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 Chicago-based percussionist specializing in new music, improvisation, and chamber music. Nolan has performed with Ensemble Modern, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Aiyun Huang, Wynton Marsalis, Beyond This Point, and others. He has premiered works from composers such as Michael Gordon, David Fennessy, John Supko, and Molly Joyce. In May of 2025, Nolan will work with students of Kunstacademie Deinze in Belgium to present collaborative multidisciplinary performances alongside other members of the artist collective Inland Ocean.

Nolan founded Else, if Else, a trio of piano, percussion, and bass, which explores intersections of composed music and improvisation. Else, if Else have contributed to commissioning new repertoire for their instrumentation, and they have been in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Bowling Green State University, and Lawrence University.

Nolan has appeared as a soloist with the University of Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble. He can be heard on John Luther Adams’ An Atlas of Deep Time with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and Eugene Lester’s Psalm for the José Limón Dance Company. Recent performance highlights 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 studied Afro-Cuban drumming with the acclaimed rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. He directed Lawrence University’s Afro-Cuban ensemble Tambo Toké, and he received a 2020 Downbeat Student Music Award for a collaborative performance with the Lawrence University Jazz Band.

Nolan received an M.M. in Percussion Performance and Chamber Music, as well as a Certificate in World Performance Studies, from The University of Michigan (Go Blue!). He received a B.M. in Percussion Performance from Lawrence University. His primary teachers include Doug Perkins, Ian Antonio, Dane Richeson, Nancy Zeltsman, Jeremy Epp, and Tom Sherwood.