MA
Innovative pianist-composer Donal Fox presents his Monk and Bach project, a brilliant and genre-defying program of music inspired by Thelonious Monk, J.S. Bach, Astor Piazzolla, Domenico Scarlatti, James Brown, Robert Schumann, Cuban music, the blues and beyond. Fox's virtuosic, swinging style crosses a wide spectrum from jazz to classical and is poetic, hip, fresh, and ultimately contemporary. Critics and fellow musicians have been unanimous in their praise for Fox: "An innovative composer and virtuoso pianist." -Dr. Billy Taylor. "Coruscating improvisation."- Boston Globe. "Confounding the Genre Police." -DownBeat. "A brilliant technician and an exquisite magician at the keyboard,- Mittelbayrische Zeitung, Germany "Fox's music is unlike that of anyone else. -- Jazz Hot, France "The power of McCoy Tyner and the superb keyboard marksmanship of Ellington and Horowitz"- Boston Phoenix "Donal is one of a small handful of musicians who embody the promise of jazz's future."-Gary Giddins
Donal Fox is internationally acclaimed as composer, pianist, and improviser in both jazz and classical music. His numerous awards include a Guggenheim fellowship in music composition, and a fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation. He served as the first African- American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony and was a visiting artist at Harvard University, where he received a Certificate of Recognition from the President of Harvard College for his contribution to the arts. Mr. Fox recently premiered his Monk and Bach Project at Jazz at Lincoln Center, his Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project at Tanglewood, and the world premiere of his piano concerto Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence at Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (Germany), Tyrone Guthrie Centre (Ireland), Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Liguria Study Center (Italy), Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, among others. Donal Fox has performed and recorded with many artists including Oliver Lake, John Stubblefield, David Murray, Elliott Sharp, Regina Carter, George Mraz, Al Foster, Stefon Harris, Dafnis Prieto, Christian Scott, Terri Lyne Carrington, Maya Beiser, Hilary Hahn, and poet Quincy Troupe, among others. He has recorded as composer and pianist for New World Records, Evidence Records, Music & Arts, Passin' Thru Records, Yamaha's Original Artist Series, Steinway Spirio, and Wergo Records. His works are published by Margun Music, G. Schirmer, and Leonellis Music. He is a recipient of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Music and a Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Fox was recently featured on the Emancipation 150 Series, presented by WQXR, part of The NEXT New York Conversation and the Coca-Cola Generations in Jazz Festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Says Howard Mandel (Senior contributor to Down Beat, arts segment producer on National Public Radio, author of Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz and Future Jazz): "Internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and improviser Donal Fox is simply without peer. He is a bravura concert artist whose performance of bracingly original repertoire such as Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra and The Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project have earned him prestigious honors...gratifying residencies and appointments... and the awed applause of critic and audiences alike. Audacious and exacting though Fox's music is, he communicates directly and seeks to elevate everyone's musical interactions beyond expectation and conventions. Fox has a singular presence in today's circle of serous cultural activists."
Additional Content:
Donal Fox: Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project
"Fox's band has the Modern Jazz Quartet's poise and John Coltrane Quartet's power" --The Boston Globe
Donal Fox: Improvisation on Bach's Prelude in D Minor, Book II, No 6
"Ingenious artistry... Fox improvises on several hundred years of musical tradition with aplomb and veracity." All About Jazz
Donal Fox Quartet perform Libertango by Astor Piazzolla
"Donal Fox is simply without peer." –Howard Mandel, DownBeat
Institution/Business Type:
Artist / Creative (Individual)
Legal Status:
Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship
Year Founded:
1993
Institution/Business Type:
Artist / Creative (Individual)
Legal Status:
Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship
Year Founded:
1993
Primary Discipline:
Music - GeneralAdditional Disciplines:
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$4,000 - $25,000Teaching Settings:
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$4,000 - $25,000NEST Eligible Artist
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$4,000 - $25,000State of Residence:
MassachusettsMinimum Number of Performers:
1Maximum Number of Performers:
4