A transplant from Los Angeles, guitarist/violinist Peter Maunu has performed and recorded with countless musicians including Billy Cobham, The Commodores, Charlie Haden, Charles Lloyd, Joni Mitchell, Jean-Luc Ponty, Archie Shepp, Grace Slick, Tony Williams, and the Oakland Symphony. Peter also contributed to numerous film/television scores including Crash, Food Inc., Arrested Development, Chicago Hope and CSI New York.
As Arsenio Hall’s guitarist, he performed live with legends Ray Charles, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Madonna, Les McCann, Wayne Shorter, Ringo Starr, plus many more.
While in Chicago, Peter has performed/recorded with Carol Genetti, Jim Baker, Olivia Block, Ayako Kato, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Avreeyal Ra, Tomeka Reid, Dave Rempis, Katherine Young, Bethany Younge, Mars Williams, Michael Zerang, Jason Roebke, Andrew Scott Young, Ben Baker Billington, Daniel Van Duerm, Caroline Jesalva, Katinka Kleijn, Ed Wilkerson, Julian Kirshner among many others.
In 2013, he founded Splice Series, which he co-curates with vocalist Carol Genetti. The bimonthly Chicago series connects curator/performer Maunu with fellow improvisers.
Saxophonist, improviser, and composer Dave Rempis has been an integral part of the thriving Chicago jazz and improvised music scene since 1997. With a background in ethnomusicology and African studies at Northwestern University, including a year spent at the University of Ghana, Rempis burst onto the creative music scene at the age of 22 when he was asked to join the now-legendary Chicago jazz outfit The Vandermark Five. This opportunity catapulted him to notoriety as he began to tour regularly throughout the US and Europe, an active schedule that he still maintains to the present day. At the same time, Rempis began to develop the many Chicago-based groups for which he’s currently known, including The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Ballister, Kuzu, Rempis/Abrams/Ra + Baker, and longstanding duos with drummers Frank Rosaly and Tim Daisy. Other collaborations have included work with Paul Lytton, Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Tomeka Reid, Steve Swell, Elisabeth Harnik, John Tchicai, Roscoe Mitchell, Nate Wooley, jaimie branch, Jeff Parker, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nels Cline, Marshall Allen, and Joe McPhee. Rempis has recorded for a long list of labels including Okkadisk, 482 Music, Delmark, Atavistic, Clean Feed, Not Two, Astral Spirits, Dropa Disc, Bocian, Driff, Relay, Audiographic, and Multi-Kulti. In 2013, he started his own record label, Aerophonic Records, to document this ongoing work. Rempis has been named regularly since 2006 in the annual Downbeat Critics’s Poll as a “rising star” on both alto and baritone saxophone, a category that he won in 2017. He’s received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jazz Road Touring sponsored by the Doris Duke and Andrew Mellon Foundations, the City of Chicago Individual Artist Program, and was the recipient of a Ragdale Fellowship from the Herb Alpert Foundation.
Rempis’ musical expression draws on a number of touchstones. While heavily improvisational in nature, his Greek ethnicity, studies in jazz and ethnomusicology, an appreciation for the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary composition, and a love for unforgivingly strident yelps, screeches, and squeals that can encompass the ever-evolving state of human depravity all inform his work.
Aside from his work as a musician and composer, Rempis has worked tirelessly as a presenter. From 2002-2023, he curated and produced a weekly series of improvised music at Chicago’s Elastic Arts Foundation, where he also served as Board President. He was a founding member of the presenters’ collective Umbrella Music, and one of the lead producers and curators of its annual festival of improvised music from 2006-2014. He was business manager of the world renowned Pitchfork Music Festival from 2005-2016. Since 2013 he has worked with the widely respected Hyde Park Jazz Festival, a community-based event on the South Side of Chicago that showcases Chicago talent to the world. His current title is Director of Operations and Finance.
Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator and woodwind specialist. Beisel is known for visceral performances blending extended vocal and instrumental techniques with analogue electronics. Their solo album Particle of Organs is described as "Operatic, wild and dark, showcasing the raw power of the body and the instrument, weaving together sounds that are both corrosive and tender." As a curator, Beisel seeks to increase the visibility and involvement of femme, trans and nonbinary artists in the creative performance community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, presenting monthly performances, community-based free improvisation sessions and a biennial PleiadesFest. Beisel holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208 and is honored to be a 2024 3Arts Awardee in Music.
Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is a first-generation American of Assyrian descent. He has been a musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. His latest record, DRAW BRIDGE is a duo with pianist Sophie Angel and was released December 13, 2024 on Relative Pitch.
