Larry Ochs has been working in the field of improvised music since 1973. Mr. Ochs’ professional activities have, since 1978, been primarily centered around the Rova Saxophone Quartet, which has made over twenty European tours and numerous concerts throughout the US and Canada. Ochs has also been the executive director of the Rova non-profit organization since 1985. In this capacity, his accomplishments include producing the acclaimed PreEchoes series, involving Rova in collaborations with other artists such as The Ganelin Trio from the USSR, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, Lawrence Buth Morris, Alvin Curran, Chris Brown and San Francisco Taiko Dojo. In addition, Larry Ochs has also been active composing, performing and producing CDs for a number of other adventurous ensembles: Room, Glenn Spearman Double Trio, Figure 8 and What We Live. Ochs has been awarded commissions by Reader’s Digest / Meet the Composer (1989, 1995) and Antwerpen ’93 Festival. In addition, he has written original soundtrack music for film and video and composed / performed music for Leslie Scalapino’s play Goya’s L.A. (1994). In 1998, the film Letters Not About Love for which Ochs composed the music won the best documentary fil award at the 1998 South by Southwest Film Festival.

Though the point of reference for many remains the iconic band Henry Cow, which he co-founded in 1968 and which broke up more than 30 years ago, Fred Frith has never really stood still for an instant. In bands such as Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, Tense Serenity, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Eye to Ear, and most recently Cosa Brava, he has always held true to his roots in rock and folk music, while exploring influences that range from the literary works of Eduardo Galeano to the art installations of Cornelia Parker. The release of the seminal Guitar Solos in 1974 enabled him to simultaneously carve out a place for himself in the international improvised music scene, not only as an acclaimed solo performer but in the company of artists as diverse as Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Jean-Pierre Drouet, Evelyn Glennie, Ikue Mori, Louis Sclavis, Stevie Wishart, Wu Fei, Camel Zekri, John Zorn, and scores of others. He has also developed a personal compositional language in works written for Arditti Quartet, Asko Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ensemble Modern, Concerto Köln, and ROVA Sax Quartet, for example. Fred has been active as a composer for dance since the early 1980s, working with choreographers Bebe Miller, François Verret, and especially long-time collaborator and friend Amanda Miller, with whom he has created a compelling body of work over the last twenty years. His film soundtracks (for award-winning films like Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Rivers and Tides and Touch the Sound, Peter Mettler’s Gambling, Gods, and LSD, and Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow’s Thirst, to name a few) won him a lifetime achievement award from Prague’s “Music on Film, Film on Music” Festival (MOFFOM) in 2007. The following year he received Italy’s Demetrio Stratos Prize (previously given to Diamanda Galas and Meredith Monk) for his life’s work in experimental music, and in 2010 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in his home county of Yorkshire. Fred currently teaches in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California (renowned for over fifty years as the epicenter of the American experimental tradition), and in the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland.

Miya Masaoka is a composer / performer and has established herself as a highly skilled innovator on the Japanese koto. She has performed with musicians varying from Ornette Coleman, Fred Frith, to the Berekely Symphony. Pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi wrote “Suite for Orchestra and Koto” for her that was recorded on BMG. She also has recorded duet and trio CD’s with Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman and George Lewis and Henry Kaiser. Her debut CD, Compositions/Improvisations with guest James Newton made four “Top Ten” critics lists. She has been the director of the San Francisco Gagaku Society for eight years.