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Toshimi and William Sembo Masterclass Artist

Born in Baltimore, Maryland USA, Jermaine Maurice Spivey began his dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts. After graduating with a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School in May 2002, he moved to Europe to begin his professional career with Ballet Gulbenkian and was a member till 2005. Jermaine then joined the Cullberg Ballet until summer 2008. He has since been a member of The LID, a production by Ayman Harper in Co-production with The Forsythe Company and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, guest artist with the Hofesh Shechter Company, a member of The American Repertory Theater's original production The Shape She Makes, conceived by Susan Misner and Jonathan Bernstein, performer in Hercules and Love Affair's music video Do You Feel the Same, guest performer in Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada at LACMA, guest artist with The Forsythe Company from 2013-15 and an active member of choreographer Crystal Pite's company Kidd Pivot since 2008. Jermaine has also enjoyed setting works of Crystal Pite for companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Carte Blanche and Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden, as well as teaching various workshops and masterclasses for professional companies, schools and conservatories throughout Europe and North America.

Jermaine is a 1998 National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts 1st Level Awardee and a 2001 Princess Grace Awardee.

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Tilman O’Donnell was born in the USA to a German mother and American father, and received his training at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. He joined The Göteborg Ballet under the direction of Anders Hellström in 2001. In 2002 Tilman danced at Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and thereafter joined the Cullberg Ballet from 2003 until 2007. He was a member of The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt from 2007- 2012, and a guest artist until June 2015.

Tilman made his debut as a choreographer in 2002 and has been awarded first prize in two major international choreographic competitions. In 2005 he was appointed both ”Dancer To Watch” and ”Choreographer To Watch” by the leading European magazine Ballet Tanz. In 2011 he created two site-specific works for Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm. In 2012 he created the piece August did not have what is commonly considered good taste as far as furniture is concerned. He has also created works for SPIRA Jönköping/Cullberg To Come, Staatstheater Graz and The Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, including the most recent work Whatever Singularity #453: Solo For Maxime / Dancing With Alain. In 2014 Tilman was invited to be artist in residence for two months by the Goethe Institut in Montreal, Canada, together with Cyril Baldy. His most recent work is titled In Life & Love & So On and was created for Corpus/The Royal Danish Ballet.
He was recently nominated as “Hoffnungsträger” by the prominent European dance journal Tanz.

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Toshimi and William Sembo Masterclass Artist

Stephan Laks currently works with a range of dance organizations, in a number of roles. Since 2010, he has consistently been a Rehearsal Director with the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, as well shorter periods with the Royal Swedish Ballet. The most notable ongoing artistic associations as a performer, repetiteur, and choreographer currently include Sasha Waltz & Guests, Fernando Melo, Royal Research/Royal Swedish Ballet, Project Point Blank/Hokuto Kodama, and Springboard Danse Montréal. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of Springboard Danse Montréal.

After graduation from The Juilliard School in 2003, Stephan danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, the Göteborg Ballet (now the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani), and the Bern Ballet. He then began freelancing, working with a variety of choreographers, including Adi Salant, Aszure Barton, and Luca Veggetti. He also co-founded/directed Rumpus Room Dance (2006 – 2009), which was a platform for collaborative, site-specific dance installation (Dance Magazine’s 2010 “Top 25 to Watch”).

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Fernando Melo is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the age of 16 he was awarded a scholarship to train at the Vienna State Opera Ballet. He has been in Europe ever since, building his career as a dancer and choreographer and creating works around the world. Among the companies he has choreographed for are: Göteborgsoperans Danskompani (Sweden), where he is also currently rehearsal director; Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf (Germany), Introdans (Holland), Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, München (Germany), Luzerner Theater (Switzerland), Luna Negra Dance Theater, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Ballet Hispanico New York (U.S.A.), and Norrdans (Sweden).

Fernando also choreographs and directs dance film. His most recent film Nonstop screened at Cinedans in the Netherlands. Prior to this, he created Mahjong, which screened at several international film festivals and received the 2010 Audience Award at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. In addition, Fernando choreographs for opera. His recent projects include Die Schöpfung by Joseph Haydn for Vocal Futures, London, (U.K.), Daphne by Richard Strauss at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, (France), Solaris by Detlev Glanert at the Oper Köln (Germany) and L’Opera Seria by Florian Leopold Gassman at La Monnaie in Brussels (Belgium).

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For nearly 30 years Ralph Peterson has been one of the most distinctive and recognizable drummers in jazz.  Peterson quickly rose to prominence after meeting master drummer Art Blakey in 1983.  A few months after sitting in, Blakey called Peterson (then a college junior) to play alongside him in his two-drummer big band.  Peterson takes seriously the honor and responsibility of being the “Last messenger Drummer” and later paid homage to Blakey on his 1992 recording “Art”.  His recording and touring resume includes jazz greats like Terrence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine, David Murray, The Count Basie Orchestra and many more of the greatest names in jazz.

