show: Saturday 21 February, 9pm

Jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her musical career has been marked by a deep exploration of traditional and free jazz, new music tinged improvisation, and Ashkenazic folk music. Lerner has appeared with Tito Puente, Gerry Hemingway, and Steve Lacy. In the New Jewish music scene, she performs with Adrienne Cooper, Frank London, Alicia Svigals and David Wall. Lerner also conducts workshops on improvisation and on Jewish music throughout North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union.

A prolific recording artist, her most recent work includes: Live in Madrid, (Cadence records), with New York based Ken Filiano-bass and Lou Grassi-drums, and the Ugly Beauties Trio with Matt Brubeck cello and Nick Fraser, drums. She also tours and performs with the Dutch based avant-garde Ig Henneman Sextet:with Axel Dorner, Wilbert de Joode, Lori Freedman and Ab Baars.


Trumpet Player and Composer, Nicole Rampersaud is frequently sought after for her original and versatile voice in the jazz and improvised music scenes, and is an in demand performer in cities across Canada and the United States. Past and current collaborators read like a who's who of today's leading artists: Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Rakalam Bob Moses, Django Bates, Marilyn Lerner, Joe Morris and Jean Martin, to name a few. She has also performed in some of the most prestigious venues in North America including: New York's Lincoln Center, Berklee Performance Center in Boston, and Massey Hall in Toronto.

Nicole has been the recipient of multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council, most notably to record and release albums with the Shaw/Rampersaud Project (a group she co-leads with Alto Sax Player, Evan Shaw), and with the improvising trio, cRL. She has also worked actively to promote the improvised music community in Toronto, sitting on the Board of Directors for the Association of Improvising Musicians, Toronto, and co-curating the long running Leftover Daylight Series.

Today, Nicole continues to maintain an active performance schedule as both a sideperson and bandleader in a wide variety of groups across Canada. Upcoming projects and events include performing at the first edition of the Festival of New Trumpet Music Canada, as well as a vinyl release of solo trumpet compositions.


brass knuckle sandwich @ mechanicalforsestsound
marilynlerner.com
nicolerampersaud.com

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