Masa Ishikawa, jazz piano with Dave Pope, saxophone, Sam Suggs, bass, Emre Katari, drums, Adam Larrabee, guitar and Wanchi Huang, violin

Masa Ishikawa, a pianist/composer orginally from Japan, will premiere his original new works dedicated to various critters, such as sandhill cranes, evening cicadas, fireflies, swallowtail butterfiles and northern cardinals. The performance features Ishikawa on piano, Dave Pope on saxophones, Sam Suggs on bass, Wanchi Huang on violin, Adam Larrabee on guitar, and Emre Katari on drums. 

As a pianist, Masa Ishikawa has performed at various concerts in Italy, China, and Japan. In 2023, Masa released his 2nd original piano trio album titled First Note as well as the 3rd original sextet album titled Montage. He premiered Suite for the Forgotten (jazz orchestra with strings) in 2015. The music is dedicated to people in Fukushima under the uncertain health impact of the radiation exposure from the nuclear power plants meltdown in 2011.

David Pope is an accomplished saxophonist, composer, and author. He has an international reputation for over one hundred published articles in Saxophone Journal and Saxophone Today. As a soloist, he has performed throughout the United States and in Europe and Asia. He recently served on the jury of the prestigious $100,000 M-prize chamber arts competition and the faculty of the Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy (Thailand). He endorses the R.S. Berkeley “Virtuoso”saxophone.

An omnivorous musician, Sam Suggs was recently named New Artist of the Month by Musical America and earned the grand prize at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition performing many of his own compositions. As a collaborative bassist, he has performed at Chamber Music Northwest, Yellow Barn, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, his jazz/fusion trio Triplepoint has toured in West Africa and Northern Europe, and his band Foundry was named a laureate winner in the inaugural M-Prize Competition.

Adam Larrabee has appeared as a sideman on Bruce Hornsby's album "Spirit Trail" and has involved himself in a wide variety of projects in the past few years from playing banjo in the bluegrass group "Joy Kills Sorrow", guitar in the chamber-jazz group "Andromeda", classical mandolin with "The Richmond Classical Guitar Quartet" and mandocello with "Enigmatica", recording and performing with rising jazz prodigy Grace Kelly, and his exploration of the music of Central France with "Le Bon Vent". In 2006, he won an Independent Music Award for his composition "Norwegian Slip" in the world/fusion category.

Emre Kartari is an Adjunct Instructor of Jazz at VCU, JMU and Longwood University, where he teaches Small Jazz Ensemble, Jazz History, and Drum-set. Born into a family of musicians and artists in Ankara, Turkey, Emre moved to the United States when he was nine years old. As an educator, Kartari worked with the New York Pops Mentors in Music program from 2003 until 2005. In 2009, with the support of the American Embassy in Turkey, he formed Ankara State Conservatory’s jazz degree program.

Wanchi Huang is an active performer in chamber music, solo recitals, and as a soloist with regional orchestras throughout North America and Asia. Wanchi joined Heifetz Institute faculty since the Summer of 2023 and has been a strings adjudicator for various international and national competitions, including Hudson Philharmonic Strings National Competition and Guanya International Violin Competition in Cheng Du, China. As an educator, she presented numerous times at ASTA National Conferences and has given many violin masterclasses internationally, as well as adjudicating at the Hong Kong Music Schools Festival.