MATT WIGLER
  Matt Wigler is a 15-year-old jazz and blues pianist and composer from Baltimore, Maryland. He began playing piano at age 5, and even then revealed his talent for improvisation. At age 8, Matt met a musician at a camp who introduced him to jazz and blues, and that is when he discovered his passion. This gifted, young artist has maturity, skill and versatility well beyond his years.
  Matt has played at festivals throughout the US and Canada, including the Monterey Bay Blues Festival (CA), Beaches International Jazz Festival (Toronto), Telluride Jazz Festival (CO), North Atlantic Blues Festival (ME), Cincy Blues Fest (OH), Motor City Blues and Boogie Woogie Festival (MI), Artscape (MD), Columbia Festival of the Arts (MD), The Birchmere (VA), and the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise (Caribbean).

  Matt’s second CD, Epiphony, was released in July 2009 (Vista Records). With six original compositions, it honors the past and looks to the future with his mature, inventive, and fresh approach. Matt’s debut CD, XIII (Thirteen, Vista Records), was released in June 2007 and received outstanding reviews. Both were produced by Deanna Bogart, two-time Blues Music Award winner and Matt’s mentor.

  Matt has appeared with many notables including Buckwheat Zydeco, Deanna Bogart, Marcia Ball, Tommy Castro, Bobby Rush, Tab Benoit, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, and Bob Seeley.Matt has also opened for blues guitar greats Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa.

  Matt will be featured in a documentary on blues pianists that will be broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. He has also been interviewed on several radio and TV programs.

  For more information, see www.mattwigler.com. Matt’s CDs are available at www.vistarecords.net, CD Baby and iTunes.

Down Beat magazine describes DEANNA BOGART as "an extravagant entertainer"-- and entertain is what Bogart does best. The Maryland-based blues and boogie pianist / saxophonist combines the energy of 1930's style boogie piano blues with contemporary blues sounds emanating from places like New Orleans, Chicago and Memphis. "The goal when we play live," says Bogart, "is to create a fusion of all these different musical styles with the blues and boogie genuinely at the core."

  Bogart began to develop her unique style as a sideplayer in Cowboy Jazz, a Maryland-based group that dedicated itself to the sound of 1940's western swing music. She joined the group at age 21 as vocalist and spent several years learning and playing the cowboy rhythms that are central to western swing. As her musical appetite grew she spent nearly two years playing R&B with the Washington D.C.-based Root Boy Slim.

  Bogart combined these disparate influences in her own original compositions that blend elements of boogie music with modern jazz and rock. After getting her own band off the ground in 1988, she began playing throughout the mid-Atlantic region and the West Coast, slowly building a following and a reputation. After hundreds of live shows, Bogart made her recording debut in 1989.

  Bogart still loves performing live with her band. Musicians play for "one of those nights." For me, that means the moment I'm at the place where all past and present, pain and joy, meet as one. For lack of a better term, I call it "Deannaland," it's a place that both audiences and other artists never tire of visiting along with her.

  Beyond all the superlatives, The Washington Post may have best described Deanna Bogart with three words: Luster, Sophistication, and Soul. This is a one-of-a-kind artist, whose music veers from the depths of the blues to the playful heights of swing, from the subtleties of jazz to the hard-won grit of soul.