Description

New York-native Jerry O’Sullivan is considered by many to be one of America’s foremost uilleann pipers. Famous for both his technical mastery and emotional expression on the pipes, O’Sullivan is also accomplished tin whistle, low whistle, Highland bagpipe and Scottish smallpipe player.

Seagda Coyle is a longtime student of accordion John Nolan, and is very active on the New York session scene. He also teaches and in addition to having several button accordion students he also shares leadership duties of the U-12, U-15, and U-18 New York Céilí Bands through the Woodlawn Arts and Music House in the Bronx.

Colin Harte earned his PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida’s School of Music, where he founded and performed with the UF Irish Traditional Music Ensemble. He earned his Masters in Educational Leadership from CUNY-Hunter College in 2018. He received his Master’s in Ethnomusicology from the University of Limerick. As a NYC Teaching Fellow, he received a Master’s in Education from CUNY- Lehman College while teaching band, general music and percussion ensemble at a Bronx, public middle school. He currently teaches a world music curriculum for the NYCDOE at KAPPA High School in the north Bronx where he directs a 50 student West-African percussion ensemble, keyboard lab, world music courses, and music technology courses with the school recording studio. As a pianist and bodhrán percussionist, he is also active in the New York jazz, Latin and Irish traditional music communities.

Arun Ramamurthy is a versatile violinist, educator and organizer based in Brooklyn, NY. His music is rooted in his lifelong training of South Indian Carnatic music and influenced by his various musical interests growing up in New Jersey. Arun is a disciple of the celebrated violinist brothers, Dr. Mysore Manjunath & Sri Mysore Nagaraj, the distinguished violinist Sri. Ananthakrishnan as well as many early years with western classical violinist Jim Mate. He has carved a niche for himself as a multifaceted artist, performing internationally in both traditional Carnatic and Hindustani settings as well as bridging genres with his own innovative projects.

Jay Gandhi’s music is at once reflective of his devotion to his Guru, the inimitable legend of the bansuri, Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, as well as a diverse range of other musical influences. Jay’s initial training in Hindustani music was under Smt. Kum Kum Sanyal (vocal) and later in bansuri under Pt. Ronu Majumdar and Pt. Raghunath Seth. Inspired to gain deeper knowledge of both the gayaki ang (vocal style) as well as the tantrakari ang (stringed instrument style), Jay has also taken valuable guidance from Pt Vidyadhar Vyas (vocal) and Pt. Nayan Ghosh (sitar, tabla). In 2006, he was blessed to have been accepted as a disciple of Padma Vibhushan Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, and has since had the honor of accompanying his Guru on stage for multiple concert tours. Jay’s musical inclinations were not limited to that of the Indian sub-continent and he was also strongly drawn to the music of the African diaspora and American Jazz in particular. With the desire to bring the sound and versatility of the bansuri into the jazz idiom in a meaningful way, he formally studied Jazz Performance at Oberlin College/Conservatory of Music (Ohio) and trained under such Jazz luminaries as Gary Bartz and the late Marcus Belgrave. He currently is based out of New York City, where he is very active as both a teacher and performer and also as a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive, a prominent musicians collective.

Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset, and Indian classical music on tabla. Sameer completed his Jazz studies learning from his peers on the bandstands in San Francisco and Oakland to Harlem and Brooklyn. His own interests and love of tabla helped guide Sameer to become a co-founder of the non-profit arts org Brooklyn Raga Massive. Gupta continues to build his career by combining traditional and modern improvisational styles drawing from his dual Indian and American heritage, and has already established himself as an original musical voice in music today. From bebop to avant-garde jazz, and European classical percussion to North Indian classical tabla, Gupta continues to compose and perform music from a true multi-cultural perspective.