I am a performer, composer, improvisationalist. I am an insatiable creator. I create environments. SoundCloud is my improvisation platform. My compositions are not here nor most of my written group or solo performances.

Mark Thomas Taylor has worn many musical hats: composer, improviser, orchestral freelancer, chamber musician, teaching artist, bandleader and studio musician (He was even in a hip hop video once…).  In addition to several new chamber works, including “3 Songs About Puppetry” (commissioned by the principal Hornist of the Michigan Philharmonic), Mark has written and recorded the score for “Last Days of Coney Island” for famed animator/director Ralph Bakshi, placed two songs in the Dollface Productions independent feature film "The Girl" and scored the documentaries “9/11 Fear In Silence” for JadeFilms and Camille Billops’ "A String of Pearls”. Other projects include “It’s Not Like He’s Never Been There Before”, a multi-movement orchestral work, commissioned by the Tri-Centric Foundation and a series of transcriptions of the work of seminal jazz bandleader James Reese Europe’s 369th “Hellfighters” military band for the Brooklyn Repertory Ensemble. Mark has released four CDs of all original material, QuietLand, Circle Squared, At What Age and Live At The Freight (co-led with composer/saxophonist Jessica Jones).
One of the few performers to successfully integrate the notoriously difficult French Horn into the landscape of jazz and improvised music, Taylor’s broad musical background includes performing, composing and arranging. In addition to leading his own ensembles, Mark has also performed and recorded with an array of modern jazz giants including: Max Roach, Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Muhal Richard Abrams and Anthony Braxton.

As a performer, William Schneider has freelanced with orchestras, brass quintets, and jazz combos in the mid-Michigan and northwest Ohio regions. As an educator, he has worked for the Detroit Symphony’s youth ensembles, tutored music students at Lansing Community College and teaches private students. During his first two years at Bowling Green, Will held an assistantship where he gained the opportunity to provide instruction to undergraduate students as well as perform with the Graduate Brass Quintet. As a composer, Will is dedicated to writing music to facilitate improvisation.

Will is a founding member and collaborator with the Third Shore Collective, an ensemble dedicated to performing improvised art music including (but not restricted to) jazz.

Will holds a M.M. in Jazz Studies and a M.M. in horn performance, each from Bowling Green State University and a B.M. in horn performance from Central Michigan University.

Melvin Cortez Jackson is following