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Terry Vosbein

New Orleans born composer, Terry Vosbein has received numerous commissions to write new works from such organizations as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He has composed works for orchestra, wind ensemble, various chamber ensembles and choir. He written works for jazz bands of all sizes. And his compositions have been performed all over the world.

"Stunning" is what jazz writer Will Friedwald called Vosbein's latest release with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. FLEET STREET (Max Frank Music) is “full of surprises and is infused with a sense of humor that adds a special dimension that is too often missing in contemporary big band writing” (Joe Lang, Jersey Jazz). Of this setting of the music from Sweeney Todd, Jack Bowers (All That Jazz) said “the voice that emerges is unmistakably Vosbein's, placing a fresh and indelible big-band stamp on Sondheim's cogent narrative.”

PROGRESSIVE JAZZ 2009, also featuring the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, has rapidly been garnering critical praise. Jack Bowers (All That Jazz) called the disc “advanced, forward-moving and enlightening but in no wise pretentious or self-absorbed. An admirable performance from end to end.”

Vosbein has been awarded seven summer residencies at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In the fall of 2001 he was awarded a fellowship at University College in Oxford, where he composed Masque for Cello and Orchestra. And his composition A Prayer for Peace, a reaction to the events of September 11th, continues to receive performances worldwide. A more recent work, Charleston Episodes, was premiered by Chamber Music Charleston at Carnegie Hall in early 2013.

When not spending his summers composing in exotic corners of the world, Vosbein teaches music composition at Washington and Lee University in beautiful Lexington, Virginia. He received his Masters in Composition from James Madison University under the tutelage of John Hilliard, and his Doctorate in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was a student of Donald Erb.

In addition to his activities as a composer, Vosbein was an active jazz bassist and arranger for over twenty-five years. He performed and arranged for a variety of ensembles, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Atlanta Pops. And he traveled “on the road” for many years, performing in a wide range of genres: country western twang, big band swing, disco fever, country club wallpaper, plus a never ending assortment of jazz combos and studio encounters.

Awards

La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris [six summer residencies]

Visiting Fellowship at University College, Oxford [2001]


Tags

2
Album Review

Vosbein Magee Big Band: Come and Get It!

Read "Come and Get It!" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One conclusive way to appraise an album—big-band or otherwise—is by the emotional response it arouses in the listener. Come and Get it!, the debut recording by the Virginia-based Vosbein Magee Big Band, gives rise to warmth and happiness for a number of reasons, not least of which are an unbroken series of bright and impressive themes, as well as the band's earnest and admirable performance before an appreciative audience at the historic Washington & Lee University in Lexington.

7
Album Review

Terry Vosbein: La Chanson Francaise

Read "La Chanson Francaise" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There's something about the music of France that strikes a romantic chord in almost every heart. Even when writing about anguish, loneliness and ennui, the French have a way of encasing those emotions within beguiling melodies that somehow make the pain seem more endurable. It is this singular blend of gallic romance and sorrow that animates La Chanson Francaise, the newest CD by Virginia-based composer / arranger Terry Vosbein who leads an earnest and well-spoken nonet (also his ally of ...

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Album Review

Terry Vosbein and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: Progressive Jazz 2009

Read "Progressive Jazz 2009" reviewed by Robert J. Robbins


Over the last few years, Terry Vosbein, a Professor of Music at Washington and Lee University and a classically-trained composer of symphonies, operas, and chamber music (not to mention a former bassist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra), has been exhaustively researching the unrecorded scores from the Stan Kenton Collection at the University of North Texas. Now, thanks to his meticulous research, Vosbein leads the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in the debut recordings of four originals and two arrangements by Kenton's eminence ...

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Recording

Terry Vosbein: Fleet Street

Terry Vosbein: Fleet Street

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Remember when jazz orchestras skillfully adapted the music of Broadway musicals? Notable examples from the '50s and '60s include Les Brown's Dance to South Pacific (1958) and Stan Kenton's West Side Story (1961). Rather than send up cute pop caricatures, the best arrangers crafted interpretations that often were bigger, bolder and more dynamic than the originals. Add Terry Vosbein's new Fleet Street (MFM) to the list. Terry who? Terry is a composer, arranger and educator at Washington & Lee University ...

“A stunner.” [Fleet Street] — Will Friedwald, Wall Street Journal)

“A flavorful bonbon that is sure to gladden the heart and soul of any Francophile as well as those who simply appreciate melodious, swinging and well-played contemporary jazz.” [La Chanson Française] — (Jack Bowers, All About Jazz)

"One of the most exciting new big band albums of recent years." [Fleet Street] — Pat Goodhope, International Association of Jazz Record Collectors Journal

“Progressive Jazz in the best sense of the word: advanced, forward-moving and enlightening but in no way pretentious or self-absorbed,” according to reviewer Jack Bowers at All About Jazz. The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra is “remarkably accomplished, and takes to these demanding charts like ducks to water.”

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Primary Instrument

Composer / conductor

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Professor of Music Composition Washington and Lee University

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Come and Get It!

Max Frank Music
2019

buy

La Chanson Francaise

Max Frank Music
2016

buy

Fleet Street

Max Frank Music
2011

buy

Progressive Jazz 2009

Max Frank Music
2009

buy

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