NYC’s unique jazz prayer service, Sundays at 5 since 1965. All are welcome. Free to attend! (Siren Xypher photo: Mariana Meraz)

About Melanie Dyer (viola)

Violist Melanie Dyer performs and composes in creative, improvised, and through-composed music forms. In 2011, Melanie founded WeFreeStrings, an improvising string/rhythm collective. In addition to WeFreeStrings, she performs with Sun Ra Arkestra, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Dead Lecturers, Gwen Laster’s New Muse 4tet, Craig Harris, and other New York City-based improvisers. She’s played and/or recorded with Henry Grimes, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch, Nona Hendryx, Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, David Haney, and many other notable musicians in Europe, South Africa, and the U.S. Recordings include WeFreeStrings Fulfillment (Indepstrings, 2018), The Music of William Parker: Migration of Silence Into & Out of the Tone World (2021), Gwen Laster’s Blue Lotus: New Muse 4tet (2021), David Haney’s Birth of a City (2019), Come Sunday (T. Cumberbatch, 2015); Dogon A.D. Revisited, Salim Washington (2018); Fred Ho & Quincy Saul Present the Music of Cal Massey: A Tribute (2011); Live at St Nick’s Pub, Salim Washington & Donald Smith Ensemble, Cadence Records (2007); With Strings, Salim Washington & The Harlem Arts Ensemble, CIMP Records (2007); Harlem Homecoming, Salim Washington & The Harlem Arts Ensemble, UJam Records (2005), and others. WeFreeStrings has received project support from New Music USA, Chamber Music America, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and individual donors.

About Mara Rosenbloom (piano)

Pianist, composer, and bandleader Mara Rosenbloom has been called “a whole-hearted poet of the piano,” — she is a builder and a synthesist; a fiercely lyrical composer & improviser (All About Jazz). The New York Times has praised her penchant for “full-bore group improvising,” while The Chicago Reader has written that her ensemble “achieves an elusive chemistry and degree of spontaneous interaction that transcends mental boundaries.” With an interest in building community by encouraging honest expression and interactive dialogue through music — human connection has been a focus of Rosenbloom’s work throughout the past decade, and as a result, powerful group interaction has become a hallmark of Rosenbloom’s sound.

About Kyoko Kitamura (voice)

Kyoko Kitamura is a vocal improviser, bandleader, composer, and educator based in Brooklyn. She leads her ensemble Tidepool Fauna (featuring saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Dayeon Seok), co-leads Geometry (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris, Tomeka Reid), and is an active side person with recent appearances on albums by William Parker, Cory Smythe and Russ Lossing for which she has garnered stellar reviews.

Kitamura is also known for her decade-long association with legendary musician, composer, and thinker Anthony Braxton, and is featured on many of his releases including GTM (Syntax) 2017, the 12-hour recording of his vocal works performed by the Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble which she directed and co-produced. Kitamura is also an educator, having taught in institutions such as The New School and Dartmouth College, and was most recently a visiting faculty at Bennington College. Separate from her work in music, Kitamura has had a long career as a media professional, including a stint as a Gulf War reporter working in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

Time: 5:00-6:00 pm EST

Free!

Registration