PAD ARTIST ROSTER

Performing Arts Discovery Showcase: artists ready to tour.

Online Showcases

2025 PAD SHOWCASE ARTISTS

Kiran Ahluwalia

Details
BIRCKHEAD

Details
Christal Brown / INSPIRIT

Details
DuPont Brass

Details
Dan Froot & Company

Details
Ize Trio

Details
La Mezcla

Details
Quetzal

Details
Roopa in Flux

Details
Sounds of April & Randall

Details
Versa-Style Street Dance Company

Details

2023 ARTISTS

2022 ARTISTS

2024 ARTISTS

2025 ONLINE SHOWCASE

This year’s cohort of eleven (11) artists/ensembles received support from our expert video production team to create a professionally-produced live performance video. The showcase videos are promoted to international markets through the PAD program’s Online Showcase Video Gallery.

VIDEO GALLERY

Follow the link below to view 15-minute videos from the sixty-four artists of the PAD Showcase’s 2022, 2023, and 2024 cohorts.

COMING SOON… The 2025 cohort’s showcase videos will be added this summer, as they are completed.

Artist Showcase Videos

Introducing the 2025 PAD Showcase Artists!

Kiran Ahluwalia

Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern exponent of the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan which she honors yet departs from in masterful, personal ways. Her original compositions embody the essence of Indian music while embracing the nuances of Blues and Jazz. A discography now eight albums deep has featured collaborations with legendary Malian group Tinariwen, Celtic fiddler Natalie MacMaster and fado masters from Portugal. Kiran has garnered two JUNO Awards, two Canadian Folk Awards, the UK’s Songlines Award and peak rankings on North American and European World Music charts. The Seattle Times says, “Ahluwalia is busy honing a transnational sound as fresh as tomorrow”.

Image credit: Ryan Buchanan

BIRCKHEAD

Saxophonist Brent Birckhead, a Baltimore native, is an award-winning artist whose aesthetic is an intersectional amalgam of traditional and popular styles. Educated at Howard University (BME, MM), he has performed with legends like Lauryn Hill, Nas, SWV and Wale. Birckhead released his debut album in 2019 and followed up with "Cacao" in April 2024, a record exploring themes of self-reclamation and societal reflection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently teaching at Baltimore School of the Arts and Morgan State University, Birckhead continues to push the boundaries of jazz and contemporary music.

Image credit: Kirby Griffin

Christal Brown / INSPIRIT

Christal Brown (Mother|Artist|Educator|Disciple|Coach|Author) is the Founder of INSPIRIT, Project: BECOMING, the creator of the Liquid Strength training module for dance, a Full Professor of Dance and Twilight Artist in Residence at Middlebury College. Brown is a native of Kinston, North Carolina, where she remembers accompanying her mother to NAACP meetings and performing at Black Caucus rallies. This early exposure to social responsibility innately produced a strong desire in her to put her gifts to work for the greater good. Brown’s evolution combines her creativity, educational gifts and love for people into dynamic art for all people.

Image credit: Jordan Saint

DuPont Brass

This vibrant ten-piece ensemble from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area, originated from the musical halls of Howard University. Their captivating blend of genres, which they aptly term “Eclectic Soul,” seamlessly weaves together jazz, hip-hop, and R&B influences, leaving audiences spellbound. Embodying the spirit of unfiltered soul, DuPont Brass channels the groove of The Roots, the energy of Earth, Wind & Fire, and the emotive essence of your favorite R&B and Hip-Hop icons. Live shows are an immersive experience, transcending musical boundaries and igniting a passion for their artistry. Their commitment to music education is equally impactful, as they conduct masterclasses and performances for students ranging from elementary school to college, inspiring the next generation of musicians, and acclaimed albums, “Music Education” and “Professional Development”.

Image credit: Dominic Green

Dan Froot & Company

Dan Froot & Company is a Los Angeles-based performance ensemble, dedicated to fostering community dialogue through socially engaged theater. Bessie Award-winning artistic director Dan Froot collaborates with some of LA’s most in-demand actors and musicians to devise original puppet theater, radio plays, site-specific performances, and podcast series. Their recent work has been commissioned by the National Performance Network and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, and was honored with a National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant from New England Foundation for the Arts, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles Country Department of Arts and Cultures, and UCLA’s Arts Initiative.

