The NYChillharmonic, Sister Helen, Ruby My Dear

The NYChillharmonic is a 22 piece ensemble/collective lead by Sara McDonald and located in NYC. The group is comprised of musicians that hail from all over the globe, but currently live and/or go to school within the five boroughs. While most people would assume that a band of this size and instrumentation would function as a traditional big band, the overall sound of the ensemble truly encompasses progressive rock, indie-pop, and classical genres.

This particular cast of (occasionally) rotating characters, came into existence during the late spring of 2014. Sara, the bandleader/composer/arranger of the project, had spent the last year writing for ensembles of various shapes and sizes, before settling on a 22 piece ensemble that would (she hoped) become the band of her dreams. It did. The group began performing all over the city at any and every venue that was willing and able to accommodate a group of their size. So far The Chill, for short, has managed to play about once a month at various rock and jazz venues within Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Sara has managed to spread the word of The Chill, so to speak, by taking the music to different states, as well as oversees, in order to promote the work that has been done in New York. Bands and Orchestras that have featured the music of The NYChillharmonic are, The Urbana Pops Symphony in Urbana Illinois, The Cologne University Big Band, in Cologne Germany, The Jazz Composers Big Band in New Jersey, and the Rausch und Töchter Jazz Orchestra in Munich Germany.

The music of The NYChillharmonic has been featured on WNYC Souncheck, WBAI NY, Buzz Artist, All About Jazz, ARTE, Divergent Paths with Dan Dunford and has also been written about in Hot House Jazz Magazine, Spiegel, and The Urbana Post.


Sister Helen (Nathan J. Campbell, vocals; Chris Krasnow, guitar; Eva Lawitts, bass; Clint Mobley, drums) is a New York City rock band that has been performing with its current lineup since 2008, playing theatrical yet sweaty sets at DIY Brooklyn venues like Shea Stadium and longstanding clubs like the Knitting Factory alike. Sister Helen is named for Eva and Clint's Catholic school headmistress. They like to play terrifying music. You can find their music at. Their fourth release, the Jasmine EP, is set to come out in October 2014.


"Combining odd time signatures such as 5/4 and ? with equally as complicated scales and chord structures Ruby My Dear are impressive the moment you start listening to them. What's more impressive then that however is that they are able to utilize these technical abilities… in a pop format that is catchy, while being experimental" - The Equal Ground on the EP