Christian Howes

Violinist, educator and composer, Christian Howes was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll (“Rising Stars/Violin”), named among the top three jazz violinists by JazzTimes, and nominated for Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He received the Residency Partner Award through Chamber Music America, earned a USArtists grant through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and was invited by the U.S. State department to teach and perform as a cultural ambassador in Ukraine and Montenegro.  His release on Resonance Records, “Southern Exposure” earned recognition in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Downbeat, Jazz Times, and a six-night run at Lincoln Center.  His release, “American Spirit” was named among the Best Jazz Albums of the Year″ by the Huffington Post. Howes is the founder of “Creative Strings“, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to expand music education through the creation of online curriculum, conferences, and visits to schools teaching improvisation, and contemporary styles. Through Creative Strings, he created more than 500 free play along lessons on YouTube, garnering over six million views. He has visited nearly 1,000 classrooms across the U.S. teaching MS, HS, and collegiate music students and teachers.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CHRISTIAN & REDEMPTION TIME FILM

Cedric Easton

Expression through music was engrained in Cedric Easton’s culture early on. His mother played the organ and his father was the pastor of their local pentecostal church. During his formative years, his love for music thrived. Around age 15, Cedric purchased a recording of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. This was a pivotal moment that altered the focus of his musical interests. His curiosity for authenticity and depth, via musical expression, began to emerge. Over the next decade, he explored, studied and participated in gospel, jazz and west African musical traditions. Over the course of Cedric’s journey, he has had the opportunity to perform alongside the likes of: Hannibal Lokumbe, Thiossane West African Dance Co., Dorinda Clark-Cole, Marvin Sapp, Pharez Whitted, Wes Anderson, Aaron Diehl, Christian Howes and more. “Overall my intention is to communicate effectively,” he says of his philosophy as a drummer. “In the moment, it is my sincere hope to feel and be felt”.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CEDRIC

Nathan & Noah East

A founding member of the chart-topping contemporary jazz group Fourplay, Nathan East began his professional career at 16, touring with Barry White and soon after receiving a call from Quincy Jones. Over the past four decades, he has recorded and performed with legends including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand, and Stevie Wonder. His genre-crossing groove has earned him widespread recognition, including a Congressional Record honoring his contributions to the global music community.

Now stepping into the spotlight with a solo album, Nathan embraces collaboration as the cornerstone of his creative process. Featuring fellow renowned musicians, his record includes standout moments such as a reimagining of Pat Metheny’s “Letter From Home,” the anthemic “America the Beautiful,” and the playful “Daft Funk,” inspired by his work on Daft Punk’s Get Lucky.

Family and music are inseparable for Nathan, who shares a duet on “Yesterday” with his son Noah, a pianist and organist. Noah began playing piano at age four, showing perfect pitch, and has been recording since 13. Graduating from UC Berkeley in 2022, he now performs professionally, including with The Cream of Clapton Band. Father and son have also played together at international venues such as Tokyo Blue Note Jazz Club and are set to release their first album together in early 2024.

With Nathan’s decades of experience and Noah’s emerging talent, their collaboration blends legacy, innovation, and heartfelt musicianship—a shared passion that turns every performance into a collective celebration.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NATHAN & NOAH

IN-Q

IN-Q is an Emmy-nominated poet, multi-platinum songwriter, world renowned keynote speaker, and the best-selling author of Inquire Within.

He was named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of the world’s most influential thought leaders and has worked with countless brands & companies over the years to help them tell their story through collaborative content pieces and storytelling workshops.

Ultimately, IN-Q writes to entertain, inspire, and challenge his audiences to look deeper into the human experience and ask questions about themselves, their environment, and the world at large.

LEARN MORE ABOUT IN-Q

Andy Grammer

Emmy award winner and multi-platinum artist Andy Grammer continues to engage, energize, and empower audiences with stomping stadium-size pop anthems meant to be shared at full volume. His observations and affirmations pick people back up when they need it, affirm their potential, and encourage them to keep going. Inspiring fans around the world, Grammer has over 3B global streams under his belt and a social media footprint of over 4M followers. His catalog consists of numerous bona fide hits, including the quadruple-platinum single “Honey, I’m Good;” the platinum singles “Keep Your Head Up,” “Fine By Me,” “Don’t Give Up On Me,” “Fresh Eyes,” and “Good To Be Alive (Hallelujah);” the gold single “I Found You;” and the gold albums Andy Grammer (2011) and Magazines Or Novels (2014). He lent his music to films such as Five Feet Apart and when “Don’t Give Up On Me” became the soundtrack for ESPN’s 13th annual V Week for Cancer Research, he garnered a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction and a Clio Award.

