The World Music Collective
The World Music Collective is an innovative ensemble that draws on rich musical traditions with improvisation as a common thread. This flexible instrumentation group includes Indian classical flute, saxophone, accordion, flamenco guitar, bass, and percussion. Each member is an internationally recognized performer, improviser, and composer based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Through music and heritage, this ensemble brings together the diverse cultures of the world.
Deepak Ram, Indian flute player, has been featured on NPR and has performed for Nelson Mandela. Noah Getz is a Grammy-nominated artist that has been hailed as a “highly skillful and an even more highly adventurous player” (Washington City Paper). Simone Baron, accordionist, has recently been featured in Downbeat Magazine for her new album The Space Between Disguises. Guitarist Javier Farias has been called one of the three most important living Chilean composers by La Tercera. Bassist Pepe Gonzalez has been called “one of the most respected jazz bass players in the Washington area” (The Washington Post), and has recorded extensively with national and international musicians including Clifford Jordan, Dorothy Donnegan, Hilton Ruiz, and Jeannie Bryson. Advait Shah received advanced training from Ustad Tari Khan in Chicago, IL and has performed with Nisar Bazmi, Ustad Nafiz Ali Khan, Arun Ramamurthy and Pandit Subroto Roy Choudury.
The Salon Trio
The Salon Trio began presenting concerts in the homes of arts patrons throughout the Washington, DC area five years ago. Consisting of professional musicians and music professors from the Washington, DC metropolitan area, this clarinet, saxophone, and piano trio has championed new music for this instrumental combination along with works by BIPOC and LGBTQ composers. The groups first recording, The Salon Sessions, received a first-round Grammy nomination and has been selected as a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Chamber Music. In 2022, The Salon Trio recorded a program of works celebrating the music of Black composers including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, and Yusef Lateef. Spanning more than one hundred years from the late nineteenth century through 1990, these original compositions and newly created arrangements capture the musical style of some of the most influential Black composers throughout the 20th century.