Originally from France, Sylvain Carton is a Bay Area musician and composer. He co-leads the Mitch Marcus Quintet and his MMQ + 13 compositions for big band won a "Subito" grant from the American Composer's Forum in 2004. Carton is the primary composer for the Japonize Elephants, an eclectic circus-gypsy-bluegrass-klezmer-jazz ensemble of seven to twelve musicians playing vibes, violin, bass, guitar, banjo, accordion, junk percussion, trumpet, flute, and saxophones. For the group Amaldecor, he composes and arranges pieces in the Eastern European and gypsy jazz idioms. He has also composed a string quartet, solos for voice, tuba, cello, guitar, saxophone, and clarinet, and has been commissioned to write music for a documentary aired on PBS, an independent film, and Oakland's 'Counterpointe' dance company. Sylvain has arranged music for a National Geographic feature film and writes for and performs with the internationally acclaimed San Francisco based Afrobeat band 'Aphrodesia.' In addition to composing for others, Sylvain writes, performs, and records solo works as a member of a group called the Immersion Composition Society. He received a BM in Jazz Performance from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with David Baker, and an M.A. in music composition from UC Santa Cruz, where he also co-directed the Latin American Music Ensemble. Sylvain is a Vandoren Performing Artist and Artistic Advisor.