Michael Attias wearing a green and yellow hat while posing with a saxophone.

France-Canada Distinguished Visitor in Music: Michaël Attias, alto saxophone, with Lewis 12tet

Concert
Jazz
March 05, 2025
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Walter Hall

80 Queens Park

Free

Livestream available on our YouTube Channel.


PROGRAM

 

Spun Tree

Michael Attias arr. Isaac Kashino

 

Arc-en-ciel

Michael Attias arr. Hanson Goldwin

 

Duel

Michael Attias arr. Duncan Wilson

 

Trees Grow Down

Michael Attias

 

The Very Thing

Michael Attias arr. Nathaniel Jenkins

 

Mr. Softee

Michael Attias arr. Matt Newton

 

Moonmouth

Michael Attias arr. Alyssa Giammaria

 

Anaya at the Britz-in-Shaolin

Michael Attias arr. Dylan Pilcher


THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 12TET

Jim Lewis, director

Voice
Magda Baraczka

Alto Sax
Avshalom Ravitz-Heller

Tenor Sax
Hanson Goldwin
Omar Yazaw

Baritone Sax
Logan Lee

Trumpet
Dyan Pilcher
Enoch Lodu

Trombone
Isaac Kashino
Selena Savage

Guitar
Dipo Adeola

Piano/Vibes
Bjorn Kriel

Bass 
Kieran Menard

Drums
Graham Coster


BIOGRAPHY

Michaël Attias has earned a reputation as one of the most questing and keenly collaborative figures on the 21st-century New York Jazz and Improvised Music scene, with a background and outlook that make him “an emphatically cosmopolitan saxophonist and composer,” according to The New York Times. He has put out eight albums as a leader, most recently the alto saxophone/piano solo échos la nuit (Out of Your Head, 2019) and Nerve Dance (Clean Feed, 2017). Spring and Fall 2024 will see the release of Quartet Music Vols I & II, two new albums which display an aesthetic of enormous range, emotional power and vivaciousness. Among his current projects are the longstanding collaborative trio RENKU with John Hébert and Satoshi Takeishi; Kardamon Fall with Santiago Leibson, Sean Conly and Tom Rainey; and LuMiSong with Leibson, Matt Pavolka, and Mark Ferber. As a sideman, he has worked in the bands of such luminaries as Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, Masabumi Kikuchi, Michael Formanek, Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Kris Davis, Andy Milne, Angelica Sanchez, Francisco Mela, Fay Victor... Attias has also composed for orchestra and big band; created several live electroacoustic scores and sound designs for legendary theatre director Robert Woodruff; and his music has been covered by artists including Eric Revis, Anthony Coleman, and most recently Kris Davis with Esperanza Spaulding.