Spencer Brewer
Spencer Brewer is a DSE (Dangerously Serial Entrepreneur) who is a composer, pianist, artist and producer, inspiring audiences worldwide for decades with his piano skills, stories and hauntingly unique melodies. He also creates ‘High Whimsey’ - fantastical pieces of assemblage sculptures out of vintage or unusual objects.
With 15 solo and duet albums to his credit, he received acclaim for his #1 hit records, "The Pipers Rhythm" and "Dorians Legacy", lodging in Billboards Top 10 chart for 9 months. His release, "Torches on the Lake" with world famous wind man Paul McCandless charted on Billboards Contemporary Jazz chart and won rave reviews. He released a double CD set in 2009 entitled Cinematic, which received the finest reviews in his career as a composer and producer. His new recording, ‘Behind the Veil’ was released globally in late 2022.
Spencer's music has been being heard and used the world over due to his unique gift for weaving memorable, enchanting melodies within beautifully lush arrangements. His music has been featured on Home Alone 2, LA Law, Sex & the City, Thirty Something, The Opray Winfrey Show, The Barbara Walters Show, over 15 years of Olympic World games, NPR, CNN, virtually every airline in the skies and 100’s of other TV programs and movies across the globe. He wrote the National YMCA theme song, the National Big Brothers/Big Sisters Theme Song, the theme song for the Japanese Postal Service and scored Lee Mun Wah’s award winning films on racism "The Color of Fear" and “Last Chance for Eden’.
His music was also featured on films such as "Heartwood" with Hillary Swank & Jason Robards, ‘The Gifts of Grief” with Isabel Allende and Reverend Cecil Williams and was honored as the National Musical Ambassador for Big Brothers/Big Sisters for five years performing across America with many celebrities.
For 15 years in his studio, Laughing Coyote Productions, he produced/engineered over 200 audiophile recordings for artists including Alex de Grassi, Joe Craven, Holly Near, Gene Parsons, Barbara Higbie, Paul McCandless, Paul Winter, Michael Manring, Phil Aaberg, Darol Anger and many others. During this tenure, several recordings were nominated for Grammy awards.
Alongside his lifelong passion of music and art, he has also restored, bought, sold, tuned and did virtually everything on over 20,000 pianos. Today utilizing parts from pianos, other instruments and vintage ephemera, he makes one-of-a-kind ‘assemblage’ pieces with his wife Esther at their studio, HarmonyGaits.com in northern California. His sculptures have been featured in galleries and museums throughout California. This past year he and Esther released a multiple award-winning book of visual jazz – Lost and Found – Assemblage Artists of Northern California.
Spencer firmly believes in contributing back to his local community of Mendocino County. While donating dozens of private concerts over the years for local non-profit agencies, 30 years ago he started and was the promoter for 25 years the award winning "Sundays in the Park" summer concert series with over 20,000 attendees a summer in Ukiah, CA. He also created and produced festivals and concert series’ - 'Live at the Playhouse', ‘The Professional Pianist Series’, ‘Happination’, ‘BandSlam in the Plaza’, ‘Acoustic Café’, ‘Sunset at the Cellars’, “Lightening Jam with Kris Kristoffersen’, ‘Rural Health Rocks’ and many others.
Truly a Renaissance man, Spencer contributes music and art supporting local communities while helping others find and nurture their creative muses.
Julia Sawtell
Julia Sawtell is a jazz/pop artist who has spent most of her life connecting with audiences in a variety of roles, but each performance always centered around her emotive voice.
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Julia is from Orange County, California and is currently majoring in music and business at Loyola Marymount University.
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From a very young age, Julia wanted to pursue a music career as she listened and was influenced by many genres including jazz, classic rock, and pop. She was inspired by amazing artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse, Barbara Stresiand, and Judy Garland.
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Julia joined a vocal jazz ensemble and fell in love with the notion that one song could have a variety of different approaches and arrangements with the limitation being only her imagination. This inspired her to select five songs that she was passionate about singing and that allowed her artistry to shine while making these classic songs seem fresh and captivating.
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Her dream is to share the beauty of the jazz genre, conveying the unique quality of each standard. This inspiration birthed Julia’s debut EP, “Call Me Julia” and she is excited to share her music and delight audiences throughout the globe with her gift.
Charles Lang (aka Chaz)
Charles Lang (a.k.a. Chaz) is a multidisciplinary artist currently living in Orange County New York. Trained as a musician/composer/songwriter at the Berklee School of Music with a focus on piano and vocals, Lang is a self-taught visual artist. His paintings are informed by his approach to music composition as well as his experience and struggle with Bipolar Disorder and coming out the other side in love with life. Charles paints mostly on canvas with oils and sometimes incorporates collage and digital techniques. Lang is a colorist first and foremost. Whether abstract or representational, his paintings always exude a strong psychological/emotional force.
Charles’s music and paintings are available as part of T.H.E. Music Group and T.H.E. Show.
Photo Credit: Chehalis Hegner
EMIKO
Emiko’s musical life began as soon as she was able to reach the piano keys. Before her third birthday the prodigious artist was appearing in front of live audiences. A decade of performances as a classical concert pianist followed. At just 12-years old she had already retired from her first career in music. Without missing a beat she launched an even more impressive phase two as an award-winning, internationally recognized singer, songwriter and composer.
