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Mark O'Connor

Saxophonist Mark O’Connor, an Austin, Texas native, has been part of the Chicago and Milwaukee music scenes since 1996 as a performer, composer and educator. His debut CD on Blujazz productions, Mirage, spent eight weeks on the national jazz radio charts and garnered such praise as “With his hearty sound and bristling ideas, O’Connor can bowl over even a jaded follower of post-bop jazz.” �" Neil Tesser, Author, The Playboy Guide to Jazz, and, “A very good saxophonist he is… melodically and rhythmically engaging lines… expressiveness and melodic sensitivity.” �" Jazz Times Magazine. O’Connor has performed with such notables as Rufus Reid, Arturo Sandoval, Henry Butler, Steve Turre and Joe Williams. O’Connor’s quintet, formed in 2001, has performed at numerous venues throughout the Midwest including The Green Mill, The Elbo Room, The Skokie Theatre, The Chicago Cultural Center and The Rogers Park Jazz Festival in Chicago; The Elephant Room in Austin, TX and The Jazz Estate in Milwaukee. As an educator, O’Connor has conducted clinics in Chicago, St. Louis, Whitewater, WI, Austin, TX and Cedar Falls, IA on topics ranging from saxophone playing to jazz improvisation to jazz ensemble playing. He has served as guest artist for the jazz ensemble at St Louis Metro High School, and guest artist and conductor for the Moraine Valley Community College Jazz Ensemble and University of Northern Iowa Jazz Panthers. O’Connor has taught private saxophone lessons for fourteen years at many Chicago area high schools and community colleges such as New Trier High School, Naperville North and Naperville Central High Schools, Lake Zurich High School and Moraine Valley Community College. At present, he is involved with the band program at Victor J. Andrew High School in Tinley Park, IL teaching private saxophone lessons and conducting jazz band; and at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox, IL conducting saxophone sectionals and private saxophone lessons. O’Connor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance from the University of North Texas where he studied with well known jazz educators Dan Haerle and Fred Hamilton; a Master’s degree in Saxophone Performance from Eastern Illinois University where he studied with New Orleans piano luminary Henry Butler and Chicago pianist and producer of Mirage, Mark Maegdlin. Currently, O’Connor is working on two major projects �" his latest CD, Suspended Reality, which will be released this March on OA2 Records; and his doctoral dissertation regarding tenor saxophonist Joe Farrell.

Gear

Selmer Tenor Saxophone Reference 54, Selmer Mark VI Alto Saxophone, RPC Hard Rubber Mpcs, Vandoren Jazz Reeds, the "H" ligature for tenor & Bonade ligature for alto


Tags

199
Album Review

Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio: Live in New York

Read "Live in New York" reviewed by Matt Cibula


Damn, these bastards can play. Mark O'Connor, who was playing duets onstage with Stephane Grappelli every night when he was seventeen years old, has a truly formidable range of skills on jazz violin. He has assembled a crack band--Frank Vignola is mercurial and scary-fast on guitar, Jon Burr is everywhere he needs to be on bass. This live set from Merkin Hall, recorded in September 2004, is a very pretty document of what three people who are on the same ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz Vocalist Jane Monheit and Special Guest Mark O'Connor Take the Annenberg Center Stage This Spring

Jazz Vocalist Jane Monheit and Special Guest Mark O'Connor Take the Annenberg Center Stage This Spring

Source: AAJ Staff

Philadelphia, PA—The Annenberg Center continues its jazz series with a performance by Grammy nominee and audience favorite Jane Monheit. Known for a smoky, romantic jazz tone, Monheit is “endowed with improvisatory skill and a voice of singular plushness” (New York Times). She will be joined by Grammy®-winning fiddler, Mark O’Connor, the man dubbed “one of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music—any music—today” (New York Times). This performance will take place on Saturday, March 16 at 8 PM. ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Scratch, Mark O'Connor, a Tribute to Women in Jazz, and More

Jazz This Week: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Scratch, Mark O'Connor, a Tribute to Women in Jazz, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

There's an eclectic selection of jazz and creative music coming up on St. Louis stages over the next few days, from classic bop to contemporary electronics. Let's go to the highlights: Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert by an ad hoc ensemble dubbed “St. Louis Bebop," featuring trumpeter Randy Holmes, saxophonist Jason Swagler, pianist Ken Kehner, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Marty Morrison playing music associated with bop pioneers Charlie Parker and Dizzy ...

