For a preview of their music visit www.glenvelez.com or www.loricotler.com

Glen Velez

Four-time Grammy Award winning master drummer, composer and educator Glen Velez is considered one of the most influential percussionists our time, as well as being responsible for a world-wide resurgence in the popularity of the frame drum.

While Glen draws upon the great drumming traditions of the Middle East, South India and the Mediterranean world (ancient and modern), he plays in a style all his own. Utilizing a vast culmination of complex hand and finger techniques, he creates a symphony of sound and texture from just a single hand held drum. Glen is also an expert in Central Asian Overtone Singing (singing two tones at once). During concerts, he gives his audiences a spontaneous crash course in this style.

Lori Cotler

Lori Cotler's stunning rhythmic adeptness and genre-bending dexterity puts her in a class all her own among contemporary vocalists. Drawing from the highly sophisticated South Indian rare vocal art form known as Konnakol, she can execute with the human voice, vocal maneuvers which do not seem possible in their rhythmic speed and clarity.

Audiences across the globe have been stunned then entranced by her virtuosic artistry and mesmerizing stage presence. Lori is a fearless vocalist who can soar through complex rhythmic syncopations, then in half a moment flow into achingly tender velvet-toned melisma - Jazz chanteuse meets consummate rhythm vocalist meets, conquers and fuses the sound of the urban world.

In August 2008, a video clip of Lori's innovative expressions of Konnakol was selected as 'Top Featured Video' on the Youtube homepage and reached number one on Youtubes 'Top Featured Music Videos.' This wide exposure introduced the mainstream to her 'Experimental World Music' and to a vocal style that many had never heard before.

Prior to her becoming a full-time musician, Lori was a professor of Music Therapy at New School University (NYC) from 2001 - 2006. Lori's expertise in the field of Music Therapy led her to work with such populations as Autism, adolescent/adult psychiatry, AIDS, brain injured, cerebral palsy, learning disabled, foster children and at-risk teens.

Excerpt written by: Carra Sleight