Meridian Arts Ensemble

The Meridian Arts Ensemble consists of five brass players and one percussionist based in New York City. The group has performed in 49 states and internationally, including in Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Romania, Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

The group has released nine critically acclaimed compact discs on the Channel Classics label, and has been credited with changing the face of brass chamber music through innovative repertoire and high-octane performances of works by Frank Zappa, J.S. Bach, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tania Leon, King Crimson, Captain Beefheart, and Jimi Hendrix, and composers such as Mark Applebaum, Milton Babbitt, Alvin Etler, Elliott Carter, Tom Pierson, Stephen Barber, David Sanford, and Elliott Sharp. They perform Renaissance and Baroque music, Afro-Cuban dance styles, South American folk music and more, with MAE members often doing their own arranging.

Career highlights include first prize at the 1990 Concert Artists Guild New York Competition; multiple winner of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Adventurous Programming Award; and a performance at New York's Alice Tully Hall for the 25th Anniversary of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Radio broadcasts include NPR's Weekend Edition (twice), St. Paul Sunday Morning, WDR Jazz Radio (Germany), Dutch National Radio, ORF (Austria), Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe.