Hailed as "a Jazz pianist who dares to follow an unmarked road" (The New York Times) and honored for "her extensive music education and a devotion to the swinging roots of jazz" (Los Angeles Times), pianist/composer Geri Allen is a True original. Rhythmically subtle yet startlingly provocative, Allen respects the jazz tradition, but refuses to be bound by it, and her original works journey into constantly adventurous areas, always seeking out new musical avenues.

geriallen.com

Drummer WINARD HARPER is passionate about jazz. "This music is powerful," he says. "It can do a lot of good for people. If they'd spend some time each day listening to it, we would see many changes in the world."

Inspired by the musicianship of greats such as Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Jackie McLean, Cannonball Adderley, Dr. Billy Taylor, Art Blakey and Billy Higgins, Harper has been the leader and musical inspiration for a vibrant sextet for almost a decade. The group appears regularly all over the United States from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to Yoshi's, the legendary West Coast jazz club. Although clearly the dominant force behind this extraordinarily gifted ensemble, Harper has surrounded himself with superbly talented young guardians of the jazz tradition (including Lawrence Clark, Ameen Saleem, Josh Evans, Stacy Dillard and Alioune Faye), who are as entertaining to watch as they are to listen to.

Born in Baltimore in 1962, Winard had a natural affinity for drumming. He was encouraged to play the drums by his father, who noticed him beating on cans when he was three or four years old. At the age of five, Winard was developing his skills and making guest appearances with his older brother Danny's nightclub band. A turning point was reached when Winard heard a recording of Clifford Brown and Max Roach. It was then that he was irreversibly inspired to play jazz. "I was fascinated hearing Max do the things he did playing with mallets and everything," he remembers.

And now the Winard Harper Sextet moves to a new level of success. Not only is the band gaining increased air play around the globe, they regularly appear in festivals, on jazz cruises, in concert halls and in top jazz clubs, the Winard Harper Sextet is doing their part to bring the power of jazz to audiences everywhere. The response has been nothing short of remarkable. But then again, so is Winard Harper.

www.winardharper.com

Vincent has developed into a virtuoso with a voice that is uniquely intense and vigorous with energy and direction. He is considered one of the premier saxophonists of his generation.

Vincent first toured Europe and the United States with Lionel Hampton’s big band in the early 1980’s. As he developed his musicianship he began to work with Nat Adderley a liaison that continued for nine years. Along the way he worked and / or recorded with Cedar Walton, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Hayes, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver Quintet, Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition, Larry Coryell, Steve Turre, The Mingus Big Band, Kenny Barron, Nancy Wilson, Dr. Billy Taylor, Carla Bley, and John Hicks. Other special concert and projects have included special guest soloist engagements with Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center. Vincent also appeared as a guest soloist at Carnegie Hall with John Faddis and The Carnegie Hall Big Band.

While amassing these impressive credentials, Vincent continues to develop his own voice and style. In addition to the legends and peers he has worked with Vincent is inspired by a collage of diverse musical influences. Which is reflected in his original band called Earth Jazz Agents.
Vincent is also involved in Jazz education. He is currently on staff at William Patterson University as well as conducting master classes and jazz workshops at Juilliard. Vincent has also conducted master classes on jazz improvising at Duke and Cornell Universities.

www.vincentherring.com

Jeremy Pelt arrived in New York in 1998 after graduating from Berklee College of Music. Once he got there, it wasn't long before he started being noticed by a lot of top musicians in the city. His first professional Jazz gig was playing with the Mingus Big Band. That gig lead to many long lasting associations with many of the talent in the band, and a great opportunity for growth. Since his arrival, he has been fortunate enough to play with many of today's and yesterday's Jazz luminaries, such as Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess,Charli Persip, Keter Betts, Frank Foster, John Hicks, Ravi Coltrane, Winard Harper, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Cliff Barbaro, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Short, Bobby "Blue" Bland, The Skatalites, Cedar Walton, and many, many more. Jeremy has also been featured in a variety of different bands, including the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Big Band. Currently, he is member of the Lewis Nash Septet, and The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes.

www.peltjazz.com

The violin is hardly the first instrument that comes to mind when you think about jazz, but that's never daunted Billy Bang, one of the instrument's most adventurous exponents.

