Jane Ira BloomYale University and the Yale School of Music
Professor, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Saxophonist, Composer, Producer
Profile:Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane IraBloom has been
full-time faculty at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music since 1989,
and holds degrees from Yale University and Yale School of Music. She is a
pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz and winner of the
Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Award
for lifetime service to jazz, Downbeat International Critics Poll & Jazz
Journalists Award for soprano saxophone, the IWJ Jazz Masters Award, and the
Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation. Bloom also has an asteroid named
in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid
6083janeirabloom). She adjudicated the prestigious Thelonious Monk
International Saxophone Competition, the BMI Jazz Workshop Composition Prize,
and served on a distinguished panel of faculty composers at the new Jazz
Composers Orchestra Institute at the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia
University. Recipient of the Doris Duke
Jazz New Works Award, and fellowships from the NEA, Rockefeller, Pew & Ford
Foundations, she has performed, recorded, and/or collaborated with Charlie
Haden, Ed Blackwell, Fred Hersch, George Coleman, Kenny Wheeler, Julian
Priester, Rufus Reid, Bob Brookmeyer, Mark Dresser, Bobby Previte, Matt Wilson,
Jerry Granelli, Marc Copland, Jay Clayton and Cleo Laine. Her compositions and commissions include the
American Composers Orchestra, St. Luke¹s Chamber Ensemble, Pilobolus &
Paradigm Dance Companies, NY City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, the
Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the NASA Art Program. Her film credits include John Sayles's SILVER
CITY, SHADOW OF A DOUBT for NBC-TV, and
a short film on Jules Feiffer’s MODERN DANCER. She has also produced and
recorded for CBS, ENJA, JMT, Arabesque Jazz Recordings and Artistshare. Bloom has been presented in the most
prestigious halls, clubs, and festivals around the world, and a festival in
Brooklyn, NY featuring cutting edge woman artists was named in her honor (the
2009 Bloom Festival).