Tiny TOPs

Rebecca HH Rosen is a singer-songwriter with a background as a cellist in classical music and free improvisation. Since 2014, she’s toured the country as lead vocalist for The Tusks Band, back-up singer for -pf, and co-conspirator in Dreambag. But since she can remember, she has also exercised her own voice, writing original songs with strong vocal melodies that carry smooth yet piercing lyrics. Her words are birthed from a longtime relationship with yoga, mindfulness, and meditation; words that are often her own medicine when the emotional monsoons of life hit. Her sound and genre are inspired by a love of Regina Spektor, Ella Fitzgerald, and yMusic, along with inspirations from dear friends gathered over the years. Speaking from personal experience and playful imagination, her songs speak to love, nature, and the child in us all.

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Classic soul music meets R&B with the unique and incredible emotion that Detroit-based, ANA, displays in her performance. As a powerful vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, she continues in a legacy of creating raw and authentic music with feeling.

Artist website: https://www.anagomulka.com/

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Mary Collins is an independent singer/songwriter with an interest in theater making and narrative lyricism. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mary is currently attending college at NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi, where she studies creative writing and music. Her songs draw on her training as a writer, blending striking vocals and captivating guitar lines to portray honest stories and emotions. In her work, Mary often explores topics such as mental health, concepts of home, and the relationship between humans and the environment. She enjoys looking for the fantastic in the mundane. Outside of music, Mary also writes fiction and poetry. Her first EP, Storm Songs, a collection of her earliest work, was released in May 2017 and is available on iTunes, Bandcamp, and Spotify.

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Bassist and vocalist Gwenyth Hayes’ hybrid reinterpretations give due respect to popular cover tunes from many genres and eras. They center around her sultry voice, groove-oriented bass lines, and tight instrumental arrangements. This approach serves to reinvent popular soul, jazz, soft rock, and blues standards with a sensual and contemporary feel. Gwenyth’s sound appeals to diverse audiences and is reminiscent to many generations.

Throughout her career she has performed as both an independent artist and a professional bassist in support of various blues, pop, and soul artists. During her time in Chicago, she routinely performed at the world-famous Buddy Guy’s Legends and the Chicago Blues Festival. She has also toured with artists such as Murali Coryell (son of Larry Coryell), Laura Rain and the Caesars, Alligator & Delmark, Quintus McCormick, Maurice John Vaughn, and Toronzo Cannon.

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The father daughter duo of San and Emily Slomovits have been playing music together since Emily was a young child. San, along with his brother Laz, as the duo Gemini, have been a highly popular folk act throughout Michigan and the United States since 1973, and Emily began joining them on stage when she was just eight years old. Now 27, Emily is an accomplished violinist, having studied classical violin for more than a decade, and has also developed a lovely and unique singing style.

San and Emily’s concerts feature a wide range of traditional and contemporary folk, jazz, and classical music. Their beautifully blended harmony vocals and exciting instrumental work breathe new life into a wide variety of American and international music, from folk to classical, klezmer to Broadway show tunes, traditional to contemporary. Audiences thrill to their warmth, humor, and ease on stage. They’ve released one CD, Innocent When You Dream

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Violinist Emelyn Bashour is a graduate of University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music. She is a regular member of the symphony orchestras of Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Flint, and an active teacher and freelancer in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area. During the summer, Emelyn performs with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra and at Spoleto Festival USA. In the fall of 2021 she will begin pursuing a DMA at Michigan State University as a teaching assistant in the studio of Yvonne Lam.

Josh DeVries is a cellist, theorist, and the founder of Just a Theory Press. He has been working closely with living composers for over a decade, and upcoming performances include a concerto debut with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (although perhaps his most famous moment was winning the “Bluff the Listener” game on NPR’s news quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!). In his spare time, Josh plays with his rescue dogs and is working on a PhD in Music Theory. He can be heard playing Carlos Simon’s “Lickety Split” on the album My Ancestor’s Gift, available on all streaming platforms.

