We’re pleased to announce Centrum’s 2012 Big Band Intensive Workshop, November 1-4, 2012, marking the workshop’s fourth year. Bill Cunliffe taught at our 2011 Jazz Port Townsend workshop and was an immediate hit. Now he is returning to lead the 2012 Big Band Intensive.

Bill is widely known for his swinging and lyrical pianism and his creativity and invention as a composer and arranger of jazz. His first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Woody Shaw and James Moody.

Bill has released a dozen CDs as a leader. His latest, which reached the #2 position in the JazzWeek radio polls, is Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2, on Resonance Records. This year, Bill received a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement for his “West Side Story Medley,” released on the CD, The Resonance Big Band Pays Tribute to Oscar Peterson. He has also been nominated for three Grammys and two Emmys as a composer and arranger.

Learn more about Centrum’s Jazz Big Band Intensive.