Curtis Macdonald is a saxophonist, composer and producer whose works blend composition, sound design and improvisation. He has won commissions from Aszure Barton & Artists, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Kate Weare Company, Hubbard Street Dance, Bayerisches Staatsballett (The Bavarian State Ballet), Larry Keigwin & Co. and The Juilliard School. In 2014, he was co-awarded the first Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation Prize for his collaboration with Aszure Barton on the dance Awáa. His original scores are currently featured in several modern dance and ballet companies worldwide.
Curtis has released three albums as a bandleader, Community Immunity (2011), Twice Through The Wall (2013), and most recently, Scotobiology—the study of darkness, which is inspired by the effects of artificial light on living beings. He has also authored Introducing Extended Saxophone Techniques published by Mel Bay and is faculty at The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. Furthermore, Curtis is a producer for Q2 Music at New York Public Radio where he received a Peabody Award in 2015 for his work on the podcast Meet The Composer.
Curtis also works closely with the great American composer, multi-instrumentalist and 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Threadgill as a member of his ensemble “Double-Up”. And this past fall, he has performed work at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) and at The Guggenheim Museum.
