In this episode of RTV we present the second residency performance by saxophonist Aaron Burnett – a duet with acclaimed percussionist and composer Tyshawn Sorey.
In their most electrifying project to date, and for the first time in New York, the duo will play Digitized Dimensions – a series of new through-composed works with intermittent improvisations.
Performance date: 03/09/2020
Episode release date: 07/31/2020
Aaron Burnett began to study classical saxophone at the age 11. After attending the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for Classical and Jazz Performance (1999–2001), he relocated to Berklee College of Music in Boston for Classical Composition (2005–2008), graduating with a degree in Professional Music. Burnett has always stressed the importance of establishing a unique sound for himself while in college, studying classical Baroque composition techniques, advance harmony, world music, and atonal composition. He has performed with many renowned musicians such as Vijay Iyer, Teri Lyne Carrington, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Michelle Rosewoman, Jeff Tain Watts, and Kim Thompson, and toured with three-time Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding in her 2012 world tour with Radio Music Society. Burnett retains true nature of jazz in his music and his playing, always searching for new ways of interpreting the music while remaining modern and consistent with the times we live in.
Newark-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980) is celebrated for his incomparable virtuosity, effortless mastery and memorization of highly complex scores, and an extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work. He has performed nationally and internationally with his own ensembles, as well as artists such as John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Claire Chase, Steve Coleman, Steve Lehman, Robyn Schulkowsky, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Myra Melford, among many others. The New York Times has praised Sorey for his instrumental facility and aplomb, “he plays not only with gale-force physicality, but also a sense of scale and equipoise”; The Wall Street Journal notes Sorey is, “a composer of radical and seemingly boundless ideas.” The New Yorker recently commented that Sorey is “among the most formidable denizens of the in-between zone…An extraordinary talent who can see across the entire musical landscape.”
Aaron Burnett and Tyshawn Sorey: Digitized Dimensions is made possible, in part, by the Jerome Foundation. The Jerome Foundation, a long-time supporter of young composers, was a mainstay in Roulette’s early development and continues to help us fulfill our mission by presenting ambitious work by promising artists. Each year, the Jerome Foundation supports five artist residencies and four commissions at Roulette.