Now considered to be a Master drummer himself, Peterson’s previous recording “The Duality Perspective, garnered rave reviews from major publications including the New York Times, DownBeat Magazine and JazzTimes to name a few.

RPOnyx
Drums, Composer

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Nicole Mitchell is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator.  As the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal and Sonic Projections, Mitchell has been repeatedly awarded by DownBeat Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association as “Top Flutist of the Year” for the last four years (2010-2014). 

Mitchell formerly served as the first woman president of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and has been a member since 1995. In recognition of her impact within the Chicago music and arts education communities, she was named “Chicagoan of the Year” in 2006 by the Chicago Tribune. With her ensembles, as a featured flutist and composer, Mitchell has been a highlight at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. 

Ms. Mitchell is a recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts (2011) and has been commissioned by Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra and Maggio Fiorentino Chamber Orchestra (Florence, Italy).  In 2009, she created Honoring Grace: Michelle Obama for the Jazz Institute of Chicago. She has been a faculty member at the Vancouver Creative Music Institute, the Sherwood Flute Institute, Banff International Jazz Workshop and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and in magazines including Ebony, Downbeat, JazzIz, Jazz Times, Jazz Wise, and American Legacy. 

Flute, Composer
Bruce McKinnon Fellow

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Trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar has distinguished himself with a mastery of diverse musical traditions and a singular approach to combining Middle Eastern musical languages with jazz and other styles of contemporary music. In addition, he is a purveyor of the centuries old, now endangered, Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur player. As a composer, ElSaffar has used the microtones found in maqam music to create an innovative approach to harmony and melody. 

ElSaffar currently leads four critically-acclaimed ensembles: Two Rivers, which combines the musical languages and instrumentation of Iraqi Maqam and contemporary jazz; the Amir ElSaffar Quintet, performing ElSaffar's microtonal compositions with standard jazz instrumentation; Safaafir, the only ensemble in the US performing and preserving the Iraqi Maqam in its traditional format; and The Alwan Ensemble, the resident ensemble of Alwan for the Arts, specializing in classical music from Egypt, the Levant, and Iraq. 

A recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, ElSaffar has worked with jazz legend Cecil Taylor, and prominent jazz musicians such as Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Ribot, Henry Grimes, and Oliver Lake. ElSaffar has appeared on numerous recordings, and has released six under his own name, Maqams of Baghdad (2005), Two Rivers (2007), Radif Suite (2010), Inana (2011), Alchemy (2013) and Crisis (2015). 
 

AmirElSaffar
amirelsaffar
Trumpet, Santur, Vocals, Composer
Bruce McKinnon Fellow

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Jason has worked with icons such as Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith (the organist), Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel (first trumpeter ever hired by this highly acclaimed guitarist), Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen, Clarence Penn, Jeff Ballard, Kenny Barron, Phil Woods, Common (hip-hop icon), Roy Hargrove, and Lewis Nash.

Jason took 1st Place ($10,000 prize) in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. The June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine cited Jason as one of the "Top 25 trumpeters of the Future".  Also in 2011 Jason is an awarded Fellow in composition for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

In addition to performing on over a dozen albums as a sideman, Jason has recorded three albums under his own name and is currently a Steeplechase Records Recording artist. His debut recording entitled "Songbook" (Ayva Musica) features guest saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby. The record garnered rave reviews upon its' release and appeared on several "Best of 2008" lists including All Music Guide's list for best jazz album. 

pogo56
Trumpeter, Composer

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Dylan Pearce has directed six feature films, ten award-winning short films and has worked extensively with virtual reality and 360-degree stereoscopic filmmaking. His films have been screened worldwide from theatrical to festivals, TV and VOD. He most recently directed the award-winning 40 Below and Falling 3D, which included a VR experience. The film is Canada’s first 4K 3D feature film with a VR experience, and has earned him a 2016 Canadian Screen Award nomination for best directing.

Dylan’s latest feature in development, Iron Dogs 3D won the 2015 Best Pitch award at the Stereo Media summit in Belgium this past year. Dylan is currently directing three VR short films and is exploring VR storytelling in trans-media. Dylan’s depth of work in the stereoscopic VR field has led him to work closely with 360/180-camera developers and VR headsets creators.

Dylan_Pearce

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Mark Clintberg is an artist who works in the field of art history. He is an Assistant Professor in the School of Critical and Creative Studies at the Alberta College of Art + Design, and earned his Ph.D. in art history at Concordia University. His work has recently been shown at The Rooms, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Artspace, and the Western Front, and he is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain. He was short listed for the Sobey Art Award (Canada's largest contemporary art award for young artists) in 2013.

Faculty, Visual + Digital Arts
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