Composer/Performer

Jerome Ellis is a dysfluent composer, performer, and writer living in New York City. His recent work investigates time, silence, and disability in the Black Atlantic. He’s a 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a 2015 Fulbright Fellow, and a writer in residence at Lincoln Center Theater. Recent: Passage (Soho Repertory Theatre), Lab Rat by A$AP Rocky (Sotheby’s / YouTube), and High Winds (NYTW Next Door / Abrons Arts Center). Upcoming: Help by Claudia Rankine (The Shed) and, with the TEAM, Reconstruction (Still Working But The Devil Might Be Inside). Together with childhood friend James Harrison Monaco, he forms one half of the musician-storyteller duo James & Jerome. Their works have been directed by Rachel Chavkin, Annie Tippe, and Andrew Scoville. Recent James & Jerome projects include: Piano Tales (MASS MoCA, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Education, etc.), Ink (Williams College Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brick,etc.), Aaron/Marie (Under The Radar Festival, Ars Nova), and They Ran and Ran and Ran (HERE Arts). James & Jerome were members of the Public Theater's inaugural Devised Theater Working Group and are currently developing a commission for Ars Nova. Mr. Ellis is also a piano technician and teacher, as well as a translator of Portuguese. jeromeellis.com

Writer/Performer

James Harrison Monaco is a storyteller, writer, and musician. He is one half of the music-storytelling duo James & Jerome (jamesandjerome.org). His shows are frequently directed by Rachel Chavkin, Andrew Scoville, and Annie Tippe. Recent James & Jerome projects include: Ink (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Under The Radar Festival), Piano Tales (Lincoln Center, MASS MoCA, La MaMa, etc.), Aaron/Marie (Under The Radar Festival, Ars Nova), and They Ran and Ran and Ran (HERE Arts). Others of his storytelling projects include Tales for Telling (Ars Nova) and Reception (HERE Arts, The New Ohio). He is collaborating as a writer, composer (along with Jerome), and performer on the new project by The TEAM, Reconstruction (Still Working But The Devil Might Be Inside). He is a New Writer in Residence at Lincoln Center Theater, and he has received residencies with The Public Theater, The Sundance Institute, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, Ars Nova, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, among others. He is also a professional translator of Spanish and Italian.

Orchestrator/Performer

John Murchison is a Brooklyn-based bassist and multi-instrumentalist. He is active in many of the various music scenes of NYC, from pop and musical theater, to jazz and avant-garde, to traditional musics from Africa and the Middle East. John is one of the most in-demand bassist for traditional Arabic music in the United States. While bass is his primary instrument, he also performs regularly on the qanun, bendir, gimbri, and ney. He has performed in a variety of theater productions from downtown to Time Square, including the Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812. He has performed around NYC and in Puerto Rico as bassist with folkloric dance ensemble Danza Fiesta. He has also performed with popular artists from West Africa such as Fode Kouyate and Sekouba Kandia, Famoro Dioubate and Missia Saran Dioubate. He is cofounder of Brooklyn Maqam, an organization dedicated to presenting and promoting Arabic music in New York City.

Orchestrator/Performer

Michelle J. Rodriguez is a vocalist, songwriter, musical theater composer and actor. Born in Orlando, Florida to Puerto Rican parents and raised in Kirkland, Washington and Lexington, Kentucky, Ms. Rodriguez sings and writes songs that shake your heart and remind you of home in all its forms. With a voice that is “clear and compelling” and a sound that features “flourishes of bolero, bossa nova and even jazz” (Chicago Tribune), Ms. Rodriguez captivates as a performer at venues like Joe's Pub (NYC), Ars Nova (NYC), The Hideout (Chicago) and Steppenwolf (Chicago), with her stunning vocals and vulnerability onstage. Ms. Rodriguez made her Joe's Pub début at the Public Theater in November of 2017 after a sold-out performance of her original musical, East o', West o'! at ANT Fest at Ars Nova in June of 2017, which earned her a mention in The New Yorker. Beloved by NPR’s All Songs Considered team, her music project MICHA became a finalist for NPR’s 2018 Tiny Desk Contest with her song “Nena Nena Nena,” praised for a “bilingual set spanned laid-back southern soul and Latin pop flare” (NPR). She has received support from Ars Nova, New York Theater Workshop, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts and the University of Chicago. Musicals include East o’, West o’! (Ars Nova/ANT Fest), and works in development Jiran, Bibliophile, and Rokera. Ms. Rodriguez recently made her Public Theater début composing the music for The Mobile Unit’s production of The Tempest directed by Laurie Woolery, and she is currently under commission by the Public Theater for a new musical for their Mobile Unit program. BA: Williams College. www.michamusica.com

Orchestrator/Performer

Delaney Stockli is a Lebanese-Swiss-German freelance performer and creator who grew up in Cairo, Egypt, lived in Athens, Greece and is based in Brooklyn, NY. Though her primary musical education began in Western classical violin, her interests in various cultures, languages and disciplines have led her to a wide range of fields of personal and collaborative work. Delaney holds a Master’s degree in Music Technology from NYU. She regularly performs and records as a violinist with various groups and individuals in genres from various jazz and chamber classical fusion work to singer- songwriter projects, Arabic electro rock and international pop at studios and venues across the USA, Europe and the Middle East. She has written music for dance and is the co-founder and of O Kwarteto, a group dedicated to the arrangement and performance of Brazilian popular music for string quartet. Delaney recently released her first single, “Enchantment”, as a singer-songwriter.