Mario Guarneri has been a professional musician for 64 years, and a union member since the age of 13. As a performer in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he participated in players' committees that broke new ground related to musicians' rights and working conditions. He was a founding member of a minority training program—the first of its kind in the country—that helped prepare gifted minority artists for careers in symphony orchestras. He also started a contemporary music series in Los Angeles. Reflecting on his successful career as a musician and teacher, Mario is most proud and excited about continuing to bring improved working conditions and economic justice to professional independent musicians. Jazz in the Neighborhood, which Mario founded in 2013, is the genesis for the Independent Musicians Alliance. As part of the founding faculty at the California Institute of the Arts, Mario created curriculum based on his experiences as a performer and teacher. In 1986, he created a teaching tool that has been helping brass players worldwide for more than 33 years. When he joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1992, Mario created a free improvisation class as well as a class on “How to get a gig when you graduate." Both courses continue in some form to this day.

In 1999, Eric Whittington founded a small, general interest bookshop, Bird & Beckett Books & Records, in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood. The store soon began programming occasional jazz concerts for its customers. By 2008, the shop was averaging 60 concerts a year. Eric moved the business up the street to a slightly larger space; established the nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (BBCLP); and began to significantly increase concert programming. By 2019, the BBCLP was presenting as many as 200 jazz concerts annually—virtually all featuring Bay Area-based professional musicians. Eric's commitment to fair pay for musicians has been consistently evident since Bird & Beckett’s foray into concert promotion began. It stems from his basic working class orientation, and from his studies in labor issues at San Francisco State University. While his involvement in bookselling began in the mid-1970s, his experience in concert promotion started in the early 1980s, when he was also active in independent film production, and operated a small record label. Born in 1956, Eric lived in ten cities on both U.S. coasts, as well as in Yokohama, Japan, before moving to Berkeley in 1974 to attend the University of California, where he completed a BA in film studies. He has lived in San Francisco since 1976, where he raised three children, now adults, all currently involved professionally and academically in the arts and education.