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Billband to Release New Album TOWARDS DAYBREAK, 1/29; Concert Set for Le Poisson Rouge, 2/10

Related: Bill Ryan, Billband, Innova, Towards Daybreak

1 Simple Lines (6:20)
2 Towards Daybreak (9:32)
3 Rapid Assembly (7:30)
4 A Simple Place (8:11)
5 Solitude in Transit (8:10)
6 Friction (6:36)
7 Sparkle (3:45)
8 Blurred (9:36)

For the past twenty years Bill Ryan (b.1968) has been a tireless advocate of contemporary music. Through his work as a composer, conductor, producer and educator, he has engaged diverse audiences throughout the country with the music of our time.

Bill's own music has roots in minimalism and jazz, the latter, undoubtedly connected to playing trumpet in jazz bands throughout his youth. His compositions are energetic, evocative and deeply personal, and have been described as "...constantly threatening to burst at the seams, were those seams not so artfully structured...rarely has music this earthy been so elegant (Gramophone)."

Bill's music has been performed in major cities and venues across the country including at (le) Poisson Rouge, Galapagos, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center (New York), Woodruff Arts Center (Atlanta), the Atlas (Washington D.C.), Initman Theater (Seattle), and the Hobby Center (Houston), and internationally in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. His music has received awards from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and New Music USA. In addition to the concert stage, Bill's music is regularly used by choreographers and dance companies throughout the country.

As a conductor, Bill has commissioned and premiered dozens of works by such notable composers as Phil Kline, Marc Mellits, Belinda Reynolds, Jad Abumrad, Evan Ziporyn, and David Lang. In 2006 he founded The Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, who have been profiled in numerous publications including Newsweek, the New York Times, and Billboard Magazine, and featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, and WNYC's Radiolab. Beyond their many campus events they have performed concerts in Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C., at New York's Bang On a Can Marathon, as members of the all-star ensemble assembled by the Kronos Quartet to perform on the In C 45th Anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall, at (le) Poisson Rouge, and at the Make Music New York summer festival.

Bill has produced three critically acclaimed recordings by the ensemble, named to top year-end lists by the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Weekly, Time Out Chicago, and many others. Music from their first CD, Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, was recently named one of the top five classical recordings of the decade by WNYC's John Schaefer. Bill resides in West Michigan with his wife and three children. When not working on music Bill can usually be found in the woods, washing his truck, or watching the Detroit Tigers.

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