Paradigm Brass

ERIC GARLAND percussion (drum set). BA, Popstyles/Jazz Performance, SFSU. A Native of California, Eric has performed with Dave Leibman, Bobby McFerrin (with Brass Monkey Brass Band), Spencer Day, Will Bernard, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Mitch Marcus Quintet, 60’s icon Donovan and many more. Currently playing/writing with Realistic Orchestra, MarkStep Trio, Brass Monkey Brass Band, Joe Cohen Trio, The Lowdowns, Nick Rossi, and Karina Denike. More info at
www.myspace.com/ericgarland

Originally from Ontario, Canada, composer and
trumpeter Darren Johnston moved to San Francisco, CA in 1997, where he has been living ever since. As a performer, Johnston has performed, and/or recorded with such innovative musicians and composers as guitarist Fred Frith, clarinetist Don Byron, bassist Marcus Shelby, bassist Herbie Lewis, the ROVA
Saxophone Quartet, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and others. He was recently listed last June by Downbeat Magazine as one of “25 Trumpeters of the Future.”

Johnston has received commissions to write for dance, most notably for the San Francisco based companies Robert Moses’s Kin, and Amy Seiwert's I'ij-re, but primarily he writes for his own various projects and those of others in which he participates, including new works for the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra. As a band leader Darren runs the Darren Johnston Quintet, Trio, and the United Brassworkers Front.

Raised in Berkeley, CA, Jason began as a jazz and improvised music drummer, percussionist and composer. His studies and love of composition led him to classical music after earning his BA from Naropa University in performance and improvisation. His music has been performed extensively throughout the Bay Area, in concert halls, clubs, bars, cafes, museums and other art spaces, through his own ensembles, the Heftpistole Chamber Ensemble, the Walnut Chamber Ensemble, Duo B, Married Couple and Joseph’s Bones as well as featured in groups led by others, Four Flea Circus, Blowout and Noertker’s Moxie. His music has also been performed by the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players and the Aaron Novik Chamber Ensemble. He is currently working on a piece for the Worn Chamber Ensemble, led by bassist Richard Worn. Jason is currently living, working, studying and playing in the Bay Area, performing with his own groups, drumming in numerous local bands, and is a PhD candidate at University of California, Berkeley.

Richard Roper, trumpet, holds a Bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, his M.M. from Yale School of Music, and his D.M.A. from the University of Maryland. Committed to arts education, Richard has served on the faculties of the University of Maine, the Washington, D.C. Youth Orchestra, and currently teaches music theory at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View and also serves as a trumpet instructor for the preparatory department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to teaching, he plays with many of the ensembles around Northern California. As a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar, Richard spent a year studying trumpet in Paris and was seen in recitals and performances at the American Church, La Fondation des Etats-Unis, and the Sorbonne. In addition, he has studied and performed at the Aspen Music festival, the Music Academy of the West, Tanglewood Institute,and the Norfolk Chamber Music festival. Richard's major teachers are Chris Gekker, Mario Guarneri, Allan Dean, Antoine Cure, and Raymond Mase.