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RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE
Billy Childs
, Program Director and
composer/piano
Billy Childs is one of today’s foremost
American composers, marrying his
musical heritage with Western neoclassical
traditions. A native of Los Angeles, he
gave his first public performance at age
6, and at 16 he was admitted to the USC
Community School of the Performing Arts,
going on to earn a Bachelor of Music in
composition under Robert Linn and Morton
Lauridsen. He has recorded and performed
with many influential musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Renée
Fleming, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Ron Carter,
Chris Botti, Freddie Hubbard, J.J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, and Wynton
Marsalis. His numerous albums include two volumes of “jazz/chamber
music.” He has been commissioned for orchestral and chamber works
by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles Master
Chorale, the Kronos Quartet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the
American Brass Quintet, the Ying Quartet, and the Dorian Wind
Quintet, among others. His honors include a Chamber Music America
Composer’s Grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing
Artist Award, the music award from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, and four GrammyAwards. Billy serves as President of Chamber
Music America and was recently named an outstanding alumnus of the
USC Thornton School of Music, joining the ranks of such luminaries as
Michael Tilson Thomas, Marilyn Horne, and Morten Lauridsen.
Rufus Reid
, Program Director and
composer/bass
Rufus Reid is a seasoned 50-year career
veteran who has made over 400 recordings
with some of the jazz world’s greatest
performers. His receipt of the 2006
Raymond Sackler Commission resulted
in his five-movement suite for large jazz
ensemble, Quiet Pride-The Elizabeth
Catlett Project. In November 2015, his
album Quiet Pride, received two Grammy
nominations, for Best Large Jazz Ensemble
and Best Instrumental Composition. Rufus is a 2008 Guggenheim
Fellow in the field of composition, which resulted in the three-
movement symphonic work, Mass Transit. In April 2016 he was named
Harvard University’s Jazz Master in Residence, participating in public
conversations and performing in concert with his original compositions.
In April 2017, Lake Tyrrell In Innisfree, Rufus’ third symphonic work
was debuted in Raleigh, NC by the Raleigh Civic Symphony. May 2016,
Rufus Reid was awarded the America Composers Forum Commission
to compose for Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble to be premiered in July
6-7, 2018. In December 2017, Newvelle Records, an all vinyl recording
company, will release the Rufus Reid Trio, “TERRESTIAL DANCE,”
featuring the SIRIUS QUARTET.
Jimmy Greene
, saxophone
A native of Hartford, CT, Jimmy Greene
is considered one of the most respected
saxophonists of his generation. Greene has
released eleven albums as a bandleader
– his latest,
Flowers – Beautiful Life Vol.
2
(Mack Avenue), was released in 2017.
In 2014, Greene’s album
Beautiful Life
(Mack Avenue) received two GRAMMY®
Award nominations – one for Best Jazz
Instrumental Album and another for Best
Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for
his song “When I Come Home.” Greene has also garnered awards in
composition from ASCAP/IAJE, Chamber Music America, Connecticut
Commission on Culture and Tourism and the Greater Hartford Arts
Council, in addition to being named one of
DownBeat Magazine
’s 25
Young Rising Stars in Jazz in 1999 and First Runner-Up in the 1996
Thelonious Monk Institute’s International Jazz Saxophone Competition.
Greene performs worldwide with his quartet and has recorded and/or
performed in the bands of Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter,
Harry Connick, Jr., Tom Harrell, Avishai Cohen, Dee Dee Bridgewater,
Kenny Barron, Renee Rosnes and Lewis Nash, among many others.
Greene is Associate Professor of Music and Co-Coordinator of Jazz
Studies at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT and
previously served as Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone at the
University of Manitoba, VisitingAssistant Professor of Music at Purchase
College (State University of New York), and Lecturer at the Jackie
McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School. Greene holds a bachelor’s
degree in music from the Hartt School, a master’s degree in music from
Boston University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan
School of Music.
*Jimmy Greene will be coaching the musicians of
Bridges: A Jazz and Classical Fusion competition from June 6-9.
Tim Hagans
, composer/trumpet
Grammy-nominated Composer and
Trumpeter Tim Hagans is one of the most
unique and influential modern voices in
jazz. Mr. Hagans performs and records
with the Tim Hagans Quartet. His newest
CD,
FACES UNDER THE INFLUENCE,
A Jazz Tribute to John Cassavetes
(2017
Waiting Moon Records) is a suite of 7
musical portraits inspired by characters
from the films of John Cassavetes. The
recording features the NDR Big Band in
Hamburg with Mr. Hagans as guest composer, conductor and trumpet
soloist.
Downbeat
writes: “Hagans himself shines as the braying
Richard Forst in
Faces
. Hagans suite underscores the sadness and
confusion, empathy and hope in Cassavetes’ gritty works with accuracy
and honesty.” Tim Hagans was nominated for Grammy awards for
Best Instrumental Composition for “Box of Cannoli” from THE
AVATAR SESSIONS (2010 Fuzzy Music); Best Contemporary Jazz
CD for RE*ANIMATION (2000 Blue Note) and ANIMATION *
IMAGINATION (1999 Blue Note). Tim Hagans has performed and
recorded with Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Joe Lovano, Bob Belden and
Dexter Gordon. It was Thad Jones who encouraged Tim Hagans to write
music, and Hagans’ first composition appeared on a Thad Jones Eclipse
LP. Tim Hagans is the featured soloist on the soundtrack by Howard
Shore for the movie
The Score
, starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon
Brando. In June 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music
from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
RSMI
JAZZ FACULTY