Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, music director, producer, and educator from Los Angeles, California. He has recorded on over 600 albums, films and TV shows, collaborating with the likes of Ray Charles, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Esa- Pekka Salonen, Smokey Robinson, Wayne Shorter, Billy Higgins, Ray Brown, Brad Mehldau, Hubert Laws, Dr. Dre, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Questlove, Chaka Khan, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Glasper, Anderson. Paak, Smokey Robinson, Flying Lotus, Feist, Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, Thundercat and many others. 

In recent years, he has increasingly stepped forward as a solo artist, showcasing his own music. A prolific composer, his works include string quartets, larger compositions, jazz ensemble pieces, and more. In 2023, after 14 years on and off in the making, Miguel released his first solo album ‘Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1’, which Downbeat Magazine gave a 5 out of 5 star review and the famed British newspaper The Guardian named Contemporary Album of the Year and labeled ‘a masterpiece’. At Miguel's concert during the State of the Art festival, he will conduct the chamber ensemble Elja and present a handpicked selection of his works. In addition to Miguel and Elja, filmmaker Jesse Gilbert will also perform. Gilbert will create live visuals during the concert using software that he programmed himself. 

Interdisciplinary artist Jesse Gilbert and producer/multi-instrumentalist/composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson met in 2012 performing together in Brazil in Wadada Leo Smith’s ensemble. They became fast friends and have been performing around the world ever since. Gilbert has designed and continues to develop a very personal and flexible interactive software program called SpectralGL. Gilbert and Atwood-Ferguson use this program in order for the real time audio to affect the projections that Gilbert creates live. 

They are very close friends and enjoy incorporating the hundreds of hours of past uplifting and introspective conversations into the art that they create. They share many common philosophical interests such as social and ecological justice, self-empowerment, and connecting to the natural world. They have similar musical interests and backgrounds fusing genres of Western European Classical, Jazz, World Music, Electronic, etc which has served to strengthen the cohesiveness of their joint vision. They hope that their study of these various traditions from antiquity goes towards their ability to add something new and relevant to the fabric of society well into the future.