member profiles

Russ Jones is a self taught World Flautist playing Native American Flutes, Japanese Shakuhachi, Peruvian Flutes and many more.

He has New York City in his veins, blues in his heart, and the music of many worlds in his gifted hands. The man in the shades, top hat and sharp suit on stage with that tight band in that dark club is playing real blues right, informed by 50 years of mastery of the city’s thousand styles while imitating no one. The Hitman Blues Band, with Russell “Hitman” Alexander in the lead, plays the blues you’ve been looking for all your life.

Ruth Weber is a critically-acclaimed composer/conductor/performer. Her songs have been recorded in the U.S. and abroad. She has won the New York Pro/Am Songwriting Competition, The Canadian Songwriting Competition, the Jewish American Songwriting Competition, the Music City Song Festival, the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Global Peace Song Awards and the Shalshelet Music Festival. Her songs have appeared in film and print music. She was the choral arranger and conductor for the 2019 feature film, “One Little Finger.”

Ruth Pollack Pappas is a songwriter based out of New York City. She writes lyrics and music in a variety of styles from Country to Latin and Blues. She is excited to announce that her song, “On The Other Side” is nominated in the Americana category in this year’s upcoming Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA)! Ruth was honored last year when “I Fell For You” was nominated in the Adult Contemporary/AAA category in the 2020 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA).

Ryan is a multi-talented theatre artist and dancer whose career has spanned both stage and screen. Onscreen you can see him in the television series Fosse/Verdon on FX, and in the Coen Brother’s farce Hail, Caesar! On stage Ryan has performed in the most recent Broadway revival of Annie, Something Rotten! (OBC), Bandstand (OBC), and in the Chicago company of Hamilton. Ryan has been featured as a soloist, singing and tap dancing, with multiple symphony orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony. He is one of two remaining individuals to perform Danny Daniels' original choreography for the Morton Gould composition 'The Tap Dance Concerto' from 1957.