ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jess Garland is a Dallas-based singer-songwriter, recording and performing artist. She is a multiinstrumentalist who combines harp and guitar loops to evoke her unique brand of celestial avant-garde pop with ethereal jazz tones. Jess is performing in the 22/23 season of the Elevator Project at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. In October 2022, Jess performed and presented a talk for TEDx titled, Facing the Music: Finding Your Purpose . Jess has opened for Stones Throw Records artist MNDSGN and for Warner Music Group artist Adia Victoria. She performed at the historic The Kessler Theater on June 3, 2022 and sold out a concert at Undermain Theatre on February 19, 2022. In 2021, Jess opened for Jackie Venson and Hayden Pedigo. She has also opened for Gingger Shankar and Madame Gandhi. Jess has performed with The Suffers and with Seratones, and was recently awarded the Local Legend award in Nashville, TN from Wild Turkey’s Creative Director, Matthew McConaughey for keeping music alive in Dallas.
In May 2021, Jess released Harp & Sol, an art film and music composition focusing on environmental racism in Dallas and on Black feminism. Jess co-produced, and composed music for, the film Their Lives Mattered: A Dialogue Honoring Stolen Lives by Dallas Law Enforcement
Jess has partnered with She Shreds Media and was featured in Guitar Girl Magazine and in Kyser Presents Locals. She has worked with guitar brands like D’Addario to seek funding and supplies for Swan Strings. Jess sponsored Deep Ellum 100’s Sounds of Deep Ellum vinyl album to be released on Idol Records. As a recording artist, Jess was featured on the Ataraxia Trio+2’s album Nights Enter released on Ayler Records in March 2021. She was also featured on the title track of Billboard’s Truth to Power project, a local fundraising initiative released on Record Store Day in June 2021. She is the featured harpist on These Machines are Winning‘s Slaves for Gods album, as well as Sunshine Village’s album, The Buffalo Trees Saved the Children of the Sun. Her debut single Glow is out now.
Jess is also the President and Founding Director of Swan Strings and was recently appointed Executive Director at Girls Rock Dallas. She serves on the Board of Directors for Decolonizing the Music Room, Friends of WRR 101.1 FM, and Girls Rock Camp Alliance. She is also on the millennial board at The Black Academy of Arts & Letters, the Auxiliary Board of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and the Arts Council for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Jess is currently participating in the Racial Equity Now Cohort at Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. Follow her on social media at @ jes_jess
ABOUT SWAN STRINGS
Founded in 2019, Swan Strings is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to provide free music education, community concerts and sound therapy services to North Texas individuals without access. For more information or to get involved, visit jessstrings.com/swan-strings and follow on social media at @ swanstrings
Eric Trich is a new media artist based in Dallas, TX and known for his exploration of multiple media. From immersive VR experiences and interactive installations, to painting, animation, and 3D printing, Eric’s work is constantly evolving in pursuit of bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Through layers of input and imagery, his art combines different elements to explore each piece.
With a strong foundation in audiovisual animation, Eric had the honor of collaborating with renowned musicians such as Questlove, Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, Dengue Dengue Dengue!, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, as well as many talented local artists. His work brings visual
narratives to life, seamlessly integrating with live performances and enhancing the music. Eric also owns Pixel Lab, an innovative art space in Deep Ellum that focuses on experimental technology. Stay updated with his latest creations by following him on social media @ et_3d .
James Talambas is a multi-disciplinary new media artist, composer, producer, and activist who creates site-specific, multi-dimensional, multi-sensory sculptures, murals, and performances. Drawing from technology, collaboration, visceral improvisation, and the architectural space of each individual work, he creates art that is personal, emotive, and immersive.
As the owner of New Media Recordings, he is a frequent collaborator, producing pieces for local and international artists including Ellen Fullman, Marina Rosenfeld, Christine Sun Kim, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Dallas Street Choir, Fort Worth Opera, Contemporary Dance Fort Worth, Half Japanese, Mandy Patinkin, Nelly Furtado, N’Dambi, Theodore Bikel, Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, and others.
Talambas is currently Vice Chair of the Fort Worth Arts Commission. He consistently speaks and advocates for the arts and how essential, important, thought-provoking, and diverse working-class artistic voices are to a dynamic, prosperous, and free democratic society. You can find him @Talambas.io.
