John Zorn
Avant-Garde, Jazz | 2010Born in 1953, composer John Zorn grew up in Queens and has been a central figure in the New York downtown scene since 1975. He has written music for documentaries, underground films, television advertisements, and cartoons. Zorn’s own label Tzadik Recordings has established a diverse catalogue releasing the best in avant-garde and experimental music, and presenting a worldwide community of musician-composers who find it difficult to release their music through conventional channels. Zorn was the principal force in establishing The Stone, an avant-garde performance space in New York’s Alphabet City. On January 10, 2008, Zorn performed with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson at a special benefit night at The Stone, which was released on CD as The Stone: Issue Three. In 2009, American playwright and avant-garde theatre pioneer Richard Foreman directed Astronome: A Night at The Opera based on Zorn’s Astronome (2006). That same year also saw the release of Zorn’s album O’o, featuring the same style of music and set of players as his 2008 album, The Dreamers. Zorn received the William Schuman Award for composition from Columbia University and the Cultural Achievement Award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture; he is a MacArthur Fellow.