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Molly Skuse

Molly Skuse graduated from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where she studied Vocal Jazz Performance and was recognized for her vocal prowess by Down Beat magazine's student music awards. At the New School, Molly drew inspiration from many Jazz luminaries; She has studied with Sheila Jordan, Reggie Workman, Kenny Werner, Cecil Bridgewater  and the late Junior Mance, Chico Hamilton, and Jon Hendricks, to name a few. 

While living in New York City, in the ‘90s, Molly paid her dues gigging 3-5 nights a week in downtown clubs including the Village Gate, The Knitting Factory, Small's, and Nuyorican Poets café. Molly has given concerts of her own compositions, throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, with grant support from Meet the Composer and Brooklyn Arts council.

Molly was also a faculty member at Church Street School for Music and Art and worked as an artist-in-residence in elementary schools throughout NYC. It was this work in arts education that Molly expanded upon once she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003. 

For the past 20 years Molly has been dedicated to building community through shared arts experiences, integrating the arts as a mode for learning within curriculums, and providing direct instruction in music, creative writing, theater, and studio arts. (Molly has always expressed her creativity in many mediums. It’s Molly’s collage that serves as the album art for her new release, Everybody by the Sixth Street All Stars.) 

“At it’s best, art expresses a scope of feeling that is fundamental to the human experience. After coming through the Covid 19 pandemic, and with the ways our use of techknowledge keeps us socially distant, we hope that Everybody can help people feel more human and be more connected - in real life.”

While her work as educator and facilitator has occupied most of Molly’s efforts of the past two decades, she has continued to develop her musical skills, through years of private lessons, studying composition, and orchestration with Bay Area Composers Clark Suprynowicz and Ian Carey. In 2023, Molly reintroduces herself to the world of music with Her recording project Sixth Street All Stars, Everybody.Her voice is featured as part of the recording, however, Molly’s primary roles are; Composer, Arranger, Musical Director and Producer.


Tags

Maria Schneider
composer / conductor
Wayne Shorter
saxophone
Gil Evans
composer / conductor
Kenny Wheeler
flugelhorn

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Everybody

Fishwax Records
2023

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