Hometown: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Jeff Reilly has been praised internationally for his innovative, exploratory and masterful performances on the bass clarinet. An improviser as well as a skilled interpreter, the emotional beauty of his performance style blurs any simple distinctions between the improvised and the written, and reminds us that such distinctions are moot.
As a soloist he has appeared on ECM records, ATMA Classique, and Warner Classics. He has performed in concert halls around the world – Shanghai, London, New York, Moscow, Riga, Paris and more. A music producer, composer and conductor as well as a bass clarinetist, he has produced a catalogue of CD’s released on NAXOS, CBC Records, Tafelmusik Media and Warner Classics. He has produced a series of award winning radio documentaries for the CBC program, Ideas, and is the resident conductor of the Halifax, NS, based Upstream Orchestra, specializing in “conduction”, or conducted improvisation. He leads workshops in improvisation, ensemble performance and composition and maintains a career as a music producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.