Edward Gavitt

Biography
Teacher

Edward Gavitt is a Dominican-American guitarist, composer, and educator based in New York. He holds a BFA Jazz Performance degree from CUNY City College of New York, and an MA Music degree from City College of New York where he jointly worked on degree credits at the esteemed CUNY Graduate Center department of music theory.

Edward has studied with many established names in music, including composer-performers Miles Okazaki, Dan Tepfer, Jacob Sacks, and Jason Rigby, composers Daniel Felsenfeld, Jonathan Pieslak, and Mary Ann Joyce Walters, and music theorists Joseph Straus and Shaugn O’Donnell. He has participated in many prestigious music programs such as Berklee On The Road (Santo Domingo) in 2014 and the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2016 under the direction of pianist-composer Vijay Iyer.

Edward has had the chance to perform with many musicians including Anna Webber, Maria Grand, Tyshawn Sorey, Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrock, Jacob Sacks, Jason Rigby, amongst many more. He has performed at many notable music venues including The Jazz Gallery, Yale University, The New School (The Glassbox), The Stone, Shapeshifter Lab, and Greenwich House Music School. Edward has also played in groups opening for acts including the Marvin Stamm Quartet, the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio, and the Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo.

In addition to his performing and composing schedule, Edward also makes time for teaching, most recently having served as teacher assistant for acclaimed educators Steve Wilson (saxophonist) and Scott Reeves (trombone) coaching ensembles and giving weekly lectures on various music theory topics and improvisational concepts.

Edward’s current projects include Secret Mall, a band with strong influences in vaporwave and contemporary jazz and Plurabilities, Edward’s group as a leader. He also has an ongoing series of collaborations with drummer-composer Colin Hinton, including bands led by Hinton (Facehugger & Glass Bath), along with other ensembles and a duo project.