Jim McNeely, Frankfurt Radio Symphony & Frankfurt Radio Bigband
Biography Jim McNeely, Frankfurt Radio Symphony & Frankfurt Radio Bigband
Jim McNeely
Jim's reputation as a composer/arranger and conductor for large jazz ensembles continues to flourish and has earned him nine Grammy nominations. His work includes projects with the Danish Radio Big Band (where he was chief conductor for five years), the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands), the Swiss Jazz Orchestra (Bern/Zürich), WDR Big Band (Cologne), and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra. He is currently artist-in-residence with the HR Big Band (Frankfurt). In 1996 he rejoined the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and composer in residence. His latest album with them is Up from the Skies, on the Planet Arts label. The New York Times has called his writing “exhilarating.” DownBeat has said that his music is “eloquent enough to be profound.”
Born in Chicago, Jim McNeely moved to New York City in 1975, having received a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Illinois. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). In 1981 Jim began his four-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet.
At the present time, he leads his own tentet and trio and appears as guest soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. Jim has recorded a number of albums—trio and quartet—under his own name. He has also appeared as a sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, and Phil Woods. He is Musical Director of the BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop.
In addition, he has appeared at numerous college jazz festivals as performer and clinician and has been involved regularly with summer workshops such as the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Clinics, the Lake Placid Seminar in Jazz Improvisation, and the William Paterson University Summer Jazz Workshop. He has also conducted clinics and had major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, and Australia. Jim McNeely has been a member of MSM’s Jazz Arts faculty since 2008.
Frankfurt Radio Symphony
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt), founded in 1929 as one of the first radio symphony orchestras in Germany, can look back on a 95-year history and today successfully masters the challenges of a modern top-ranking orchestra.
Famed for its outstanding wind section, its powerful strings and its dynamic playing culture, the orchestra of the Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio of Hesse) together with its Music Director Alain Altinoglu is associated with musical excellence but also with an interesting and varied repertoire.
With innovative concert formats, internationally successful digital offerings and CD productions, as well as its constant presence in important music centers in Europe and Asia, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony underlines its prominent position within the European orchestral landscape and has an outstanding reputation worldwide.
Known for its groundbreaking world premiere recordings of the original versions of Bruckner's symphonies and the first complete digital recording of all Mahler symphonies, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony established a tradition in the interpretation of Romantic literature, which radiated from the longtime Music Director and current Honorary Conductor Eliahu Inbal to his successors Dmitri Kitaenko and Hugh Wolff, and on to the era of today's Conductor Laureate Paavo Järvi and to Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who last led the orchestra for seven years with great success as Music Director.
From its very inception, the orchestra displayed a firm commitment to both traditional and contemporary music under its first Music Director Hans Rosbaud. Following the war and during reconstruction, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony grew with Kurt Schröder, Winfried Zillig and Otto Matzerath at the helm, finally achieving international standing between the 1960s and 1980s under Dean Dixon and Eliahu Inbal, with guest performances worldwide and the production of multi-award-winning records.
