Chris Bakriges is a Detroit born pianist, composer, arranger, and producer living in Vermont. Chris uses life’s beauty in the face of human hardship to influence his music. The resulting music presents a roller coaster of emotions, tempestuous, contemplative, lyrical and thrilling. His ethnomusicology background allows him to incorporate a wide range of influences, from jazz, global, blues, to chamber orientation. Bakriges released two CDs last year and has been performing nationally and internationally since 1992. Chris and leads the Clear and Present Ensemble and the Matisse Jazz Project. All About Jazz says, The evocative Clear and Present remains infectious, intimate, and sometimes explosive.” Global Jazz Media states, “feast your senses upon some of the most wonderfully written and robust music that seems expressly created to fire up the imagination.”