Bev Appleton
As Producing Artistic Director of Haymarket Theatre and Blue Ridge Theatre Festival (BRTF) Bev Appleton has produced and directed over 60 productions, including more than 20 musicals . His Haymarket Theatre won 25 Richmond,Virginia Theatre Critic awards. BRTF has presented shows internationally in Hungary, Romania, England, Scotland and Switzerland.

As an actor, Bev has performed in shows from New York to Nevada and all over Europe. He was an Associate Artist at TheatreVirginia for 9 seasons where he performed in 35 productions. For the past seven years he has worked in Philadelphia and New York performing with the Manhattan Theatre Club, Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre, MUMPuppet Theatre and Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival in productions of Twelfth Night (Feste), The Fantasticks (El Gallo), King Lear (Kent), Sweeney Todd (Judge Turpin), Man of La Mancha (Padre), Proof (Robert), Of Mice and Men (Candy), Wenceslas Square (Men) and Pacific Overtures (Lord Abe/Kanagawa Madam).

As a director he has staged the musicals The Wiz, Shenandoah, The Fantasticks, Cotton Patch Gospel, The Apple Tree, Ain't Misbehavin', Dames At Sea, Annie, How To Succeed In Business . . . among many others.

His film and TV work include supporting roles in six feature films and six made for TV movies including The New World, The Contender, My Name Is Bill W., Iron Jawed Angels and a lead role in the soon to be released feature film The Fields.

Bev was a member of the Virginia Museum Theatre Conservatory, has studied directing and acting in New York with Nikos Psacharopolus and has taught musical theatre classes both privately and on the university level. He created the BRTF Youth Ensemble, a training/performance program for young theatre artists.

In collaboration with Renewal Arts (RA) he has presented performances of Cotton Patch Gospel, The Apple Tree, Wenceslas Square, Two Rooms , Muriel: The World Walked Into Her Heart and portions of his one-man musical theatre journey, Nice Work . . . IF You Can Get It! Bev was one of the founding members of Renewal Arts International and has been on the RA Planning Team since 1998 for the Renewal Arts Forums held in Caux, Switzerland at the Initiatives of Change International Conference Centre. www.bevappleton.com

Rachael Price
Twenty-five year old jazz vocalist Rachael Price has amassed an impressive resume for her age. Born in Australia and raised in Nashville, Price admits she 'has been singing jazz since a small child.' She recalls "jazz hit an inner chord with me at the age of five At seventeen, still in high school, she recorded Dedicated To You, a collection of standards as a tribute to Ella, Doris, Nat King Cole and others. When the singer and actress Kathryn Grayson, of MGM musicals fame, first heard the recording in 2003 she exclaimed it was 'the best young voice I´ve heard, period. No one around can even touch her voice and style– a style all her own.'

After winning many local talent competitions in Tennessee, she was selected as a vocalist by the Grammy Foundation for their National High School Jazz Choir, and went on to become the youngest semi-finalist in both the Montreaux International Jazz Vocal Competition in Europe and the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. While performing in Switzerland she was heard by six-time Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon and her manager. They were so impressed with the 17 year-old that he signed her up, and the touring has been constant ever since.

In her first appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival she received a standing ovation, and the Boston Globe announced 'young vocalist Rachael Price created a small buzz with her work sitting in with the T.S. Monk Sextet.' In 2006 the Los Angeles Times reported that 'she is clearly a talent with extraordinary potential.' Similar rave reviews appeared in newspapers throughout the country as she began touring with her own trio.

During this time, Price completed her degree in jazz studies at the New England Conservatory. It was there that she met the members of Lake Street Dive - a jazz infused pop band that has been recording and touring for the past seven years. Rachael's most recent recording, The Good Hours, is a selection of standards she has been performing live with her trio for the past six years.
www.rachaelprice.net

Daniel Schroeteler
Daniel Schroeteler - Drums, Percussion, Composition.

Daniel performed his first concerts whith his father from the age of five and studied classical drum set and later Jazz with Joop van Erven and Rene Creemers in Arnheim (NL).

He taught at the music conservatories of Arnheim, Mainz and Cologne and gave workshops as a soloist or with bands in Usbekistan, Tadjikistan, Kasachstan, Kirgistan, India, Algeria, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia and studies intensively the traditional music of different cultures. As a musician he travelled extensively in Africa, Europe, the Near East and Russia.

