Performance Santa Fe presents Billy Childs Quartet!
To say that jazz titan Billy Childs is wildly talented would be a grave understatement. A native of Los Angeles, Childs began studying piano in early childhood; by age six he was giving public performances and at 16 he was admitted to the USC School of Performing Arts (now Colburn Conservatory). Shortly after graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition, he was discovered by jazz trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard.
Since the start of his recording career in the 1980s, Childs has gone on to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and five Grammy Awards — two for composition, two for arrangement, and one for his most recent album Rebirth — in addition to 16 Grammy nominations. He has collaborated with an honor roll of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Gladys Knight, Sting, Claudia Acuña, Chick Corea, Renée Fleming, Wynton Marsalis, and many others.
Today, Childs is not only celebrated as one of the leading jazz pianists of our time but “an inventive composer and arranger whose effort in those areas consistently expands the dimensions of the jazz genre — and beyond” (Los Angeles Times).
Performance Santa Fe will present Childs in Santa Fe on Friday, November 8 at the Lensic with his “combustible” (Downbeat) quartet, which includes Josh Johnson on saxophone, Alex Boneham on bass, and Ari Hoenig on drums. The November 8 program will be announced from the stage.
As part of Performance Santa Fe’s educational offerings this season, Billy Childs will host a master class for students in the New Mexico School for the Arts jazz ensemble on Friday, November 8th.
Billy Childs Quartet