C4 Trio
with guest vocalist Nathasha Bravo

The C4 Trio is one of the most innovative and original groups on the Venezuelan and Latin American music scene. Founded in 2005 by cuatro virtuosos Jorge Glem, Edward Ramirez, and Hector Molina, the group has achieved a unique sound, rooted in Venezuelan popular music but with strong touches of Jazz, World Music, and Pop. The later addition of bass player Rodner Padilla has added depth to the band's unique sound and has expanded the group’s repertoire.

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C4 has shared stages and developed musical collaborations with a diverse group of respected artists including Rubén Blades, Carlos Vives, Soledad Bravo, Marta Gómez, Oscar D' León, Guaco, Serenata Guayanesa, Edmar Castaneda, Anat Cohen, El Cuarteto, Puerto Candelaria, Eddy Marcano, Aquiles Báez, Alexis Cárdenas, Servando Primera, Francisco Pacheco, Betsayda Machado, Marcial Istúriz, and Cheo Hurtado, among many others.

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The group has recorded several records, CD’s, and DVD’s with the participation of many important artists. Their album Gualberto+C4 (2012), made in collaboration with the famous Venezuelan singer Gualberto Ibarreto, was nominated for a 2013 Latin Grammy for Best Folk Music Album. In 2014 they joined forces with singer Rafael "Pollo" Brito to record De Repente which won a Latin Grammy. C4 collaborated with the Venezuelan Ska band Desorden Público on the album Pa Fuera, which received a nomination as Best Latin, Rock and Alternative Abum at the 60th Grammy Awards. In 2019 their CD, Tiempo al Tiempo, made together with the Nicaraguan singer Luis Enrique, garnered a Latin Grammy for Best Folk Music Album and Best Arrangement for the song Sirena, as well as a nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Their newest recording, Back to 4, is about to be released on the Ground Up Music Label.

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Since its founding, the C4 Trio has maintained an intense schedule of concerts on the most important stages in the Americas and Europe, always displaying the versatility and universality of the Venezuelan Cuatro.

See and hear C4 Trío

Periquera Con Seis Derecho | Isn't She Lovely |  

Incertidumbre | C4 on NPR

C4 Trío photo by Rocca

Danielle Nicole Band

Founding member, lead singer, and bass player of internationally acclaimed Blues/Rock band Trampled Under Foot, Danielle Nicole Schnebelen stepped out on her own in 2015 with her debut album Wolf Den.

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Danielle’s next CD, Cry No More, made a huge statement, receiving a 2019 Grammy Nomination for Contemporary Blues Album. That same year, she received two Blues Music Awards for Bassist and Female Contemporary Artist, along with a several of Blues Blast Music Awards and three Independent Blues Awards.

 Danielle’s distinctive and inventive bass work resulted in her becoming the first female to receive a nomination for the Blues Foundation's 2014 Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist – Bass. It was a groundbreaking achievement, the result of years of hard work honing her skills through intensive touring and roadwork. While her voice draws comparisons to artists such as Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt and Etta James, her style and tone are all her own.



The Danielle Nicole Band features co-founder Brandon Miller on guitar and vocals and world-renowned drummer, Go-Go Ray.

See and hear Danielle Nicole

Jeremy Beck
& The Heavy Duty Horns

Blurring the lines between vintage soul, gospel, and rock, Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns are an intoxicating musical powerhouse with a bold sound and a broad range, the kind of shape-shifting collective that boasts versatility and virtuosity in equal measure. Fueled by a crew of funky horns and anchored by Beck’s mesmerizing keyboards and vocals, this 8-piece band draws on decades of experience, filtering everything from Prince and Lou Rawls to Tower of Power, and Blood, Sweat & Tears through a modern lens.

“I’ve spent my whole career playing with other artists,” says Beck, who’s toured and performed with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Huey Lewis, Missy Elliott, Kool & The Gang, The James Hunter Six, and The Lennon Sisters. 

