Sue Orfield is an award-winning tenor saxophonist, composer and educator who tours internationally and has recorded on hundreds of albums. She makes her home in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin and leads her own blues and bluegrass groups. She is a longtime member of The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums and hosted her own TV show, The Sue Orfield Show.
Tyler Lustek is a jazz pianist, composer, and educator from Eau Claire, WI. As a bandleader, Tyler fronts the Tyler Lustek Confluence, which recently recorded its poetry-centric debut album Shmehara: Live at Jazz Central Studios (slated for release in summer 2025). In addition to leading a competitive lessons studio, Tyler serves on the UW Eau Claire jazz faculty, directs educational programs for the Clearwater Jazz & Art Festival, and offers jazz improvisation workshops and masterclasses to schools across the Chippewa Valley.
After completing his undergraduate studies in music education at UW-Madison (B.M. 2020), Tyler earned his graduate degree in jazz studies at Northern Illinois University (M.M. 2022). While at NIU, Tyler held the esteemed jazz piano graduate teaching assistantship, and performed and recorded with the nationally-acclaimed NIU Jazztet graduate ensemble. Tyler also played piano for the Noah Brooks Coalition, which released its debut album, In the Night, in September 2021. In his final semester at NIU, Tyler received the Runner-Up Award for the 2022 Jan Bach Prize in Music Composition for his jazz combo piece “The Other Side."
Since completing his graduate degree, Tyler has returned to Eau Claire to teach music and perform, compose and arrange for a wide variety of musical settings. Tyler is involved with a variety of musical projects around the Chippewa Valley and the Twin Cities, including the avant-garde jazz duet Lustek/Granros, the Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra, and Jack Schabert’s Blue Ox jazz groups. Tyler was voted Best New Band/Artist (3rd place) in Volume One Magazine's 2023 “Best of the Chippewa Valley” Reader Poll. Tyler has shared the stage with world-class musicians including Kenni Holmen, Sharel Cassity, Wayne Bergeron, Anat Cohen, Gunhild Carling, Sherrie Maricle, Sean Carey, and Dean Granros.