Oliver Lake: Bloomfield/Montclair/Newark, NJ

Oliver Lake Photo courtesy Shuman Associates

Oliver Lake is a composer, saxophonist, and poet who has always found a natural connection between his work as an artist and his involvement in a geographic or artistic community. In his New Residencies partnership with Bloomfield College, Dreamcatcher Repertory Theater, the Renaissance School/Sharron Miller's Academy for the Performing Arts in Montclair, and the Discovery School in Newark, Mr. Lake will work in several disciplines-such as music composition, poetry, and live performance-with people of all ages, including other artists, students, faculty, as well as the general public. Throughout his residency, Mr. Lake will compose a variety of works to support the Communal Memories Project of Bloomfield College and the two schools, including two 30-minute suites for Big Band and smaller-scale musical and spoken-word pieces for performance by a wide range of groups. Additional activities will include the collection of oral histories from Essex County residents, scoring music for the collected histories, and setting excerpts of the collected texts to music. He will also compose incidental music for one Dreamcatcher mainstage production each year. This music and the Communal Memories Project will form the basis of an evening-length, multi-disciplinary work to be presented at the culmination of his three-year residency. As an ambassador to the larger community, Mr. Lake will give lectures and demonstrations to a wide variety of artistic and civic organizations.

Oliver Lake, a Guggenheim Fellow and co-founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He grew up in St. Louis and received a B.A. in Music Education from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Mr. Lake has received numerous awards, grants, and commissions, including a National Endowment for the Arts "Jazz Fellowship" grant and a commission by Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus for a work to be performed by the World Saxophone Quartet and its chamber orchestra. Mr. Lake's compositions have been performed by such artists and ensembles as the Arditti String Quartet, the Amherst Sax Quartet, violinist Regina Carter, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New York New Music Ensemble, among others, and this past fall, The New York Times named him one of "52 of New York's most distinguished composers." Mr. Lake has performed on five continents and has worked with a wide range of artists including pop singer Bjork, Lou Reed, Abbey Lincoln, and the rap group Tribe Called Quest. During 1998 he composed Broken In Parts, an interdisciplinary, evening-length work featuring poems by residents of Montclair, Orange, and Newark New Jersey for a community-oriented initiative directed by Unity Concerts of New Jersey. Last year, he premiered the Oliver Lake Steel Quartet at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and made additional appearances with the group at Sweet Basil's, the Knitting Factory, and other New York City venues.