Mark Christman is founder and Executive Artistic Director of Ars Nova Workshop (ANW), a Philadelphia-based, nonprofit, jazz and experimental music presenting organization. The recipient of the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in Jazz and four-time winner of the Philadelphia City Paper’s “CP Choice Award” for best jazz series in Philadelphia, ANW has programmed more than 1,000 unique events, including some of the most significant contributors to jazz and experimental music over the past 50 years, such as Cecil Taylor, Pauline Oliveros, Tony Conrad, Merzbow, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bill Dixon, Claire Chase, Fennesz, and Anthony Braxton. In addition to music presentation, Mark has curated the exhibitions “Coltrane” and "Sun Ra meets Napoleon: Fragments of the Alter-Future," both juxtaposing historical materials and contemporary art. In 2020, he also curated the exhibition Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal at the Institute for Contemporary Art, which then was further developed at Artists Space in New York under the name Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency (2021) and has toured under both names (AMBD to Bennington College in 2024 and now off to Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; FF at Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 2023). He also co-edited (with Anthony Elms and Celeste DiNucci) the catalog Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal (Inventory Press, 2023). He is currently the curator for the upcoming exhibition The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry, which will be opening at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Fall 2025. Mark has also produced highly regarded jazz recordings, such as Dave Burrell’s Full-Blown Trio's Expansion, voted the #2 jazz album of the year (2005) by the Village Voice, and Soundpath by Muhal Richard Abrams, included in Rolling Stone’s list of the Best Jazz Albums of 2020. Mark has been recognized with the Jazz Bridge "Making a Difference" award in 2018 as well as the Jazz Journalists Association’s “Jazz Hero “Award for 2015, and he was named a “Local Hero” by Spin magazine.

Celeste DiNucci is a scholar, practitioner, and supporter of performance, who serves as the Director of Strategy & Development at Ars Nova Workshop. For 25 years, she has worked as a consultant and on staff for many arts and culture organizations in Philadelphia, including the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, Dancing Classrooms, International House, Settlement Music School, the American Philosophical Society, and the Painted Bride Art Center. She has also consulted with individual artists, authors, scholars, and scientists on manuscripts and grant proposals, as well as a wide variety of editorial projects. With a broad-ranging background across the liberal arts, she has done graduate work in English at Northwestern University, where she received her Masters degree, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her Ph.D., specializing at both institutions in performance theory and language, through the lens of Renaissance drama. She has been active in arts administration and producing, as well as performing, and she has taught in the Masters program in Arts Administration at Drexel University. Her claim to the widest fame, however, is as a Jeopardy! champion: she is the winner of the 2007 Tournament of Champions, and she has been invited back to special tournaments in 2014 and 2024.

Beau Gordon is a showrunner, archivist, engineer, and musician from Philadelphia. He has held a wide breadth of positions in the industry, including event production, music archivism and reissue, and education. His specializations are rooted in the veneration of 20th century Black American Music traditions, particularly the jazz and soul music of Philadelphia and New Orleans. Beau’s work as a musician and engineer has been featured on NPR.com, WXPN, and World Cafe. Before working with Ars Nova, Beau held positions with Brewerytown Beats, a store and label devoted to reissuing rare and valuable Philadelphia music on vinyl records; the historic Trocadero Theatre in Chinatown, Philadelphia; French Quarter Festival, the largest free music festival on the East Coast; Jamie/Guyden records, transferring and archiving master tapes for eventual release; and a variety of staff positions in private and public music education. In his free time, he enjoys recording original music and DJing vinyl records.

A British transplant, Guggenheim Fellow, and Grammy-awarded multi-instrumentalist, Anthony Tidd is a creative musician, composer, producer, educator, and curator, who has performed with, and produced songs on multi-platinum albums for, many artists, including The Roots, Steve Coleman, Meshell Ndegeocello, David Byrne, Macy Gray, Zap Mama, Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Jill Scott, Ursula Rucker, and more. His debut album The Child of Troubled Times (2002) with his band Quite Sane quickly became a modern staple within jazz circles. Tidd has written for everything from small ensembles to major orchestras, with recent works including Jay Z’s documentary series Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount), Seven Years, by Black Thought (Audible), and Black No More, a Broadway musical written with Tariq Trotter, John Ridley, Daryl Waters, and Bill T. Jones (The New Group). As Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), he created a transformative, free youth education program, The Creative Music Program, and a widely popular concert series, Sittin’ In. Over the pandemic, he co-founded ACT4Music, an online festival that presented 250 international artists over eight weeks; and in 2022, with Ari-Benjamin Meyers (Drexel University, Curtis), he formed the Public Orchestra Philadelphia, a world first. Anthony Tidd now serves as ANW's Chief Creative Catalyst.