Facing East Productions
World Class World Music Artist
Ed Sarath

Ed Sarath is active in the areas of musical performance, composition, recording, teaching, theoretical writing, curriculum design, educational reform and creativity and consciousness workshops. Through his position as Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Studies at The University of Michigan, he has delved deeply into the creative process and shares his music and ideas with individuals in a wide range of fields - From artists to athletes to business entrepreneurs.

His musical accomplishments include guest teaching and performing throughout the U.S, Brazil and Europe, including appearances at the Montreux, London, North Sea, Paris, Antibes, Orleans, Le Mans, Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Detroit jazz festivals. He has released several CDs as leader accompanied by internationally-recognized artists. His most recent CD is New Beginnings,
which features the London Jazz Orchestra performing his large ensemble compositions. His prior CD release is Timescape, featuring his nine-member ensemble of the same name. Karl Berger, pioneer in contemporary improvised music is guest soloist on the disc. Cadence Magazine described the disc as a blend of "all sorts of influence, from Jazz and Western classical, to Middle Eastern and Indian music. But this is no trendy World Music fusion" and "...the integration of the various musical strains (do not) dilute the jazz element".
Last Day in May, (Konnex Records- Berlin), fea
tures Sarath on flugelhorn, along with David Liebman, Mick Goodrick, Harvie Swartz and Marvin "Smitty" Smith; the disc was called by Cadence magazine "a prime example of the best the genre has to offer". Jazz Times called Sarath's previous recording, Voice of the Wind (Owl Records- Paris) " a strong, varied program, brimming with intriguing formal propositions. . . Ed Sarath is a find". Fifth Fall, by the Iowa City Jazz Orchestra, which Sarath formerly directed, features five of his compositions for large jazz ensemble.
He has performed and recorded frequently with the French-based ensemble, Cache Cache, winners of the 1992 Radio France Jazz Competition and has performed and presented master classes throughout the U.S., Europe, and in Brazil. Schools at which he has appeared include the Eastman School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Paris Conservatory, the Tatui Conservatory in Brazil, University of Colorado, University of North Carolina. Other ensembles he has worked with include the Brazilian ensemble, Interchanges, featuring Rui Carvalho, and Celio Barros; British composer Graham Collier and his London-based Jazz Ensemble; Dutch saxophonist Willem Helbreker, sound-painter Walter Thompson's multi-media orchestra in New York City, and John Wubbenhorst's Facing East, which features South Indian kanjira player, Ganesh Komar.
In 1998, he was commissioned by the West German Radio network to compose Rites of Passage, which was conducted by Bill Dobbins, and featured David Liebman and Michael Brecker as guest soloists. In addition to extensive composing for small and large jazz ensembles, Sarath has begun to move into orchestral and vocal writing. His most recent large work is Trends of Time, for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Quartet. Other large ensemble works include Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, for choir, string orchestra and improvisers; and Aquarium, for 8 musicians and 22 dancers, commissioned by choreographer Evelyn Velez-Aguayo.

His writings on the cognitive and aesthetic aspects of improvised music, and educational reform, appear in Innovative Higher Education, Journal of Music Theory, Handbook for Research on Music Education (Oxford University Press), International Journal for Music Education, Music Educators Journal, Jazz Research Papers, Jazz Educators Journal and Jazz Changes. Several books are in progress on these topics.

He served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Schools of Jazz, a worldwide organization formed by David Liebman, and he currently serves as U.S. coordinator for that organization. He has received fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, in both jazz composition and performance, and from the American Council of Learned Societies.

Recent educational initiatives he has spearheaded include the BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies curriculum at The University of Michigan, a degree program which includes meditation and related studies in addition to jazz training; and the Faculty Network for Creativity and Consciousness Studies, which brings faculty together from all fields to probe the transpersonal core of the creative process. He is the founder of STATE: Students, Teachers, and Administrators for Transpersonal Education; and ISIM: The International Society for Improvised Music. He is a member of Ken Wilber's Integral Institute (Integral Art group), and Robert Forman's Forge Institute.
Ed Sarath has presented at Harvard Business School, Brown University, The University of Michigan Business School and elsewhere his ideas on creativity and consciousness. His formats involve hands-on practices involving (rhythm, meditation and improvisational games) and theoretical models of the creative process that are applicable to all fields.
http://www.edsarath.com