Bio

COMPOSER/BANDLEADER: Jeff Fairbanks has won a number of highly competitive awards for composing, including the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, BMI Charlie Parker Award, runner-up for the IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship, and recognition from the NY Youth Symphony. He has won seven grants from the following institutions: the Aaron Copland Fund, the Queens Council on the Arts, and the American Music Center. Jeff’s music has been performed at the Montreux, Vienne, Umbria, and North Sea Jazz festivals, Merkin Concert Hall, and at IAJE conferences, among other venues.  A busy composer, he’s been commissioned by the likes of the BMI Jazz Orchestra, West Point Band’s Jazz Knights, Hora Decima brass ensemble, and more.

PERFORMER: As a trombonist Fairbanks has been deemed a “rising multi-faceted star…his instrumental skills as a trombonist are second to none” (@CritcialJazz); and received praise for his “fluid lines and lyrical sensibilities” (Jazz Times). He has played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey Orchestras, and Wito Rodriguez, to name a few. He has toured in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and throughout the U.S, in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden.

BACKGROUND: Fairbanks is a native of South Florida.  After earning a Master degree in Jazz Composition from USF in 2005, he moved to New York to join the BMI Jazz Composer Workshop under Jim McNeely.  Now, in addition to leading and writing for Project Hansori, Jeff freelances as a composer and performer, and lives in Queens with his wife and two children.

AWARDS

  • BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize 2008
  • ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award 2006
  • University of South Florida Outstanding Merit Award 2001
  • University of South Florida Outstanding Merit Award 2000
  • Treasure Coast Jazz Ensemble Young Artist Award 1998
  • ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, Honorable Mention 2003

GRANTS

  • Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Recording Grant 2011
  • American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2011
  • American Music Center Recording Grant 2010
  • Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Initiative 2010
  • American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2009
  • Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant 2008
  • American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2007

RESIDENCIES

  • West Point Jazz Knights Composers Forum 2011
  • LaGuardia Performing Arts Center 2010-2011
  • BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop 2005-2008

PANELS SERVED

  • Queens Council on the Arts 2011, 2012
  • American Music Center 2011

MEMBERSHIP

  • American Federation of Musicians, Local 802
  • American Music Center

EDUCATION

  • M.M. Jazz Composition, University of South Florida 2005
  • B.M. Trombone Performance, University of South Florida 2002

COMMISSIONERS

  • JongEun Lee
  • Hora Decima Brass Ensemble
  • West Point Band Jazz Knights
  • BMI/NY Jazz Orchestra

 

PAST PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

6/2/11:  Produced interdisciplinary art event at LaGuardia PAC.  Exhibit of contemporary art of Queens artists, led by Daniel Cho.  Followed by concert of Project Hansori.

3/4/10:  Recording of original piece Joy Everlasting used in art installation of Daniel Cho.  Live performance of Jeff Fairbanks and wife Heun Choi (cello).  Berlitz Gallery at Rockefeller Center.