Profile
Short Bio
“The score’s irresistible energy seemed to come from everywhere: classical forms, jazz harmonies, and Arvo Pärt-like meditativeness, were all on tap, and the last bars were pure Romanticism.”
—New York Times
Composer, arranger, and producer Patrick Zimmerli writes a sophisticated yet approachable hybrid of jazz and classical music. His new CD, Modern Music, was just released on Nonesuch Recordings to acclaim in the New York Times. Zimmerli has released 7 other CDs of his music on the Arabesque, Songlines, and Koch labels; his violin piece The Light Guitar was released in September 2011 by Timothy Fain for Naxos. Zimmerli has just been awarded the prestigious Seattle Commissioning Club Commission for 2013, for an evening-length work for Joshua Redman with String Quartet, Bass, and Percussion. his works were premiered at Carnegie Hall in March 2011 by jazz pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays. He is currently composer in residence at Music in the Loft in Chicago, where another new piece for two pianists will be premiered in January 2012.
Zimmerli has written two Piano Concertos, two Piano Trios, numerous solo, chamber, and vocal pieces, and over 40 pieces for his jazz/classical ensemble Emergence. Recent winner of the Colorado Music Festival’s CLICK commission, where the audience voted on the winning composer, he has also been commissioned for a Quintet by the Festival Mozaic in California (2011); a Chamber Symphony by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (2009), and an orchestral piece with video by the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Other commissions have come from the Ying String Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and the Belgian ensemble Octurn. Zimmerli’s music has been performed at MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum, on NPR’s Fresh Sounds, and recorded on many CD’s. Awards include first prize in the BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute Composers’ Competition, Gil Evans Fellowship and the Downbeat Jazz Awards. From 1995-2005 Zimmerli composed, arranged, and produced music for TV and film; he holds a DMA from Columbia University, where he currently teaches in New York.