Brandon Patrick George
Brandon Patrick George is a leading flute soloist and GRAMMY-nominated chamber musician whose repertoire extends from the Baroque era to today. He is the flutist of Imani Winds and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Albany symphonies, American Composers Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. He has been praised as “elegant” by The New York Times, as a “virtuoso” by The Washington Post, and as a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Brandon has performed at the Elbphilharmonie, the Kennedy Center, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Prague Spring Festival. In addition to his work with Imani Winds, Brandon’s solo performances include appearances at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 92nd Street Y, Tippet Rise, and Maverick Concerts. In 2021, Brandon was part of the inaugural class of WQXR’s Artist Propulsion Lab, a program designed to advance the careers of early and mid-career artists and support the future of classical music. During his yearlong residency at WQXR, Brandon guest hosted Evening Music, interviewed Ford Foundation president Darren Walker about diversity and equity in the performing arts, and recorded with pianist Aaron Diehl and harpist June Han.
Prior to his solo career, Brandon performed as a guest with many of the world’s leading ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brandon performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall and at the Hollywood Bowl with Music Director Gustavo Dudamel.
In September 2023, Brandon’s latest album, Twofold, was released on In a Circle Records. Twofold, Brandon’s second solo album, explores musical dialogues that transcend space, time, and identity by pairing canonical works for solo flute with new compositions. BBC Music Magazine gave Twofold a four-star rating for both the performance and recording, calling the album “a superb collection.” Twofold follows the success of Brandon Patrick George’s debut solo album, which was released in 2020 on Haenssler Classics. Brandon was featured in The New York Times around the album’s release, in an article titled “A Flutist Steps into the Solo Spotlight,” which described the album as “a program that showcases the flute in all its wit, warmth and brilliance.”
Since late May 2020, Brandon Patrick George has received frequent invitations to serve on panels about diversity in classical music, being repeatedly asked what institutions can do to support and reflect the communities they serve. The many conversations, and desire to use his platform for change, inspired him to create his latest commissioning initiative, BPG: The Community Concerto Project. Brandon proposes a new concerto which features students that he will mentor during his collaboration in the community.
Raised by a single mother in Dayton, OH, Brandon is the proud product of public arts education. He draws on his personal experiences in his commitment to educating the next generation, performing countless outreach concerts for schoolchildren every year, and mentoring young conservatory musicians of color embarking on performance careers. Brandon trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the Manhattan School of Music. He serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
For more information, visit www.brandonpatrickgeorge.com.
Aaron Diehl
Aaron Diehl approaches the piano with a delicately nuanced expressivity and an exquisitely attuned touch that have garnered him acclaim at the highest levels. From his collaborations with such jazz innovators as Wynton Marsalis, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Benny Golson, to his exploratory work in the classical realm with Philip Glass or the New York Philharmonic, to his own current-crossing recordings as a leader, Diehl is singularly committed to a journey of musical discovery regardless of genre or context.
On his latest album, Zodiac Suite, Diehl pays homage to composer/pianist Mary Lou Williams while unearthing new possibilities and pathways from one of her landmark works. Joined by the orchestral collective The Knights and special guests Evan Christopher (clarinet), Nicole Glover (tenor sax), Brandon Lee (trumpet), and Mikaela Bennett (soprano), Diehl breathes vibrant new life into a masterwork that the composer herself was never able to fully realize during her lifetime.
Diehl’s ventures into Williams’ expansive work are fully in keeping with his own musical trajectory. The Columbus, Ohio native began studying classical piano at the age of 7, while his passion for jazz was sparked during his attendance at the Interlochen Arts Camp in his pre-teen years, when he was exposed to the staggering, virtuosic swing of Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. By 17 he was a finalist in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition, where he came to the attention of Wynton Marsalis. Diehl spent the summer before his first year at Juilliard touring Europe with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.
Winning the American Pianists Association’s 2011 Cole Porter Fellowship brought Diehl to wider fame and landed him a contract with Mack Avenue Records; Zodiac Suite is his fourth leader release for the imprint. The broad spectrum of his influences has been evident from the outset, with his 2013 label debut The Bespoke Man’s Narrative including a Ravel piece alongside a Gershwin standard and an Ellington classic. His most recent release, The Vagabond, touched on composers from Sir Roland Hanna to Prokofiev to Philip Glass, as well as his own masterful compositions.
Through his role as musical director and pianist for the visionary vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, Diehl simultaneously became an in-demand soloist with classical ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the L.A. Philharmonic.
His performances have included Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, and Florence Price’s “Concerto in One Movement.” In 2024 he will premiere a new commission by composer Timo Andres with John Adams conducting the LA Philharmonic. That same year Diehl will succeed Bill Charlap as artistic director of 92NY’s long-running “Jazz in July” series.
Premiered in 1945, Zodiac Suite is best known in the trio incarnation that Williams recorded for the Asch label; within the same year she also performed the piece, each of its movements inspired by an astrological sign, in expanded versions for chamber-jazz ensemble at the Town Hall and for symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Arriving just three years after Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown, and Beige” and a dozen years before Gunther Schuller coined the term “Third Stream,” the Carnegie Hall event should have been hailed as a touchstone in the fusion of jazz and classical music, but a lack of preparation and rehearsal time led to a compromised performance, leaving Williams frustrated, never to reprise the epic arrangement.
“Mary Lou Williams evolved and changed over time,” Diehl says. “She lived through a significant portion of the development of 20th century music, but she always kept her foundation intact. The roots were always there. She struggled continually with people accepting her on her own terms and recognizing her significant contributions. I hope this album will encourage people to investigate more of her music.”
Diehl’s connection to Williams’ body of work is a personal one. In 2003, he met Father Peter O’Brien, the elder pianist’s longtime manager and, after the composer’s death, Executive Director of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation. Their paths crossed initially through a performance of Williams’ music by the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra while Diehl was a student. Later, in 2006, the two encountered each other at St. Joseph of the Holy Family in Harlem, where Diehl was music director, and O’Brien was a guest presider.
O’Brien asked Diehl to perform Williams’ “Mass for the Lenten Season,” though a planned recording was derailed when the priest passed away in 2015. “His passion inspired in me a sense of responsibility,” Diehl writes in his liner notes, “a delving further into Williams’ oeuvre, and a continued mission to emphasize the importance of her contributions.”
“It’s an ongoing challenge, even today, to incorporate the language of Black American folk music into this very Eurocentric identity with all its nuances,” he said. “I can only do my small part to celebrate Mary Lou Williams’ music whenever it’s possible because she was such a brilliant artist. It’s important to keep advocating on behalf of these folks who are no longer with us and to keep their music in people’s ears for generations to come.”