Grammer’s passions not only lie in his music, but also in his philanthropic work. This is paramount to who he is as a person, and it is greatly reflected in his artistry. He was recently recognized by Claire’s Place Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis Support (‘Clarity Impact Award’) and by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (‘Defender of Potential’ Award) for the incredible impact his work and generosity have made in the world. He is an advocate for mental health awareness and has spoken at high-profile events including Mental Health America’s 2022 Annual Conference as the keynote speaker as well as the Indianapolis Colts’ “Beyond the Sidelines” benefitting Kicking the Stigma. Additional organizations he’s worked with include Feeding America, The V Foundation, Carousel of Hope and many more.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ANDY GRAMMER

Harry Mack

Multi-talented artist and rapper Harry Mack is best known for his unique, jaw-dropping visual freestyle rapping. He first came to fame when his Venice Beach Freestyle video went viral, which propelled him to opportunities alongside the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Soulja Boy, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Hudson, Complex Music, RedBull Music, and NBA on TNT.

As a content creator, his self-produced YouTube series have amassed millions of views. Harry has surprised, impacted, and entertained millions of people, leaving them with something unique that they can’t wait to share with others. His content and live shows promote positivity and keep fans engaged through mind-blowing interactive performances.

Harry’s background in jazz drumming is a reflection of his life-long fascination with improvisational music. His unique approach to hip-hop revolves around the spirit of rhythmic improv. Blending the excitement of instrumental jazz improvisation with the impactful messages of hip-hop lyricism, Harry constantly strives to push the boundaries of his own abilities, while reaching for new approaches to rap expression.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HARRY MACK

Rachel Platten

When the world first met Emmy Award-winning multi-platinum artist, singer, songwriter, Rachel Platten, it came in the form of a proclamation of self. An anthem for those who needed it and those who didn’t even know they needed it alike, “Fight Song” became a global sensation, an inescapable battle cry that’s now been streamed more than a billion times and is as inextricable to modern culture as any one song could be.

But “Fight Song” was just one song, oneself, and Rachel Platten had so much more to say, and so many more selves to show. These days, if you dive headfirst into Rachel’s rich and growing catalogue, your odds are as strong to land on a thundering anthem like her biggest hit as they are to hit a soul-searching, scar-bearing, lyrically textured stunner about motherhood, guilt, mourning, expectations, rebirth, mental health, and the support systems we all need to guide us through life’s most earth-shaking curveballs.

You’ll find all that and so much more on Rachel Platten’s upcoming studio album I Am Rachel Platten, a body of work over five years in the making. I Am Rachel Platten is an artistic journey through life’s peaks and valleys. It’s a record about grief as much as it is using darkness to help better shape and contextualize the light. “For so long, I wasn’t dealing with what was underneath the surface,” Rachel says. “I wasn’t in touch with the darkness. I hadn’t gone to therapy. I’d achieved my dreams but inside, I was dealing with anxiety and depression that I didn’t know or acknowledge was there.”

With songs written during sharply defined periods of her life – including the pregnancy and ensuing postpartum depression following the birth of her first daughter, Violet; as ways of searching for answers, relief, and hope throughout a prolonged mental health struggle during the pandemic; in response to her partner’s own fight to stay afloat while she was pregnant with their second daughter, Sophie; and, finally, on the other side of all that turmoil, with some clarity and hindsight to help her pick up all her pieces – Rachel felt ready to follow up 2017’s Waves with an unflinching and honest album that told her story truthfully and transparently, no matter how frightening that felt in the process of making it. “I started therapy and I started looking at myself and realizing how much I was spiritually bypassing,” she says. “The world has only seen this one side of me, this strength – empowering, positive, loving, warm, everything’s okay,– and it wasn’t fake by any means, but it was just only one part of me.”

Emotions like rage and exhaustion bubbled to the surface; old wounds and new alike rose up, catching Rachel’s breath in her throat, surprising her in their intensity and insistence on being heard and turned into lyrics. “For a while I’d gotten so used to dimming my light for other people, but on this album, I got to heal by using music as my outlet,” she says. Some nights – her hardest nights – lyrics would hit her like a ton of bricks; she’d run to the piano in her home studio and seek relief in songwriting. The process yielded “Mercy,” one of the album’s rawest and emotion-baring moments, a song that “proved there’s a purpose for your pain,” Rachel says. “There is always a purpose for what you’re going through. It showed me I can make meaning out of it.”

