Sunrise Quartet is Adam Rudolph’s newest project bringing together key members of his longtime Go: Organic Orchestra to create a new electro-acoustic world music ensemble. The musicians’ experience and familiarity with Rudolph’s creative vision and concepts allows for a kind of focus and freedom in the shaping of the orchestral concept. The alchemy between these artists makes for a music that is unique, deeply rooted, and soulful.

“A pioneer in world music.” – NY Times

Adam Rudolph handrumset, electronic processing, thumb pianos, mouth bow, gongs, percussion
Kaoru Watanabe taiko, Japanese percussion, noh kan and fue flutes, electric koto and processing
Alexis Marcelo piano, electric keyboards, kudu horn, percussion
Stephen Haynes cornets, flugelhorns, trumpet, conch shells, didgeridoos, percussion

For the past four decades composer, improviser, and percussionist Adam Rudolph has performed extensively in concert throughout North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Rudolph has been hailed as “a pioneer in world music” by the NY Times and “a master percussionist” by Musician magazine. He has released over 25 recordings under his own name, featuring his compositions and percussion work. Rudolph composes for his ensembles Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures, Hu: Vibrational percussion group, and Go: Organic Orchestra, an 18 to 54 piece group for which he has developed an original music notation and conducting system. He has taught and conducted hundreds of musicians worldwide in the Go: Organic Orchestra concept. In 1995 Rudolph premiered his opera The Dreamer, based on the text of Friedreich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy.” Rudolph has performed with Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, L. Shankar, A.A.C.M co-founders Fred Anderson and Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, and Omar Sosa. He has toured extensively and recorded 15 albums with Yusef Lateef including duets and their large ensemble compositional collaborations.

Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe‘s work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Silkroad Ensemble, and Rhiannon Giddens. A trained jazz musician, he lived in Japan for a decade, during which time he became the first American to become a performer and artistic director of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo.

Alexis Marcelo is a pianist who creates a soulful New York City sound. He instinctively delivers a sound representative of a wide range of influences. Alexis’s training began when he began studying with JD Parran (AACM) at the Harlem School of the Arts and continued at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he studied composition with Yusef Lateef. Alexis has performed nationally and abroad at various festivals and prestigious venues, including the North Sea Jazz Festival (Yusef Lateef), the Detroit Jazz Festival (Yusef Lateef), Etnafest (Italy-Yusef Lateef), Mediawave Festival (Hungary-The Hub), and Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Alexis has also recorded multiple albums with former professor and mentor Yusef Lateef. Recently, Alexis recorded his first album and can be heard on current recordings of Adam Rudolph’s Go Orchestra & Moving Pictures, and a new recording with Malcolm Mooney (Can). Alexis Marcelo is a very unique pianist who looks to provide a soulful experience.

Stephen Haynes is an improviser, organizer and recording artist.  His practice ranges from small groups to large orchestras with a particular focus on working directly with composers in the development and performance of new music. This aspect of his work is prominently featured on Pillars, Tyshawn Sorey’s groundbreaking work for octet released on Firehouse 12 Records. He is also a founding member of Adam Rudolph’s East Coast version of Go: Organic Orchestra. Haynes’ primary focus – for over a decade – has been the cornet. Over the past 45 years, he has worked with a range of vanguard composers including Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, George Russell, Butch Morris, Rhys Chatham, Gunter Hampel, LaMonte Young and Earle Brown.