Sarah Hopkins is a unique Australian composer-performer, highly acclaimed for her visionary music and inspiring performances for cello, harmonic overtone singing, handbells, choir and the celestial Harmonic Whirlies of her own creation. With a strong background and training in classical music, over the years she has moved into the realm of holistic music and developed a very distinctive compositional voice.
Crooked Still is a self-styled alternative bluegrass band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, cellist Tristan Clarridge, fiddler Brittany Haas, banjo player Dr. Gregory Liszt, and bassist Corey DiMario. They are known for their high energy, technical skill, unique instrumentation and innovative acoustic style. O'Donovan and DiMario met at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in spring of 2001. Former cellist Rushad Eggleston, who was studying at Berklee College of Music, and Liszt, a graduate student at MIT, were playing music together around the same time.
Cellist Wendy Sutter received degrees from both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. A native of Seattle, she made her solo debut with the Seattle Symphony at age sixteen. Awarded the first prize in the Juilliard cello competition, Ms Sutter made her New York solo concerto debut at Avery Fisher Hall in the New York premiere of Kaddish for cello and orchestra by composer David Diamond.
It was the cat-poles around the lake at his grandfather’s farm that inspired Ben Sollee’s debut album Learning To Bend. The frailty of those awkward looking plants standing stoutly against winds that challenged even the strongest of nearby trees is an affecting metaphor for human struggle and perseverance. This idea is central to Learning To Bend.
Key tracks on Learning To Bend include two reactions to the current political landscape, “A Few Honest Words,” and an adaptation of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” in which Ben has written updated, politically relevant verses.
Jessica Says is 21 year old Melbourne singer-songwriter Jessica Venables, cellist and vocal harmoniser for the likes of New Buffalo, Jens Lekman, Sly Hats and Grand Salvo. Her debut solo album was released on cult label Unstable Ape Records / Remote Control on March 21, 2009. Recorded by Melbourne indie wunderkind Geoff O'Connor (Crayon Fields/Sly Hats), the album is built around Jessica's vocals, piano playing and her intricate string arrangements and features a vocal cameo by New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann.
Zoë Keating is a Canadian musician and composer. Classically trained from the age of eight, Keating studied music at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County, New York and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy. After graduation she moved to San Francisco and began working in computer software while moonlighting as a cellist with dance troupes, theatre companies, and rock bands. She combined the two, and developed her now signature style while improvising for late night crowds in her San Francisco warehouse space.