composer, and visual artist based in Brooklyn, NYC. His work aims to create intimate narratives, weaving together a diversity of forms and approaches. He lived in New Delhi, India between 2009 and 2017 studying hindustani music. The exposure to India’s layered history and diversity plays a significant role in Passen’s artistic and life work.
https://www.galenpassen.com
#kamancheh #sitar #persianmusic #indianmusic #houseconcert #musicphotography
Val Jeanty
M³ Festival, June 21, 2022
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Val will premiere "When the Ancestors Speak" in a powerhouse trio with Jen Shyu and Sumi Tonooka at Jazz Gallery on 11/5/23 at 6:30pm.
Hailing from Haiti, Val Jeanty plays Korg Wavedrum, Vestax Controller VCI-400, Roland handsonic, and sensory percussion. SoundChemist | VodouElectro Composer | Educator | ➰ | Haiti | Berklee | Cosmos
https://soundcloud.com/roulette_intermedium/val-jeanty-the-spirit-story
#jazzwomennetwork #mutalmentorshipformusicians #greenwichhousemusicschool #womeninjazz #musicphotography #m3festival #valjeanty #culturehub #culturehubnyc #soundchemist #afroelectro
Leonor Falcón
M³ Festival at Roulette, 9/22/23
Photo by Christopher Pelham
Leonor Falcón is a Venezuela-born violinist, violist, composer, improviser, performer, and educator.
Her new album Imaga Mondo: Volume II is her captivating, genre-shifting follow up to her acclaimed 2017 debut, Imaga Mondo, which All About Jazz hailed as “[a]mbitious and idiosyncratic.” As with the latter, whose title translates to “Imaginary World” in Esperanto, the music on Volume II draws inspiration both from the mythological and fabular, using a sonic palette inspired by fantastic creatures and elements as a springboard for musical exploration. Over the course of the album’s eight tracks, Falcón leads her bandmates across diverse musical terrain, including the melodious sprawl of “Para Emilio,” named after her son; the hard-hitting and rock-inflected “Cursing Parrots”; raucous noise journey of “A,” dedicated to the NYC subway line of the same name; the understated songfulness of “Ballad for a Hawk,” inspired by The Maltese Falcon and film noir; and much more.
https://www.leonorfalcon.com
#leonorfalcon #leonorfalcón #mutualmentorshipformusicians #m3festival #roulette #rouletteintermedium #violin #musicphotography #womeninjazz #womeninmusic
Gabi Motuba & Liany Mateo
M3 Festival Day 2
9/22/23 at Roulette
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Gabi Motuba is a Johannesburg-based vocalist and composer whose music is in conversation with world politics, black studies, religion and genre studies. She has worked to help provide young black artists with more opportunities through her work as a music facilitator. Her other projects include a collaborative commissioned piece on “the violence of care” commissioned by the Goethe Institute in 2021. Gabi is also the resident composer and music curriculum developer for the South African Soweto Theater Music Tutorial Programme.
Liany Mateo graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies in 2020. During her senior year, she was recognized as the Outstanding Bass player at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s inaugural Jack Rudin Championship, a competition among students from 10 colleges and universities around the country. She was the bassist on pianist Arturo O’Farrill’s Blue Note album, Legacies, released in 2023.
#soweto #jazzsinger #standupbass #femalebassist #womeninjazz #womeninmusic #m3festival #mutalmentorshipformusicians #jazzphotography #musicphotography
Elsa Nilsson (flutes) -- PULSES premiere
National Sawdust, 10/6/23
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Piano
Santiago Leibson
Bass
Marty Kenney
Drums
Rodrigo Recabarren
“Pulses”
Music by Elsa Nilsson, Rodrigo Recabarren, Santiago Leibson and Marty Kenney.
