The Alchemist Quintet performs modern jazz, mostly originals, with diverse influences.  

Notes on a page are bent, reshaped, reimagined. Simple elements become more valuable. You might hear a middle ages English dance, an Indian raga, a taste of bebop from a college town, a lush chordal piece with Eastern European influences. An ensemble celebrates their instruments and diverse backgrounds to create music not heard before… but remembers, newness cannot forget the past. 

Members of the band have recorded or performed with Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull, Joe Lovano, Gloria Estefan, Jazz Mafia, Marcos Silva, Kai Eckhardt (John McLaughlin), Terrence Brewer, Gerald Beckett, Steve McQuarry, Oscar Stagnaro (Paquito D'Rivera), Resonance Jazz, Mark Feldman, Benny Rietveld (Miles Davis, Santana), Barbara Morrison, Sandy Cressman, The Stray Horns, and the Mandala Orchestra; in the US, Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Brasil, and in the Bay Area, notably at SFJazz and Yoshi's. 

Audience feedback: 

“You all sounded like one voice, one breath.”

"The Alchemist Quintet, a Jazz group with an unusual but really terrific combination of a violin, bass, sax, piano, and drums. We have seen them in a small venue (Mr. Tipple’s) in SF and were so wowed that we went up between sets to ask if they would consider a house concert for us all.”

Doug Pet - saxophone 

Michele Walther - violin

John Kiskaddon - piano

Ted Burik - bass

Greg German - drums