Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist Sean Jones. Singing and performing as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, he switched from drums to trumpet at age 10.

Mr. Jones is a musical chameleon, comfortable in any setting or genre. After a six-month stint with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis offered him a permanent position as lead trumpeter of the ensemble, a post he held from 2004 until 2010. In 2015, Mr. Jones was tapped to become a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. During this time, he kept a core group of talented musicians together under his leadership, forming the foundation for groups that have produced and released eight recordings on Mack Avenue Music Group, the latest being Sean Jones: Live from Jazz at the Bistro in 2017.

Mr. Jones has been prominently featured in recordings and performances with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, and Marcus Miller. He was selected by Mr. Miller, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter for their Tribute to Miles tour in 2011. He has also performed with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh and Youngstown symphony orchestras, as well as Soulful Symphony in Baltimore and at the Salt Bay Chamberfest.

Mr. Jones is an internationally recognized educator. In addition to serving as artistic director of NYO Jazz, he is president of the Jazz Education Network and holds the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Previously, he served as chair of the brass department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Born in New York City, Ryoma Takenaga’s journey into the world of music began at the age of five, when he started learning to play the piano, then the bass at nine. He was introduced to jazz at the Jazz House Kids program by Christian McBride. He studies music education at New York University, while performing in the city’s bustling music scene. He has performed with Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Keyon Harrold, Ulysses Owens Jr., Sean Jones, Marcus Gilmore, Melissa Aldana, Ravi Coltrane, and Antoine Roney. His mentors and teachers include Ron Carter, Harish Raghavan, Dezron Douglas, and Mimi Jones. He has performed at Blue Note in Milan, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro; SFJAZZ; Jazz at Lincoln Center; Le Duc des Lombards; Smalls Jazz Club; and the Black Cat. He joined Ulysses Owens Jr. on tour to Europe and recently Chief Adjuah on tour to Asia and South America.

Tyler Bullock II is a dynamic pianist and composer from Nashville, Tennessee, exploding onto New York City’s jazz scene. Since moving to the city in 2021 to study at The Juilliard School, he has worked with prominent musicians including Joe Farnsworth, Mark Whitfield, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Duane Eubanks, Ulysses Owens Jr., Eddie Allen, Curtis Lundy, Philip Harper, Bruce Williams, and Stacy Dillard. He leads his own groups at venues such as Mezzrow and The Jazz Gallery. He recently recorded with Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Gen Y Band at Rudy Van Gelder studio and tours with it nationally. Later this fall, he will record an album with Eddie Allen.

Dominick “Domo” Branch is a bicoastal drummer, composer, and educator from Portland, Oregon, who graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. He leads his own band, Branchin’ Out, and is co-leader of the Brown Branch Jazz Orchestra. He has performed with prominent artists such as Sean Jones, Stefon Harris, Ron Artis II, Dianne Reeves, Terence Blanchard, Taylor Eigsti, and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Monterey Jazz Festival, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Revolution Hall, and more. He is also an experienced motivational speaker.

Sarah Elizabeth Charles is a self-care advocate, vocalist, and composer based in New York City. She has worked with numerous artists; led her band, SCOPE, for 13 years; and recorded four critically acclaimed studio albums under her own name. Ms. Charles’s musical output has been described as a “genre of one” (Down Beat Magazine), “soulfully articulate” (The New York Times), and “an unmatched sound” (Life+Times, curated by Jay-Z). In addition to her performances, Ms. Charles is also an active educator. She currently works as a lead teaching artist with Carnegie Hall at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and co-teaches two self-designed courses (with Caroline Davis) called Jazz and Genderand New Narratives: Creating Space for Equity in Musicat The New School. In 2019, she was one of five recipients of the Yale School of Music’s Distinguished Teaching Artist Award. In 2020, she became a selected member of the Joe’s Pub Working Group, a recipient of the NYC Women’s Fund grant for her band’s fourth album, Blank Canvas, and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works grant. In 2023, she was selected by Joe’s Pub to receive the New York Voices Commission for her song cycle set to Maya Angelou’s poetry and debuted her project Dawn (inspired by her journey through miscarriage, birth, and motherhood) in Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing.