Genre-crossing composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck, renowned in both the jazz and new-music worlds, has gained widespread recognition as the driving force behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and the ambitious John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, groups with roots in jazz, world music, and contemporary composition. He integrates his deep interest in contemporary composition and spiritual practice into a musical language that is as accessible and expressive as it is advanced. Hollenbeck received degrees in percussion and jazz composition from the Eastman School of Music before moving to New York City in the early 1990s. He has worked with many of the world's leading musicians in jazz including Bob Brookmeyer, Kenny Wheeler, Fred Hersch, and Tony Malaby, and is well known in new-music circles for his longtime collaboration with Meredith Monk.
Hollenbeck has earned four Grammy nominations for both of his Large Ensemble albums "A Blessing" and “eternal interlude,” for his composition Falling Men on “Shut Up and Dance” commissioned by the Orchestre National de Jazz, and for his arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” on Songs I Like a Lot commissioned by Frankfurt Radio Big Band. John’s most notable awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award, and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. His recent works include commissions by Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ethos Percussion Group, Youngstown State University, University of Rochester, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, and Ensemble Cairn. Since 2005, he has been a professor of jazz drums and Improvisation at the Jazz Institute Berlin.
Portrait by Lukas Beck
