Primary Instrument: Composer/conductor/leader
Composer and Saxophonist Joshua Shneider has enjoyed a career that has included writing for and playing with some of the most inspiring and inspired artists of our time. He has had his compositions and arrangements performed by such artists as Donald Brown, James Williams, Bill Pierce, John Abercrombie, George Bohanon, Bill Mobley, Bobby Caldwell, John McNeil, The BMI Jazz Orchestra and many others. He leads and conducts his own 17 piece ensemble performing his original compositions. He has collaborated on music for the theater with playwrights Eve Ensler and Rosemary Moore. He is a founding member of Pulse, a chamber ensemble of composers and performers dedicated to presenting contemporary music without boundaries. Joshua Shneider has been recognized by The National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP and as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop was a finalist for the BMI Charlie Parker Award for Composition. He has been quoted extensively in the book “Thinking in Jazz- The Infinite Art of Improvisation” by Paul F. Berliner, pub. 1994, Univ. of Chicago Press. As a saxophonist he has been featured with an array of artists which include Lee Breuer and Bob Telson (The Gospel at Colonus, The Warrior Ant), filmmaker Percy Adlon (Bagdad Cafe, Hawaiian Gardens) Geoff Muldaur, Matt Guitar Murphy and The Mighty Sparrow. After many years as a professional musician, Joshua Shneider received his BM and MM in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Ludmila Ulehla, Manny Albam, David Berger, Richard De Rosa and Giampalo Bracali. As a saxophonist he has studied with Joe Viola, George Coleman, Eddie Daniels and Barry Harris. He has had a long and ongoing commitment to Music Education which has included teaching preschool students, K-12 in the NYC Board of Education, and as a teaching artist for The American Composers Forum, The Brooklyn Public Library and The Harmony Program. He has also taught College courses in Arranging and Composition, History and Instrumental Performance. His writing reflects the myriad influences that comprise his musical experience. Compositional considerations include the technique and craft of writing and orchestrating music, the Jazz canon, the synthesis of musical ideas across stylistic borders, and the challenge of creating satisfying parts for all the musicians. New pieces are approached from a variety of vantage points such as; the sound of the ensemble or soloist, elaboration on a musical motif, or the desire to create a specific mood. While writing, he tends to visualize his compositions in physical terms, much like architecture, in order to create balance and structure. “The discipline of making music, as well as the joy and mystery of it's connective and communicative powers shapes my life as a composer”.
Primary Instrument:
Composer/conductor/leader
Location:
Brooklyn, NY
Willing to teach:
Advanced students only.