“It’s been really rewarding, but it just felt like time to take the next step. I was ready to figure out what my music actually sounded like and forming my own band was just the way to do it.” The roots of that sound stretch all the way back to rural Alabama, where Beck was raised in the Evangelical church. His first introduction to music came from the gospel choirs he heard on Sunday mornings, and as a youngster, he began taking classical piano lessons like his older brother. He fell in love with New Orleans piano as a teenager, and by the time he was in college, he was regularly skipping classes to travel to The Big Easy, where he’d spend his nights onstage in the city’s iconic clubs and bars and his days studying one-on-one with the kind of teachers you couldn’t find in any school.

After finishing college, Beck headed to New York, where his prodigious talents earned him steady work as a sideman and first-call studio player. In fact, it was at a recording session that the concept for Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns was born.

“I was on a studio gig when I met this tenor sax player named Justin Flynn,” says Beck. “He was incredible, having collaborated with the likes the of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and Toots & The Maytals, among others. So I decided to ask him to write some horn charts for me. Next thing I know, we’d started a band together.”  Turned out to be a great decision as the combination of Flynn’s high-energy horn arrangements and Beck’s electrifying songwriting proved to be irresistible. 

“When people ask what kind of music I grew up on, I just play them ‘Sing Hallelujah'. The band plays it the same way we used to play church music when I was a kid. You start simple, and by the end, you just blow the audience away.”

It may not be Sunday morning, and these might not be hymns, but one thing’s for sure—Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns are ready to take you to church.

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The band will be joined by special guest vocalist Allison Semmes, who portrayed Diana Ross in the Broadway and National tour productions of Motown: The Musical.

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See and hear
Jeremy Beck & The Heavy Duty Horns

What's Going  On

Love The One You're With

The Benny Benack Quintet
with special guest Anaïs Reno

Award-winning trumpeter and singer Benny Benack III is well-known for his fiery trumpet playing and his sly, mature, and naturally expressive vocal stylings in the post-Sinatra mold.  He performs standards and his own songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship. 

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Benny performs widely as a front man for Postmodern Jukebox, the vintage music collective famed for old-school covers of modern pop. Benny’s been showcased in international tours at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, JALC’s “NY Jazz All-Stars” in Mexico, and extensively all over Asia and Europe. He's been featured at iconic clubs such as Birdland, Mezzrow, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle, and other leading New York venues.

In 2020, he released his second CD,  A Lot of Livin’ to Do, featuring bassist extraordinaire Christian McBride, Takeshi Ohbayashi on piano, and drummer/producer Ulysses Owens, Jr.  Benny was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, and a past winner of the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition.

Third in a generational line of Pittsburgh jazz notables, Benny follows in the footsteps of his trumpeter/bandleader grandfather, Benny Benack, Sr. (1921-86), and his father Benny Benack, Jr., a saxophonist and clarinetist who gave the young Benny his first professional experience.  

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Guest vocalist Anaïs Reno is a rising jazz star who, at the young age of 18, recently headlined a week of shows at the legendary jazz club, Birdland. Broadway World calls hers “a once in a lifetime voice.” 

See and hear

Benny Benack III & Christian McBride

Gravy Waltz 

Benny Benack III & Anaïs Reno 

Caravan

Nimbus Dance

Called “Astonishing in its understated intensity” by The Star-Ledger, Nimbus Dance creates a dazzling experience of artistry, romance, and virtuosity.

Nimbus is an award-winning contemporary dance company at the forefront of excellence in the arts and civic engagement. The company was founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Samuel Pott and is based in Jersey City.  With a repertoire of over thirty works, Nimbus performs on tour nationally and throughout the greater New Jersey/New York region, impacting 16,000 people annually. In September 2020, Nimbus opened the Nimbus Arts Center, a 15,000 square foot center with theater, gallery, and studio spaces that is the largest dance-based arts center in the State of New Jersey.

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Nimbus Dance will close our summer festival with an evening of superbly rendered, highly physical, and emotionally gripping dance.

The program will include Samuel Pott's iconic "Patch of Turf," Dawn Marie Bazemore's jazzy "After Party" (set to the music of Nancy Wilson and Nina Simone), Pedro Ruiz's breezy and Cuban-infused contemporary ballet “Danzon”, and Yoshito Sakuraba's mysterious and enchanting "Avenoir."

See Nimbus Dance