Tyshawn Sorey
Biography Tyshawn Sorey
Tyshawn Sorey
Newark-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity, effortless mastery and memorization of highly complex music, and extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. He has performed nationally and internationally with his own ensembles, as well as with such artists as John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, Marilyn Crispell, Steve Lehman, Evan Parker, and Myra Melford, among many others. The New York Times has praised Sorey for his instrumental facility and aplomb, “he can play the drums not only with gale-force physicality, but also a sense of scale and equipoise”; The Wall Street Journal has critically acclaimed his work as, “a composer of radical and seemingly boundless ideas.” He has received commissions and support for his genre-crossing compositions from The Shifting Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, Van Lier Fellowship, Spektral Quartet, and The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). He also collaborates regularly with ICE as a percussionist and composer. As a leader, Sorey has released four critically acclaimed recordings: That/Not (Firehouse 12), Koan (482 Music), Oblique I (Pi), and Alloy (Pi). In 2012 he was selected as one of nine composers for the Other Minds residency (2012), where he exchanged ideas with such like-minded peers as Ikue Mori, Ken Ueno, and Harold Budd. In 2013 JazzDanmark invited him to serve as the Danish International Visiting Artist. Sorey has taught and lectured on composition and improvisation at Columbia University, The New School, The Banff Centre, Wesleyan University, International Realtime Music Symposium, Hochschule für Musik Köln, Berklee College of Music, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Danish Rhythmic Conservatory. His works have been premiered at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Walt Disney Hall, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Stone, among other venues.
