Marty Ashby is a jazz guitarist, GRAMMY® Award-winning producer, programming consultant, motivational speaker and lifelong advocate of jazz music and its unique place in American culture. He is Executive Producer of MCG Jazz, which he started in 1987 and since then he has produced more than 2,000 concerts and over 60 recordings on the MCG Jazz label garnering five GRAMMY® Awards and 11 additional GRAMMY® nominations. As a guitarist, Ashby has performed and recorded with Slide Hampton, Claudio Roditi, Nancy Wilson, Paquito D’Rivera, Herbie Mann, Phil Woods, The Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band and others. In addition to his musicianship, Ashby has curated and managed national and international tours for the Jazz Across the Americas project and Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He is also a Reiki Master, Biofield Tuning Practitioner and Vibrational Sound Therapist.
Apollo, Pennsylvania native Jeff Bush began studying music at the age of four on an unlikely instrument, the banjo. He followed with the piano and then discovered the trombone which has become a lifelong pursuit. While a student at Youngstown State University, Bush performed with The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and toured with The Glenn Miller Orchestra. In his final year at YSU, Bush became linked to one of his musical heroes, receiving the Frank Rosolino Memorial Scholarship. The award featured Bush at the 1999 International Trombone Festival and allowed him to study in Berlin, Germany with acclaimed trombonist, Jiggs Whigham. He has served on the faculty of Youngstown State University and West Virginia Wesleyan College and currently serves as adjunct instructor of jazz studies at Duquesne University.
Cuban percussionist Hugo Cruz has only been in Pittsburgh a few years, but he has already forged a firm musical path. In addition to having performed in South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States, he is the leader of the group Caminos, who have made appearances at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival 2019, Fábrica de Artes in Havana, Cuba, Highmark First Night Pittsburgh 2020, Pittonkatonk Festival, City of Asylum, The Frick Museum, Musicalidades, Market Square, and Con Alma. He fuses rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban, Cuban, and American music, in an original contemporary expression that honors traditional Cuban form.
Max Leake has been a part of jazz piano in Pittsburgh since the 1970s. He began his musical training at age six. By the time he was 15, he was working with local Pittsburgh bands and backing up national acts in local supper clubs. At the age of 18, Max was traveling around the country with acts such as the “Ink Spots” and the “Marcels”.
Max has been recording, composing, arranging and performing for over 35 years with some of the best jazz and blues artists in the world including Roger Humphries, Stanley Turrentine, Rick Margitza, Dwayne Dolphin, Henry Johnson, Rebecca Parris, Billy Price, Joe Negri, Sandy Staley, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Orchestra, Tommy Tedesco, David “Fathead” Newman, Don Latarski, Al Dowe and Etta Cox and the Balcony Big Band, just to name a few.
Brian Stahurski received his BA and MA degrees in jazz performance from Duquesne University. Since then he has performed with the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra, the Wheeling Symphony, WQED's “Live from Studio A” on PBS television and various Jazz, Blues, Salsa, Pop and Rock artists around Pittsburgh.
Brian toured with jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau band around the world from 1999-2001 playing jazz festivals, clubs and universities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In that time he also performed on two notable recordings: vocalist Michael Feinstein’s “Big City Rhythms” with Maynard Ferguson with renowned vocalist Diane Schuur on “Swingin for Schuur”.
He is a bass instructor at PennWest California, Slippery Rock and Duquesne Universities.
Mike Tomaro, saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger and educator, has been the Director of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA since 1997. Prior to his appointment at Duquesne, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 17 years as a member of the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, a unit of the prestigious "Pershing's Own" U.S. Army Band. While a member of this group, he served as its Enlisted Musical Director and performed for Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as heads of state from around the world. As a composer and arranger, Mike's music has been performed by David Liebman, Wayne Bergeron, Ivan Lins, Claudio Roditi, Mike Stern, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Randy Brecker, New York Voices, as well as high schools, colleges and universities around the world. His orchestral arrangements have been performed by the Pittsburgh and National Symphony Orchestras.
