Mitch Butler is a native of Raleigh, NC. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Performance from East Carolina University. Mitch is also a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Doctor of Music Arts degree in Music Performance with an emphasis in Jazz Studies. Mitch has been the trombonist and arranger for several musical groups including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra headed by Adonis Rose since January of 2008. Butler has also performed and/or recorded with musical greats such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Curtis Fuller, Tia Fuller, Derrick Gardner, Robert Glasper, Slide Hampton, Andre Hayward, Conrad Herwig, Brad Leali, Branford Marsalis, Bob Mintzer, Melton Mustafa, Dick Oates, Kenny Rampton, Rufus Reid, Herlin Riley, Stephen Riley, Darius Rucker, Grady Tate, Billy Taylor, Gregory Tardy, Fred Wesley, and many others. Much time has also been invested as an educator in jazz studies. Mitch was the Director of Jazz Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, CA from 2013 to 2016. Before that, he was Director of Jazz Studies at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC from 2009 to 2013. Butler has also held faculty and teaching positions at several institutions including Durham School of the Arts, East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, Elon University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of Texas at Austin. In August of 2018, Butler was named Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and served in that role until August 2021.

The North Carolina Arts Council, Pitt County Arts Council, Greenville-Pitt Convention & Visitor's Bureau has named Carroll V. Dashiell, Jr. Artistic Director of a new series, The African American Music Series. Carroll Dashiell is a native of Washington, D.C. A graduate of Howard University, with citations in Who's Who in Music and DownBeat Magazine, Carroll has been recognized for excellence in the music industry as a bassist, musical director/conductor and also as a composer/arranger. Affectionately known as CVD, he has been involved in academia for more than three decades serving as professor of music at the Saint Mary's College of Maryland, University of the District of Columbia and East Carolina University in North Carolina. CVD is the producer and writer of A Tribute to Motown Records, (a stage show and concert that celebrates some of the African-American's cultural contributions to the music industry, staged in the tradition of the famous touring Motown Review) that is selling out theaters and venues nation-wide. In addition to composing, writing and arranging, CVD is continuing performances as a jazz bassist and is very humbled to be the Founder and Director of the Dr. Billy Taylor Jazz Festival, named in honor of his mentor.