Meet the Orchestra
As a composer Bruce has been featured in The Chicago Composers Collective series at The Green Mill and The Jazz Institute of Chicago NextGen Jazz Series, and several of his compositions and arrangements have been published in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine. His works have been performed locally by The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and The Brad Wagner Nonet as well as a number of college ensembles, and he recently received an Individual Excellence Award in Music Composition from the Ohio Arts Council.
Bruce is currently on faculty at Youngstown State University and Cuyahoga Community College.
“…a generous, accessible sound with an exploratory edge, Bruce brings a finely-polished technique that is at the same time subtly discontent, searching for new expressions and willing to take some chances along the way.”
-Troy Dostert, allaboutjazz.com
Chris has performed with many local and international jazz musicians such as, Eddie Baccus Sr., Melvin Burks, Kenny Davis, Glenn Holmes, Bill Ransom, and Cecil Rucker, Grammy Award winner Slide Hampton, Ralph Lalama, and Allen Vizzutti. In 2010 Coles was accepted to perform in Italy with the Ohio Youth Jazz Orchestra. In Italy, Coles performed with Wessell Anderson, lead alto saxophonist for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Some of Chris’s recent accomplishments include being a participant at The Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative music in Alberta, Canada. Chris had the distinct honor of studying with some of the great pioneers in jazz today such as Vijay Iyer, Mark Turner, Imani Izuri, Tia Fuller, Billy Hart, Ingrid Jensen, Zakir Hussain, Somi, Vosany Terry, and Miles Okazaki to name a few. Chris also played at the North American Saxophone Alliance Regional Festival in West Virginia with the Dana Saxophone quartet, performing at the International Saxophone Symposium in Washington D.C., and premiering a commissioned work by John Hollenbeck at the Whitney Art Museum Composers Workshop. Coles also recorded this work on John Hollenbeck’s album Rainbow Jimmies released in 2009. Visit http://www.christophercolesmusic.com.


As an educator Aidan serves as the jazz bass instructor at Kent State University and at Cuyahoga County Community College’s “Jazz Prep Program”. Aidan has also served as a clinician and adjudicator at the Maplerock Jazz Festival (2016) at Ashland University and at the Lakeland Jazz Festival at Lakeland Jazz Festival (2018) at Lakeland Community College.
Performance highlights include performances with: Dan Wall, Joe Lovano, David Berkman, Tim Armacost, Tierney Sutton, Vanessa Rubin, Gerald Clayton, John Fedchock, Bill Dobbins, Bruce Johnstone, Joe Maneri, Steve Davis, Robin Eubanks, Jamey Haddad, Michael Philip Mossman, Carl Allen, Randall Woolf, and others.
Aidan has performed at Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, The Knitting Factory (NYC), Spectrum NYC, Elastic Arts (Chicago).
Aidan is a graduate of Cleveland State University.