Benjamin Portzen [he / him] (b.1998) is a composer, improviser, choreographer, and collaborative movement artist who strives to make space for connection, healing, presence, and absence through immersive sound and movement works. By enabling performers and witnesses to be with time differently – often through alinear, cartographically-constructed scores – Ben offers the opportunity to create and interrogate relationships between bodies, ideas, sounds, and objects across, around, and through time. Ben comingles practices of premeditation and spontaneity, crafting improvised music and movement performances on bespoke software (written in Max/MSP), microtonally-tuned and prepared Fender Rhodes, and the piano, while drawing on his study of Contact Improvisation and Ensemble Thinking.

Ben sees little boundary between artistic and religious practices, freely embracing the ritualism of repetition, and improvisation’s ability to put us in contact with the unknown by grounding oneself completely in the present. At this intersection, Ben explores the liminal space between creativity and destructivity in a process he has found to continually reveal fascinating ways in which art can help us live with greater depth, beauty, and grace.

Ben holds a Bachelor’s of Music from Lawrence University (‘21) where he studied composition with Asha Srinivasan and Joanne Metcalf, piano with Anthony Padilla, improvisation with Matt Turner, and dance with Margaret Paek. As a 2021 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, Ben will spend one year across Japan, Nepal, France, Germany, and Iceland exploring the role art can play in imagining and building a more equitable, sustainable, and compassionate future by embracing our unknowns with more fascination than fear.

Zoe Markle is a creative and multifaceted bassist with an adventurous approach to music-making. She has performed with esteemed improvisational musician Mark Dresser and contributed to two DownBeat award-winning recordings. Her enthusiasm for contemporary classical music has lead her to commission and premiere works by composers such as Joseph Schwantner, Nomi Epstein, Molly Joyce, and John Supko.

As a founding member of Else, If Else, and Inland Ocean, Zoe consistently leaves her imprint on the musical world. She is passionate about co-creation, and has been selected for collaborative residencies at the Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff National Park, Equivalent Behaviour Space in London, and was selected to collaborate with Ensemble Modern at their Young Ensemble Academy.

With a passion for supporting arts organizations and fostering collaboration, Zoe also engages in arts administration. She holds a certificate in arts leadership through the Institute for Music Leadership at the Eastman School of Music.

Zoe holds a Master's degree from the Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Lawrence University. She is eternally grateful to all of her teachers and mentors, especially her primary teachers James VanDemark and Mark Urness.

Nolan Ehlers, Percussion

Nolan Ehlers is a dynamic percussionist whose performances have resonated across international stages, including venues in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Belgium. His passion for contemporary music has led him to commission and premiere groundbreaking works from acclaimed composers such as Michael Gordon, David Fennessy, John Supko, and Molly Joyce. At the core of Nolan's artistic philosophy is the belief that collaboration is the key to unlocking one’s greatest work. This belief is embodied in his co-founding of the avant-garde piano trio Else, if Else, as well as Inland Ocean, an international artistic cooperative focused on interdisciplinary collaboration.

Nolan has appeared as a soloist with the University of Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble. He can be heard on recordings for the José Limón Dance Company and forthcoming records of John Luther Adams’ An Atlas of Deep Time with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra. Recent performances include the premiere of Michael Gordon’s Field of Vision at Bang on a Can’s Loud Weekend, a performance of All Rise with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the premiere of David Fennessy’s Open Ground with Ensemble Modern.

Nolan’s passion for Afrocuban drumming has led to multiple trips to Matanzas, Cuba, where he studied with the acclaimed rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Nolan directed Lawrence University’s Afrocuban ensemble Tambo Toké, and he received a Downbeat Student Music Award for a collaborative performance with the Lawrence University Jazz Band.

Nolan earned degrees from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and Lawrence University. His teachers include Doug Perkins, Ian Antonio, Dane Richeson, Nancy Zeltsman, Jeremy Epp, and Tom Sherwood.