Joe Barna is a composer and drummer who’s music and playing span the entire jazz idiom from swing and bebop, to hard bop, soul jazz, and modern. After finishing his degree in jazz studies from The Purchase College Conservatory of Music, Joe moved back to the Capital Region to continue writing and performing. Some of the teachers that have influenced this young drummer/composer have been John Riley, Adam Nussbaum, Hal Galper, Jon Faddis, Todd Coolman and Charles Blenzig. Joe’s main influences as a drummer are Roy Haynes, “Philly” Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Paul Motian, Art Blakey, Idris Mohammed, and Tony Williams.

Trumpeter/composer Terry Gordon is a versatile performer active in a wide variety of musical styles from jazz, Latin, and big band, to rock, classical, and contemporary Christian worship music. He performs regularly throughout the northeast and beyond with several groups, including Alex Torres y su Orquesta, the Arch Stanton Quartet, the Joyful Noise Jazz Project, and Brass-O-Mania, and has appeared on numerous recordings including four adventurous collections of original music with the Terry Gordon Quintet: Wakeup Call (Buttonhooks – 1997), Contemplations (Flying Gurnard – 2002), Homeward Bound (WEPA – 2006), and Tomorrow Calling (WEPA – 2013). He has appeared at major venues such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Cairo International Jazz Festival (Egypt), the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival, Jazz In The Square (Syracuse, NY), Musikfest (Bethlehem, Pa.), Lincoln Center in New York City, and several other festivals around the country, and has also appeared in programs with Bobby Rydell, Leslie Gore, and The Temptations.  With the award-winning salsa band Alex Torres y su Orquesta, whose music has been used in several television shows and movies including Walt Disney’s Old Dogs, he has recorded eight acclaimed C.D.s on WEPA Records, and with the Empire Jazz Orchestra has recorded seven C.D.s and backed up such jazz luminaries as Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Randy Brecker, Slide Hampton, Rufus Reid, Lew Soloff, Wycliffe Gordon, The Four Freshmen, and David “Fathead” Newman.

He has also been a recipient of a New York State arts grant for composition to compose a work for jazz group with strings, which the Terry Gordon Quintet premiered with the Upper Catskill String Quartet.