Aimee Nolte is a jazz pianist/vocalist in the LA area with a YouTube channel that boasts 200K subscribers. She is a highly sought- after educator in the jazz community, having been an instructor for the renowned vocal coach David Braid’s VocalizeU camp in Malibu, a featured artist/clinician/adjudicator at numerous jazz festivals around the country, including Univeristy Of Northern Michigan, Fullerton College, South Plains College, and The Hilton Head Jazz Camp, University of Mary, as well as many online masterclass engagements during the pandemic. Aimee continues to teach clinics and master classes to students who want to learn to scat sing like serious jazz musicians, and players who want to take their improvisation game to the next level.
Devon Gates (bass, vocals) is our young artist-in-residence from Atlanta, Georgia. As a high school student, she studied with Dr. Gordon Vernick, Kevin Bales, and Billy Thornton as part of the Georgia State University Rialto Honors Combo, with which she released the album Playing the Music of Roy Hargrove in 2019. This fall she began college at Harvard University, studying music and the social sciences while pursuing a dual degree with Berklee College of Music in jazz performance. Between these institutions she has been able to study with Linda Oh, Kris Davis, Terri Lynne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, and Vijay Iyer, in addition to performing with artists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater and Tia Fuller. She is also passionate about her role as an arranger and featured performer in the Harvard Opportunes acapella ensemble, and involvement with Berklee’s Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice.