Eric Barber, Francisco Mela, Chi-wei Lo, Akiva Jacobs at Lilypad

Eric Sublimity
After subbing for Tony Malaby in a prime improv setting with the .01% series, and more than ably succeeding, Eric comes to the forefront with a cross-generational group that speaks to his creative edge leadership.

Experimental Improvisational music from professional, seasoned musicians, and young creatives!

Tenor and soprano saxophonist - Creative Strategist – Music Educator
He’s the new top leadership for Walnut Hill School for the Arts

Barber comes to Natick,MA from Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California. At the University of Oregon he earned his BA in Music, before receiving a Master’s in Fine Arts in Jazz and African-American Music at California Institute of the Arts....

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Eric Sublimity
After subbing for Tony Malaby in a prime improv setting with the .01% series, and more than ably succeeding, Eric comes to the forefront with a cross-generational group that speaks to his creative edge leadership.

Experimental Improvisational music from professional, seasoned musicians, and young creatives!

Tenor and soprano saxophonist - Creative Strategist – Music Educator
He’s the new top leadership for Walnut Hill School for the Arts

Barber comes to Natick,MA from Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California. At the University of Oregon he earned his BA in Music, before receiving a Master’s in Fine Arts in Jazz and African-American Music at California Institute of the Arts.
(b. 1972) has been recognized as part of a generation of artists whose artistic voice and output defy categorization. Barber has developed a unique approach to the saxophone, integrating influences from jazz, Balkan and Indian music with a personal vocabulary of extended saxophone techniques.
His versatility, unique approach to the saxophone and artistic fearlessness have made him a regular collaborator with some of the most innovative and unconventional figures in new music today,

Francisco Mela was born in 1968 in Bayamo, Cuba. He moved to Boston in 2000 to pursue a degree at the acclaimed Berklee College of Music and, quickly thereafter, the faculty recognized that Mela had much to offer students and promptly hired him to teach at the school.

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, pianist Chi Wei Lo started studying piano at the age of three. He soon established himself as one of the prominently gifted children in the country, and has experienced success sharing his sincere love for music, winning all the major national piano competitions. In 2017, Lo became a doctoral candidate at the New England Conservatory, majoring in contemporary piano improvisation,

Bassist Akiva Jacobs
(NEC ‘22) presents an evocative soundscape improvisation/composition with the prepared upright bass. Preparations include clothespins, interwoven mallet, sponge, and extended techniques to create difference tones and secondary resonance sound production. Also on electric bass.

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