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Performance / Tour

Mark O'Connor: Tour Dates and Holiday LP

Mark O'Connor:  Tour Dates and Holiday LP

Source: JamBase

NEW COMMISSION 'THE IMPROVISED VIOLIN CONCERTO' PREMIERES AT BOSTON SYMPHONY HALL, MARCH 6 Multiple Grammy-winning composer, violinist and educator Mark O'Connor will undertake an expansive schedule of projects this year, including a nationwide tour and the release of a holiday album with a star-studded list of contributors. O'Connor will also continue work on his educational endeavors, which include his acclaimed String Camps, a personal Manifesto, and the expansion of his own teaching method. The tour begins this spring, and includes ...

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Performance / Tour

Mark O'Connor, John Patitucci & Julian Lage Debut Trio at Blue Note

Mark O'Connor, John Patitucci & Julian Lage Debut Trio at Blue Note

Source: Michael Ricci

String masters Mark O'Connor, John Patitucci and Julian Lage will join forces for the first time as equal members of a new trio at the Blue Note from January 7 through January 9. All three will bring their unique, individual approaches to jazz with new compositions and concepts. BIO: The trio of Mark O'Connor, John Patitucci and Julian Lage will debut at the Blue Note from January 7 through January 9. The brand new project will be a collaborative effort ...

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Video / DVD

Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana

Violinist Mark O'Connor: String Americana

Source: Michael Ricci


164

Music Industry

Mark O'Connor: Living on the Cracks

Mark O'Connor: Living on the Cracks

Source: JamBase

By: Dennis Cook

Mark O'Connor Not everyone can communicate without words. Getting meaning, feeling and narrative across using nuance and texture instead of defined syllables is beyond the grasp of many musicians. Yet, Mark O'Connor has always told vivid tales with his violin and compositions. From his early pithiness as a Nashville session hot shot through innumerable award winning projects in the jazz, bluegrass and classical fields, O'Connor has ...

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Event

John Blake, Jr. Ensemble Joins Grammy Winning Fiddler Mark O'Connor & His Appalachia Waltz Trio

John Blake, Jr. Ensemble Joins Grammy Winning Fiddler Mark O'Connor & His Appalachia Waltz Trio

Source: Laura Henrich

“Triple-threat O'Connor is a jazz artist, a respected classical/ folk composer and a fiddler who performs chamber-music Americana" --The Seattle Times

“Mr. Blake rides those vamps like a master. He also knows how to pace a solo so that it builds to crest after crest, with an oratorical sense of timing" The New York Times

Philadelphia, Pa--Musicopia, formerly known as Strings for Schools, announces an innovative collaboration between the Appalachia Waltz Trio featuring virtuoso fiddler Mark ...

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Performance / Tour

Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing

Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing

Source: All About Jazz

State Theatre Presents Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing Saturday, October 29, 2005, 8pm; $45, $38, $32, $25 Box Office: 732-246-SHOW (7469) New Brunswick, NJ (September 29, 2005)—The State Theatre presents Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing on Saturday, October 29, 2005 at 8pm. Fiddling phenom, Mark O’Connor, and friends pay tribute to his great friend and mentor, the legendary French jazz master, Stephane Grappelli. Tickets range from $25-$45 (group, college student, and senior discounts available). In June 2001, Mark O'Connor released Hot Swing!, ...

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Performance / Tour

Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio Settles Into Iridium for Extended Run

 Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio Settles Into Iridium for Extended Run

Source: All About Jazz

New York, NY...October 28, 2003...In February, when Mark O'Connor and his Hot Swing Trio played Lincoln Center, The New York Times described O'Connor as a musician who plays jazz “like he had a patent on it." Downbeat called the trio's most recent recording a “virtuoso fest." Mark O'Connor, guitarist Frank Vignola and bassist Jon Burr will bring their Grappelli/Reinhardt-influenced, instrumental jazz to New York's famed Iridium Jazz Club Nov. 11-16, 2003 for a rare, two-show-a-night, six day run. Tickets Tuesday ...

With his hearty sound, bristling ideas, and a ton of technique, Mark O'Connor can bowl over even a jaded follower of post-bop jazz. But more important than the notes he plays are the ones he leaves out, investing his solos with shape as well as substance. — NEIL TESSER, author THE PLAYBOY GUIDE TO JAZZ and host of "Miles Ahead" (1240 AM in Chicago) ...a stellar first recording. —RUFUS REID, author THE EVOLVING BASSIST “A very good saxophonist he is… melodically and rhythmically engaging lines… expressiveness and melodic sensitivity.” �" Jazz Times Magazine “A great new cd, it does not contain a bad cut

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Sue Orfield
saxophone, tenor

Photos

Music

Suspended Reality

From: Suspended Reality
By Mark O'Connor

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