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Anthony D.J. Branker is Senior Lecturer in Music and Conductor of University Jazz Ensembles at Princeton University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Program in Musical Performance. In 2005, he was named a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn, Estonia. Professor Branker has also served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College of the City University of New York, Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, Ursinus College, the New Jersey Summer Arts Institute, and was a visiting lecturer and composer for the Socrates/Erasmus Intensive Programme in cooperation with the European Union, the Association of Baltic Academies of Music, and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has been honored by the United States Department of Education with a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education Distinguished Teaching Award, the International Association of Jazz Educators Award for Outstanding Service to Jazz Education, and was the recipient of the 2004 Alumni Award presented by the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
As a conductor, Professor Branker has had the opportunity to work with such artists as Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Conrad Herwig, Oliver Lake, Frank Foster, Benny Carter, Ted Curson, Stanley Jordan, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard, Bob Mintzer, Ralph Peterson, Steve Nelson, Antonio Hart, Don Braden, Jacky Terrasson, Jonny King, Walt Weiskopf, Valery Ponomarev, Bryan Carrott, Michael Philip Mossman, Rick Margitza, Ralph Bowen, Mark Gross, Clifford Adams, Jeffery Smith, Guilherme Franco, Benny Powell, Michael Cochrane, and Patience Higgins. In addition, he has collaborated with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and conductors Wycliffe Gordon, Loren Schoenberg, and Cecil Bridgewater on joint big band performances of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's The Far East Suite and Ellington's The New Orleans Suite at McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Mr. Branker has also appeared as guest jazz conductor
with the Jugend Sinfonie Orchester (Bremen,
Germany), Israel's Kiryat Ono Symphonic
Youth Band, Japan's Fukui
Junior Orchestra, Estonian Academy of Music Big Band (Tallinn, Estonia), Hunter Jazz Repertory Orchestra (New York), Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts Jazz Ensemble, and the New
Jersey IAJE Intercollegiate All State Jazz Ensemble. Recently Professor Branker conducted the 2008 New Jersey All State High School Jazz Ensemble
in performances at NJPAC in Newark and at the New Jersey Education Association Convention at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. While at Princeton, Professor Branker has led performances that have featured the Princeton
University Orchestra, Sinfonia, Chapel Choir, Glee Club/Concert Choir, and Gospel
Ensemble, and has directed two national award-winning jazz groups, including the Monk/Mingus Ensemble, winner of the Down Beat magazine Student Music Award for “Best Jazz Instrumental Group,” and Ensemble X, recipient of a 2003 Down Beat music award for “Outstanding Performance.” In addition, the University Jazz Composers Collective has traveled to Estonia for a series of concerts sponsored by the Department of State of the United States of America, the U.S. Embassy in Estonia, and the Estonian Academy of Music, and to Hong Kong, China to perform at the Vibe Jazz and Live Music Club. Professor Branker has also conducted such extended works as Lalo Schifrin’s Gillespiana Suite, Michael Philip Mossman's John Coltrane Suite, Ellington’s A Tone Parallel to Harlem, New World A Comin,’ Music From the Sacred Concerts, as well as the Ellington/Strayhorn collaborative adaptation of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2.
As a composer, Branker has received composition prizes, commissions, served as composer-in-residence, and has had his music featured in performance at the Pori International Jazz Festival (Finland), Leningrad/St. Petersburg International Jazz Festival (Russia), Kaunas International Jazz Festival (Lithuania), Estonia International Jazz Festival (Estonia), Mt. Fuji International Jazz Festival (Japan), JVC Jazz Festival (New York); concert and club appearances in China, France, and Germany; as well as in performance at such venues as the Iridium Jazz Club, Sweet Basil Jazz Club, The Five Spot, New York’s Symphony Space, the Fez under the Time Café, Trumpets Jazz Club, Estonian Academy of Music, and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. His works have been performed and/or recorded by Steve
Nelson, Stanley Jordan, Talib Kibwe, Conrad Herwig, Mark Gross, Curtis Lundy, Steve Kroon, Rick Margitza, Jann
Parker, and the Spirit of Life
Ensemble and have featured such guest soloists as Kenny
Barron, Eddie Henderson, Winard
Harper, John Hicks, Valery Ponomarev, Joe Ford, Cecil Brooks III, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Alex Blake, Sarah Jane Cion, and Benny Carter. During his residency at the Estonian Academy of Music, Branker composed The Eesti Jazz Suite, a five-movement work inspired by the culture and people of Estonia. This work was premiered in November of 2006 at the academy of music as part of the concert tour of the Princeton University Jazz Composers Collective, which was sponsored by the Department of State of the United States, the U.S. Embassy in Estonia, and the Estonian Academy of Music. Professor Branker also leads the group Ascent, a jazz collective formed in 2004 dedicated to the performance of original new music by its founder, which has featured some of the most significant jazz artists working today, including Steve Wilson, Ralph Bowen, Antonio Hart, Bryan Carrott, Clifford Adams, Conrad Herwig, Jonny King, Belden Bullock, John Benitez, Ralph Peterson Jr., Renato Thoms, and Wilby Fletcher. The ensemble’s first CD project Anthony Branker & Ascent: Spirit Songs was released internationally in 2006 on the Sons of Sound record label and was cited by the Jazz Journalists Association as one of the “Top 10 new jazz releases for 2006” with the composition “Imani (Faith)” being named one of the “Top 10 best new compositions of the year.” Origin Records has recently released the group’s second CD, Blessings, which can be found at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders Books & Music, and iTunes.
As a trumpeter, Branker has performed and recorded with the Spirit of Life Ensemble - including a five-year residency at New York’s internationally renowned Sweet Basil jazz club. He has also appeared at the Pori International Jazz Festival (Finland); Leningrad/St. Petersburg International Jazz Festival (Russia); Kaunas International Jazz Festival (Lithuania); Estonia International Jazz Festival (Tartu, Estonia); JVC Jazz Festival at Sweet Basil (New York); Panasonic Village Jazz Festival (New York); as well as jazz club performances in France, Finland, Germany, Russia, and New York. In addition, he has worked in a variety of musical settings with such artists as Ted Curson, Talib Kibwe, Guilherme Franco & Nova Bossa Nova, Steve Nelson, Michael Cochrane, Calvin Hill, Eddie Henderson, Stanley Jordan, Benny Carter, Ralph Peterson, Terence Blanchard, Big John Patton, Roscoe Mitchell, Rick Margitza, Gary Burton, the R&B group Tavares, and has performed in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Dinah Was: The Dinah Washington Musical.
Professor Branker has received fellowships
or grants from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board/Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies, Princeton University, and Ursinus College. He has appeared as a lecturer for the Department of Pop & Jazz Music at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia in Helsinki, Finland; Kuressaare Music Academy on the Estonian island of Saaremaa; the Pop/Jazz Program at Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia Muusikamajas in Viljandi, Estonia; National Endowment for the Humanities Paul Robeson Institute at Rutgers University; "Teachers as Scholars" program at Princeton University; Princeton University Alumni College Seminar “New Orleans: City of Jazz” in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Plexus Institute; Drew University; and has served as program scholar for the Looking At: Jazz, America's Art Form film viewing and discussion series at the Princeton Public Library. He has also been featured in performance with the Delaware Valley Philharmonic Orchestra as narrator of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." Professor Branker has served on the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, in addition to serving on the advisory board of MIMA Music, Inc. He holds a Master of Education from Columbia University, Teachers College; a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Miami; and a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Certificate in African-American Studies from Princeton University. He is currently completing his Doctorate in Education at Columbia University, Teachers College.
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