By the time Emiko was in her twenties, the mononymous hit maker had been recognized in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and appeared in numerous major music publications including; Billboard, Music Connection, FM Sound and Keyboard Magazine. Over the years she has amassed an inconceivably extensive catalogue of over 3000 songs. The collection includes #1 Pop, Rock, J-Pop and R&B singles as well as full theater and film scores. Her songs have been recorded by countless artists and she has composed for over twenty television series.
As a solo artist and performer, Emiko is known for virtuosic shredding with equal proficiency on piano, Hammond organ and ‘Carlos,’ her custom made Alesis Wireless Vortex keytar. Since her 2001 debut album “Here Lies Tinkerbell,” the prolific songwriter and recording artist has delivered a steady string of singles, EPs and albums which have met critical and popular success at every turn. Emiko has shared the stage with legends like Cyndi Lauper and even appeared in the 6.5 million views of the music video “Lay Your Head On Me” by Major Lazer and Marcus Mumford.
In the absence of live performances, Emiko stayed busy in the recording studio during COVID lockdowns. In 2020 she released the full length album “LA After the War” and followed in 2021 with the beautiful acoustic EP “The Garage Piano Series Ep 1.” On September 3, 2021 the singer released her latest single, a powerfully emotional rendition of the David Bowie classic “Heroes.” Recorded remotely with celebrated English record producer Mike Exeter and musicians Bill Hubauer and Vito Pandolfo, the song is dedicated to healthcare workers and other everyday heroes of the pandemic. The track made an immediate impact and topped Indie charts around the globe.
The infinitely talented Emiko’s list of accomplishments is impressive, and the future promises even more in store. Whether entertaining fans on her popular YouTube channel, making hit records with her rock star friends or composing scores for popular movies and TV shows, you’ll be sure to find Emiko and Carlos following the music wherever it leads. Follow along @emikomusic and enjoy the ride.
Abigail Shelton
Abigail Shelton is a Berklee College of Music alumna with a Bachelor of Music in Film Scoring and in Violin Performance. She has studied with renowned musicians including Darol Anger, a founding member The David Grisman Quintet and Matt Glaser, who has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma and many others. Abigail enjoys writing music for movies, TV shows, plays, video games, dance, her own music videos, and other forms of media. She has been a participant of the Composing for the Screen 2019: A Film Scoring Mentorship Program in New York City, where she studied a wide variety of compositional styes from the Juilliard professor, Rick Baitz. Additionally, she interned with renowned Yuval Ron in January 2020. In this internship, she was an assistant music editor and recording engineer, and continued to greatly increase her music composition skills. Abigail has played violin in venues including the Boston Symphony Hall and the Berklee Performance Center. Additionally, she has played pop, rock and classical music for a wide variety of events and shows with her electric and acoustic violin in California.
Toby Lee Marshall is a Minneapolis/St. Paul based Hammond Organist and keyboard player. For the past 20+ years, Toby has been highly sought after for both live performance, and session recording.
At the age of 19, Toby was touring with Chicago Bluesman, Lonnie Brooks and his son Ronnie Baker Brooks. After returning to the Twin Cities, Toby continued to play and record with many local Twin Cities artists, including Joe Juliano, Mary Cutrufello, Big John Dickerson & Blue Chamber, and Paul Mayasich & The Benderheads to name a few.
In 2010, Toby teamed up with Bernard Allison – son of legendary Blues guitarist, Luther Allison. As part of Allison’s dynamic rhythm section, Toby toured Europe extensively and was featured on Allison’s 2010 release, “Live at the Jazzhaus”. Toby took a hiatus from music in 2012 to focus his energy on his growing, young family.
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In 2017, Toby Lee Marshall made his return to music. As the result of an impromptu jam/recording session, Toby ended up joining forces with famed guitarist, Greg Koch and his son, Dylan Koch to form the Koch Marshall Trio. The Trio’s first album release “Toby Arrives” was released in September of 2017. In addition to the new trio, Toby was invited to become an official Hammond artist. He is featured in numerous videos, demonstrating the SKX, and Hammond XK-5.
During the Covid-19 era, Toby was busy with remote-recording sessions, as well as bi-weekly live internet shows with his bandmates in The Koch-Marshall Trio. Toby began his own project known as “OCTOCOPTER”, with Twin Cities based drummer, Andy Boterman. The self-titled release was recorded by Toby, at his studio in Minneapolis, Studio Cenote`.
In 2021 The Koch Marshall Trio released it’s second record “From the Up`Nuh”, but the band waited to tour, as new variants of the Covid virus were wreaking havoc on many other artists tour schedules.
In July of 2022 the KMT hit the road relentlessly. Touring from New York, to L.A. and everywhere in between.
The trio released two albums in the spring of 2023. “Orange Roominations”, and “Sweet Gristle” of which the latter was recorded live at Sweetwater Studios in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
Toby continues to tour with The Koch-Marshall trio and plans to release his second album with Octocopter in 2024.
Toby Lee Marshall (Octocopter)
