With a career spanning over 50 years, Hank Roberts has performed at prestigious venues worldwide alongside celebrated artists such as Bill Frisell, Petra Haden, Rudy Royston, Aurora Nealand, Tim Berne, Gordon Grdina, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, as well as with the Hank Roberts Sextet and the Italian-based group "Pipe Dream." His extensive discography includes more than a dozen albums as a leader, and his album Green (featuring Jim Black and Marc Ducret) won the 2008 German Recording Critics’ Award in the Jazz category. Roberts was also named “Rising Star” in the Miscellaneous Instrument (cello) category in Downbeat Magazine’s 2022 Critics' Awards.

Drummer Ashley Ickes brings a highly developed sense of rhythmic complexity, stylistic diversity, and excitement to every group she performs with, including regional favorites like the funk band The Comb Down and the hip hop group Felix Free & the Rxcketeers. Since her arrival in 2016, she has been a vibrant central figure in the Ithaca music scene.

Pianist Chad Lieberman, influenced by traditional Cuban music and the University of Miami’s renowned Jazz program, studied music composition and electronic music at Ithaca College. He has performed both locally and internationally and is a founding member of the MAQ ensemble and the Strong Maybe experimental music trio.

What the writers are saying

“Roberts’s approach to the cello is a treasure to be cherished… ‘has long been a master at shaping the envelope of his sound to tell organic stories”

— Gary Chapin - Free Jazz Collective