Myra Melford sponsored by Frank Rubolino

Myra Melford

Pianist and composer Myra Melford was born and musically trained in Evanston, Ill, living in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. While in college in Washington State, she became interested in jazz and studied with Art Lange and Gary Peacock and encountered progressive players such as Oliver Lake and Anthony Braxton. She moved to New York and eventually began to play with musicians such as Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris. She created a trio with bassist Lindsey Horner and drummer Reggie Nicholson that toured extensively and recorded three important albums. In 2000 she visited India on a Fulbright fellowship to study the harmonium and Hindustani classical music in Delhi and Mumbai and upon returning, she formed a new group, the electro-acoustic Be Bread (with trumpeter Cuong Vu, guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Stomu Takeishi and sometime guests). Using music based on her harmonium studies in India, she released two albums, The Image of Your Body and The Whole Tree Gone. Since 2004 she has served as a Professor of Contemporary Improvisation at the University of California, Berkeley.