Joan Hutton is an educator, performer and composer residing in Minneapolis and originally hailing from Toronto, Canada. She has been a member of the Ancia Saxophone Quartet since 1996, a group that performs and presents educational clinics nationally and internationally. Ancia is featured frequently on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” Joan plays saxophones and bass clarinet with the jazz-funk sextet Rare Medium, and composes many of their tunes. Her newest group, the Joan Hutton Jazz Project, was formed early in 2017 to feature her original compositions (www.joanhuttonjazz.com). Other performance activities over the years have included solo recitals, orchestral playing, pit orchestras, big bands, jazz combos and R&B/rock/blues bands. Joan holds music degrees from Ithaca College and the Eastman School of Music. She is the saxophone instructor at Augsburg University and has a large studio of private saxophone and clarinet students around the Twin Cities.

Laura Caviani is a veteran of over two decades of performing, recording and composing.  She recently released two albums with her Minneapolis–based trio: Mysterious Thelonious and Confluence.  The first celebrates jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk’s centennial, and is hailed by Britt Robson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune as “a masterful blend of… chordal complexity, innate sense of swing, and desire to live up to Monk’s intrepid spirit”. MNPost’s Pamela Espeland describes it as “a joyous romp”. Andrea Canter, of The Jazz Police, says of “Confluence:”  “Like the joining of the rivers, the individual artists intertwine musically such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts– a confluence of melody and harmony.”  Recent commissions include works for Vocal Essence and the Great River Chorale. She holds degrees from both Lawrence University and The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. As a dedicated educator, she is the Director of the Jazz Area at Carleton College, where she directs the jazz ensemble, coaches chamber groups, and teaches jazz piano and improvisation. For more information, please visit: www.lauracaviani.com