Over the past 26 years Bang's hard-edged tone, soulful sense of traditional swing and evocatively expressive style has enhanced over two dozen albums by top names in a variety of genres, from the blistering funk of Bootsy Collins and the harmolodic groove of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society to the intergalactic uproar of Sun Ra.

With more than 15 albums under his own leadership, nearly a dozen more in co-led endeavors, and five more with the String Trio of New York (which he co-founded in 1977 with guitarist James Emery and bassist John Lindberg), Billy Bang is one of the more prolific and original members of the progressive scene.

www.justin-time.com/authors/billybang

One of the world's preeminent jazz innovators, trombonist and seashellist Steve Turre, has consistently won both the Readers' and Critics' polls in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells). Turre was born to Mexican-American parents and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where he absorbed daily doses of mariachi, blues and jazz. While attending Sacramento State University, he joined the Escovedo Brothers salsa band, which began his career-long involvement with that genre.

In 1972 Steve Turre's career picked up momentum when Ray Charles hired him to go on tour. A year later Turre's mentor Woody Shaw brought him into Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After his tenure with Blakey, Turre went on to work with a diverse list of musicians from the jazz, Latin, and pop worlds, including Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, J.J. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Lester Bowie, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Van Morrison, Pharoah Sanders, Horace Silver, Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The latter introduced hum to the seashell as an instrument. Soon after that, while touring in Mexico City with Woody Shaw, Turre's relatives informed him that his ancestors similarly played the shells. Since then, Turre has incorporated seashells into his diverse musical style.

www.steveturre.com

The Heinz Endowments was formed from the Howard Heinz Endowment established 1941, and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, established in 1986. Our mission is to help southwestern Pennsylvania thrive as a whole community - economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally - while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the fields in which we work. Among the largest independent philanthropic organizations in the country, the Endowments board approves an average of $60 million in grants to nonprofit organizations each year.

www.heinz.org

The Pittsburgh Foundation is the 14th largest community foundation in the country. Since 1945, it has worked to improve the quality of life in the Pittsburgh region by evaluating and addressing community issues, promoting charitable giving, and connecting donors to the critical needs of the community.

Many generous individuals have invested in their community by establishing over 1,000 funds at the Foundation, benefiting a wide variety of nonprofit organizations and community needs.

Through donor designated funds, donors may give to the organization of their choice. Community Fund grants at The Pittsburgh Foundation are awarded in five targeted areas for impact:

• Achieving Educational Excellence and Equity
• Fostering Economic Development
• Supporting Families, Children and Youth
• Reducing Disparities in Health Outcomes
• Advancing the Arts

www.pittsburghfoundation.org

For two decades now, funding by the Multicultural Arts Initiative (MCAI) has been critical to the support of African American arts programming in the Pittsburgh region. Over the years, MCAI has awarded close to $7 million and over 600 grants. During this time period almost a third of MCAI funding was directed toward providing operating support dollars for targeted African American arts organizations. MCAI funding has assisted in establishing a platform of access and exposure to African American arts offerings in the Pittsburgh community.

The MCAI grant making objective is to enhance the cultural landscape of the region by funding consistently high quality African American and African-influenced arts programming, as well as targeted culturally specific arts programming to include Latin, Asian, and Native American. This expanded landscape will reflect a region, which integrates these art forms into the cultural fabric of its communities and heightens the cultural conscience of its citizens.

www.mcai-pittsburgh.org

As Pittsburgh's first public radio station, DUQ 90.5 FM is a leading radio source for local, national and international news, information and jazz. DUQ is Pittsburgh's primary source for a wide range of National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI) radio programs that educate, inform and entertain.

DUQ broadcasts with a 25,000 watt signal, seven days per week, 24 hours per day to listeners in Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland.

As a nonprofit, public radio station broadcasting from Duquesne University, over 50% of DUQ's operations and programs are funded by listener contributions. Additional support is provided by program underwriters, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Duquesne University and foundations.

The station was founded in 1949 during the early years of FM radio. DUQ began as a student laboratory on the Duquesne University campus--exposing students to new technology and giving local audiences access to cultural programs and information.

As each decade passed, DUQ grew in response to the needs of the Pittsburgh community. In 1976, the station began carrying the programming of the newly -formed Radio Information Service, a reading service for visually impaired, on a sub-carrier channel, and entered into a management agreement to handle RIS's day-to-day business operations in late 2005.

