Evan Solot
Composer Evan Solot's work has earned accolades and support from such diverse sources as National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and Duke Ellington. His compositions and arrangements have been performed by some of the country's leading jazz performers, including Randy Brecker, Robin Eubanks, Bob Mintzer, and Mike Stern.
The interview can also be downloaded as a video podcast (136.4 MB) or as an audio file (.mp3 - 53.6 MB).
Recent commissions are for orchestras, chamber ensembles, jazz groups, pop recordings, dance and theater. Suite Mississippi, (a multi-media work with orchestra, blues band, gospel choir, vocal soloists, dancers and narrators) celebrating Mississippi's contribution to the development of jazz was premiered in January. Glacier Blue was commissioned as the millennium piece for the state of Alaska. Artists he has collaborated with or composed for include bassist Stanley Clarke, choreographer Judith Jamison, playwright Ntosake Shange, pop diva Bette Midler, and saxophonist Michael Brecker. Evan's music underscores the award-winning documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" and is part of Naxos Records' American Essentials series with the Chestnut Brass. He orchestrated the new NBC Nightly News theme.