Tom Varner is an American jazz horn player and composer. He holds a B.M. degree (1979) from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied jazz improvisation and composition. Varner also holds an M.A. (2005) from the City College of New York. He has performed and recorded with Steve Lacy, Dave Liebman, George Gruntz, John Zorn, Bobby Watson, La Monte Young, Miles Davis with Quincy Jones, Bobby Previte, Jim McNeely, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, the Mingus Orchestra, Franz Koglmann, and appears on more than 70 albums. He also has 13 albums out as a composer/leader, with sidemen such as Steve Wilson, Tony Malaby, Ed Jackson, Ellery Eskelin, Tom Rainey, Cameron Brown, Drew Gress, Matt Wilson, Kenny Barron, Victor Lewis, Fred Hopkins, and Billy Hart. Varner has been in the Down Beat Critics Poll Top Ten annually since the mid-1990s. He has been awarded grants from the Jack Straw Foundation, Seattle's 4Culture, National Endowment for the Arts, the Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation, and has been a resident at MacDowell, Blue Mountain Center, and Centrum arts colonies.
Tom Varner
Studios
Watson
Tom Varner worked in the Watson studio.
Built in 1916 in memory of Regina Watson of Chicago, a musician and teacher, this studio was donated by a group of her friends, along with funds for its maintenance. Originally designed to serve as a composers’ studio with room for performance, Watson was used as a recital hall for chamber music for a…