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Diane Moser

Diane Moser has been a featured performer and composer throughout the U.S. with jazz ensembles, big bands, orchestras, chamber music ensembles, dance companies, and theater companies. She earned a B.A. from Empire State College in New York and an M.M. in Jazz Piano from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Harold Danko and Jaki Byard.

As a leader, Diane currently has several ensembles that express her wide diversity of musical interests. She is the musical director, pianist and contributing composer of Diane Moser’s Composers Big Band, a 17-piece big band formed for the purpose of developing and presenting new music for big band. Presenting monthly concerts beginning in January of 1997 and currently in residence at Trumpets Jazz Club in Montclair, NJ, the band features the music of its 11 resident composers, and has featured over 100 guest composers and performers as well. Since 1999 she has led her quintet, The Diane Moser Quintet, and since 2002 The Diane Moser Trio, with revolving members trombonist Ben Williams, bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Gerry Hemingway, alto saxophone and clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, bassist Andy Eulau, drummer Scott Neumann, drummer Michael Sarin, alto saxophonist Anton Denner, alto saxophonist Ed Xiques, drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Rob Thorsen and drummer Duncan Moore.

As a collaborator, she has been a featured performer and composer with Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Howard Johnson, Oliver Lake, Judy Bady, Tina Marsh, Charles McPherson, Curtis Pagler, Diamanda Galas, Jim French, Yale Strom, poets Marilyn Mohr and Bill Zavatsky, the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Tri-City Symphony of Davenport, Iowa, The Drifters and many others.

Her work in film includes composing the film score for the award winning film Breaking Boundaries: The Art of Alex Masket, Ashcan Films 2009, directed by filmmaker Dennis Connors and performed by The Diane Moser Quintet. She was also the Music Supervisor and performer for the short documentary film on the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gauden, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Voices and Visions Productions, LTD 2012, which is now permanently installed for continuous viewing at the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH. Her most recent film score project is Yellow Stars of Tolerance with the award winning nonprofit documentary and multimedia production company JEMGLO.

Diane has worked in the field of musical theater for many decades. She is the composer of the musical 2012:A Masque for the Millennium, a one act masque-musical presented for the Women’s Work Series and The Adventures of Jazz Mom — both presented at Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ.

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3
Album Review

Diane Moser: Birdsongs

Read "Birdsongs" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


There is a tradition of composers finding inspiration in the songs of birds. Olivier Messiaen did it in the classical realm and Eric Dolphy did it in the jazz world. Pianist Diane Moser follows in that tradition on this CD, turning birdsong into a bevy of haunting compositions both for solo piano and the trio of piano, flute and bass. Many of these pieces start out as twittery, piping bird imitations but eventually morph into solid jazz rhythms. ...

3
Album Review

Diane Moser: Birdsongs

Read "Birdsongs" reviewed by Troy Dostert


While she hasn't gotten quite the recognition she deserves, pianist/composer Diane Moser has steadily released a series of fine recordings over the last couple decades. Her 17-piece Composers Big Band recorded Live at Tierney's Tavern in 1999 (on the New Arts label), but she's also made some excellent smaller-group records, some of which have featured some pretty illustrious company, such as bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Gerry Hemingway and multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich--all of whom are featured on her superb quintet album ...

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Event

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band To Celebrate 20th Anniversary At Trumpets

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band To Celebrate 20th Anniversary At Trumpets

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Jazz insiders know that skipping even a single performance by the talented and adventurous 17-piece Diane Moser’s Composers Big Band (DMCBB) means missing a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience. Formed by composer/pianist Diane Moser and a dedicated group of musicians and composers with the intention of exploring the possibilities of big band music and moving it forward, the band has lived up to its mission since its debut gig in January 1997. The DMCBB is equally at home playing the classics and ...

“Moser is a sublime and powerful musician who has the innate ability to draw things out of expert players that you haven’t heard them do before... The pianist has a complete and focused command of the instrument that allows her to blur the distinctions between the kinetic-energy of “outside” playing and the more lyrical propulsion of “inside” music. At the center of it all is a remarkable mastery of rhythmic dynamics.”Robert Bush, San Diego Reader, July 22, 2012
Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Faculty (composition) of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Music Composition Program.(2012-present) Core faculty for The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music: composition, improvisation and performance.(2006-present) Private piano/composition studio in Northern New Jersey.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Birdsongs

Planet Arts Records
2018

buy

Duetto

CIMP Records
2012

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