Artist Residency Concert

About the ArtistS

Ize Trio has performed at the United Nations and Panama Jazz Festival, and received a Jazz Road Residencies Grant, Live Arts Boston Grant, and Berklee Recording Grant, among others. In 2024, they released their first album, “The Global Suites” to critical acclaim.

The story of Ize Trio begins in Boston at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. This special program and community founded by Danilo Pérez brings students and mentors together from all over the globe to collaborate, innovate, and create global diplomacy through music. The three of us met through this community as students (and now professors) and became good friends. Our mentors Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Adam Cruz, and many more, opened the doors for us to explore music multiculturalism and social activism. Inspired, we officially began the Ize Trio in 2019, seeking to bring our musical backgrounds from the US, Cyprus, and Palestine to the table and connecting through concepts of improvisation and Global Jazz. —Chase, George, and Naseem

Chase Morrin is a pianist, composer, and educator who has been internationally recognized for pushing boundaries in jazz and classical music and has creating multi-cultural music projects advocating for human rights and equity. He is currently a professor at Berklee College of Music (The Global Jazz Institute) and New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston.

Chase has garnered numerous accolades including four ASCAP Young Jazz Composer awards; ten DownBeat awards; and five film scoring and composition awards through the Music Teachers’ Association of California and the Young Composers’ Guild. Additionally, he was commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra to compose and write a piano concerto which he performed with the orchestra in April 2016. His trio won the open combo division at Monterey’s Next Generation Jazz Festival.

In addition to Ize Trio, Chase is the co-founder of Gapi, a duo ensemble with Korean Gayageum player DoYeon Kim. Chase also created a pedagogical, experiential-based music program called The Music Alliance Project, bringing jazz and classical musicians together. In 2016, Chase released a duo album called The Corn Knight with marimbist Yaniv Yacoby, exploring Irish folk, jazz, and classical idioms and later that year, released a trio album with bassist Johnny Chapman and drummer Jongkuk Kim called Turtle. 

Chase graduated from Harvard University in May of 2015, earning a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Neurobiology, and from New England Conservatory (M.M.), 2016. Chase earned a second M.M. in piano performance at the Global Jazz Institute, Berklee College of Music, 2017.

Born and raised in Nicosia Cyprus, George Lernis is a world recognized drummer, world percussionist, composer, and educator who currently resides in the U.S. He has recorded and collaborated with prominent figures such as: John Patitucci, Danilo Perez, Antonio Sanchez, Dave Liebman, Anat Cohen, Tiger Okoshi, A Far Cry String Orchestra and Mehmet Ali Salnikol’s Whatsnext? big band, just to name a few. In addition, George regularly performs at venues such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and gives workshops at the Berklee College of Music and Emerson College, among other instituions.

In addition to his extensive training and experience on drumset, he specializes in a number of traditional instruments such as the darbuka (goblet shaped drum), bendir (frame drum), riq (Arabic tambourine) and santur (hammered microtonal dulcimer). Having grown with the musical traditions of the Middle East/Mediterranean regions, he moved to the U.S. in 2001 to study music at the Berklee College of Music, where he subsequently earned a bachelor degree in Jazz Performance and master’s degree in Contemporary Performance. He also holds a master’s degree in Modern American Music from the Longy School of Music. He has released two albums: “Shapes of Nature” featuring the George Lernis Jazz Quartet and “Between Two Worlds” featuring bass player John Patitucci. George formed Anatoliama, a non-profit organization dedicated performing and preserving the musical traditions of Greece around the U.S. and the world in the form of concerts and educational workshops.

Naseem Alatrash is a Palestinian cellist, composer. Naseem's performances include a mix of improvisation and traditional melodies, with a focus on traditional Arabic music and jazz and contemporary classical music influence. 

He has appeared at numerous international festivals, including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival, Abu Dhabi Music Festival, Lebanon’s Zouk Mikael International Festival, Lebanon’s Beit Aldeen Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, and Jerash Festival. He has performed at such venues as the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, the Lincoln Theater, Wigmore Hall, Koerner Hall, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Music Series, NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center, the Royal Opera of Oman, The Royal Albert Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He has performed alongside world-renowned musicians, including Ron Carter, Roger Waters, Terri Lyne Carrington, Eugene Friesen, Kenny Aronoff, Rami Jaffee, Luis Conte, Javier Limon, Jorge Drexler, Alejandro Sanz, Scott Page of Pink Floyd, Carmine Rojas of David Bowie, Mike Garson of David Bowie, and many others.

Naseem has been awarded String Player of the Year twice from The National Music Competition of Palestine. In addition to his solo career, Alatrash performs with the Global Messengers ensemble with pianist Danilo Pérez and with Amir ElSaffar's Rivers of Sound ensemble as the cellist. He studied at The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine, and has both a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Cello Performance and a post-Master’s fellowship from the Berklee College of Music.