Queen Esther (1983 Theater)

Raised in Atlanta, Georgia and wholly embedded in Charleston, South Carolina’s culturally rich and enigmatic Lowcountry — a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and continuously inform her work — Harlem-based performer Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to sonically explore cultural mores in America, deconstructing well-worn historical narratives and creating a reclamation-driven soundscape.

Critics have described her as “…a Black Lucinda Williams…” (Vanity Fair) “…Aretha Franklinesque…” (Feedback), with vocal comparisons shifting easily from Billie Holiday and Sly Stone to Melissa Etheridge and Nina Simone. Produced by Queen Esther, her self-released critically acclaimed Black Americana album Gild The Black Lily is “…a minor masterpiece…” (LIRA). It is the fourth project from her imprint EL Recordings and continues to make waves internationally since its March 2021 release.

A playwright-in-residence at New Perspectives Theater Company’s 2021 Women’s Work Short Play LAB and American Theater Group’s PlayLab 2021 – 2023, Queen Esther is in rehearsals for MacArthur Genius performer/playwright Taylor Mac’s jazz opera The Hang — scheduled to make its world premiere in the Prototype Festival, January 2022.

Jeff McLaughlin

Guitarist Jeff McLaughlin has performed around the world, including concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Indy Jazz Fest in Indianapolis, the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Americanafest in Nashville and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. He has appeared as a sideman and with his own projects in famed venues such as The Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 55 Bar, Blue Note Jazz Club, Minton’s Playhouse, The Bar Next Door, City Winery, The Blue Whale in Los Angeles, as well as Nashville’s Musician’s Corner and Basement East.

Sean Mason

Born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sean Mason studied music at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and The Juilliard School. In his short but already groundbreaking career, Mason has played and toured with many jazz professionals, most prominently Branford Marsalis and Wynton Marsalis, among many others. Mason is based in New York City, and aside from being a sideman for many successful jazz bands around the city, he leads his own band, The Sean Mason Trio, which performs and tours across the globe.

Hilliard Greene

Hilliard Greene has been studying music for more than 50 years. Greene studied at the University of Northern Iowa, Berklee College of Music and SUNY Empire and is currently a faculty member at the Collective in New York City. He has performed widely in major cities throughout the U.S., Canada, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, the West Indies and South America and in numerous New York City nightclubs, concert halls “…(including Carnegie Hall), radio, television and recording studios.”

Warren Smith

Warren Smith is known for masterful percussion work with an endless array of jazz artists and a bevy of pop stars; in countless studios and Broadway pit bands; as well as on more than 3,000 recordings. He might be the only man alive who has played with Nat King Cole, Harry Partch and Charles Mingus, as well as Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand. In 1961 he co-founded the Composers Workshop Ensemble, which is ongoing. Over the decades, he has worked with Muhal Richard Abrams, Count Basie, Anthony Braxton, Bill Cole, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Julius Hemphill, Quincy Jones, Janis Joplin (as her musical director), Makanda Ken McIntyre, Carmen McRae, Van Morrison, Sam Rivers, Nina Simone, Henry Threadgill, Andrew White, Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Nancy Wilson and Joe Zawinul. Smith was a founding member of Max Roach’s percussion ensemble, M’Boom. From the ’60s through the ’80s, he ran Studio WIS, which hosted many New York jazz musicians, such as Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake. These days, he continues to perform with many top artists, as well as leading his own ensembles.

Max Colby lives and works in New York City. Through lush, detailed work, their work reframes traditional notions of domesticity, power and gender from a trans and non-binary perspective. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University in 2012. Colby has exhibited internationally including at Wave Hill, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Jane Lombard Gallery, Isabel Croxatto Galería, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, and Museum Rijswijk, among others. She has completed residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), MASS MoCA and the Wassaic Project and received a Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellowship.

Maya Ragazzo is an interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art where she focused on sculpture, photography and art history. Ragazzo has built upon her digital fabrication and model making skills by working at makerspaces and custom model railroad workshops. She now builds custom lights at a design studio. Maya has spent the last two years building her painting practice out of her garage studio in Los Angeles. She enjoys working on personal projects as well as commissioned work.

Ackeem Salmon is originally from Kingston, Jamaica and now resides in Detroit. He is a multimedia artist who explores photography with traditional painting and drawing techniques. Salmon received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies with honors in Photography and Fine Art.

Along with his visual works, Salmon is also a self-taught violinist, flautist and composer whose interdisciplinary works are primarily in fine art, photography, film, performance, music and writings of critical theory. His pieces are often autobiographical and are based around postcolonial theories and the understanding of human individuality and social progress. He explores how cultural history affects people’s present-day identities and how these identities connect through human commonality and empathy.

Salmon’s work has been exhibited at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit; the Galerie Joseph, Paris; the Val de Vie estate, Cape Town; and at Sotheby’s Auction House, New York, among other prominent galleries and venues.

Salmon is currently an Art Teacher at the Western International High School in Detroit.

Director and Editor

Doug Blush
1984 Film, YoungArts Trustee