Multiple Juno award–winning saxophonist, composer and educator Kelly Jefferson performs from Hamilton with fellow Hamiltonian Adrean Farrugia, Toronto bassist Michael Herring and Toronto drummer Anthony Michelli.

Multiple Juno award–winning saxophonist, composer and educator Kelly Jefferson has been a leading figure in the Canadian jazz community and beyond for over twenty-five years. He has performed with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Maria Schneider, Christian McBride, Kenny Werner, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Al Jarreau, Michel LeGrand, Brian Blade, Randy Brecker, Renee Rosnes, Russell Malone and Joey DeFrancesco. Kelly holds a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal and a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Kelly has performed extensively in Canada, the United States, Japan, Thailand, Europe, South Korea and China, including a nine-month tour with legendary trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. The Kelly Jefferson Quartet release Next Exit, was nominated for a 2011 Juno Award. Kelly is also a member of the collective trio TuneTown, along with bassist Artie Roth and drummer Ernesto Cervini. Mr. Jefferson is currently a faculty member at both the University of Toronto and York University, and has adjudicated at music festivals and has given numerous clinics and workshops throughout North America. An active freelance musician and guest artist, Kelly performs regularly with groups that include the Carn-Davidson 9, Emilie-Claire Barlow, The Shuffle Demons and Barry Romberg’s Four Blind Mice.

Award-winning pianist and composer Adrean Farrugia began playing piano at the age of 12. By age 16 he recognized that he would dedicate his life to music. Since then he has become recognized as one of Canada’s most sought after pianists and composers, having shared the music he loves globally with various bands across Canada, the United States, London UK, Paris, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Australia, Poland, and The Netherlands with artists such as Ernie Watts, Sheila Jordan, Brad Goode, Cyrille Aimee, Matt Dusk, Molly Johnson, Joel Frahm, Ernesto Cervini, The Worst Pop Band Ever and others. Adrean serves on the faculties of Mohawk College and Humber College and has conducted masterclasses and workshops for students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Sydney Conservatorium, the Polish Jazz Society Summer Workshop, and the University of Toronto. Adrean has played on more than 40 albums to date garnering 2 Juno awards, 8 Juno award nominations, a Mark Award for ‘Best Production Music Artist’ from the Production Music Association of America, ‘Pianist of the Year’ at the Hamilton Arts Awards, and a nomination for the Ontario Arts Council’s Louis Applebaum Composer’s Award. Adrean believes that music is a powerful form of communication that has the power to heal and inspire both the performer and the listener, as well as revealing a higher sense of being which exists in all people, and it is this belief that drives his continued journey and commitment to musical growth and sharing. Adrean Farrugia is endorsed by Shigeru Kawai Pianos.

Michael Herring is a double-bassist and composer based in Toronto who writes, performs and records across genre lines, equally comfortable in jazz as in roots settings, including folk, world, and pop/rock. Herring leads and co-leads a number of groups which focus on original music of which he is a major contributor. Herring’s compositions and bass playing can also be heard in the collectives Way North (New York/Toronto collaboration with Petr Cancura, Rebecca Hennessy and Richie Barshay). Herring has toured and recorded with such great musicians as Kevin Breit, Michael Ward-Bergeman (New Orleans), Ab Baars (ICP/Amsterdam), Ken Vandermark, Dave Clark, David Braid, Mansa Sissoko (Mali, Africa), Bucky Pizzarelli, Percy Sledge, and Ernest Ranglin.  He received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship (through the Ontario Arts Council) and used it for an extended stay in New York City.

Anthony Michelli, the Canadian born and internationally respected professional has fostered a creative and successful career in the music industry as an accomplished drum set performer, post-secondary educator and sound recording engineer and producer. Anthony has recorded and collaborated with innumerable artists in the contemporary jazz, original composition, world, popular and creative music genres spanning from 1995 to the present day with well over one hundred recordings listed in his discography. As the proprietor of Salem House Studio he is involved in producing, tracking, mixing, editing and mastering full recording projects in addition to drum and percussion tacking for other artists.