Text by Dr. Maya Angelou
Copyright © 2022 Elsa Nilsson Music (ASCAP), Rodrigo Recabarren (BMI), Santiago Leibson (BMI) and Caged Bird Legacy (ASCAP)
"Pulses" has been made possible with support froprogramhttpsm Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Work
Https://elsanilsson.bandcamp.com/album/pulses
Sraya MurtiKanti
Composer-Musician-Performer 🎼
Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩
With Victoria Lo Mellin & Liz Behrend
M3 Festival
9/22/23 at Roulette
Photos by Christopher Pelham
#bali #balinesemusic #balinesecomposer #m3festival #mutualmentorshipformusicians #rouletteintermedium #musicphotography #womeninmusic #womeninjazz #gamelondharmaswara #kendang
Rebekah Heller & Fay Victor
M3 Festival Day 1
9/21/23 at Roulette
Photos by Christopher Pelham
“It’s refreshing to hear the bassoon edging its way towards the sonic foreground in contemporary music. Anyone with doubts about how cool the instrument can be has perhaps not yet heard bassoonist and core member of ICE Rebekah Heller perform; in her hands, the oft-underappreciated woodwind is transformed into a fierce creature that cannot be ignored onstage.”
— NEWMUSICBOX
http://www.rebekahheller.com
“SHE’S ESSENTIALLY INVENTED HER OWN HYBRID OF SONG AND SPOKEN WORD, A SCAT STYLE FOR TODAY’S AVANT-GARDE.”
-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Https://fayvictor.com
Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) is a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to musicians of historically underrepresented gender identities (including cis women, trans women, trans men and non-binary) in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.
https://mutualmentorshipformusicians.org
#bassoon #m3festival #rouletteintermedium #mutualmentorshipformusicians #jazzsinger #freesongsinger #womeninmusic #womeninjazz #musicphotography #jazzphotography
Layale Chaker and Phillip Golub,
M3 Festival at Roulette 9/21/23
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Born in Paris but raised in Lebanon from the age of 6, composer and violinist Layale Chaker was raised speaking multiple languages, both linguistically and musically. Her complex sound universe, described by NPR as “beguiling” with “bright and beautiful strands… gorgeous, wine-dark swirls,” lies at the intersection of classical contemporary music, jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation. A 2020-2022 Jerome Hill Fellow, Chaker is also recipient of the 2022 Opera America Discovery 2022 Award, among many other accolades.
https://layalechaker.com
https://www.phillipgolubmusic.com
Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) is a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to musicians of historically underrepresented gender identities (including cis women, trans women, trans men and non-binary) in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.
https://mutualmentorshipformusicians.org
#layalechaker #mutualmentorshipformusicians #m3festival #rouletteintermedium #musicphotography #womeninjazz #womeninmusic #violin
Percussionist Yuko Togami
9/10/23 at CRS
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Yuko Togami is a drummer and composer currently based in New York City, originally from Saitama, Japan. She was exposed to music from a very early age as she was always watching her mother teach piano and Eurhythmics. She started taking Eurhythmics classes and playing piano when she was about 5. Later on, she also started playing marimba and studied classical music until she graduated from high school. While she was in high school, she got attracted to drums and began taking drum lessons. A couple years later, she started performing as a drummer based in Tokyo. In 2013, she moved to New York City to pursue further musical studies at the City College of New York. She received a scholarship from The Kaye Scholars Program, and studied privately with Adam Cruz, Nasheet Waits, and Ben Street. She graduated with her BFA degree in jazz performance and The Pro Musica Award from City College, and has performed with many different musicians and projects including Steve Wilson, Mike Holober, Scott Reeves, Ben Paterson, Mark Wade, Jakob Dreyer, Takaaki Otomo, Nori Naraoka, Berta Moreno, Maksim Perepelica, Latvian Concert Choir, Musicsnake, Kijima Sound System. Her debut album “Dawn” was released in April 2018, and has won a Silver Medal at the 2018 Global Music Awards for Outstanding Achievement.
