Rebecca Allan is a New York-based painter whose work examines the landscape, the figure, and music. Rivers and watershed landscapes of the Northeast, the Pacific Northwest, Virginia, and the Lake District of England have been primary sites of investigation for the past decade. Her most recent solo exhibition was at Upfront Gallery in Penrith, Cumbria, UK. She has been a fellow at the Centrum Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Dorland Mountain Art Colony in California. A teacher, lecturer, and museum educator for more than 25 years, Allan has taught painting, drawing, and art history at Purchase College (State University of New York), New York Botanical Garden, Cornish College of the Arts, Gage Academy of Art, Allegheny College, Heritage Institute at Antioch University, Seattle Art Museum, and Frye Art Museum. She is currently the Head of Education at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture.

Jane Ira Bloom is a soprano saxophonist, composer, and a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. She is the winner of the 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz, the Jazz Journalists Association Award and the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone, and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation. Bloom was the first musician commissioned by the NASA Art Program and has an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union. She has received numerous commissions and has composed for the American Composers Orchestra, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, and the Pilobolus Dance Theater, integrating jazz performers in new settings. She has recorded and produced 13 albums of her music and holds degrees from Yale University and the Yale School of Music. Bloom is currently on the faculty of the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in NYC. Her latest release is the award-winning CD, Mental Weather.

Marty Erlich is equally fluent on clarinet, saxophone, and flutes. He has performed and recorded with many top composers and musicians, including Anthony Braxton, Marianne Faithful, and John Zorn. As an ensemble leader, he has made 25 recordings of his compositions for ensembles ranging in size from duo to jazz orchestra, including his Dark Woods Ensemble, Traveler’s Tales Group, and Rites Quartet. He has also performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the New York City Opera. He has appeared as a soloist with Chamber Music Northwest and with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in pieces composed for him by David Schiff and David Lang. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Residency at Harvard University, and Clarinetist of the Year from the Jazz Journalist Association. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Hampshire College.

This program is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.