BRIAN CARPENTER
(2006 - present)
Brian Carpenter is a singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer. He founded Ghost Train Orchestra in Brooklyn in 2006 as a side project from his bands The Confessions and Beat Circus, with which he composed a “Weird American Gothic” trilogy. He has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and has worked with many artists across several mediums. He is the host and producer of Free Association, a decades-long radio show and podcast broadcast from WZBC at Boston College.
briancarpenter.net
ROB GARCIA
(2008 - present)
“A prime mover in the current Brooklyn jazz scene” (Time Out-New York) and "one of New York’s great jazz drummers and composers” (Capital New York), Rob Garcia has released several critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader of the Rob Garcia 4. He is a member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, an association of independent artists with a shared commitment to creativity and community.
robgarciamusic.com
RON CASWELL
(2006 - present)
One of the most virtuosic tubists in NYC, Ron Caswell has performed and recorded with countless ensembles, including Slavic Soul Party, Beat Circus, Hentry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus, and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars. Ron has also co-produced salsa records with Martin Arroyo and has performed with his own band The Knobs and numerous Latin bands playing trumpet and tuba.
roncaswell.com
DAVID COSSIN
(2018 - present)
David Cossin teaches percussion at the Aaron Copland School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music's Contemporary Performance Program. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms. David has recorded and performed internationally with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet, as well as with Sting on his Symphonicity world tour.
ALEX WATERMAN
(2018 - present)
Alex Waterman is an composer, cellist, archivist, and scholar. He has composed music for dance, film, installation works, and site specific performances, and has arranged for and recorded with rock bands and singers (The Walkmen, Florence and the Machine, Ghalia Benali) and produced and directed operas. He has published a series of books with Will Holder on notation and poetics, made a science fiction film on Roosevelt Island, and performed as a soloist and collaborator with acclaimed ensembles internationally for over two decades. Alex was an artist in the Whitney Biennial in 2014 together with the composer Robert Ashley.
EMILY BOOKWALTER
(2011 - present)
Emily is a violist in New York City praised for her “elegantly rendered” (The New York Times) and "masterful interpretation" (I Care if You Listen) of contemporary repertoire. Most recently, she was a soloist on the world premiere recording of Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti's with eyes the color of time, a 2022 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in music featured on the String Orchestra of Brooklyn’s second album, enfolding.
CURTIS HASSELBRING
(2006 - present)
Curtis Hasselbring is a trombonist, guitarist, and composer/arranger who has played in countless ensembles. He is also composes electronic music under the moniker Curha. Mostly known for his trombone playing, Curtis has also played guitar since his teens and continues to freelance on that instrument playing in a wide variety of situations ranging from instrumental rock (with Chris Lightcap’s Superette), Romanian music (with Sanda Weigl) to his own prog-surf trop-tronica band, the Curhachestra.
curha.com
MATT BAUDER
(2009 - present)
Matt Bauder is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and the leader of Day in Pictures, Hearing Things and part of the collaborative trio Memorize the Sky. He has performed with many iconic figures in avant-garde and rock music including Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Fred Anderson, Roscoe Mitchell, The Sam Roberts Band, Iron and Wine and Arcade Fire.
mattbauder.net
AVI BORTNICK
(2011 - present)
Guitarist Avi Bortnick is best known for his long musical association with influential jazz guitarist John Scofield, playing rhythm guitar and electronics, composing and producing. He has played with his own groups and with a wide range of New York-based artists, including Jim Weider’s Project Percolator, Erik Deutsch, Forro in the Dark, Shitty Shitty Jam Band, Rene Lopez, the Ghost Train Orchestra, Jihae, Betty Black, Bunga Bunga Party, and Jason Blum.
avibortnick.com
CHRIS LIGHTCAP
(2018 - present)
Chris Lightcap is an accomplished bassist and composer with a wide-ranging performing and recording career. He leads the groups Big Mouth and Superette, an all-electric band that explores the nexus of of harmolodics, surf, West African music, psychedelia and beyond. Lightcap is currently a faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and the School for Improvisational Music.
chrislightcap.com
SARA CASWELL
(2016 - present)
Grammy® Nominee Sara Caswell “is a brilliant world-class violinist...one of the very best of the present generation of emerging young jazz stars” according to the late David Baker, internationally-renowned jazz educator and Director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Rooted in an early exposure to a variety of musical genres, Sara’s technical facility intertwined with her gift for lyricism continue to attract growing attention to her artistry as a jazz soloist, sideman, and teacher.
saracaswell.com
MICHAEL BATES
(2011 - 2018)
DENNIS LICHTMAN
(2009 - present)
Dennis Lichtman is a multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, fiddle, and mandolin) who is deeply entrenched in early- to mid-1900’s American music, from traditional jazz and swing to bluegrass and western swing. Dennis leads the western swing sextet The Brain Cloud. Since 2007, Dennis has been the clarinetist and bandleader of the famed Tuesday night traditional-jazz jam session at Mona's in downtown New York.
dennislichtman.com
ANDY LASTER
(2009 - present)
Composer and multireedist Andy Laster has released several albums under his own name and his Hydra project in the 90s. He has performed in Erik Friedlander’s Topaz; the Julius Hemphill Sextet; the Pink Noise Saxophone Quartet, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, Marty Ehrlich, Dave Douglas, Elliot Sharp, Roy Nathanson, and the Satoko Fujii Orchestra, and Ghost Train Orchestra.
andylaster.com
BRANDON SEABROOK
(2006 - present)
Brandon Seabrook is a NYC-based guitarist, banjoist, performer, and composer. As a guitarist, his work feeds off tactile sensations; rapid tremolo picking, contorted clusters, jump cuts, and a hyper-physical performance style. He leads the Seabrook Trio with Gerald Cleaver and Cooper-Moore, and composes and leads the large ensemble Epic Proportions.
brandonseabrook.com
MAXIM MOSTON
(2018 - present)
Maxim Moston is a New York City based performer, arranger, producer, and composer. His primary instrument is the violin, but he can also be heard playing viola, mandolin, guitar and keyboard instruments. Maxim is a veteran of over thirty-five Broadway productions and is a fixture of New York’s studio scene. He was the violinist and music director for the Mercury Prize winning Antony and the Johnsons, with whom he has performed to sold out houses on five continents.
maximmoston.com
SARA SCHOENBECK
(2018 - present)
Sara Shoenbeck is a bassoonist and composer who is in demand as a creative force on the bassoon, having recorded on dozens of albums across many genres of music. She has performed and recorded with Harris Eisenstadt, Nicole Mitchell, Nels Cline, Roscoe Mitchell, Matt Mitchell, Mark Dresser, Wayne Horvitz, Peggy Lee and Robin Holcomb.