HENRY THREADGILL
Artist Website: Henry Threadgill
Social Media Pages: Facebook
Streaming Service: Bandcamp
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NEA Jazz master Henry Threadgill is hailed by the New York Times as “perhaps the most important jazz composer of his generation,” He has been celebrated for over forty years as one of the most original, forward-thinking composers and multi-instrumentalists in American music. His four-movement work, In for a Penny, In for a Pound, received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2016, one of only three jazz compositions to ever be so honored.
A Chicago native, Mr. Threadgill studied at the city’s American Conservatory of Music, majoring in composition, piano, and flute. A Vietnam veteran, he performed with the U.S. Army Concert Band. Mr. Threadgill is an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), dedicated to the performance of its members’ original music. Mr. Threadgill has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Award, and the Doris Duke Impact Award. Down Beat magazine’s International Jazz Critics Poll has five times distinguished him with its Best Composer Award. The Jazz Journalists Association honored him with its 2002 Composer of the Year Award and its Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Threadgill has released over thirty critically acclaimed albums.
Mr. Threadgill’s orchestral pieces, 1987’s Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run and 1993’s Mix for Orchestra premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His many commissions include Mordine & Co. Dance Theater, Carnegie Hall, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Talujon Percussion Ensemble, Junge Philharmonic Salzburg Orchestra, the Biennale di Venezia, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has been composer in residence at University of California-Berkeley and the Atlantic Center of the Arts. Through the years, Mr. Threadgill has led, performed, and recorded with numerous groups, most recently Zooid and the Double Up Ensemble. In 2015, a two-day festival at New York’s Harlem Stage celebrated works spanning Mr. Threadgill’s career performed and reinterpreted by an all-star collection of musicians.
In 2024, The Big Ears Festival will be presenting a total of five Henry Threadgill concert programs including "Zooid", "The Henry Threadgill - Vijay Iyer - Dafnis Prieto Trio", and three repertory bands: "Air", "Make A Move", and "Very Very Circus".
The Critics Speak:
“Sweet-and-sour, jazz-tango-Middle-Eastern-funk [from] one of our great composers.”
—The New York Times
”One of jazz's most admired innovators since the '70s and a pillar of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill takes the stage with his slinky, utterly distinctive, and disarmingly engaging acoustic sextet, Zooid.” –The New Yorker
Awards and Honors:
2024: Jazz Music Awards: Award of Distinction
2023: The Jazz Gallery: Lifetime Achievement Award
2022: Jazz Music Awards: Jazz Composer of the Year
2021: NEA Jazz Master
2016: Vietnam Veterens of America – Excellence in the Art Award
2016: Doris Duke Performing Artist Award
2016: Pulitzer Prize winner in Music: “In for a Penny, in for a Pound” (Pi Records)
2015: Doris Duke Impact Award
2015: ASCAP Wall of Fame
2015: AACM 50th Anniversay Celebration
2014: Harlem Stage Retrospective Tribue
2009: Aaron Copland House Award (First Black composer to receive the award)
2008: United States Artists Fellow
2003: Guggenheim Fellowship
1990: Best Composer honors Downbeat Magazine Critics poll
1989 & 1988: Best Composer honors Downbeat Magazine Critics & Readers polls
A Chicago native, Mr. Threadgill studied at the city’s American Conservatory of Music, majoring in composition, piano, and flute. A Vietnam veteran, he performed with the U.S. Army Concert Band. Mr. Threadgill is an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), dedicated to the performance of its members’ original music. Mr. Threadgill has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Award, and the Doris Duke Impact Award. Down Beat magazine’s International Jazz Critics Poll has five times distinguished him with its Best Composer Award. The Jazz Journalists Association honored him with its 2002 Composer of the Year Award and its Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Threadgill has released over thirty critically acclaimed albums.
Mr. Threadgill’s orchestral pieces, 1987’s Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run and 1993’s Mix for Orchestra premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His many commissions include Mordine & Co. Dance Theater, Carnegie Hall, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Talujon Percussion Ensemble, Junge Philharmonic Salzburg Orchestra, the Biennale di Venezia, and the American Composers Orchestra. He has been composer in residence at University of California-Berkeley and the Atlantic Center of the Arts. Through the years, Mr. Threadgill has led, performed, and recorded with numerous groups, most recently Zooid and the Double Up Ensemble. In 2015, a two-day festival at New York’s Harlem Stage celebrated works spanning Mr. Threadgill’s career performed and reinterpreted by an all-star collection of musicians.
In 2024, The Big Ears Festival will be presenting a total of five Henry Threadgill concert programs including "Zooid", "The Henry Threadgill - Vijay Iyer - Dafnis Prieto Trio", and three repertory bands: "Air", "Make A Move", and "Very Very Circus".
The Critics Speak:
“Sweet-and-sour, jazz-tango-Middle-Eastern-funk [from] one of our great composers.”
—The New York Times
”One of jazz's most admired innovators since the '70s and a pillar of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill takes the stage with his slinky, utterly distinctive, and disarmingly engaging acoustic sextet, Zooid.” –The New Yorker
Awards and Honors:
2024: Jazz Music Awards: Award of Distinction
2023: The Jazz Gallery: Lifetime Achievement Award
2022: Jazz Music Awards: Jazz Composer of the Year
2021: NEA Jazz Master
2016: Vietnam Veterens of America – Excellence in the Art Award
2016: Doris Duke Performing Artist Award
2016: Pulitzer Prize winner in Music: “In for a Penny, in for a Pound” (Pi Records)
2015: Doris Duke Impact Award
2015: ASCAP Wall of Fame
2015: AACM 50th Anniversay Celebration
2014: Harlem Stage Retrospective Tribue
2009: Aaron Copland House Award (First Black composer to receive the award)
2008: United States Artists Fellow
2003: Guggenheim Fellowship
1990: Best Composer honors Downbeat Magazine Critics poll
1989 & 1988: Best Composer honors Downbeat Magazine Critics & Readers polls
For additional information contact: MM Music Agency
Phone: 212-229-9160, e-mail: maurice@mmmusicagency.com
