Composer and pianist Courtney Bryan's music is in conversation with various musical genres, including jazz and experimental music, as well as traditional gospel, spirituals, and hymns. With degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM), Rutgers University (MM), and Columbia University (DMA) with advisor George Lewis, Bryan completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Bryan is the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University and a Creative Partner with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. She was the 2018 music recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2019 Bard College Freehand Fellow, a 2019-20 recipient of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition, a 2020 United States Artists Fellow, and a recipient of a 2020-21 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship.

Native New Orleanian composer, multi-instrumentalist, and self-proclaimed “beep-boop maker” LaTasha Bundy writes music based on New Orleans and pop culture, and is informed and inspired by comic books, video games, and anime.

Playing the violin at an early age, Bundy switched to jazz trumpet in high school and became skilled at playing synthesizers and electronics. She received her BSM and BA from Tulane University, MM at University of New Orleans with Amit Gilutz and Yotam Haber, and MA from Tulane University with Max Dulaney, Rick Snow, and Courtney Bryan.

Bundy has worked as engraver for Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah since 2014, including his Grammy-Nominated The Emancipation Procrastination, and Ancestral Recall and as engraver on Herlin Riley’s Perpetual Optimism. Her current project is “The NOLA Sample Project: Preserving Preservation Hall,” for which she won the Monroe, Andrew Mellon, and Jazz and Heritage Foundation fellowships for her innovative way of archiving sound.

Trained as an opera singer and classical pianist, singer-songwriter Lewis has been a composer, producer and performing artist for over two decades. Releasing her first album The Coming of John in 2003, she has been known as the Folk Rock Diva since performing in the Folk Rock band The Shiz, founded with her wife Liz Hogan in 2009.

Lewis recently released Americana, her third full album for Louisiana Red Hot Records, where she serves as VP and the Head of A&R. Additional critically acclaimed releases include the 2018 solo piano album The Henderson Sessions, 2019’s We Belong by the Lilli Lewis Project, and the 2020 My American Heart Red + Blue EP. In 2020, Lewis released the single — the “Mask Up” anthem for a public health campaign from Louisiana Red Hot Records and WHIV-FM featuring New Orleans favorites Kirk Joseph, Glen David Andrews and Erica Falls.

An active composer, Lewis was recently commissioned by Loyola University’s Opera Workshop to contribute 12 compositions for a cycle of micro-arias entitled “Cura Personalis” including work for Fats Domino’s grandson, award-winning tenor Antonio Domino. Since the shutdown, Lewis has performed at Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America virtual series, played “My American Heart” for a streaming voters’ rights benefit, and performed for WWOZ-FM’s Piano Night virtual benefit. She also was selected to be a Folk Alliance International delegate for Global Music Match, an online collaboration showcasing 78 artists from 17 countries.

Classical violinist Rachel Jordan is Artistic Director of Music Alive Ensemble;Talented Music for Jefferson Parish Schools; a member of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas; a member of the James Carter Quartet at Loyola University in New Orleans. She was Professor of Violin at Jackson State University, and served as adjunct faculty at Xavier University, Southern University, and Dillard University in New Orleans. Ms. Jordan was also a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans for 12 years.

Jordan received her Bachelors and Master of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University where she studied with Berl Senofsky. She has been a featured performer in numerous solo recitals including the Kennedy Center, Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria, the Music Center of Houston, and Mozart Festival in Washington, D.C. and for the Congressional Black Caucus Inaugural Ceremony of President Barack Obama with the Jackson State University Orchestra.

While at Dillard University, she started the Jesse Dent recital series, featuring African American musicians performing classical music. She also produced the annual "An Afternoon of Classical Music" chamber music series and a fully staged jazz concert entitled “Stephanie with Strings.”

The daughter of saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan, she has performed with her siblings for Jazz at Lincoln Center Higher Ground Hurricane Relief benefit concert, among others throughout the United States.