Tyshawn Sorey

Born on in Newark, New Jersey on July 8, 1980, Tyshawn Sorey is an award-winning an experimental music / avant-garde jazz composer, multi-instrumentalist, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his musical journey studying music and playing classical trombone. After participating in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Jazz for Teens program, he was received a Star-Ledger Scholarship It was while attending William Paterson University that he decided to move from classical trombone to jazz drumming. Tyshawn Sorey began his professional career as a session musician – paying with artists such as Vijay Iyer and Steve Lehman – before releasing That/Not, his first album as a leader, in 2007. His second album, Koan (2009), received a favorable critical acclaim. He earned a master's degree at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut before earning a six-year doctorate at Columbia University, New York. His recording career continued with albums such as Soan (2009), Oblique - I (2011) and Alloy (2014). A respected musician, Tyshawn Sorey collaborated with artists such as Casimir Liberski, Henry Grimes, Kris Davis, David Binney, Mario Pavone, John Zorn, and many others. As a composer, he worked on chamber music works including Bertha’s Liar (2016) and In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams (2018). Tyshawn Sorey’s next album, The Inner Spectrum of Variables (2016), was performed by a string trio and aided by piano, bass, and drums. He began teaching at Wesleyan University before moving on to the University of Pennsylvania. Tyshawn Sorey returned to jazz music for albums such as Versimilitude (2017), Pillars (2018), and Unfiltered (2020). He collaborated with electronic music producer King Britt on the album Tyshawn & King (2021) before forming the Tyshawn Sorey Trio – featuring pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer – and releasing the albums Mesmerism (2022) and Continuing (2023). Throughout his career, Tyshawn Sorey was honored with many awards including several grants and scholarships as well as awards for the Doris Duke Impact Award (2015) and Composer in Residency Awards from the Seattle Symphony (2019) and the Opera Philadelphia (2019).