Fred Frith, an icon in the music world, is best known as a pioneering electric guitarist and improviser, song-writer, and composer for film, dance and theater who learned to write music in rock bands, starting with Henry Cow in 1968. He appears on over 400 albums with other music luminaries. Heike Liss is an award winning artist in the fields of video, photography and site-specific installation whose works have been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries and at film festivals. She has collaborated with choreographers, poets, and composers improvising visuals.

Ernest Siva is central to the transmission of Indian culture through his work as a musician, community leader, and university lecturer and teacher. He is President and Founder of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, a nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and music. Mr. Siva serves as Tribal Historian and Cultural Advisor for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and is the Artistic Director of the Pass Chorale, which performs music of the master composers.

Deborah O’Grady is a fine art photographer and video artist, a frequent collaborator with orchestras, including the Saint Louis Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the United States Navy Band, creating live video projections for symphonic performance. O’Grady’s still photography centers around the landscapes of the western Unites States. These bodies of work represent an exploration of the rural landscapes of northern California within the context of native mythology and the pioneer experiences of an early settler as described in archival letters. O’Grady traveled the Navajo Nation for the creation of the video commissioned by the Phoenix Symphony’s 60th Anniversary, and the book “Code Talker Stories”, oral histories and portraits of the World War II Navajo Marines (Albuquerque Art Museum collection).

First inspired to compose during his artist residency at Harrison House in 2012, Byers’ works have since been performed at Kennedy Center, SummerStage in New York, and Hear Now Festival in Los Angeles. Sybarite5’s album ‘Outliers’ featuring two of Byers’ pieces, debuted at #1 on the classical billboard charts. As a founding member of the Calder Quartet, Byers has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Wigmore Hall, Disney Hall and major international venues and festivals. Chamber music collaborators have included Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Kalichstein, and Claude Frank. Byers has conducted masterclasses at The Juilliard School, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, UCLA, and USC.

Most widely known as a master of world percussion and the first to integrate the African drum into modern calypso and jazz music, Big Black has performed with icons Lord Flea, Billy Cook, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie and many others.