Image credit: Rose Eichenbaum

Ize Trio

Ize Trio is a multi-cultural music ensemble focused on combining the American art form of Jazz with Middle Eastern traditions. We collaborate and perform in order to create a more inclusive vision for musical communities and to raise awareness for immigrant rights. Through our different backgrounds and cultural traditions, we write original music and tell musical stories that are important in opening positive dialogue about the relationship between the US and the Middle East. We seek to inspire musicians to add their cultural roots to the Jazz tradition and display how music can be a bridge to understanding and connection.

Image credit: Nancy Ingersoll

La Mezcla

La Mezcla is a polyrhythmic, San Francisco-based dance and music ensemble rooted in Chicana, Latina and Indigenous traditions and social justice. Founded in 2015 by Dance/USA artist fellow Vanessa Sanchez, their work brings together Tap dance, Son Jarocho and Afro-Caribbean rhythms to bring the often unseen histories and experiences of communities of color to stages, streets and fields. Their work has toured internationally to venues including Jacob’s Pillow, the Lincoln Center and Festival Cervantino in Mexico, and has been featured in Dance Magazine and NEA’s American Artscape Magazine.

Image credit: Dominique Washington

Quetzal

QUETZAL is a relentlessly innovative Grammy award winning ensemble that narrates the social, cultural, political, and musical stories of humanity. Dr. Martha Gonzalez (lead singer, percussionist, and songwriter) calls it an “East LA Chican@ Rock group,” summing up its rootedness in the complex cultural currents of life in the barrio, its social activism, its strong feminist stance, and its Rock & Roll and Mexican traditional musical beginnings. The band’s live shows are filled with moments of tenderness, fervor and storytelling that transports the audience into themselves and each other. From lush ballads to barn burning Jarocho Rock songs with unstoppable zapateado(foot stomping) Quetzal has graced stages across the US, Canada and Mexico for over 30 years.

Image credit: Rafa Cardenas

Roopa in Flux

Hailed “a stirring voice” by the New York Times, Roopa is a leading second-generation Indian classical and crossover vocalist in the American diaspora. Her signature project, Roopa in Flux, and collaborations in jazz, R&B/soul, free improv, and dance/theater have taken her to venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, MET Museum, Carnegie Hall, SFJazz, Jacob’s Pillow, Sadler’s Wells, and more.

Roopa trained in Carnatic (South Indian) vocals under Asha Ramesh and later Suguna Varadachari as a Fulbright scholar. She was a soloist in Grammy-winning Album Calling All Dawns, by Christopher Tin and has collaborated with numerous top artists, e.g., Wynton Marsalis (jazz), Mythili Prakash (dance), Misha Chowdhury (theater), and Arto Lindsay (rock). Roopa has also been selected for residencies such as Joe’s Pub, Banff Center for Arts/Creativity, Hedgebrook, and Ryder Farm.

Image credit: Ram Keshav

Sounds of April & Randall

Named “Best Jazz Group” at the New York City Reader’s Jazz Awards, BILLBOARD charting Sounds of A&R, aka S.O.A.R., is the brainchild of vocalist April May Webb, winner of the 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, and trumpeter Randall Haywood, voted “Male Rising Star” at The Hot House and Jazzmobile NYC Reader’s Jazz Award. Partners in music and life, April and Randall have come together to create a distinct sound. In 2023, S.O.A.R. was appointed United States Cultural Ambassadors as part of the American Music Abroad program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. As ambassadors, Sounds of A&R toured Fiji and Tonga, performing and presenting educational workshops at performing arts centers, schools and universities. In 2025, their original composition “Everybody Ain’t Gonna Like You” was chosen for the gold award in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest vocal jazz-blues category.

Image credit: Julianne Karr

Versa-Style Street Dance Company

Founded in 2005 by Los Angeles natives and co-artistic directors Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez and Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad, Versa-Style Street Dance Company was created to promote, empower and celebrate the artistry of Hip Hop and street dance culture. Named “Los Angeles’ Best Dance Troupe for Hip Hop Empowerment” by LA Weekly, Versa-Style is recognized for its electrifying engagement activities for schools and local communities. Consisting of committed, highly skilled street dance artists and educators representative of the diversity and beautiful complexity of Los Angeles, Versa-Style Street Dance Company harnesses the exhilarating energy of street dance onto the concert stage for an unforgettable evening of dance.

Image credit: Timothy Salaz - Randm Vision Photography

2024 PAD SHOWCASE ARTISTS

10 artists/ensembles were selected for the 2023 - 24 PAD Showcase program cycle. View their 15-minute showcase videos and learn more about their work.