With three friends who value subtlety and tastefulness above all in music, Tonewood Trio formed as a way to express these values with their shared love of jazz, the Great American Songbook, folk revival, and the popular music of the last fifty years.

Nick Rieser is an enthusiastic exponent of jazz. He's one of the few piano players you'll run into who cites as an influence Bobby Enriquez, a.k.a. "the wild man of piano". His approach is highly rhythmic, a little quirky, and always unpredictable, due mostly to his willingness to take risks. 

Nick played with gigging bands and small jazz groups in Chicago and Des Moines, and with the Des Moines Community Jazz Center Big Band. He moved to Eugene in 2012. He has played with saxophonist Adam Harris and Paul Biondi and with Kenny Reed's Stone Cold Jazz. Recently he joined the Swing Shift Big Band. He is proud of his work with singers, from Des Moines's Max Wellman and Tina Findlay to Eugene's Denice Prutsman, Amy Lokash, Donna Courtell, and Simone DaSilva. 
He teaches piano, theory and improvisation to students of all ages.

Mallory Glaser is a versatile vocalist who has performed in jazz, folk, rhythm & blues, rock, electronic, and free improvisational settings. Mallory holds a B.A. from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and she has been studying vocal technique, improvisation, and approach for over 15 years. Through exploration with different methods, styles, and groups, she has found that effective singing is based on the body's natural instincts and capabilities, and is a living example of the human voice's resonance, power, agility and tone. She is formerly a member of the virtuosic and experimental Brooklyn-based bands, "In One Wind" and "Gym, Deer", and has played throughout NYC as well as toured in the U.S., Canada, and   China. She is in love with the voices and music of Bjork, Hanne Hukkelberg, Nancy Wilson, and Eva Cassidy. Mallory teaches voice lessons to students ages 5 to 105.

Robert Lee grew up an improviser and loves the possibilities it opens up for all of music. He has studied the saxophone since he was ten years old, with his parents as his first teachers, and grew through Minnesota school and state honor jazz bands as well as his own small jazz groups he led for area weddings and events. While living in New York and after studying at the New School for Jazz in Manhattan, he led his own group with his own original vocal music through venues around the city. Along with working the ocean-cruise circuit, he has also worked as a sideman for various groups, found on recordings by Charlie Persip, In One Wind, Names Of War, Walrus Ghost, and more. Robert loves to teach people about music and improvisation, on saxophone, flute, clarinet, piano, and voice.