Mitch Treger
Mitch Treger is a songwriter, performer, and instrumentalist who creates wide-ranging & well-crafted songs, spanning musical influences from 1970s to 90s grooves to present pop-rock, alternative, contemporary, Americana, folk, rock & jazz-inspired works. Treger's eclectic music varies from uplifting and humorous to bluesy and experimental.
Treger started writing songs and performing them for friends, family, and strangers at the age of four, and has thrived on doing that ever since: continuing such endeavors thru a former career as a civil rights litigator and as a self-practiced music therapist -- following a traumatic brain injury, after falling from a skateboard and spending many weeks listening to music while in a post-craniotomy coma.
Mitch, along with former band -- The Emptys (several members of whom are also current bandmates & ACCOMPLICES) -- has entertained countless audiences around the world, sharing the stage with The Ramones, Little Feat, MOE, Hootie & the Blowfish, Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jewel, Edwin McCain, The Toadies, Carbon Leaf, Spin Doctors (Chris Barron) and others.
Treger’s songs are featured in various TV, audio, film, and other media, including the AWARE II Compilation released by Aware Records, and the soundtrack for Curb Distrubition/Lunacy Productions Film, "Nice Guys Sleep Alone" where Treger’s song is featured alongside Lyle Lovett’s.
Leland Nakamura
Leland Nakamura is a freestyle drummer/percussionist who has performed with a variety of groups and artists, having toured in South America, Europe, and extensively throughout North America.
Trained in jazz drumming, his career has included an eclectic mix of different styles of music, ranging from original jazz compositions by the Peter Fraize Quintet, the Rob Holmes Quintet, the Dan Leonard Trio, and the Dan Lamaestra Trio, to the Indian infused jazz of Humayun Khan and the Broto Roy Quintet.
He was a member of the original rock bands The Emptys, The Max Fisher Band, The Doug Segree Band & Shane Hines & the Trance & has performed with the National Chamber Ensemble and the Fresno Philharmonic.
Leland has also recorded on a variety of projects both as a member of the above and as a freelance studio musician. Some studio highlights include tracks for the rock band Vertical Horizon on their album “Running on Ice”, as well as soundtrack sessions for the ABC television series “City Kids”.
In addition, Leland has 20 years of teaching experience & has had several students who have gone on to become professional musicians. Leland attended the University of Miami where he received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies.
Oliver Unger
Oliver Unger is an up-and-coming Baltimore-based musician who at just 16 has had the opportunity to work with such accomplished musicians as Carl Flipiak, Noah Pierre, Tony Hancock, Amanda Lynne, Mitch Treger, Too Much Talent, Bachelor Boys Band, Kraig Greff, Conor and the Wildhunt. He is versed in Jazz, Funk, R&B, Soul, Rock, Pop, etc.
Oliver released his first album, Broken Staircase which entirely consists of Solo Bass Music, and is currently working with his musical peer Sebastian Stinnett on a new album with their group Japan By Him. You can find Oliver’s solo bass album and Japan By Him’s albums on all streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify etc.
Charles Simon
Charles Simon is one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most talented guitarists. From a young age, Charles has been immersed in a life of musical pursuit. Over the years, Charles has studied with Carl Filipiak, Dave Jacobson & he has attended extensive learning sessions & workshops hosted by Victor Wooten, Guthrie Govan & other musical mentors who’ve inspired Charles’ work.
Charles’ passion for music took him to the Berklee College of Music, where he continued his studies under distinguished professors. After returning to Baltimore in 2006, Charles began performing and teaching professionally.
Charles has extensive performance experience, having played all over the East Coast as a guitarist and bassist in several different bands covering many different styles of music. And, for over a decade, Charles has taught hundreds of students, thousands of lessons and has had many students go on to pursue their own musical careers.
Doug Derryberry
Doug Derryberry is a highly accomplished musician, producer, engineer & composer. After a childhood rich in musical experiences, while at college in DC, Doug met and befriended John Alagia & they formed a band, Derryberry & Alagia, and pursued all sorts of musical projects as a team from that point forward.
In addition to producing & releasing 3 CDs of their own band, they worked in the studio with tons of other bands including Ben Folds Five, Edwin McCain, Everything, Earth to Andy, Jackopierce, John Mayer, HeyDevils, The Emptys, Agents of Good Roots, Vertical Horizon, Dave Matthews Band, MOE, Keller Williams & many, many more.