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Ernest Hemingway once said ”The Circus is the only fun you can buy that’s good for you”. This small version of The Flea Circus will promise to bring an unusual form of old world imagery into an updated musical collaboration from two Ann Arbor veteran musicians, pianist Mark Lincoln Braun (MR. B) and drummer Pete Siers. Not unlike a circus, their unusual visual and musical contraption is known as “The Joybox Express”, featuring a 365lb. three wheeled tricycle that houses an upright piano. Conjured from an actual dream, Mr. B manifested this imagination into reality. The man, the myth, the music, has propelled the “Joybox” across the state of Michigan twice, traveled the length of the Mississippi River, and pedaled nonstop from Flint to Mackinac Island. Both musicians have paid their dues and performed extensively, and with the best in the business. Their recording The Flea Circus (Pete Siers) can be heard on all digital platforms, and has gathered great reviews. There are pianos, blues, bikes, washboards and drums, but when the Flea Circus comes to you, the enchantment of musical history comes alive. Especially in times like these – it’s best to not think about it, and just run away with the circus!

Artist website: https://petesiers.com/groups/flea-circus/

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Kate von Bernthal is a Detroit-based saxophonist and composer currently focused on minimalism, indie/pop, and meditation. Through composition, improvisation, and collaboration, she aims to help expand the meaning of classical music and modernize the practice of classical saxophone. Toward these goals, she plans to release her debut album in 2021. As a soloist and chamber musician, von Bernthal has participated in the commission and premieres of dozens of new works. She is a founding member of the all-women mixed chamber ensemble Girlnoise and is passionate about uplifting women’s creative voices through contemporary music performance. Kate von Bernthal holds degrees in classical saxophone performance from the University of Oregon and the University of Michigan.

Artist website: https://katevonbernthal.com/

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Cellist and vocalist Jordan Hamilton merges musical styles to tell stories of the human experience through a variety of musical genres. A member of Last Gasp Collective and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Jordan can be found performing primarily in the Midwest where he has opened for national acts such as Eric Roberson and Nappy Roots. His most recent release Vibrations is a compilation of feelings expressed in sound with no words.

Artist website: http://www.jordanhamiltonmusic.com/

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Chris DuPont is a Michigan native tunesmith, endlessly reimagining the indie/folk paradigm. With an unmistakable ethereal tenor, diverse guitar work, and a taste for the cinematic, DuPont steers the classic eloquence and lyricism of 70’s folk/Americana into the iridescent haze of dream pop.

Chris was a top ten finalist in the 2013 Rocky Mountain Folks Fest songwriter competition, and a first place winner at Eddie’s Attic songwriter night in April 2016. He has shared stages with a host of Midwest acts, as well as national acts Theo Katzman, Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds, Peter Mulvey, Edwin McCain, Brendan James, Needtobreathe, and Lucius. He is endorsed by Godin guitars and LR Baggs amplification

Artist website: https://www.chrisdupontmusic.com/

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Betsy Soukup is a bassist, composer, and improvisor living in Metro Detroit. She studied classical music for seventeen years, but currently focuses her creative energy on playing freely improvised music, writing, and performing her own compositions, writing poetry, and performing comedy improv.

Artist website: http://www.betsysoukup.com/

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On a musical journey that began in 1982, Annie and Rod Capps have established themselves as well-respected songwriters, musicians, and performers, with three albums topping the Folk-DJ charts and as 2-time Kerrville New Folk Finalists.

The Capps’ sound meets at the intersection of Americana & Folk citing rock, jazz and bluegrass influences. With their 8th studio recording When They Fall, Annie and Rod continue to explore their love of blending diverse styles to create a fresh and unique amalgamation all while sticking to their narrative “songs about broken things and poignant little ponderings delivered with a rootsy vibe, a touch of twang and soulful groove.”

