Bill Cunliffe Nominated for Grammy Award

Grammy® award-winning composer Bill Cunliffe's "fourth stream...La Banda" has been nominated for the 2010 Grammy award in the Best Instrumental Composition category.
 
The piece was commissioned by Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance (BCM&D), and performed by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Luis Biava with Terell Stafford as trumpet soloist.
 
This is the fourth Grammy® nomination for Mr. Cunliffe who won a 2009 Grammy® award in the Best Instrumental Arrangement category for his West Side Story Medley, released on the CD, "The Resonance Big Band Pays Tribute to Oscar Peterson."
 
"The Temple University Symphony Orchestra's association with the Grammy® nomination is a testimony to the outstanding talent of our music students and faculty, especially Luis Biava and Terell Stafford," said Boyer Dean Robert T. Stroker, who conceived of the idea to commission the work and served as executive producer of the recording. "Bill Cunliffe is a uniquely gifted composer and arranger and did an exemplary job showcasing our terrific orchestra and jazz students. We look forward to the Grammy® Awards in February."
 
"fourth stream...La Banda" received its world premiere in March 2010 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and was performed the following month at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
 
The recording, released on the college's record label, BCM&D Records, is available for purchase and download at CD Baby, iTunes and other major distributors.
 
The 53rd Annual Grammy® Awards will take place in Los Angeles on February 13, 2011 at 8 p.m. (EST), televised on CBS. The winner of the Best Instrumental Composition category will be announced at the Pre-Telecast awards ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. (EST) and can be streamed live from www.grammy.com
 

Jazz pianist, composer and arranger Bill Cunliffe is widely known for his swinging and lyrical pianism and his creativity and invention as a composer and arranger of jazz.  He graduated from Duke University and the Eastman School of Music, where he won several DownBeat Awards.  After graduation, he taught at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. His first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Woody Shaw and James Moody.
Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. A number of his jazz instructional books are published by Alfred Publications, his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music and Otter Music, and his choral music is self-published on his website www.billcunliffe.com.  Bill was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed "Piano Jazz" radio show in June 1998.

Cunliffe has released a dozen CD's as a leader, including his latest, Three's Company with flutist Holly Hoffman.

Cunliffe, who formerly taught jazz at the Boyer College, teaches at the Vail Jazz Institute, and the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and is Associate Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton. He is also composer-in-residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA.
 
About the Temple University Symphony Orchestra
Under the leadership of music director Luis Biava, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students who study and perform a full range of orchestral works. Students also perform with Temple's Opera Theater and the Department of Choral Activities in major performances on and off campus. Orchestra alumni hold positions with many renowned orchestras including The Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; the Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, National and Hungarian Symphony Orchestras; the Hong Kong, Israel, Malaysia and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
 
In addition to local and greater Philadelphia area performances, the Temple University Symphony Orchestra performs at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Temple Performing Arts Center, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall.