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Rod Morgenstein

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Rod Morgenstein is a founding member of the groundbreaking progressive rock fusion group, the Dixie Dregs, whose six most recent recordings received Grammy Nominations for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. He is an original member of the heavy metal band Winger, whose recordings have reached gold and platinum status around the world. The band received an American Music Award nomination for Best New Heavy Metal Band in 1989. Winger will hit the studio to work on a brand new recording, with touring to follow, to mark the band’s 25th anniversary in 2013. Morgenstein is also a member of the Rudess Morgenstein Project, a power-duo featuring Morgenstein and Dream Theater keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess; The Jelly Jam, which features Dream Theater bassist, John Myung, and guitarist, Ty Tabor of King’s X; and the jazz-fusion jam band Jazz Is Dead, which has featured bassist Alphonso Johnson, guitarists Jeff Pevar and Jimmy Herring, and keyboardist T Lavitz.

In addition to his recording and touring credits, Morgenstein is very active in drum education. He is a Professor of Percussion at Berklee College of Music, currently in his 16th year of teaching, and he also created “Rock Drums,” an innovative, online college-level course. With over 50 recordings to his credit, and having performed hundreds of clinics and thousands of concerts around the world in some 30 countries, Morgenstein continues to stay active as a performer and educator.

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Grammy award-winning drummer/percussionist/composer/educator Mark Walker is one of the most respected drummers on the scene. Walker is a 15 plus-year member of the American Jazz group Oregon (featuring Ralph Towner) and a 23-year member of the Paquito D'Rivera Quintet. He also leads the Latin jazz group Rhythm of the Americas. Walker has performed on five Grammy award-winning albums and has earned nine Grammy nominations for his work with various pop and jazz artists. He won Best Latin Jazz Album as a drummer/composer for “Funk Tango” by the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet and was recently nominated for a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Composition, for the track “Deep Six” from Oregon’s 1000 Kilometers. Walker has also earned the Indie award and the Jazz award (German record manufacturers) for his work with Oregon. As an educator, Walker has taught at Berklee College of Music since 2001.

Mark Walker

Yoron Israel’s varied credentials and i l lustr ious career inc ludes f ive recordings as a leader and hundreds of recordings as an accompanist. His recordings as a solo artist include the newly released Visions – The Music of Stevie Wonder, which is among Jazz Week’s top 100 recordings of 2012. Previous releases on his label Ronja Music are A Gift for You and Basic Traneing. The latter reached number three on the National Jazz Charts in 2004. When not leading his own ensembles (Organic, Connection, and High Standards), Yoron performs regularly with bassist Avery Sharpe

Yoron Israel

and vibraphonist Jay Hoggard as well as with numerous premiere Boston-based artists such as Laszlo Gardony, Gabrielle Goodman, and The Makanda Project. Israel is a Professor and Assistant Chair of Percussion at Berklee College of Music.

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Dave Samuels has established himself as the top mallet player of his generation. He is recognized for his fresh sound and creative approach to both the vibraphone and marimba. Samuels has demonstrated his versatility and gained world wide recognition by performing and recording with a broad scope of artists ranging from Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Carla Bley and Pat Metheny to the Yellowjackets, Bruce Hornsby, Frank Zappa, The Fantasy Band and Spyro Gyra.

For over a decade, Samuels has been performing and recording with his group The Caribbean Jazz Project, whose most recent album Afro Bop Alliance received a Latin Grammy and was also nominated for a Grammy. Their recording ‘The Gathering’ won the Grammy in 2003 for Best Latin Jazz Album. Samuels is also a member of Double Image, a vibe-marimba duo consisting of Dave Samuels & David Friedman who have performed for 30 years. Samuels’ longtime association with Spyro Gyra lasted from 1977 to 1994 and includes 20 recordings. During that time, the Grammy-nominated group was named #1 Contemporary Jazz Artist and Contemporary Jazz Group of the ´80s by Billboard magazine.

Dave Samuels

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Two-time Grammy nominee Sandeep Das is considered one of the leading tabla players in the world. One of the favorite disciples of legendary Pt.Kishan Maharaj of the Benaras Gharana, Das has now carved out a niche for himself throughout the musical world. He debuted at age fifteen with the famous sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. Das has composed for and performed internationally with the Silk Road Ensemble, which features celebrated cellist Yo Yo Ma. Das also founded the HUM ensemble, “an organization that strives for Harmony and Universality through the idiom of Music.”

His concert tours have taken him to major centers of music on all continents including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royce Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, The Concertgebouw, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Petronas Tower Hall in Malaysia. Das has recorded music on more than 30 labels including Virgin, Sony and Makar Records, Music Today, Magnasound, and T-Series.

Sandeep Das

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Kwaku Kwaakye (Martin) Obeng is a composer, master drummer, dancer and educator who has worked internationally for the past 25 years. Born in Ghana, West Africa, Kwaku began drumming at the age of five, and by seventeen he was appointed Royal Court Drummer to the high chief of the

Aburi-Akuapim region of Eastern Ghana. He toured as a drummer and dancer with Ghana's National Arts Council Folkloric Company, and in 181 relocated to the U.S. where he joined the New England based Talking Drum Ensemble. He has taught drumming at Brown since 1988.

Jordan Rudess

Turn of Events (2011) was released on Roadrunner Records. The band received a Grammy nomination for their song “On the Backs of Angels” and has just completed a whirlwind 14-month world tour.

Jordan Rudess is Dream Theater's keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire. In addition to Dream Theater, Rudess has worked with many other artists including Liquid Tension Experiment, David Bowie, Steven Wilson, the Dixie Dregs, Enrique Iglesias, Tony Williams, Jan Hammer and the Paul Winter Consort. Rudess is a member of the Rudess Morgenstein Project, a high-powered progressive rock duo of keyboards and drums.

In 2010, Rudess premiered his first live orchestral composition "Explorations for Keyboard and Orchestra" in Caracas, Venezuela. He is the author of Total Keyboard Wizardry: A Technique and Improvisation Workbook. He also owns the App development company Wizdom Music, creators of MorphWiz, SketchWiz, SampleWiz, Geo Synthesizer, Tachyon, and SpaceWiz. Dream Theater’s newest album, A Dramatic

Martin Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng