Sasha Berliner Quartet
The series begins on June 5 with the Sasha Berliner Quartet, featuring Berliner on vibraphone, Javier Santiago on piano, Max Gerl on bass, and Myles Martin on drums. Berliner, who made her Athenaeum debut last fall with bassist Ben Williams, returns as the leader of her own band with music from her March 2025 release, Fantôme. Named winner of the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star—Vibraphone category, she was both the first woman, and at 21, the youngest individual in the poll’s history to receive the award. She has been voted one of the top 10 vibraphonists in DownBeat Readers Poll every year since 2021. Sasha has headlined venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, The Blue Note, Montreal Jazz Festival, and Monterey Jazz Festival and has recorded and performed with such renowned musicians as Tyshawn Sorey, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, and Cecile McLorin Salvant.
All About Jazz wrote, “Berliner is in the firmament of the here and now in modern jazz and appears likely to occupy that upper stratosphere for some time to come.” Of Fantôme, the French website Paris Move commented, "Her music is at once complex and accessible, effortlessly borrowing from pop, rock, and funk while remaining resolutely jazz—vibrant, lyrical, and imbued with a poetic sensibility. Berliner brings a rare dynamism to the vibraphone.”