Daniel is today living in Berlin and performing with a wide range of internatioal Bands from the NDR Radio Big Band to Rock, Pop and World Music Ensembles to contemporary Jazz while maintaining and constantly developing his own strong voice on his instrument.

He believes strongly in the words of Ernst Fischer: "Art must show the world as changeable - and help to change it.

Ben Schwendener
Pianist Ben Schwendener has since the late 1980’s been a prolific composer and recording artist, and has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Schwendener, a former student of jazz legends George Russell, Ran Blake, Jimmy Guiffre, Miroslav Vitous and Joe Maneri, represents a unique voice in contemporary creative music and natural music pedagogy, and is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the Longy School of Music and the Rivers School and Conservatory in Weston, Massachusetts. A leading authority on the Lydian Chromatic Concept, Ben is able to explain George Russell’s groundbreaking theory in clear and concise terms, and in an uncompromising way that embraces and encourages each musician’s unique and essential voice as intended by the author. He was recently featured on a Colloquium at Lincoln Center on this subject. Schwendener is also director of as the non-profit arts education organization Gravity Arts.

In addition to performing, teaching and recording his own material, Schwendener has created original works for numerous individuals, ensembles, dance companies, independent film, television and other digital media.

Ben has taught music, directed ensembles participated in and lead numerous inter-disciplinary / cultural / faith dialogues at Caux over the past decade. A member of the SGI Peace, Culture and Education organization, he has worked with and performed in many international Youth Peace Culture Festivals over the past 25 years. Schwendener is dedicated to the ideal of uniting humanity and our planet through cultural dialogue and natural pedagogy. www.benschwendener.com

Uwe Steinmetz
Uwe Steinmetz works as a free-lance composer, saxophonist and lecturer up to and beyond the borders of Europe, including: India, Ethiopia, Korea and the USA. He has so far released 9 CDs in Germany and the USA as a leader and toured with his own music on four continents in over 30 countries. He directs CRESCENDO JAZZ, a global network for Jazz and Christian Spirituality. Uwe firmly believes that "Music unifies mind and soul and brings us closer to truth in ourselves, the world and beyond all things. Music shines a fresh, healing light on our momentary fears and longings, our perishable happiness and unhappiness." www.u-musik.us

Pauline Warjri
Pauline Warjri is a freelance musician from Shillong, Meghalaya, India. She has written for solo piano, voice, choirs, jazz band and other instruments (Western and eastern). She has collaborated with musicians like jazz saxophonist, Uwe Steinmetz (Germany), winner of the European Jazz festival at Getxoa, Spain in 2001 (Best Soloist). Together they recorded the duo album Rootsin Berlin (Gravity Records) during a tour of several German cities in the year 2001. 

She has been to Caux, Switzerland several times from the year 2002 -2006 as a performing artist and to conduct a choral workshop.

She toured Poland, England and Switzerland in the year 2004, with the Shillong Boys Choir from Meghalaya and with her brother, pianist Neil Nongkynrih. They collaborated with one of the UK’s finest string quartets - The Fitzwilliam Quartet at their London concert.

In August 2006, she toured Sri Lanka as trainer and vocal coach with the Shillong Chamber Choir and Neil Nongkynrih, representing India in the celebration of the 6oth Independence Day Celebration.

Pauline founded the Bangalore Chamber Choir in 2005 a truly versatile group whose repertoire ranged from Clapton to Handel and Bach to contemporary music. They performed all over south and north-east India and raised funds for street children in Chennai, poor cancer patients in Vellore and a hospital in Meghalaya.

On her return to Shillong in 2007 Pauline founded the Aroha Choir and the Aroha Childrens Choir besides founding the Aroha Music School. She is engaged in spreading music education to a cross section of people from all over the North-East.

Her Oratorio (the first Khasi Oratorio) - written for choir, strings and indigenous Khasi instruments was premiered in June 2009 (Shillong) in collaboration with one of Germany’s most exciting jazz quartets the U-team. This has put the local performers in touch with their mother tongue as well as being a land mark in the development of Khasi music.