My name is Todd Brunel and I am critically acclaimed clarinetist and saxophonist, concert soloist, chamber musician, jazz artist and classical/orchestral musician. The Boston Globe has hailed that I play with "Tremendous virtuosity and heart." See my bio page for more information.
I write and arrange music for all occasions and collaborate with some of the best musicians in the Boston area and New York. Solo, jazz and chamber performances have taken me to Carnegie Hall and stages in Europe and across the United States and Canada.
I perform at library concert series, theaters, special events, colleges, restaurants, retirement communities, churches, anywhere there is a need for great live music. Perhaps you have been to a concert of one of the ensembles or perhaps you have seen me narrate children's story hour performances.
Many of my concerts can be characterized as musically adventurous, often pushing musical boundaries, I love to collaborate with those who are open minded and seek to be transformed by the spirit of the music.
I am a New England States Touring Artist with the New England Foundation for the Arts. Contact me below for inquiries about my fee structure and how we can form a partnership.
The Vortex Series for New and Improvised Music:
2020 Grant Recipient: Arlington Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.2013 Grant Recipient: Dole Rogers Marshall Visiting Artist Endowment, Wheaton College.
2011 Grant recipient: The Somerville Arts council, The Massachusetts Cultural Council and Art Without Borders.
2010 Grant recipient: The Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council
http://improvortex.blogspot.com/
Todd Brunel artistic director
Pamela Marshall co-producer
Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer co-producer
Rob Bethel, cello, owner of Yesterday Service.
Sheet Music, books and more! Yesterday Service: click here
"Todd Brunel's Vortex Series...features some of the city's finest jazz musicians and free-improvisers of all stripes." -Jon Garelick, The Boston Phoenix, 'Bos Picks'
The Acre Brunel Duo
Classical concert music featuring works by the great masters.
Amira Acre piano
Todd Brunel clarinet
The Sonic Sandbox
Forrest Larson electronics
David Brown didjeridu
Todd Brunel clarinets
http://www.myspace.com/dbmockingbird
Carsman Brunel Newman
Larry Carsman guitar
Todd Brunel clarinets and saxophone
Blake Newman double bass
Distinctive classical, jazz and world music favorites for all occasions.
Blake's site: http://blakenewman.org/index.shtml
Larry's site: http://www.larrycarsman.com/
The Circadian Rhythm Kings
Inventive cross genre jazz fusion with 3 horns and a hot rhythm section:
Todd Brunel clarinets, saxophone
Ken Field alto sax and flutes
Michael Carey alto sax and flute
Andrew Hickman tenor sax and toys
John funkhouser bass
Gary Fieldman drums
Innova: http://www.innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=331
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/circadianrhythmkings
"With a name that mashes up the biological day/night clock with a prototypical jazz ensemble moniker,
and a roster that includes some of the most adventurous musicians around, the Kings
marry free jazz with swinging and funky beats."
-Kevin Lowenthal, The Boston Globe
The Meltdown Incentive:
Improvised salon music of a different sort...Sara Bielanski voice
Delvyn Case keyboard
Ed Broms keyboard, percussion
Todd Brunel clarinets, sax
Rob Bethel
http://www.themeltdownincentive.com/
Waltham Symphony Orchestra
http://www.walthamsymphony.org/
New England Skyscraper conducted by Butch Morris
http://www.conduction.us/
Bulgarian Virtuosi
http://www.bulgarianvirtuosi.com/
American Festival of Microtonal Music,
Johnny Reinhard artistic director
http://www.afmm.org/
The Lilli Lewis Group
http://lillilewis.elysiumhouserecords.com/music/
youtube
Afro Hues Rhapsody
The Dylan Jack Quartet
Dylan Jack Quartet new release: Diagrams Featuring: Dylan Jack drumset, compositions Eric Hofbauer guitar Todd Brunel clarinets, soprano sax Tony Leva double bass
Musaner
"Innovative arrangements of folk music from Armenia and the Balkans" Ara Sarkissian composer, arranger pianist Ken Field Alto sax, flute Todd Brunel clarinet, soprano sax Kelly Roberge tenor sax Roberto Cassan accordian Fabio Pirozollo percussion Martin Haroutunian ethinic wind instruments, percussion Blake Newman upright bass Gary Fieldman drumset
Cassino Art Ensemble
The Cassino Brunel Duo: Modern American Music: 21st Century spontaneous musical dialogues spanning the cosmos. Peter Cassino piano Todd Brunel bass clarinet Recent performances: The Longy School of Music at Bard college, ISIM 2014 and 2015
The Eric Hofbauer Quintet
The quintet features Eric Hofbauer on guitar, Todd Brunel on clarinet and bass clarinet, Jerry Sabatini on trumpet, Junko Fujiwara on cello and Curt Newton on drum set. All of the musicians are accomplished jazz and new music improvisers who also perform in classical and modern music settings.
The EHQ performs a program called, "Prehistoric Jazz" which features Hofbauer's arrangements of both Stravinky's The Rite of Spring and Messaien's' The Quartet for the End of Time. Hofbauer draws his inspiration from video footage of Leonard Bernstein rehearsing The Rite of Spring in 1987 where he instructs the timpanist to play his part like “prehistoric jazz.” His quintet arrangements synthesize the most memorable melodic and rhythmic elements from the original scores with jazz improvisation.
Stravinsky revolutionized the music world in 1913 with his use of extreme dissonance and shocking rhythmic energy. Around the same time, Jazz started to introduce itself and its own shocking rhythmic language to American audiences. Later in the early 1940’s, as Messiaen continued Stravinksy’s dissonant polytonal explorations, Bebop was redefining the harmonic vocabulary of modern jazz in similar directions. Hofbauer’s arrangements take the masterworks off their 20th century pedestals and deconstruct them as vehicles for ensemble dialogue and personal expression. This method of reinterpretation has been a part of the jazz tradition from its inception through the work of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and even Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream movement.
Prehistoric Jazz is a concert program tailored for the collegiate community or any arts and culture education-based audience. This concert presentation will complement college or high school course work in aesthetics, music history, jazz studies, post-modernism, or 20th century cultural studies. The ensemble is available for additional workshops and talk-backs with the audience that can be included as part of the presentation of the work.
For more information about the EHQ including rates, masterclasses, workshops and more video footage click HERE