Craig Peaslee Craig Peaslee Illinois Winner of the 2022 American Prize in Music Composition - Instrumental Chamber Music (Fragile for Brass Quintet), Winner of the 2021 Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition (Second City Strut), twice the recipient of the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network's Music Award (2013 & 2016), and winner of Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year, Craig Peaslee's music has been described as bold, brash and unapologetic. Coming to the contemporary composing scene as a jazz performer and arranger, Craig’s compositions have a strong foundation in jazz music and continually find him searching for new ways to incorporate jazz into works for the classical concert music stage, as well as classical elements into jazz pieces. His works can be traditional, multi-faceted, dissonant, genre-bending and have been known to directly confront social and political issues in order to bring attention to such topics as well as get listeners to critically think and discuss the challenges facing the world we live in. Craig's recent compositions include the four movement suite for brass quintet Fragile (2021), Second City Strut (2019) for orchestra, and The Death of a Nation (2018) for string quartet and prerecorded media. Recent performances of his works and arrangements have been by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Frost School of Music's Concert Jazz Band, Julius Quartet, Northern Illinois University Graduate Brass Quintet, Boston's Arcadian Winds, the Flight 584 Big Band from Los Angeles, Extra Crispy Brass Band and The Brew City Big Band of Milwaukee, and The Moonlighter's Orchestra. He was included on a recent compilation album Windswept (Navona Records) featuring the Arcadian Winds woodwind quintet. As a disabled veteran, Craig enjoys working with veterans organizations to bring music to veterans and exposing veterans to music outside the realm of what can easily be found on commercial radio stations, in movies, and television shows. Having been raised in a rural village, Craig is impassioned about being able to present new music to smaller communities and areas that do not normally get the opportunity to attend presentations of new and contemporary music. For these reasons, Craig enjoys writing music that is accessible while also sounding new and invigorating. Craig Peaslee’s tracks Fragile by Craig Peaslee published on 2022-02-26T15:23:46Z Etana & The Eagle by Craig Peaslee published on 2021-04-29T01:50:41Z Whistlin' Dixie Suite by Craig Peaslee published on 2020-07-27T13:38:14Z tres bailes latinos by Craig Peaslee published on 2020-02-09T18:27:34Z Second City Strut by Craig Peaslee published on 2019-12-08T20:01:31Z The Death Of A Nation by Craig Peaslee published on 2019-08-21T20:56:08Z MIA (Media Informs America) by Craig Peaslee published on 2019-04-02T22:16:55Z 8'66" by Craig Peaslee published on 2019-01-12T20:55:39Z Lulls and Byes by Craig Peaslee published on 2018-06-11T16:07:05Z
