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Neil Leonard

Leonard works as a sound artist, saxophonist and composer. Recent works include concerts for saxophone and electronics, audio installation and multimedia performative interventions. His compositions were featured by documenta 14 (Germany), Musicacustica (China), International Computer Music Convention (Canada), Tel Aviv Biennial for New Music (Israel), Moscow Autumn (Russia), Museo Riena Sofia (Spain), Jazz Plaza International Festival (Cuba), Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (USA) and in New York at Carnegie Hall, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, Roulette, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, Issue Project Room, Knitting Factory. Leonard’s ensemble featured Joanne Brackeen, Terence Blanchard and Robin Eubanks. Leonard performed and recorded with Juan Blanco, Alvin Curran, Richard Devine, Vijay Iyer, Phill Niblock, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner, Stephen Vitiello and Amnon Wolman. Leonard composed the music for Relatives, by Tony Oursler and Constance DeJong that was presented by the Whitney Biennial. Leonard's work with visual artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons spans twenty-nine years. Their collaborative performance, film, video and installations were featured by the documenta 14 (Germany/Greece), 11 Havana Bienal (Cuba), 49th and 55th Venice Biennale (Italy), Museum of Modern Art (NYC) and purchased by the National Gallery of Canada. Leonard performed with Phill Niblock in Ten Days Six Nights at the Tate Modern (UK). Leonard was a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Artist-in-Residence (2016); Fulbright Specialist Award recipient (2016); M.I.T. program in Art, Culture and Technology Research Affiliate (2014-15). Leonard is the Artistic Director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music. Source: Neil Leonard

Neil Leonard: Timaeus

by Mark Corroto
December 1, 2001

Saxophonist Neil Leonard presents a series of diverse computer-interactive solo pieces that range from seemingly free to thoughtfully composed tracks. Leonard’s experiments and performance with electronics and composition began in 1989 and he has written music and software for video, art installations and clarinetist Don Byron. His musical direction begins with the experiments of George Russell and is paralleled only by fellow saxophonist Luc Houtkamp.

Timaeus comprises the saxophonist’s compositions utilizing various software instruction he also wrote. Each track was ...

Album Review

Neil Leonard: Timaeus

by Jim Santella
December 1, 2001

New music and jazz flow from Neil Leonard's creative imagination. In the same way that “Rhapsody in Blue" pioneered a blend, Leonard's compositions mix a little swing with a wide variety of different effects. Sci-fi films are loaded with these unusual sounds. However, it's Leonard's alto saxophone that provides substance. He expresses soulful ballads and provides gutsy improvisation. Accompanying him, without overdubbing, are the electronic sounds that wait at his beck and call for their cues. From a coffee percolator ...

Recording

Saxophonist/Composer Neil Leonard Releases Recording "Marcel's Window" on Gasp Records.

Source: Two for the Show Media
October 21, 2011

Neil Leonard doesn't often record as a leader, but when he does, he makes it count. For his 2001 solo debut, Timaeus, the saxophonist and composer used computers and algorithms to expand his performances. The recording was widely praised by the jazz press. All About Jazz said that the album “Serves the new music community while remaining quite accessible to traditional fans, Timeaus breathes fresh ideas into today's scene," while Jazz Review raved, “Timaeus extends the limits of the alto, ...
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"Mr. Leonard creates a haunting, rhythmic, chantlike score, secular spiritual music for a New World. After leaving the gallery I kept hearing it, with delight, in my head, on the street, all afternoon." Holland Cotter, New York Times, October 2013