Previous and Ongoing BYCA Composer Commissions

Previous Commissions:

Ongoing Commissions:

Joel A. Martin

2006-07 season: Christmas Will Soon Be Here, arrangements of En Sourdine and I Hear a Rhapsody from the Jazzical® Vocal Suite

Joel A. Martin (see resume) is an award-winning pianist who has performed his innovative Jazzical compositions as well as jazz and classical pieces both domestically and abroad, having played in Paris, London, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, with a tour to Brazil in the offing. Among his classical credits, Martin has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Springfield Symphony (MA) and the Delaware Symphony. He has also given countless recitals in concert halls across the United States, including Purchase College Performing Arts Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Severance Hall, the Schomburg Library and the Phillips Collection.

Back in his formative, classical years, Martin was the youngest competitor in the 1985 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The next year, he was guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Conductor Zubin Mehta. He was also profiled and performed on the McGraw Hill Artist Showcase on WQXR-FM in New York. Martin received numerous prestigious grants, including awards from the ASTRAL Foundation of Philadelphia, the Eubie Blake Scholarship Fund of New York, the Lois J. Wright Memorial Foundation of Baltimore, the Musician's Emergency Fund of New York and Time magazine. In 1988 he was the recipient of the National Arts Club of New York's Lebow Award. Martin was also highlighted in Musical America's "People to Watch For in '89." In 1990 he was a SONY Innovators Awards finalist for music and in 1992 received the Concert Artist Guild two-year Career Development Fellowship.

Martin has played numerous Jazzical concerts in NYC and Westchester, NY. Among his jazz credentials, Joel A. Martin has played with legendary drummer Chico Hamilton, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist/composer Hale Smith, bassist Brian Torff, and for the past 8 years was the music director of the Cab Calloway Orchestra. He was also Assistant Music Director/pianist for the Boys Choir of Harlem, and has appeared on Broadway in The Ride Down Mount Morgan with Patrick Stewart and in The Wild Party with Eartha Kitt. He has also been featured on BET (Black Entertainment Television) in "BET on Jazz" and performed his original Jazzical compositions at the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, Fez and the New Village Gate 52 in New York, at Snug Harbor, and at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with jazz clarinet legend Alvin Batiste.

As a chamber musician, he toured throughout the world with renowned clarinetist Esther Lamneck, appeared as special guest with the Emerson String Quartet, and performed over 400 chamber concerts throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states. As soloist, he performed for French President Francois Mitterand at l'Opera Comique in 1993, at Kaukametsa Hall in Finland, and in Japan before government officials.

As a music educator, Martin has held arts-in-education residencies at the Oklahoma City Public School, sponsored by the Black Liberation Arts Center. He has lectured and performed in countless public school systems, colleges and universities across the country, ranging from Purchase College in Westchester County, NY to inner city schools in Maryland, Connecticut and Texas.

Martin studied under acclaimed pianists and educators Natalie Hinderas, Susan Starr, Raymond Hanson, Ursula Oppens, Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda and Anthony Newman. He has attended the Tanglewood Institute, the Munich Conservatory, Hartt School of Music and Purchase College (NY).

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Previous BYCA Commissions (in alphabetical order)

• Jackson Berkey, Silent Tents
www.berkey.com

• Daniel Brewbaker, Birdsongs

• Fred Hersch, Please Smile (2006)

• Andrew Lippa, Hope (2006)

• James MacMillan, Heyoka Te Deum

• Nico Muhly, The Sweets of Evening (2006)

• Kirk Nurock, learn more about BYC's collaboration

• Daniel Bernard Roumain, What We Are
www.dbrmusic.com

Composer Kirk Nurock in rehearsal with Concert Chorus