Tyshawn Sorey

Tyshawn Sorey is a composer, performer, educator, and scholar who works across a very extensive range of idioms in experimental music. Originally self-taught in composition, piano, trombone, and percussion, he has worked with chamber ensembles and collaborated with a diverse array of musicians, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Ray Anderson, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Coleman, Michele Rosewoman, Peter Evans, Mat Maneri, Steve Lehman, Mario Pavone, Ellery Eskelin, Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, Mark Helias and Butch Morris, among many others. Sorey’s recent article, Music and Meaning, discusses his approach to composition and improvisation, which is scheduled for release in late 2009 as part of a compilation of texts by musicians entitled ARCANA IV (John Zorn, ed.). Sorey has also conducted and participated in various lectures and master classes on improvisation, ensemble playing, and critical theory at the International Realtime Music Symposium in Norway, Hochschule für Musik Köln, School of Improvisational Music, Musikhochschule Nürnberg, Berklee College of Music, and Cité de la Musique in Paris. Tyshawn is also on the faculty of Brooklyn's School of Improvisational Music and New School University's Jazz and Contemporary Music program, and has received commissions from Van Lier Fellowship and Roulette Intermedium, most recently for a multi-chapter work in progress entitled “Wu-Wei,” recently premiered in its' entirety at The Stone in New York City, where he served as curator, in August 2009.