The MacArthur Foundation described Tyshawn Sorey: “A virtuosic
percussionist and drum-set player who is fluent in piano and trombone,
Sorey is an ever-curious explorer of the nature of sound and rhythm,
ensemble behavior and the physicality of live performance.”
(John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur)
October 11, 2017
Tyshawn Sorey, a composer, experimental musician and music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, popularly referred to as a "genius grant," it was announced Wednesday.
A release from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation cited Sorey for "assimilating and transforming ideas from a broad spectrum of musical idioms and defying distinctions between genres, composition, and improvisation in a singular expression of contemporary music."
The fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached award given to individuals who show exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments, and who have potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. It comes in five annual increments.Sorey, who is 37, said the grant money will be used for future projects, but the honor is more than money.
"It's a lot about advancing my career beyond where it is, increasing visibility, being able to show my work at new venues," he said.Sorey said he has a few ideas for his next musical projects, but he would not go into detail.
Sorey said growing up in Newark, N.J., he had a limited notion of what an African American composer could be.
"There was that tradition of a black composer writing tunes, assembling a collective of musicians to play them," he said. Then he discovered the work of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an all-black collective of creative thinkers.
"There were so many different avenues of composition to go into. You can explore alternate ways and not be confined in how you think about music," he said. "You don't have to be confined to structures, so-called jazz or whatever. You don't have to worry about fitting into any category."
This is the third year in a row that an artist with Connecticut connections has won a genius grant. In 2016, poet Claudia Rankine, a professor at Yale University, became a MacArthur fellow. In 2015, Wesleyan grad Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway musical "Hamilton," was honored.
The MacArthur Foundation described Sorey: "A virtuosic percussionist and drum-set player who is fluent in piano and trombone, Sorey is an ever-curious explorer of the nature of sound and rhythm, ensemble behavior and the physicality of live performance. He erodes distinctions among musical genres as well as the line between composition and improvisation and incorporates sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic phrasing, highly prescribed improvisational sound worlds and real-time experimentation with sound, among many other structural elements. At the same time, he possesses a refined sense of restraint and balance that allows him to maintain his own unique voice while bringing a vast array of musical settings to life."In a July interview with the Courant's music writer Michael Hamad, Sorey described his approach to his work, and how he believed that the lesser regard for improvised music compared to composed music was inappropriate and limiting.
"We're in a society that looks at composition and improvisation as separate things, with composition being superior. In my music system, that's not how it works.
A release from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation cited Sorey for "assimilating and transforming ideas from a broad spectrum of musical idioms and defying distinctions between genres, composition, and improvisation in a singular expression of contemporary music."
Reached by phone at his office in Middletown, Sorey said he is stunned by the grant, even weeks after being told he got it.
"It's the biggest honor I've ever received in my life," he said. "I'm still processing it."
Sorey's life for the past year has been a series of high points.
"I
just had a daughter on Dec. 26. I got my doctorate at Columbia, in
composition. I moved to New Haven. I got a new job. I had a new
recording," he said
The fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached award given to individuals who show exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments, and who have potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. It comes in five annual increments.Sorey, who is 37, said the grant money will be used for future projects, but the honor is more than money.
"It's a lot about advancing my career beyond where it is, increasing visibility, being able to show my work at new venues," he said.Sorey said he has a few ideas for his next musical projects, but he would not go into detail.
Sorey said growing up in Newark, N.J., he had a limited notion of what an African American composer could be.
"There was that tradition of a black composer writing tunes, assembling a collective of musicians to play them," he said. Then he discovered the work of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an all-black collective of creative thinkers.
"There were so many different avenues of composition to go into. You can explore alternate ways and not be confined in how you think about music," he said. "You don't have to be confined to structures, so-called jazz or whatever. You don't have to worry about fitting into any category."
This is the third year in a row that an artist with Connecticut connections has won a genius grant. In 2016, poet Claudia Rankine, a professor at Yale University, became a MacArthur fellow. In 2015, Wesleyan grad Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway musical "Hamilton," was honored.
The MacArthur Foundation described Sorey: "A virtuosic percussionist and drum-set player who is fluent in piano and trombone, Sorey is an ever-curious explorer of the nature of sound and rhythm, ensemble behavior and the physicality of live performance. He erodes distinctions among musical genres as well as the line between composition and improvisation and incorporates sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic phrasing, highly prescribed improvisational sound worlds and real-time experimentation with sound, among many other structural elements. At the same time, he possesses a refined sense of restraint and balance that allows him to maintain his own unique voice while bringing a vast array of musical settings to life."In a July interview with the Courant's music writer Michael Hamad, Sorey described his approach to his work, and how he believed that the lesser regard for improvised music compared to composed music was inappropriate and limiting.
"We're in a society that looks at composition and improvisation as separate things, with composition being superior. In my music system, that's not how it works.
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