Today, with a professional staff and the resources of technology and mass communications, DUQ maintains its commitment to news, information and music that you won't find anywhere else on the radio dial in the tri-state region.

www.wduq.org

POISE Foundation began in December of 1980 as the first public foundation in the state of Pennsylvania organized and managed by African Americans. The purpose of the Foundation is to develop and enhance the participation of African American philanthropists in the economic and social development of the Black community of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. For more than 27 years, the Foundation has been supporting programs that add value to the quality of life of Black Pittsburgh and the region as a whole. The Foundation has also initiated or collaborated with several other programs to develop hope, vision, and a sense of pride in our community.

This African American run philanthropic organization is predicated on its founder’s (Bernard H. Jones, Sr.) vision of an empowered community, able to take care of itself. The key to empowerment, he believed, lies in the development and maintenance of economic and social programs designed to promote self-help and financial independence in the Black community.

Help support our efforts in making Pittsburgh a place where all of its citizens are proud to call home.

www.poisefoundation.org

The Highmark Story Related Links: Our diversity initiative Integrity We fight fraud News releases Media representatives Procurement guide Highmark provides millions of people with the security of quality health insurance We have a long history of serving our members and our communities. In the 1930s, Highmark's predecessor companies were established to help Pennsylvania's residents pay for health care. Today, that remains our mission - to provide access to affordable, quality health care enabling individuals to live longer, healthier lives. It guides our actions throughout Highmark's businesses.

Highmark was created in 1996 by the consolidation of two Pennsylvania licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association - Pennsylvania Blue Shield (now Highmark Blue Shield) and the Blue Cross plan in western Pennsylvania. We are now one of the largest health insurers in the United States.

www.highmarkbcbs.com

Serving Youth, Families, Communities. Making a Difference.

The Kingsley Association works diligently to provide comprehensive, culturally relevant, educational, recreational, and social programming that positively impacts the lives of youth, their families and the East End communities of East Liberty, Garfield, Point Breeze, Homewood, Lincoln, Larimer, Lemington, Belmar, East Hills, Wilkinsburg, and beyond. Through our work we have become a vital thread in the fabric of these communities.

It is our objective to create new and innovative, neighborhood-based programs responsive to the changing needs of East End residents, with particular attention to our young people.

Through partnership and collaboration with numerous agencies, we seek to empower youth, their families, and community with the tools to reach their fullest potential - physically, mentally, economically and socially.

www.kingsleyassociation.org

The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater is a performing arts venue located in the racially diverse urban neighborhood of East Liberty, drawing its audience from all of Pittsburgh. We are an accessible cultural and educational resource, and an important part of the plan for the community's revitalization.

The Kelly-Strayhorn fosters a positive multi-cultural community identity, and generates an appreciable economic and cultural impact by filling a void in Pittsburgh for a professionally-equipped, 350-seat multiple-use theater. As a moderately priced, informal, intimate performance venue, the Kelly-Strayhorn is an ideal place for regional artists and arts organizations to take risks and try out new work. We are also a warm and welcoming place in which emerging local artists can establish a presence and build a following in the Pittsburgh arts community.

www.kelly-strayhorn.org

Jim Ferlo completed his first term in the State Senate and was re-elected to a second term at the end of 2006. Formerly, a 14-year Pittsburgh City Councilman and two-term Council President (1994 – 1997), Ferlo has been incorporating his own passionate style of community activism since the late 1960s. It was during those early years as a union activist, political organizer and community advocate that Ferlo affirmed his commitment to the public and his confidence in people. This commitment and investment has translated into an experienced legislator who is accessible and accountable.

As Board Treasurer of the City of Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority, Senator Ferlo has been a leader in shifting the mindset of local development and investment. His has focused attention on neighborhood-based and Green Building initiatives. At the State level, he was a vocal supporter in the drive to expand and implement the Commonwealth’s Main Street and Elm Street Programs. He has been a pioneer in envisioning ways that local communities can take advantage of these state programs, including several instances where he has successfully urged local townships and boroughs to collaborate with neighboring municipalities to combine their strengths as a "Multiple-Main Street" or as an "Enterprise Zone".

www.senatorferlo.com