Matt Glaser | |
|---|---|
 Glaser in 2006, Photo: Bob Travis | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Jazz,bluegrass |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, educator |
| Instrument | Violin |
Matt Glaser is an Americanjazz andbluegrass violinist. He served as the chair of the string department at theBerklee College of Music for more than twenty-five years. He is now the founder and artistic director of Berklee's American Roots Music Program.[1]
Glaser holds an M.Mus. degree fromTufts University. He has performed atCarnegie Hall withStephane Grappelli andYo-Yo Ma, and at the Boston Globe Jazz Festival withGunther Schuller. He has also performed withBob Dylan,Ralph Stanley,Lee Konitz,David Grisman,Mark O'Connor,Andy Statman,Jamey Haddad,Jay Ungar,Bruce Molsky,Darol Anger,Art Baron, and theInternational String Quartet Congress.
He is featured on theGrammy Award–winning soundtrack forKen Burns's 1990The Civil War documentary and the soundtrack for the 1978 filmKing of the Gypsies. He served on the board of advisors for Ken Burns's 2001Jazz documentary and appears as a narrator in the film.[2][3]
In 2013, he won theArtist Teacher Award[4][5]from theAmerican String Teachers Association (ASTA). Past recipients includeJoseph Szigeti,Pablo Casals,Isaac Stern,Yehudi Menuhin,Dorothy DeLay, andIvan Galamian.
In addition to founding his own musical group, called the Wayfaring Strangers (featuringTony Trischka,Laszlo Gardony, andTracy Bonham), he has been a member of theCentral Park Sheiks, the New York Bluegrass All-Stars, andFiddle Fever. He has recorded an album with fellow fiddle playerKenny Kosek and he has appeared on numerous other recordings.
He has authored two books:Jazz Violin andJazz Chord Studies for Violin, and an instructional video,Swingin' Jazz Violin.[6]
Glaser lives inSomerville, Massachusetts. His notable students includeCasey Driessen, Sarina Suno andMads Tolling.
TheCentral Park Sheiks were a mixed influence band that formed in the early 1970s and released a single LP,Honeysuckle Rose. The band members included Bob Hipkins, Matt Glaser, Richard Lieberson, Bert Lee, and John Caruso. Marty Confurious replaced Caruso in the bands later years. The style they are most often associated with is urban and western acoustic swing music, but they played a great deal of country and folk inflected tunes, as well as original music by Hipkins, Lee and Lieberson. The band toured many colleges in the Eastern seaboard during their years together, and had a very successful final performance at New York's Loeb Student Center in New York. While not widely known outside of the eclectic music scene, the band achieved notoriety in Japan. The band was also associated withSamuel R Delany'sHeavenly Breakfast.[7] because band member Bert Lee was part of Delany's communal band in the sixties.
WithSkitch Henderson