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Classical crossover duo, baritone Jean Bernard Cerin and pianist Veena K. Kulkarni fuse classical and world music with storytelling into transformative concert experiences. With Indian-Filipino-American and Haitian backgrounds, Veena and Jean Bernard synthesize a broad cultural heritage with their western classical training to explore music from all around the globe. Together, they bring new sounds to conventional classical music audiences and share this classical music tradition with new audiences.

Artist website: https://duo1717.com/

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Simultaneously overwhelmingly powerful and impossibly delicate, Amy Petty’s voice is haunting and unforgettable. Her signature sound is on full display in her latest album, The Darkness of Birds. Sailing between lullaby and seduction, pleading and rebuke, her songs play out like short films, thoughtful and unconventional yet somehow familiar.

A veteran performer, Amy has appeared at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Club Passim and shared the main stage with artists like Sarah McLachlan, Jewel and Suzanne Vega.

Born and raised in Metro Detroit, Amy now calls mid-Michigan home after years in the Northeast. She is currently writing and watching and waiting, looking forward to the return of music with a vengeance.

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Sisters Phoebe and Jaclyn Holmes have been performing together since 2013, playing festivals, listening rooms, and private parties in Michigan. Accompanied by guitar, keyboard, and cajon, the Keynote Sisters’ sound pulls from influences of pop, folk, and Americana, tied together by their signature knit-tight harmonies.

Their first CD of covers, Come What May, was recorded in 2016 and all proceeds from sales were donated to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. The Keynote Sisters are avid songwriters and released their first EP of all original music, Rose Colored Glasses, in 2019. Their debut single, Done and Damned, is set for release summer 2021.

Since spring of 2020, the Keynote Sisters have been hitting the road—literally—with their Driveway Tour, a tour concept created in the early stages of quarantine, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Phoebe and Jaclyn have made it their goal to provide safe, socially-distanced private concerts to people all across Metro Detroit, as they perform out of their tour van to listeners’ front porches, driveways, or open windows. The Driveway Tour made its return in 2021, nearing 100 stops and bringing live music to hundreds of Michiganders in a time when music is needed more than ever.

Artist website: https://keynotesisters.com/home

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An intergenerational group of musicians (currently 35-85 years young) playing all styles and genres of music and encompassing all levels of ability. Some of the musicians in the collective have been playing professionally for a lifetime and some in the collective are only a few years into their musical odyssey.

Love, community, enjoyment, and laughter form the heart and soul of the collective’s endeavor—furthering the imagination of the collective possibilities and wonderment.

Those more experienced in their musical understanding supporting those in the collective more recently tuning into their craft. Among the instruments in the collective are vocals, guitar, flute, bass, mandolin, mandola, accordion, drums, keyboards, harmonica as well as soprano, concert, tenor and baritone ukulele. Drop a brain bomb. Fire up the synapses. Rewire some neurons and strum into cognition.

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With a soulful voice and brilliantly insightful lyrics, singer-songwriter Alison Albrecht is blazing new trails in music. Her unique blend of pop and soul, plus a touch of folk, offers a wide audience appeal that lives not too far from the sound of Sara Barilles or Sheryl Crow.

Alison is completely in her element onstage and has been performing across the state of Michigan since the tender age of nine years old. She has enchanted crowds as large as 30,000, singing the national anthem at Comerica Park, opened for the Steve Miller Band at Freedom Hill Amphitheater, and connected with audiences at renowned listening rooms such as 20 Front Street in Lake Orion and The Ark in Ann Arbor.

Alison’s self-titled debut EP, produced by Grammy-winning producer Chuck Alkazian, earned her a Detroit Music Award People’s Choice Award nomination and was named the Number One Local EP Release of the year by host John Bommarito of Ann Arbor’s 107.1 FM. Now a junior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Alison is enthusiastic and driven, poised to continue pursuing her music career with a passion for crafting new songs, and having a positive impact on others, and the world.

Artist website: https://www.alisonalbrecht.com/

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