Donal Fox

Pianist, Composer, Improviser

"A composer, pianist and improviser who deftly draws from jazz and classical contemporary traditions."
— The New York Times

"Art Tatum on the right hand; Johann Sebastian Bach on the left; Donal Fox in the middle."
— Terrance McKnight, WQXR

"Donal Fox is simply without peer."
— Howard Mandel, Downbeat

Internationally acclaimed as a composer, pianist, and improviser, Donal Fox expertly fuses jazz, Afro-Latin and classical idioms into intricate new works and electrifying performances. Praised by The Boston Globe as "unique and utterly commanding," Fox de- and reconstructs Bach, Piazzolla, Schumann, Monk, Schoenberg and more, adding propulsive grooves and using composed themes as springboards for glorious improvisational flights that blend baroque with bebop, twelve-tone techniques with twelve-bar blues.

A Steinway Artist, Fox has premiered his works at such prestigious venues as Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has served as the first African-American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony. Fox's fluency across genres has led to collaborations and recordings with the likes of David Murray, Oliver Lake, Quincy Troupe, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Maya Beiser and Hilary Hahn, along with the Richmond Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Among his many accolades, Fox is a Guggenheim Fellow, and a recent recipient of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Music.

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