EMP Group Live!

After their last sold-out show at Blu, Cleveland’s best jazz artist - as voted on by the Cleveland Music Awards - returns to BLU Jazz+ in the form of a 6 piece group! With each musician pulling from their own personal styles and repertoire, it is guaranteed that there will be a little something for everyone. Come celebrate Evan’s 23rd birthday with this special show! Featuring: Steve Kortyka - Saxophone Bryan Olsheski - Vocals Miles Anderson - Guitar Luca Albano - Piano Thomas Johnston - Bass Evan Palermo - Drums & Percussion Doors: 7:00pm Show: 8:00pm Tickets: $20 General Admission About: Based out of Cleveland Ohio, Steve Kortyka is an accomplished mulit-instrumentalist, composer, educator and full time performer. He is a main member of the Brian Newman Quintet/Quartet, one of NYC's modern working bands and has toured the world working with this group and its dynamic members. Since graduating from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 2004, he has been a full time performer and musical director in a wide variety of different settings including small group, big band and show band acts. Steve can be heard on Grammy Award Winning Albums 'Cheek to Cheek' (2014), 'Tony Bennett Celebrates 90' (2016), 'Love For Sale' (2021), plus much more. After graduating in 1995 from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a Bachelors in Jazz Performance, Bryan Olsheski relocated to London, England for three years. Bryan formed his own band playing original music at many of the popular jazz clubs in London, including The 606 Jazz Club, the Jazz Café and the Bulls Head Barnes. He has shared the stage with some of the most famous names in jazz such as Joe Henderson, Kenny Garrett, Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson, Conrad Herwig, Jack McDuff, Slide Hampton and George Benson. He has also been a featured soloist for the Temptations, The Columbus Jazz Orchestra, Steve Winwood, Vaughn Weister’s Famous Jazz Orchestra, Afro-Rican Jazz Ensemble, The Four Tops and The Spinners. He has also taught as a Visiting Lecturer at Capital University and The Ohio State University. Bryan has 2 solo cd’s to his credit, both featuring Columbus’ own Bobby Floyd on organ and piano. His latest cd, ‘In The Moment’ is available for purchase on Spotify and iTunes. He is a member and frequently performs with the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus. Miles Anderson is a guitarist working predominantly in the Ohio and Michigan areas. Miles has performed with a variety of ensembles dabbling in a myriad of styles ranging from jazz, and funk, to blues, and rock. Miles has performed at many venues between Columbus and Detroit including The Ginger Rabbit, Lucille’s Jazz Lounge, Dick’s Den, Adelaide’s Gin Joint, Barter (Detroit), and more. Miles’s expertise and passion are for jazz which he studied in university, attaining both his bachelor’s (Guitar Studies) and master’s (Jazz Studies) degrees from Bowling Green State University between 2018 and 2026 under the tutelage of Ariel Kasler. Luca Albano was born in Rome, Italy, and started his piano studies there in 2008. Since then, he and his family moved to Rochester, NY, where he spent 9 years studying classical piano with Mrs. Harriet Zimmerman in the pre-collegiate program at the Eastman Community Music School. Now a student at BGSU since 2022, he is majoring in classical piano performance and minoring in jazz studies with Dr. Solungga Liu and Professor Ariel Kasler respectively. Thomas Johnston is an Australian-born multi-instrumentalist and composer. Thomas composes all kinds of works of varying styles and genres for different chamber ensembles, jazz bands, wind ensembles, and orchestral ensembles. He currently is studying music composition and jazz studies at Bowling Green State University. His teachers include Dr. Christopher Dietz, Ariel Kasler, and Aidan Plank. He can often be seen playing out with the EMP group, as well as a sought out music director and pit musician all across Ohio. Evan Michael Palermo is a Cleveland native who is currently a 4th year student at Bowling Green State University. Through the music, Evan has been heard in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Paris, and more. Evan has also had the opportunity to study, create, and perform with some of the best in the craft such as Marvin "Smitty" Smith, John Riley, Ulysses Owens Jr, Stephan Crump, Jacques Lesure, Steve Kortyka, David Bixler, Dan Piccolo, Harrison Roth and many more. Through his 4 years of being a professional musician, Evan has worked freelance for major establishments such as Cedar Point, while continuing to be deeply rooted in the Cleveland and Toledo music scene. Evan can be heard regularly through his projects in the Cleveland theatre scene as a freelance percussionist, the Cleveland rock scene through Rellick, and the Ohio jazz scene through EMP.