“When I first moved into this house,” she adds, twirling her camera around the room, “I was laying out in the backyard looking up at these massive sycamore trees, and I was like, ‘I wonder what I’m going to write next.’ And I heard this voice, which I took to be my higher self, say, ‘Oh, you’re going to write the most powerful music of your life.’”

You’ll find special spiritual meaning made throughout I Am Rachel Platten. “A lot of this music was me developing my relationship with my creator and with God,” she says. Tracks like “I Know” and “Mercy” and “Surrender” make up an “unintentional” holy trilogy of faith-seeking and healing songs, “a hero’s journey of someone wrestling with their demons,” as she puts it. Her voice and pen became a conduit, Rachel says, a vessel for the lyrics and messages handed down to her from a higher place.

Early songs like “I Know” (written during the pandemic’s earliest and most uncertain moments as a message of peace to herself) and “I’ll Be Her” (a premonition of a stronger Rachel yet to come) broke the dam. With the songs beginning to flow through her –– she knew she needed producing partners who could help her holistically complete the project from start to finish. One-off pairings wouldn’t work for this record, she says; it needed to be one vision, aligned with hers, who she could walk down the road with hand-in-hand. Thus, it was fate, she says, that after an impromptu set at the famed Los Angeles venue The Hotel Café in 2022, Rachel’s longtime friend and producer Jason Evigan joined her backstage with fellow producer Gian Stone; they asked her to produce “Mercy,” a song from I Am Rachel Platten which she’d debuted live as part of her set.

“I countered with, “No, but you can produce the whole album,’” she remembers with a grin. Though the pair turned down the offer, a month later, they called her with a pitch. “I remember they sounded so excited, and they told me they had the whole thing mapped out: a studio in Nashville, all these studio musicians they’d hand-selected – people who’d worked on albums like Kacey Musgraves’s Golden Hour – and a timeframe. They said they believed in me, they believed in the album, and they wanted to plunge into it headfirst with me.”

Over the course of two separate marathon sessions in Nashville, Rachel and her producers and session players crafted a body of material as sonically rich, enveloping, and impactful as it is lyrically tender, personal, and intimate. I Am Rachel Platten could only exist in its mastery because “I know myself now,” she says, a fire glowing in her eyes. “I am a mother. I am 42. I am fully in touch with myself. I’ve integrated the dark and the light in me. Now I can hold space for all of what the fuck I’m feeling now. It was too much for me before – I was just a kid. But now I have the maturity and the wisdom and my own connection to now invite my listeners in to feel their own connection, whatever that looks like, not what I think it should look like. I call it God. You can call it whatever you want, whatever is you getting back to your identity. I feel why I’m on this earth is reconnecting people to their identity, their truth, to their purpose, to their power.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT RACHEL PLATTEN

Vivi Stewart

Vivi Stewart is a fourteen-year-old rock guitarist and poet from Los Angeles who’s been playing electric guitar since she was seven when she picked up her first Fender. A student of Grammy Award-winning artist Janet Robin, she has developed a refined musical voice shaped by her passion for rock and jazz. Vivi was the youngest competitor in the National Jazz Festival in 2023 and has recorded under the guidance of producer Bill Mimms at Sunset Sound Studios. She is now a Caroline D Bradley Scholar and plays in jazz and rock bands at Crossroads School. Music is an instrumental part of who she is, and Vivi aspires to reach and touch the hearts of others through her art, both on stage and on the page.

Leah Zeger & Ira Gonzalez

Leah Zeger is from a family of professional classical string players. She won a position in the Austin Symphony at 19 and got her BA in opera from University of Texas. She began her LA music career in 2010 quickly winning a position in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and film and tv scoring sessions. She has toured as a solo violinist with Miley Cyrus, ELO, Annie Lennox, Cee Lo Green, Stevie Wonder, and is currently a solo violinist/vocalist for Hans Zimmer. Zeger is also a songwriter, and has released two solo albums which you can listen to here.

Ira Gonzalez hails from Virginia/DC area. He is a versatile vocalist/guitarist specializing in Brazilian, jazz and top 40 American music. In his career, Gonzalez has either performed for or shared the stage with music industry icons including Diana Ross, David Foster, and Katie Perry to name a few. Ira grew up touring the country as the youngest sibling of a Filipino Jackson-Five-esque vocal group. His serious surfing habit brought him to San Diego in 2010 and a couple years later to LA where he met Leah on a gig. The rest is history.