Freedom to Listen is a group dedicated to the crucial art of listening and being in the moment. Bassist Peter Brendler, drummer Mark Ferber, and saxophonist Jon Irabagon will play an exciting mix of originals and jazz standards.

Bassist Peter Brendler has performed at world-famous venues in New York and throughout the country, including the Blue Note, Birdland, the Jazz Standard, the Kennedy Center, and Smalls Jazz Club. Brendler grew up in Baltimore, MD, and received his Bachelor of Music degree in 2001 from Berklee College of Music. Since then, Brendler has lived in New York and has made numerous sideman appearances on recordings across various styles. He has performed and/or recorded with artists such as John Abercrombie, Barry Altschul, Bruce Barth, John Cowherd, Frank Kimbrough, Ben Monder, Victor Lewis, Rich Perry, Steve Slagle, and Chris Speed. Brendler has also recorded three albums as a leader or co-leader: a duo album with the late master guitarist John Abercrombie—The Angle Below—and two albums for PosiTone Records, Outside the Line and Message in Motion. Brendler’s latest recording, Two-Part Inventions, is a duo album with longtime musical partner Jon Irabagon and is scheduled for release in the summer of 2025.

Drummer Mark Ferber can be heard on over 200 recordings. His ongoing projects include ECM recording artist Ralph Alessi’s This Against That, the Marc Copland Quartet, the Brad Shepik Organ Trio, and his twin brother Alan Ferber’s Grammy-nominated big band and nonet. He currently maintains a busy freelance schedule throughout Los Angeles’s and New York’s jazz clubs and recording studios and the international touring circuit. He has toured and/or recorded with Lee Konitz, Gary Peacock, Jonathan Kreisberg, John O’Gallagher, Don Byron, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, Anna Webber, Mark Helias, Pete McCann, Matt Pavolka, Michael Attias and Billy Childs, among others. He has also worked as a faculty member for the California Institute of the Arts, the Tavira Jazz Workshop in Portugal, the School of Improvisational Music (SIM), City College of New York, the Maine Jazz Camp, and The Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop. He currently is a professor of drumset at California State University, Fresno.

Jon Irabagon is a Filipino American saxophonist and composer from Chicago. He was named one of New York City's 25 Jazz Icons by Time Out New York. Equally adept at composing for rising stars in new music and the most intricate modern jazz ensemble, Irabagon builds on this foundation by adding modern classical and late-period John Coltrane to his compositional base, focusing primarily on mixed chamber ensembles to take advantage of hand-chosen musicians’ voices and attitudes. After earning a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University, Irabagon continued his education by earning a Master of Arts from the Manhattan School of Music and completing post-graduate studies in the jazz program at Juilliard, where he received an Artist Diploma. However, Irabagon’s accomplishments do not end with his education. Irabagon was also the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, the winner of the Rising Star award in DownBeat magazine for both alto and tenor saxophones, and the recipient of a Philippine Presidential Award, the highest civilian honor an overseas Filipino can receive in commemoration for their contributions to the perception of Filipinos worldwide. Irabagon currently runs his own imprint, Irabbagast Records, to release his own uncategorizable works as well as other cutting-edge, creative artists.