District 97 is undoubtedly the most musically adventurous rock band in the world to feature an American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist. Formed in the Fall of 2006 by drummer/primary composer Jonathan Schang, keyboardist Rob Clearfield, bassist Patrick Mulcahy and guitarist Sam Krahn, the band drew upon influences from heavy metal to avant-garde jazz. The foursome from Chicago honed a no-holds barred style of eclectic and intricate Instrumental Rock before deciding the right vocalist was needed to complement their sound: enter 2007 American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist, Leslie Hunt. With a look, sound, and stage presence comparable to a young Ann Wilson from Heart, Leslie's dynamic performances pushed the band into a new direction that forged a unique marriage between accessible, catchy vocal melodies and an adventurous instrumental prowess. She was followed shortly thereafter by one of Chicago's finest guitarists, Jim Tashjian. With this new blend of charisma and stellar musicianship in place, their live shows over the past several years at festivals such as RoSfest, Prog Dreams II and V, and numerous appearances across the USA, UK and Europe cemented the band as a force to be reckoned with onstage as well as in the recording studio. Hybrid Child, the band’s 2010 debut on record label Laser’s Edge, immediately made a big impression worldwide. The album garnered praise such as “District 97 is a wildly ambitious progressive-rock group whose youth belies its accomplishments onstage and on its new Hybrid Child CD” (Jim Derogatis of NPR's "Sound Opinions" and Rolling Stone Magazine). The release of 2012's critically-acclaimed followup Trouble With Machines proved the band was the real deal. They had attracted the attention of legendary bassist and vocalist John Wetton (King Crimson/UK/Asia), who sang the role of Chicago serial killer H.H. Holmes on Schang’s “The Perfect Young Man.” With the collaboration heralded as a “tour de force” (dprp.net), the band and Wetton joined forces in 2013 for tours of both Europe and the US, later documented on 2014's live release, One More Red Night: Live in Chicago. 2013 also saw the band nominated for a Breakthrough Artist Award by Prog Magazine. Rather than rest on their laurels, District 97 took to the studio in 2014 to record the new material they'd been honing at home and on the road. The resulting album, In Vaults (released June 2015), continued and accelerated the upward trajectory of great songwriting and incredible musicianship that had become their hallmark. In August 2015, Rob Clearfield and Patrick Mulcahy left the group and were succeeded by Andrew Lawrence and TIm Seisser, respectively. The new lineup debuted in highly successful tours across Europe and North America in 2016 and 2017, with highlights including joining the trailblazing prog rock band Yes on their Cruise To The Edge and supporting Pain of Salvation on the In The Passing Light Of Day North American tour. In 2016. District 97 launched the Inside The Vault Club via their website, a monthly subscription series featuring exclusive audio and video downloads, as well as physical releases, the first of which being their stunning Live At De Boerderij DVD. They joined the Dave Kerzner Band for the joint STATIC VAULTS US tour in Fall 2017, and ended the year with a pair of shows with the NYC-based Consider The Source. 2018 saw the band complete a much-lauded North American 10th Anniversary Tour, as well as completing tracking for Screens, their highly-anticipated fourth studio album, and first with the new lineup. Released October 2019 through the UK's venerable record label Cherry Red, the band featured music from it to great acclaim on Cruise To The Edge, as well as Marillion Montreal Weekend, Seaprog, Summer's End, and other dates throughout North America, UK, and Europe. One listen perfectly illustrates why iconic drummer Bill Bruford (Yes/King Crimson/Genesis) told Rolling Stone Magazine (10/29/19), "There’s a great band out of Chicago called District 97, who are very good, and they’re here in the U.K. right now. And you know, it’s the next generation of so-called progressive guys who played much better than we ever played." Mike Portnoy (drummer extraordinaire of Dream Theater/Transatlantic/Liquid Tension Experiment) adds "District 97 continue to prove to be one of the most unique bands in modern Prog!" The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the band from innovating. Their Virtual Screening Tour and stunning Ghost Girl animated short film kept them at the top of the prog rock heap. The sprawling double-disc live album Screenplay  (2021) delighted music fans worldwide and served as a preface to live dates in the latter half of 2021 and 2022. With new music having gestated during and following the pandemic, their fifth studio album Stay for the Ending (released October 2023 via Spirit of Unicorn Music) has been widely acclaimed as their greatest work to date. 