https://www.yukotogami.com/
#yukotogami #drummer #jazzdrummer #musicphotography #jazzphotography #percussionist #femaledrummer #femalepercussionist
Pianist Rema Hasumi
9/10/23 at CRS
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Rema Hasumi is an experimental pianist, vocalist, producer and writer who is based out of Brooklyn, NY. Hasumi was born in 1983 in Fukuoka, Japan, and moved to the United States in 2002 to pursue her passion for music, which was nurtured through more than ten years of classical piano study and the listening experiences of her audiophile parent’s record collection. Hasumi has performed at venues across NY, the United States and Asia. In 2009 she performed at the Kennedy Center as one of the four finalists of Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Pianist Competition. In 2014, upon invitation by acclaimed vocalist Jen Shyu, Hasumi presented her solo work “The Patterns of Duplicity” at a series of “Solo Rites” concerts by Ms. Shyu. The piece featured the poetry “Spring and Asura” (1925) by Kenji Miyazawa interpreted in multiple languages, exploring the possibilities of musical ideas unique and inherent to each language. Hasumi has also worked extensively as both pianist and vocalist in many other projects, including a series of collaborations with the saxophonist Darius Jones in which they performed the music of Alice Coltrane. She has also worked as the vocalist in the guitarist Todd Neufeld’s new two-drummer group. Hasumi’s new trio premiered in June 2015 in two nights of concerts in NYC. It featured compositions she wrote for piano and voice, performed alongside the great Randy Peterson and Masa Kamaguchi. Her first record “UTAZATA” was released in May 2015 from Ruweh Records, which she runs as a co-founder. It features the highly sympathetic cast of Todd Neufeld (guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass), Billy Mintz (drums), and fiery guest musicians Ben Gerstein (trombone) and Sergio Krakowski (pandeiro). The group interprets the themes of Japanese Gagaku and ritual music. This record was made as a result of mindful searching on femininity, mythology and rituals in Japanese performing arts. In 2016, Hasumi released a trio recording “Billows of Blue” featuring Randy Peterson and Masa Kamaguchi.
https://remahasumi.bandcamp.com
James Carter, saxophones
SOMETHING ELSE! Vincent Herring Septet
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, 8/27/23
Photos by Christopher Pelham
“You have to be totally comfortable wherever. I feel that music equals life, that’s the way my teacher always taught me. You just can’t go through life and experience it fully with a set of blinders on. I think there’s tremendous beauty in cross-pollinations of music and influences.” — James Carter
http://jamescarterlive.com
#somethingelse #vincentherringseptet #charlieparkerjazzfestival #saxophone #musicphotography #jazzphotography #tompkinssquarepark
Easiet Okon Essiet, bass
SOMETHING ELSE!
Vincent Herring Septet
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, 8/27/23
Photo by Christopher Pelham
Essien has performed and recorded with such notables as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, James Moody, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton, Sam Rivers, George Adams, Pat Martino, Kenny Burrell, Jackie McLean, Frank Morgan, Kenny Barron, Louis Hayes, Ben Riley, Jimmy Cobb, Billy Higgins, Billy Hart, Art Farmer, Abby Lincoln, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Billy Cobham, Bennie Maupin, Al Foster, Eddie Henderson, Steve Turre, Jon Faddis, Bobby Watson, Victor Lewis, Kenny Garrett, Kenny Kirkland, Mulgrew Miller, Jeff "Tain " Watts, Mike Stern, Kevin Mahogany, Kurt Elling, Fort Apache Band, Danilo Perez, Claudia Acuna, Geri Allen, and Ralph Peterson to highlight only a partial list.
Currently, Essiet leads his own group called "IBO" named after a Nigerian tribe. It is a Nigerian jazz project which mixes jazz harmonies with West African rhythms.
http://essietokonessiet.net
#essietessiet #somethingelse #vincentherringseptet #charlieparkerjazzfestival #bass #musicphotography #jazzphotography #tompkinssquarepark
Iva Bittová
Long Play Festival, 5/6/23
Photos by Christopher Pelham
“For many years, I have worked in a range of musical genres, including jazz, rock, classical and opera. Deciding on a name for my style of music is far from over yet. Whatever it is, many of my listeners have long considered it highly original. It has always been everyday life that inspired my music and interpretations. Its inspiration has been total silence and an absolutely positive atmosphere. Those are the most important conditions and surroundings in which when my ideas spring into life. I believe they have a significant impact on my music.” — Iva
https://www.bittova.com
#violin #ivabittova #longplayfestival #musicphotography #bric
YouTube
Meet Artist Sita Chay ahead of her Paradise Laboratory concert w/ Satoshi Takeishi at CRS on 12/2/23
CRS Presents Li-Chin Li (sheng) performing Trois Chants by Jialin Liu — June 25, 2023
CRS Presents Li-Chin Li (sheng) performing Paradise by Francisco Uberto — June 25, 2023
CRS Presents Li-Chin Li (sheng) performing Vox 1 by Heng Chen — June 25, 2023
CRS Presents Crossing Boundaries Vol. 18: Freedom -- July 16, 2022
CRS Presents Li-Chin Li & Jeonghyeon Joo — Duet Improvisation — June 25, 2023
CRS Presents Crossing Boundaries Concert Series #19: Careful in the Sun