Torrey Newhart TRio
The Torrey Newhart Trio is based in Eugene, OR and performs a wide range of music in a traditional jazz piano trio style.
Torrey Newhart
Torrey Newhart is a jazz keyboardist from Bend, Oregon. Newhart began his career in music at age 15, performing gigs at local venues and stages including Bebop Biscotti Coffee House, where he got his start performing regularly in front of live audiences. In 2014, he graduated from the University of Oregon with a Masters Degree in Music and was awarded "Most Outstanding Performer In Jazz Studies" the same year. Newhart performs well over 125 shows, annually, in many configurations. He has recorded and released records with Tony Glausi, Joshua Hettwer, the Mastrogiovanni Ska Project, Jack Radsliff, Jessika Smith, Inner Limits, Michael Radliff, Paul Krueger, The Long Shots and Kevin McDonald in addition to his own albums Obsidian Animals / Sound In-Sight (2016) and Marmara (2013).
He believes that music has the potential and power to remove people from themselves and take a step back from everyday issues in life, allowing one to reflect on and experience the manifold of human emotions. In addition to his performing career, Newhart teaches two general music courses and leads two choirs at a local charter high school called the Academy of Arts and Academics (A3), is an adjunct instructor of jazz at the University of Oregon and teaches a dozen weekly private students. Newhart believes that a vibrant jazz scene is possible everywhere and volunteers his time as a board member of the Willamette Jazz Society and serves as the organization’s grant writer. In 2016, he launched the Sunday Learners Jam, a program designed to educate musicians of all ages and abilities with rotating weekly hosts.
Todd Sickafoose
Known as a musical cross-breeder who stretches across genres, Todd Sickafoose has been described as “a captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The consistency of his personal voice in wildly diverse contexts prompted the LA Weekly to call Sickafoose "one of the most comprehensive musical minds of this coast". In 2004, Sickafoose began performing and recording in a duo format with folk poet and cultural icon Ani DiFranco. That relationship developed further over the years, and together they have made seven albums, two concert DVDs, and performed over 1000 shows.
During the same time, Sickafoose has also performed and/or recorded with Andrew Bird, Don Byron, Trey Anastasio, Yoko Ono, Jenny Scheinman, Nels Cline, Ron Miles, Myra Melford, Allison Miller, Adam Levy, Skerik, Eyvind Kang, Marty Ehrlich, Oliver Lake, Pheeroan Aklaff, Bobby Previte, Butch Morris, Payton McDonald, Scott Amendola, Will Bernard, Martin Dosh, Josh Roseman, Ben Goldberg, James Carney, Justin Morell, John Daversa, Shane Endsley, Jeff Lederer, Vinnie Golia, Taylor Haskins, Ben Wendel, Alan Ferber, Art Hirahara, Matt Munisteri, Steven Bernstein, Lizz Wright, Gina Leishman, Jessica Lurie, Carla Kihlstedt, Erik Deutsch, Carla Bozulich, Anaïs Mitchell, Sean Hayes, Erin McKeown, Vienna Teng, Nels Andrews, Etienne de Rocher, Noe Venable, David Bromberg, Boz Scaggs, Laurie Lewis, Tony Furtado, Mike Marshall, and Darol Anger.
ryan biesack
Ryan Biesack is a drummer, percussionist, and educator who maintains an active teaching and performing schedule in the jazz, rock, and improvised music worlds. He holds both a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon. Biesack has been an instructor of music and drum set at Oregon State University since 2009, where he also teaches The History of Rock & Roll and Reggae History in addition to directing the OSU Jazz Ensemble.
Biesack has played professionally for over a decade and has performed with Ron Miles, Wayne Horvitz, Ben Monder, Mike Gamble, Konorak Reddy, Dylan Fowler, Halie Loren, Joe Manis, and many others. In addition to being in demand locally as a performer and clinician, he has played and taught throughout the midwest, the west coast, New York City, India, South Korea, and has been a guest artist and educator in Nepal at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory three times. Biesack works with ensembles ranging from straight-ahead and swinging to cutting edge, modern, improvised, including the Willamette Underground Trio who were recent artists in The People's Fringe Festivl in Hong Kong.
Biesack can be heard with New York-based saxophonist Hashem Assadullahi’s Sextet, whose latest Origin Records release “Pieces” features dynamic original jazz compositions performed by a stellar line-up of musicians, featuring the unparalleled Ron Miles on trumpet. Beisack is a Crescent Cymbals Artist as of 2013. When not playing, he perfects craft ciders from his micro-orchard, experiments with brewing beer, and tinkers with his VW van to take trips around Oregon.