Paul Sullivan

Paul Sullivan has enjoyed a richly varied and distinguished career as a composer and a pianist.

As a soloist, with his trio, and as a member of the Paul Winter Consort, he has played concert tours in most of the United States and Europe, as well as Croatia, Israel, Costa Rica, and Japan. He has performed among the dunes of the Negev Desert, in Leonard Bernstein’s living room, and on the stages of many of the world’s finest concert halls. He has also performed with some legendary orchestras, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, the Boston Pops under both Arthur Fiedler and Keith Lockhardt, and several regional orchestras around the US..

As a jazz player he has worked in some of New York’s most prestigious clubs, including Sweet Basil, The Village Vanguard, and Bradley's. He has played with a wide variety of jazz masters from Benny Goodman to Tommy Flanagan, as well as Red Mitchell, Lou Donaldson, George Mraz, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Helias, Gene Bertoncini, Luciana Sousa, Cafe, Jane Ira Bloom, Pheeroan AkLaff, Eddie Daniels, Richard Stoltzman, Nana Vasconcelos, Glen Velez and many other luminaries. His 13 CDs have sold over 300 thousand copies and have won 3 Indie Awards. He His music has been broadcast internationally, as well as on all the major American networks, including National Public Radio. He received a Grammy Award for his work on the Paul Winter Consort CD, Silver Solstice.

Paul had a 3 year engagement as the Music Teacher at the Brooklin Elementary School in Brooklin, Maine. In this role he introduced his town's children to the world of professional music booking appearances with Noel Paul Stookey, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and David Grisman, as well as appearing on several television shows and performing at the Maine State House.

In the theater he has worked as a musical director, pianist, and conductor for many Off-Broadway and Broadway shows. He played keyboards and shared the conducting duties for the original production of the musical Nine, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical.

He has also worked extensively in the dance world, playing piano for Merce Cunningham’s classes, and writing music for the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. He has also enjoyed a long friendship with the Pilobolus Dance Theater, for whom he has written over 15 scores.

Through the years, Paul has also written music for a number of corporate clients. Recently he wrote more than an hour of musical cues for stage productions created for IBM's Golden Circle Awards. He has also created music for video companies, software companies, and telephone companies. His compositions have been used in advertising for a broad spectrum of clients.

In performance, Paul Sullivan creates a relaxed and intimate feeling with his audience through his pleasant and quirky observations about music and life. His warm and inviting personality, coupled with his world-class musicianship, wins over new listeners immediately and usually makes them life-long fans.

Education Sullivan grew up in Boston and got his first professional training at the St. Paul Choir School in Cambridge with Theodore Marier and John Dunn. He went on to Phillips Exeter Academy and from there to Yale, where he received his BA in music in 1977. He also created and taught a course at Yale in Electronic Music.

He and his family live on the coast of Maine.

Awards

2005 Grammy Best New Age Album 1997 Indie Award for Spoken Word category 1992 Indie Award for Seasonal Music category