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Anthony
BRANKER
Composer Anthony Branker has been deeply involved in all facets of
jazz education for many years now. He earned his Master of Music in
Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Miami as well as a Bachelor of
Arts in Music and a Certificate in African-American Studies from Princeton
University. Currently, he is a music professor and head of the
jazz program at Princeton University, where he directs an extensive
list of ensembles and teaches courses in jazz theory through improvisation & composition
and the evolution of jazz styles. He has also served on the faculties
of the Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College of the City University
of New York, Ursinus College, and the New Jersey Summer Arts Institute
at Rutgers University. Recently, he was named a Fulbright Scholar and
will lecture at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn, Estonia during
the fall semester of 2005.
His
works have been performed and/or recorded by Steve
Nelson, Stanley Jordan, Talib Kibwe, Bryan Carrott,
Mark Gross, Curtis Lundy, Steve Kroon, Belden Bullock,
Rick Margitza, Jann Parker, and the Spirit of Life
Ensemble, and have featured such guest soloists
as Kenny Barron, Eddie Henderson, Winard Harper, John
Hicks, Valery Ponomarev, Joe Ford, Cecil Brooks
III, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Alex Blake, Sarah Jane Cion, and
Benny Carter. Branker has received two composition
prizes from the International Association for Jazz
Education and two commissions from The Commission
Project. He has also served as a composer-in-residence
and has had his music featured in performance in
Russia, France, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, as
well as at New York’s Symphony Space and ASCAP’s
Jazz Songwriters Showcase at the Fez under the
Time Café. His most recent CD project, Spirit
Songs, features Branker’s ensemble ‘Ascent’ in
a program of eight original works with performances
by alto & soprano saxophonist Antonio Hart,
tenor & soprano
saxophonist Ralph Bowen, trombonist Clifford Adams
Jr., pianist Jonny King, bassist John Benitez,
and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr.
As a trumpeter, Branker has performed and recorded
with the Spirit of Life Ensemble - including
a five-year residency at New York’s internationally
renowned ‘Sweet Basil’ jazz club. He
has also performed at a variety of festivals, concert
halls and clubs in the United States and abroad,
including such locales as Russia, Finland, France,
Germany, Lithuania, and Estonia. He has worked
in a variety of musical settings with such artists
as Ted Curson, Talib Kibwe, Guilherme Franco & Nova
Bossa Nova, Michael Cochrane, Steve Nelson, Eddie
Henderson, Gary Burton, Stanley Jordan, Benny Carter,
Ralph Peterson, Terence Blanchard, Roscoe Mitchell,
the R&B group Tavares, and has performed
in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production
of Dinah Was: The Dinah Washington Musical.
He
has guest conducted youth orchestras and wind ensembles
from Germany, Israel, and Japan; intercollegiate
and high school All State jazz big bands; and has
conducted performances with the Princeton University
Orchestra, Chapel Choir, Glee Club/Concert Choir,
and Gospel Ensemble. While at Princeton, Mr. Branker
has directed two national award-winning jazz groups,
including the Monk/Mingus Ensemble, winner
of the Down Beat magazine Student Music
Award for “Best Jazz Instrumental Group,” and Ensemble
X, recipient of a 2003 Down Beat music
award for “Outstanding Performance.”
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