QuArts Trio
QuArts Trio creates groovy and melodic music through the use of composition as well as improvisation. They are equally rooted in the rock, blues and jazz traditions; and give these styles new life through their own unique approaches.
The three band members started their collaboration at a relatively young age in Biel (a small town in Swizterland). As their careers started to grow they also started to move away from their hometown, and even still, they keep on performing together and have been able to fuse their variegated experiences in their music.
Pino Zortea was born in 1995 in Biel. At the age of eight he started taking weekly classical piano lessons with Barbara Widmer. After three years he changed instrument and from then on went to bass lessons with Uli Heinzler. In 2010 Pino got admitted to the Kunst&Sport Gymnasium Rämibühl, and so he started his studies for jazz music at the ZHdK parallel to the gymnasium. He enjoyed a wide musical education at an early age, having lessons in Jazz piano, solfège, rhythm, composition, music history and bass. He won different prizes such as scholarships from the Swiss Jazz School or the FHNW. Since 2008 Pino has been playing in different bands of wide stylistic varieties. At the moment he composes and plays music for his Jazz Quartet with Max Treutner, Marton Juhasz and Joscha Schraff. He is active in different formations such as the Trio with Jessie Cox and Anatole Buccella; the Trio with Basti Bättig and Michael Süess; the Band Ritmo Amarelo with Rotraut Jäger, Freddy Benitez and Immanuel Witschi; the Trio Imaginaire with Anatole Buccella and Samir Böhringer; the Jazz Quartet with Felix Grandjean, Mänu Siders und Michael Cina; the Kira Linn Trio; the Band of Singer-songwriter Tim Hüllstung; the Band of the raper Arbajo Jairus and in the project Melodiesinfonie & Band. In Spring 2015 Pino graduated from the gymnasium and only one year later he did his Bachelor at the ZHdK. Since than he already went three times to NYC for several months where he took lessons with Ben Williams, Yasushi Nakamura and Tim Hagans, under who he composed three suites. Also he played sessions there together with Marcus Strickland, Kurt Rosenwinkel or Camille Jone, and went to hear numerous great live concerts. At the moment Pino is doing his master degree in music education at the Jazz campus in Basel where he is lucky to study with Larry Grenadier, Jorge Rossy, Guillermo Klein and many more
Jessie Cox
Jessie Cox is, a composer, drummer, educator and music theorist, currently in pursuit of his Doctorate Degree at Columbia University. He has written over 100 works for various musical ensembles including electroacoustic works, solo works, chamber- and orchestral works, works for jazz ensembles and choirs; for performers such as JACK Quartet, Claire Chase, String Noise, ICE, Rebekah Heller, Vasko Dukovski, Either/Or Ensemble, etc.
As a performer he has played in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the USA; with musicians from all over the world including Roman Filiu, Julian Shore, Mark Wade, Maher Beauroy, Weston Olencki, etc. Jessie has played at the Accra Jazz Festival and the Martinique Jazz Festival with the Maher Beauroy Trio, Rhythm and Thought Festival with High Key People, has been performed at NUNC3 at Northwestern University, New Music Gathering, Bang on a Can Music Series, Roulette Interpretation Series, OpenICE Library Festival at Lincoln Center, and won the Leroy Souther’s Award (2015) and the Bill Maloof Award (2017) for his compositions. He was a finalist in the international composition competition ALEA III with his piece Earth for two Bassoons, and two of his compositions have been selected to be featured regularly on the NPR WGBH.
Jessie Cox graduated from the Berklee College of Music on scholarship in 2017, with a degree in composition.
Born in 1993 in Biel (CH), Anatole started to play guitar when he was 10 years old. He played regularly in several formations since he's able to hold a rif and take solos. Moving around diferent styles from rock to funk, he fnally lands to jazz and started exploring new sounds and forms. At the age of 18, he started the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, and graduated three years after. On June 2016 he graduated from an international Performance Master called Nordic Jazz Master: a study program spread over three diferent countries of Scandinavia namely: Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Since now 2 years, Anatole is living in Zürich and keep on playing regularly in several formations around Europe.
