Born September 3rd, 1967 in New York City, guitarist Peter Bernstein has been a part of the jazz scene in New York and abroad since 1989. During that time he has participated in over 60 recordings and numerous festival, concert and club performances with musicians from all generations. As a leader, Peter has made five recordings for the Criss Cross Jazz label. The latest, Heart’s Content, features the all-star rhythm section of Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Bill Stewart. While a student at The New School, Peter met the legendary guitarist Jim Hall, who asked him to participate in his Invitational Concert as part of the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival. The event featured such guitarists as John Scofield and Pat Metheny and was released as a CD by Music Masters. Hall once noted that Peter “…has paid attention to the past as well as the future. He is the most impressive young guitarists I’ve heard. He plays the best of them all for swing, logic, feel and taste.” That same year, Peter was discovered by alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and took part in the first of four recordings with him. He was a regular member of his group throughout the 1990s. “Some people just have it.” Donaldson said. “…most of the time you have to teach someone what to do, but Peter knows it all.” Peter has also played with legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb (Cobb’s Mob), organist Larry Goldings, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Melvin Rhyne, drummer Bill Stewart, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Nicholas Payton, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, and Eric Alexander and performed in North America, Europe and Asia and making numerous television appearances. Peter has taught at the Julliard School, Berklee College of Music, North Texas State University, the New School Jazz Program and the Jazz Conservatory in Amsterdam. Born in 1966 and living in Cologne, Joachim Schoenecker is already – according to music magazine Jazz Podium – one of only a handful of people who have succeeded, with his début CD, in “rising, in just one step, to the level of master guitarist of the modern age of classical jazz”. Since the release of his second CD, “In the Moment”, with an all-star American line-up comprising Chris Potter, Adam Nussbaum and John Goldsby, he has been fêted by the specialist press as one of the most outstanding European jazz guitarists on the scene. Schoenecker’s own compositions have all the makings of classics. And even pieces from the pens of luminaries such as Bill Evans or even Billy Joel become one with the musical vision of this recording artist and his companions. Numerous appearances in German and European jazz clubs and festivals, as well as a raft of guest appearances in various line-ups with internationally renowned musicians are further proof of Joachim Schoenecker’s high-quality talent. Since 1999, he has also been teaching jazz guitar and ensemble playing at the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. With outstanding ease and clarity, Joachim Schoenecker masters even the most difficult passages and fast-paced runs. But his virtuosity, though much lauded by the specialist press, is only one element of his playing. Schoenecker’s remarkable feel for melodic development, harmony and dramaturgical form, his amazingly original instrumental voice and the clear, sometimes melancholy, structures of his compositions will most certainly win over even those listeners who are not aficionados of jazz.