Gregg August

College Faculty:

Contemporary Performance: Bass

Bassist and composer Gregg August spans the classical, avantgarde, jazz and Latin jazz worlds making him one of the most versatile musicians on the scene today. He is an associate member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Gregg is also the former Principal Bass of La Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As a jazz bassist Gregg is a member of the JD Allen Trio, having recorded 10 albums with the group.

He held the bass chair and served as an arranger for many years with Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. In 2020 Gregg released his album Dialogues on Race (Iacuessa Records) for which he received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble category. An extended suite for a 12 piece large jazz ensemble, three vocalists, strings and narrator, the work deals with the subject of race relations in the United States. He utilizes poems by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Marilyn Nelson and others to create a musical conversation that is intended to help bring awareness and foster understanding on the issues surrounding race.

Gregg was awarded two Grand Prizes by the International Society of Bassists for the 2020 David Walter Composers Competition in both the Chamber Ensemble and Bass Ensemble categories. He has also composed many full length concert works, including “Variations on a Theme by Pérotin” which was commissioned and premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2021, as well as “Una Rumba Sinfonica,” a commission from the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute and Earshot, which was premiered by the Buffalo Philharmonic. In 2003 Gregg formed his own record label, Iacuessa Records, for which he has recorded four critically acclaimed albums of entirely his own orginal music: Four by Six ( 2012), One Peace (2007), Late August (2005) and Dialogues on Race (2020).

Gregg has performed and/ or recorded with The New York Philharmonic, Steve Reich, The Bang on a Can All Stars, Alarm Will Sound, as well as Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis and Ray Barretto. Gregg was on the Downbeat Magazine Critics’ Rising Star Poll in 2017, 2015 and 2013. An adjunct professor at New York University and Williams College, Gregg has also been on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA) since 2003. Gregg received his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and his master’s from the Juilliard School.

www.greggaugust.com