JEFFREY REILLY

Biographical Info “The virtuoso clarinetist Jeff Reilly extends his cadenzas across the history of sound, from monotony to modernism, in a performance that is dominant and often hypnotic” Norman Lebrecht Jeff Reilly is a musician with a broad and extensive scope of work. A twice Juno award nominated bass clarinetist as well as a composer, conductor and producer, his focus is to perform with a precision of gesture and clarity of focus that blurs any simple distinctions between improvisation and composition and to do so with a musicality and sensitivity that reminds us such distinctions are moot. Jeff has appeared as a soloist with the Elora Singers, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Canadian Chamber Choir, Calgary’s Luminous Voices and Ottawa’s 13 Strings, among others. With the groundbreaking trio Sanctuary, he has released 4 albums and toured across Canada, USA, Europe and Asia. A fluent improviser and interpreter comfortable in the boundary areas between jazz and classical, Jeff has recorded and performed with Jerry Granelli, Ben Caplan, Barry Guy, Maya Homburger, John Potter, Peter-Anthony Togni, India Gailey, Suzie Leblanc and Tom Allen. He is active in many musical projects including the Blackwood Duo, New Hermitage, Upstream Music and with James Shaw’s Vesuvius Big Band. As a soloist on the German ECM New Series label, his interpretation of Peter-Anthony Togni’s Lamentations of Jeremiah was praised as “virtuosic and mystical” by The Independent, UK and “virtuosic, dominant and hypnotic” by the celebrated UK critic Norman Lebrecht. A long-time music producer with the Canadian Broadcasting corporation, he produced thousands of hours of radio programming, including 4 multi-episode documentaries on music for the program IDEAS. He has produced hundreds of concert recordings of classical, jazz, world and contemporary music, hundreds of studio sessions and over 25 CD’s of Canadian jazz and classical music including releases on CBC records, Tafelmusik Media, Warner Classics UK, Centrediscs, NAXOS and Leaf Music. Over the years 6 of his CD productions have received Juno nominations. Jeff has composed dozens of works for orchestra, big band, jazz composer’s orchestras, bass clarinet ensembles, chamber jazz groups and for his duo Blackwood with long-time collaborator Peter-Anthony Togni. In 2022 he received an Arts Nova Scotia grant to write a suite of compositions for James Shaw’s Vesuvius Big Band, that were premiered at the Halifax Jazz Festival in 2023. Jeff is a co-founder and past artistic director of the Upstream Music Association, and is the regular conductor of the Upstream Orchestra, their resident jazz composer’s orchestra. Recent CD releases include To Dream of Silence featuring the music of Jeff Reilly and Christos Hatzis and the widely acclaimed Lost and Found, for the Blackwood Duo of Jeff Reilly and Peter-Anthony Togni. Future plans include an October, 2024 release with the Blackwood Trio, and an extensive collaborative project with the hiphop artist Aquakultre. “Bass clarinetist Jeff Reilly was more than remarkable in his encompassing both the written and improvised parts of the score, his range of imagination and technical accomplishment in extended clarinet techniques a wonderful stretch to one’s musical mind”. Kenneth Delong, Calgary Herald

Region Nova Scotia

Instruments Composer

Do you teach? yes

What do you teach? Bass Clarinet

Website jeffreilly.ca

Instagram @jeff.reilly.52

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JeffReillyBassClarinet/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jeffreyreilly5617

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