Andrew Lipke is a highly active artist, producer, songwriter and entertainer in the Philadelphia music scene. Born in South Africa, Lipke showed his musical pr owess at an early age, starting piano lessons at 5 and later teaching himself the guitar. Immigrating to America in 1987, Lipke moved to Philadelphia to earn a degree in music composition from the University of the Arts. He released his fourth album “The Plague” in September of 2011. This song cycle of apocalyptic vignettes ties together meticulously arranged string quartet material and lyrical themes steeped in the reanalysis of religious suppositions and the dissection of destructive dogma—with unabashed love for pop music. In addition to his own music, Lipke is receiving praise in his expanding role as a record producer in his studio, The Record Lounge. He also plays across the country in the renowned Led Zeppelin tribute band Get the Led Out and creates sound design and original music for regional theater productions. Lipke performs his music throughout the Philadelphia region with his band The Prospects and also with The Azrael String Quartet. [Image: Doug Seymour]

The Aizuri Quartet formed in the fall of 2012 as the culmination of years of music-making between its members, from their studies together at The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, to their collaborations at chamber music festivals like Marlboro, Caramoor and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute. The Aizuri Quartet gave its debut performance on the Tertulia Chamber Music series in New York City, and participated in the 2013 Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. Recent projects included a residency at the Scrag Mountain Music Festival in Vermont, performances in New York City, Philadelphia, Memphis and at the ArtsNaples World Festival in Naples, Florida, and a collaboration with award-winning poet Denice Frohman. The Aizuri Quartet is a finalist in the 2014 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition and was recently named string-quartet-in-residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. [Image: Jamie Jung]

Denice Frohman is an award-winning poet, lyricist and educator, whose work explores the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and the “in-betweeness” that exists in us all. She is the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion, 2013 Hispanic Choice Award and 2012 Leeway Transformation Award recipient. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Upworthy, Buzzfeed, The Apiary and more. Her poem “Dear Straight People” went viral and has over 700,000 views on Youtube. She has performed and taught poetry across the country and internationally, and is one half of the award-winning spoken word duo, Sister Outsider. [Image: Richard F. Beaubien]