Improvising Quartet

Biographies

CLAIRE DE BRUNNER bassoon

At 14, Claire de Brunner won a scholarship to study with the principal bassoonist of the NY Philharmonic. Attending the High School of Music and Art, and North Carolina School of the Arts, she then studied with Stephen Maxym at Manhattan School of Music and played in various orchestras and chamber ensembles before transitioning to jazz.

In the 1980s she became a founding member of 101 Crustaceans, an integral band of the post-punk era in NYC. She later joined Church of Betty, another seminal band at that time. She played at many venues, including CBGB, Knitting Factory, Limelight, Pyramid, Danceteria, the Palladium, and Dixon Place and has recorded several CDs with both bands.

In the early ‘90s she studied jazz improvisation with saxophonist Lee Konitz and later with pianist Connie Crothers. Prominent among her many collaborators are Daniel Carter, Ras Moshe, Matt Lavelle, Charlie Waters, Cheryl Richards, Nick Lyons, Connie Crothers, Mara Rosenbloom, Ed Pastorini, Dave Sewelson, Virg Dzurinko, Carol Liebowitz, Melanie Dyer, Ken Filiano and Andrea Wolper.

Claire has appeared on many CDs spanning various musical genres, and she has performed at NYC venues, including The Stone, BAMcafe, iBeam, Roulette, Greenwich House, Downtown Music Gallery, Mirror Teahouse, The Drawing Room, Barbes, Scholes St. Studio, and Soup & Sound.

While her musical development is varied, it reflects the natural outgrowth of the ongoing pursuit and exploration of her deepest passion.

VIRG DZURINKO piano

Virg has been playing improvised music for years as a soloist and in any number of groups. She has appeared in clubs and in concert in and around New York City, with a few side trips to New Mexico and Europe. 

In addition to her solo CD, Fun City, Virg and trumpeter Ryan Messina have released two albums to date, Undertow and This Time, as part of an ongoing duo series. Virg also works with Stockholm-based violinist Eva Lindal. They released The Hidden Music of Sofia G. in 2021. Their second recording for this project, Hotel at the End of the World, is scheduled for release at the end of 2023. Eva and Virg performed throughout Sweden in 2019.

Virg is a member of the avant-garde jazz collective Jump Off This Bridge (JOTB), which performed at the Jazzatelier Kaleidophon Festival in Ulrichsberg, Austria, and at Club Porgy & Bess in Vienna in the spring of 2022. JOTB is scheduled to return to Austria and Germany in November 2023. Closer to home, JOTB performed in the Women Composers Festival in 2019. In 2021, the group was commissioned by Soup & Sound (a Brooklyn-based non-profit) to present a four-part performance piece which is part of Soup & Sound’s permanent digital archive. This past October, JOTB was part of the line-up at the Progressive Chamber Music Festival in New York City.

Virg is the director of the Winter Solstice Players, a New York ensemble that performs a concert in total darkness each year on December 21st. She also manages the musician-run label New Artists Records. She teaches privately in New York City.

www.sharakanmusic.com

NICK LYONS alto saxophone

Since settling in Brooklyn in 2005, Nick Lyons has earned a reputation among peers for his musical imagination and original approach to playing both standard tunes and pure improvisation. Time Out NY called him “A young jazzer to watch”.

In 2022 he toured as a solo performer in Denmark and Germany, participated in 2 residencies in France and 1 in the US with the Paris-based group Mobke, appeared on 2 CD releases, “Triple Exposure” under his own name with Gene Perla and John McCutcheon and “Another Spring” with vocalist Cheryl Richards, performed often with bassist Adam Lane’s quartet, performed with pianist Harvey Diamond and bassist Cameron Brown.

He has performed at clubs all over New York including Smalls, Dizzy’s, The Stone, 55 Bar, Cafe Bohemia, Barbès, Ibeam. His discography includes sideperson appearances with William Parker, Sam Ospovat, Adam Caine and Federico Ughi as well as a duet with pianist Carol Liebowitz.

Among the many he has performed with are pianists Connie Crothers and Kazzrie Jaxen; trio with clarinetist Bill Payne and flutist Robert Dick; tenor saxophonist Jimmy Halperin; bassists Michael Bisio, Ken Filiano, Hill Greene, and Ratzo Harris; drummers Roger Mancuso, Michael Wimberly, Billy Hart, and Billy Mintz.

nicklyonsmusic.com

CHERYL RICHARDS voice

Vocalist Cheryl Richards moved to New York City in 2000 and has been singing jazz and improvised music since 2002. She studied with the great jazz pianist and improviser Connie Crothers for more than 15 years.

Cheryl has performed at NYC venues including the 55 Bar, Café Bohemia, the Stone, Greenwich Music House, Why Not Jazz Room, Cornelia Street Café, and Zeb’s in Manhattan as well as IBeam, Roulette, Galapagos Art Space, The Drawing Room, and Mirror Teahouse in Brooklyn.

Her debut jazz album as a bandleader, If Not For You, was released on New Artists Records in 2015. Her newest release, Another Spring (featuring Nick Lyons, alto saxophone; Adam Caine, guitar; Adam Lane, bass; and Vijay Anderson, drums) was released in 2022.

She earned her BFA in music from Cornish College of the Arts and for many years, she primarily sang classical music. She is a co-founder of a Renaissance Vocal Quartet, Oriana, which performed at venues and festivals throughout the Pacific Northwest. She co-created and performed original music for a number of choreographers and dance companies, including Jeff Bickford Dance, and performed regularly at venues throughout Seattle. She has also sung with Jay Clayton's New York-based improvising vocal ensemble, Different Voices, for several years.