| Intro | American musician |
| Is |
Musician Conductor Saxophonist Composer |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Music |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 30 September 1975 |
| Age: | 44 years |
| Star sign | Libra |
Javier Arau (September 30, 1975) is an American composer, saxophonist, conductor, theorist, author, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and executive director of New York Jazz Academy, leads the Javier Arau Jazz Orchestra, and is the author of several works on music theory and improvisation.
Biography
Javier Arau was born in Santa Monica, California and raised in Sacramento, California. He received scholarships to attend Lawrence University in 1993 and New England Conservatory in 1998.
He received an Outstanding Performance Award in 1994, Extended Jazz Composition awards in 1996 and 2000, and a Jazz Arranging award in 2000 from DownBeat Magazine. He also was the first-ever recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, in 2002.
He has been featured the New York Times, DownBeat Magazine, on NBC TV’s Today in New York, and was the featured cover artist on the Saxophone Journal in August 2009. All About Jazz hailed, “Arau’s ‘Paper Train’ is a marvelous bit of modern composition. Arau’s ‘Missouri Blues’ toys with the edges of funk and fusion, and he puts grit into his tone to match. …Good music based on strong roots.”. Saxophone Journal noted, “Those who we remember best–Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Haydn and Mozart–did it all. Today there are very few who do it all, and an incredibly small proportion of them do it all extremely well. One who does is Javier Arau.”
In 2009, he founded New York Jazz Academy, a NYC-based music school. He also leads the Javier Arau Jazz Orchestra.
Awards and Honors
2013 Lawrence University Alumni Association “Service To Society” Alumni Award
2012 Adjudicator, MTNA National Chamber Music Competition
2007 Finalist, ASCAP/IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship
2002 Winner, ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award
2000 Winner, Down Beat Magazine Award, extended original composition
2000 Winner, Down Beat Magazine Award, jazz arrangement
1999 Featured Composer, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano, dir.
1997 Winner, Down Beat Magazine Award, extended original composition
1997 First Prize, MTNA National Collegiate Chamber Music Competition
1996 Outstanding Jazz Performer, Down Beat Magazine Award
1991 Inductee, Mickey Mouse Club Hall of Fame
1991 Featured performer, The Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club
1990 MENC Young Composer Award
Publications
Javier’s compositions have received awards from ASCAP, BMI, DownBeat Magazine, and IAJE, and are published by UNC Jazz Press and Dorn Publications. At the age of 19, his transcription and analysis of Joe Henderson’s Grammy award-winning solo on Lush Life was published in IAJE’s Jazz Educators Journal, which became widely regarded as the definitive transcription of that iconic performance. Henderson got word of Javier’s efforts and quickly became a mentor to him. Arau has published his “Augmented Scale Theory,” which helps bridge the gap between the chromatic tendencies of modern jazz and the diatonic roots of traditional jazz harmony, enabling the improviser to play creatively over such challenging material as Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and Wayne Shorter classics. His most recent book, a practice manual for all instruments, “365 Ways of Practicing Major Scales in Thirds” is available in bookstores nationwide. Javier is currently writing a book entitled “Anatomy Of A Melody: A Jazz Improv Primer for All Instruments”. Javier’s Jelly and Jam Session, his extensive music outreach program, was licensed by the NYC Department of Education to be used in the public school music curriculum.