Andreas Kapsalis is a Greek-American guitarist and composer born in the suburbs of Chicago. His first exposure to music was through his mother, Frances Kapsalis, a student of opera, and his father, Peter Kapsalis, a violinist. Andreas began teaching himself guitar at the age of 11, reading and writing music as well as music theory.   At the age of 18 he suffered a hand injury; during his recovery period, he began developing his 10-finger tapping techniques. Under the tutelage of composer and producer Jim Tullio, a student of Aaron Copland, he refined his compositional approach on the guitar using these techniques. Tullio produced Andreas' first EP with Andreas' arrangement of Dave Brubeck's composition “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” which garnered attention from the composer himself, who said, “I am very impressed that Andreas could cover on guitar what I had written for piano. It is quite amazing to hear my own music performed by great instrumentalists.”   Andreas began performing nationally with the Andreas Kapsalis Trio and recorded two discs featuring his compositions.   While performing in Los Angeles he was invited to apply for the Sundance Composers Labs. He was awarded the fellowship, an honor awarded to only six composers a year. This was his initiation into film composing.     At the end of the Sundance Composers Lab Andreas was invited by the directors to complete a score for their documentary film “Black Gold” among the documentaries selected for the January premier at the Sundance Film Festival. Founder of the Sundance Institute and Festival, Robert Redford, noted this was the first time in Sundance Institute history that documentary fellows and a composer fellow had an “official selection” at the Sundance Film Festival. Andreas subsequently composed scores for several documentary and feature films such as “Pig Business” and “Mulberry Street.” Andreas has also been commissioned by Northwestern University and Notre Dame to compose music for their silent film festivals.   Following this, Andreas performed and recorded several discs with Polish singer/contra bassist Megitza and with the AKGI duo.   Andreas has also been performing internationally, solo and in various ensembles, for festivals and concert series in North America, Europe, and Asia, such as Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Calcutta Guitar Festival in India, the Canadian Guitar Festival, and the Guitar Festival in the Philippines. In addition, concerts have taken place in Germany, Austria, Poland, and Slovakia. More recently Andreas was invited to Armenia to participate in "Sounds of Peace," a musical exchange featuring 60 artists from 10 different countries. Along with his years of experience as a touring musician he has also enjoyed teaching guitar, conducting masterclasses as well as private instruction in Europe, Asia, and the United States.   In 2015 Andreas completed the first solo album of his career, “Anastasi,” which features original compositions written for ten-finger-tapping style guitar. He then toured extensively throughout the     U.S. and Europe to promote the release of this CD. In the fall of 2015 he recorded a live CD in his home town of Chicago. The LP, entitled “Andreas Kapsalis Live at the Old Town School of Folk Music,” was released in 2016. Andreas again toured the U.S. and Europe to promote this CD.   Andreas' third solo CD, “Tributes,” was released in early 2019. This is a covers record featuring his arrangements of songs from some of his favorite artists who have influenced him as a guitarist throughout the years. He has been touring Switzerland and the U.S. in his 2019 CD Release Tour.   Andreas continues to be inspired and is eager to share the beauty of music and how it can enrich one's life.   “Threnodia,” composed and played by Andreas Kapsalis, features the “Kapsalis Tremelo,” a plucking/tremolo technique he created to allow for independant melodic movement using the right hand while plucking the harmony fingered in the left hand simultaneously.   Threnodia means Lamenting song and is deticated to Peter Kapsalis, Andreas' father, who was a violinist and the inspiration for the composition. Andreas created the “Kapsalis Tremelo” trying to simulate the tremolo of a violin section in an orchestra with his right hand. He stumbled onto this technique while originally working on an arrangement of Barber’s “Adagio for strings.”