Composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist Doug Brown has appeared at major music festivals in North America and Europe including the Cork Jazz Festival (Ireland), the Zelt Musik Festival(Germany), the Winnipeg Folk Music Festival (Canada) and the Festival of American Music at the Barbican Centre in London, England.
He has performed with Barbara K and Pat MacDonald of Timbuk 3, “string-swing” group Harmonious Wail, songwriter Ken Lonnquist and many others. His compositions have been heard at regional theaters especially American Players Theater where he was a resident musician and composer throughout the 80’s and which in 1999 prominently featured his compositions for Pericles.
Susan Hofer has been exciting audiences for the past 10 years. Beginning as a classical clarinetist, she developed a deep appreciation for traditional jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and contemporary singers like Diane Reeves and Kurt Elling. Combine this with her keen interest in outside-the-box creative improvised music, throw in her study of ethnomusicology, put it all in the blender to commingle and you have a style all her own. Audiences have enjoyed her performances in Chicago and outlying areas, and the great critical acclaim made listeners take notice. Her singing has appeared prominently in various newspapers, critics picks, and other feature articles. Her career has taken her to many of Chicago’s best live music venues, including the Hot House and the Drake Hotel, with regular appearances at Pops for Champagne and an invitation to perform at their Women in Jazz Festival. Susan has opened for the Mighty Blue Kings and has been featured on a statewide broadcast via Wisconsin Public Radio, local Madison, Wisconsin radio via the Mic 92.1, WORT 89.9 and heard on an internationally-distributed podcast.