In early 1998 Doug was hired by Bruce Hornsby as a member of Bruce’s band, The Noisemakers, with whom he toured and recorded for over a decade. During this time, he had occasions to share the stage with Eric Clapton & other iconic artists. Following his stint with Hornsby’s Noisemakers, Doug began performing with & serving as a musical director for Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20).
Currently, Doug lives in New York City where he regularly produces, engineers, mixes, and/or plays on albums, plays live gigs, and creates original music for films and tv commercials.
While in NYC, Doug has performed in and mixed soundtracks for various broadway musicals including Matilda, Beautiful (the Carol King Story), Moulin Rouge and he served as musical director for the long-standing musical/revue, Smoky Joe’s Cafe.
Additionally, while in NYC, Doug has been an ongoing composer, musician and producer of songs for the universally-known children’s education program, “Sesame Street”.
Peter Fraize
Peter Fraize, known for his impassioned high-energy playing, intricate, melodic, and “no-boundaries" sensibility, draws from deep within the jazz tradition, exploratory free improvisation, modern rock and pop, and music from around the world.
Based in D.C., Fraize has performed extensively in Peru, Japan, the U.K., and Europe. He also toured the UK in 2016 & 2017, appearing at the Love Supreme Festival.
Fraize attended the New England Conservatory of Music & the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands, where he studied with noted Dutch saxophonist Leo van Oostrom & with the late tenor legend Sal Nistico.
Fraize has worked with numerous bands, including the avant-garde Waterland Ensemble, his jazz/rock group, Stickman, which enjoyed a large following and was featured on the main stage at Pittsburgh's Mellon Jazz Festival.
Peter’s acclaimed & award-winning recordings include the albums “Third Attention”, “Organic Matter”, and “Facts and Figures” among many others. Throughout his career, Peter has been involved with a wide array of projects.
For ten years he toured and recorded with Treger, Derryberry & Nakamura in The Emptys; and since 1997, he has been a member of the Greg Hatza ORGANization, with whom he performed at the Blue Note in Fukuoka, Japan.
In 2002 Peter joined the Larry Brown Quintet, whose “Hard Bop Cafe” won the 2007 Washington Area Music Association’s Wammie Award for Best Jazz Recording. In that period, Peter recorded & released three albums with noted Italian trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini, the latest of which is “Post-Deconstruction Redux.”
Peter has also performed and recorded with jazz vocalist Sharón Clark, the Brazilian Jazz group Origem & DC punk rock legends the Holy Rollers, among many others.
In addition to ACCOMPLICES, Peter also currently plays with Bold Deceivers, a DC-based roots/Americana band in which he plays accordion, melodica, & penny whistle, in addition to sax.
Peter is a highly regarded music educator. He has been on the music faculty at the George Washington University since 1994, where he serves as Director of Jazz Studies. He teaches saxophone, jazz harmony, coaches the Advanced Combo and Latin Band, and produces the annual GW Jazz Festival.
Steve “Z-Man” Zerlin
Steve “Z-Man” Zerlin is a brilliant & versatile electric & acoustic bassist, fluent in Jazz, Rock, Pop, Funk, Soul, R&B, Latin/ Latin Jazz, Brazilian, African, Indian, Russian, Reggae and other styles.
Zerlin began playing the bass, trumpet & piano in the late 1960s at the age of 12. Thru high school, he played steadily in ‘60s rock, R&B, jazz and big bands.
After high school, he attended Berklee College of Music in 1972.
Steve has toured extensively throughout the U.S., North & South America, Europe, India, Fiji and performed and/or recorded with many top artists including Mike Stern, Dennis Chambers, Jerry Garcia w/Sanjay Mishra, Victor Wooten, Dave Liebman, Jack DeJohnette, Paul McCandless, Tom Canning, Paul Bollenback, Jeff Coffin, Carl Filipiak, Terrence Disley, Vinny Valetino, Jessica Williams, Sandip Burman, Dan Leonard, Bruce Guttridge, Ken Navarro, Fred Hughes, Peter Fraize, Ed DeGenaro, Broto Roy, John MacKay, Fred Pena, Sean Rickman, Marshall Keys, Keith Kilgo & Tim Eyerman.