Brianne Sargent (cellist, bass player, synths/keys, vocals) is the co-leader of Skinny Cooks and plays with Polyphonic Spree, Alejandro Escovedo, Mattie Michelle and many others. She is also a composer, an arranger and a producer. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts from 20022005, graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 2006, and graduated from the Conservatory of Music of Baldwin Wallace University in 2010. From 2014-2018 she was a cellist in the McKinney Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has appeared in multiple articles written by KXT-FM, KERA-FM, the Dallas Observer and Voyage Dallas, and has appeared on PBS for the Austin City Music Hall of Fame Induction in 2022—while sharing the stage with Sheila E—playing cello for Alejandro Escovedo. Her bass playing made it to Billboard’s Truth to Power project with local rapper phenomenon FloZilla, and her cello playing made it to Billboard on the Todd Dulaney song Revelation 4. In 2022 her composition Sunflower for cello and voice was placed in the opening credits of the film Why Women Lie.
Steven Juarez is a passionate musician, determined ensemble leader, music administrator and founding member of the Cézanne Quartet who has studied viola since the age of nine. He has transformed into an ambitious and enthusiastic ensemble musician.
Steven’s musical journey, development and experience is a result of performances with the Cézanne Quartet (2015 Coltman Competition Silver Medalist), the New Conservatory of Dallas (Dallas, New York, Durango, CO, and Riga, Latvia), the Institute for Strings (Dallas, TX), Meadows Symphony Orchestra at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX), the Peabody Symphony Orchestra (Baltimore, MD) and the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute (Washington, DC).
The development of Steven’s musical style is the result of a lifetime of musical influence. He has studied, performed, and collaborated with extraordinarily talented professionals and ensembles such as Arkady Fomin, Andrés Díaz, Matt Albert, Emanuel Borok, Justin Bruns, Rose Armbrust Griffin and the Altius Quartet. Further honing of his talents came from masterclasses with Peter Slowik, Roberto Díaz, Barbara Westphal, Stephanie Chase, Míro Quartet, Escher String Quartet, American String Quartet, and Modigliani Quartet.
Steven studied at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, as well as at Southern Methodist University under the watchful eye of Victoria Chiang and Ellen Rose, respectively. He graduated from the award-winning Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing
and Visual Arts in Dallas where he won the Dallas ISD Concerto Competition, and his chamber quartet won Chamber Music International’s High School Division.
While continuing his studies, Steven lives in Dallas, TX and currently teaches in the Dallas metro area public school systems of Highland Park, Garland, and Mesquite. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, traveling and spending time with his family.
Audra Scott , an award-winning, multi-disciplinary artist, continues the steady ascent of her emerging career.
Audra is a Fort Worth based artist, singer-songwriter, children’s book author, and educator. Audra holds degrees and an artist certificate from Prairie View A&M University, University of Arizona, and Southern Methodist University all with a concentration in vocal performance. After college, Audra joined the Munich-based company New York Harlem Theatre and has performed throughout Europe with the tour of Porgy and Bess for the past ten years. She has performed in opera houses and theaters such as Oper Leipzig, Bremen Theatre, Kölner Philharmonie, Komische Oper Berlin, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Chassé Theater (The Netherlands), Amsterdam RAI, Le Colisée, Opéra de Massey, Nationaltheater Mannheim, and in Toruń, Poland, to name a few. She has also been featured in a concert series entitled Christmas Dreams from America presented throughout Germany. Audra has been presented in recitals throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, Prairie View, Arizona, Minnesota, Utah, Oklahoma, and California. She trained as a young artist with Amarillo Opera, Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, and The Dallas Opera.
Audra’s career has taken a beautiful turn towards jazz, where she has merged her love for jazz and her classical training to present elegant, heartfelt, soul-stirring arrangements of popular spirituals and jazz standards. Audra has had the opportunity to perform personal arrangements and songs on many stages, including Sammons Jazz at the Sammons Arts Center in Dallas, alongside renowned composer and arranger Curtis
Bradshaw. She has also performed at the new Coppell Arts Center in Coppell, Texas.
Geno Young graduated from Dallas’ Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, ground zero for other internationally known artists such as Erykah Badu, Edie Brickell, Norah Jones, and Roy Hargrove. After graduation, he moved on to the next phase of his musical evolution and enrolled in Howard University, where he studied music and further developed the necessary skills and contacts that would enable him to follow in the footsteps of one of the most prolific singer/songwriter/producers of our time, fellow Howard University alumnus Donny Hathaway. With his formal education concluded, Geno toured the world as musical director, arranger, and producer for Erykah Badu. He wrote and produced the hit songs Times a Wastin’ and Orange Moon on her 2001 release Mama’s Gun. In 2004, he released a solo debut album, The Ghetto Symphony
Najeeb Sabour is a New Orleans-born, Texas-raised cellist, singer-songwriter, and certified mindfulness facilitator. Najeeb combines his formal classical and contemporary music education with his diverse cultural experiences to shape his eclectic style of performing and composing sound-healing music. Armed with his cello’s rich resonant tones, he guides participants to a state of deep relaxation and rejuvenation while helping them to release tension and find inner peace.