Additionally, Zerlin produced his own album, "Still Life" (engineered by Bruce Guttridge) and engineered, produced, and played on Dan Leonard’s “Middle Path”.
Steve has also performed with pop artists, Kenny Loggins, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Platters & The Marvelettes and he is also a mainstay of the band ‘Facing East’ w/John Wubbenhurst -- featuring renowned Carnatic percussionists T. H. Subhash Chandran on ghatam and Ganesh kumar on kanjira.
As noted above, Zerlin appears on countless recordings worldwide, including alongside the late Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead (on Sanjay Mishra’s album “Blue Incantation”).
Zerlin’s unique style and abilities have won him laurels in several major Jazz magazines, and over the past 30 years, has become well known in the DC/Mid-Atlantic region and across the nation as working with some of the finest musicians.
Throughout his life, Zerlin has served as a devoted music educator, teaching private lessons, conducting clinics, and lecturing on electric and acoustic bass, and music theory. In this regard, Zerlin also worked as an instructor for six years at SAM (Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in South India).
Oliver Unger is an up and coming Baltimore based musician who at just 16 has had the opportunity to work with such accomplished musicians as Carl Flipiak, Noah Pierre, Tony Hancock, Amanda Lynne, Mitch Treger, Too Much Talent, Bachelor Boys Band, Kraig Greff, Conor, and the Wildhunt.
He is versed in Jazz, Funk, R&B, Soul, Rock, Pop, et cetera.
Oliver released his first album, Broken Staircase, which consists entirely of Solo Bass Music; and is currently working with his musical peer, Sebastian Stinnett, on a new album with their group Japan By Him.
You can find Oliver’s solo bass album and Japan By Him’s albums on all streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify, to name a few.
Andrew Young
Andrew Young is a musician and educator in the Baltimore/Washington area.
Andrew currently teaches applied drum set studies at Howard Community College, sits on the visual and performing arts faculty at The Catholic High School of Baltimore, and is an instructor at Stages Music Arts in Hunt Valley, MD.
Starting music at an early age, he was born and raised in Baltimore and holds a Bachelor of Music from Towson University.
An incredibly adaptable musician, Andrew performs a wide variety of music and has performed all over the United States.
Over the years he has performed alongside musicians Drew Gress, Tim Berne, Tony Malaby, Sarah Hughes, Jeff Reed, John Dierker, Derrick Michaels, and Dave Ballou to name a few.
Young can be heard on countless recordings and is a featured musician and composer on the record "Fibril" by Tim Houston (2020) and "Ginger's Palace" by Ginger's Palace (2021). Some of his recent performances and recordings can be found on his YouTube.
Chris Young
Chris Young is a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and educator living in Baltimore, Maryland.
An active sideman and leader, Chris can be heard across the Mid-Atlantic region in a wide variety of acts and regularly performs with Impressions, Mitch Treger & Accomplices, and The Screaming Art Large Ensemble (in addition to his own quartet).
He has shared the stage with well-known artists such as Drew Gress, Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, Carl Filipiak, and Matt Wilson.
A graduate of Towson University’s jazz program, Chris studied under Dave Ballou, Jason Rigby, Jim McFalls, and Frank Russo.
Chris is passionate about sharing his love for music and maintains a busy private woodwind studio as well as being a full-time faculty member at Maryvale Preparatory School.
Andrew Shenker
Accomplice of words/production
SOPHIA BRYTER
Sophia Paffenback is a sixteen-year-old aspiring singer, songwriter, and pianist from the Baltimore area. Sophia began the foundation of her classical education singing in the Peabody Children’s Chorus at the age of five. Since the year following - she has had private classical piano lessons with two acclaimed instructors.
She has also studied voice under the Peabody Pedagogy program and continues with private voice instruction today.
In 2020, Sophia began performing on vocals and keyboard with the Stages Music Arts’ All-Access All-star Band where she has been able to play with other accomplished musicians in a variety of venues.
Sophia is currently working on the release of her debut album with co-writers/musicians: Morgan Gonce, Oliver Unger, and Andrew Young. Sophia is proving to be a mature songwriter, weaving her classical influences with the vibe of other sophisticated pop artists such as Fiona Apple, Bjork, Jeff Buckley, St. Vincent, Nick Drake, David Bowie, Florence And The Machine, etc. Her first single, “Paranoid”, is now available on all streaming services under the name Sophia Bryter.
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/sophiabryter/paranoid