Diane Delin

Description

Four time Downbeat Critic's poll category recipient, violinist and composer Diane Delin presents several concert programs.

Octagon: blends jazz quartet with string quartet, embracing and combining jazz, classical and global traditions. "Evocative performance"¦ The way Delin and these musicians merge jazz rhythm with quasi classical instrumentation could lure both audiences. Delin and friends virtually transcend genre, playing a music that embraces many idioms." - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
Octagon can bring all eight members to a concert hall, or perform with a local string quartet. Professional, college and high school level arrangements are available.
Diane Delin Jazz Quartet or Trio: "She can light a real fire under both a band and an audience." - Neil Tesser, Jazz writer
Jazz Quartet with local String Orchestra
Nondenominational Seasonal Program: from Offerings for a Peaceable Season voted in top 10 best Holiday Jazz Cd's Ever by Pittsburgh's NPR station WDUQ.
Duality; violin and piano duo: "Perfect for the museum music-series circuit"¦(music) most exquisitely realized!" - Cadence Magazine

Diane is an experienced educator and is also available for master classes, teacher clinics and residencies. Her group also presents "Jazz Talk" participatory "informances" tailored for assemblies and community groups of all ages.

Work Sample

https://youtu.be/M2bB8-Y_t7s

This video is a sampler of Octagon, Diane's blend of jazz quartet with string quartet. It contains excerpts from a live performance recorded at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, IL in 2014 and is 13:28 in length. The video features excerpts from Diane's compositions Estrella, Your Smile and For An Afternoon, and her arrangement of Hammerstein's My Favorite Things. It features Diane Delin on violin; Dennis Luxion, piano; Stewart Miller, bass; Phil Gratteau, drums; Mark Agnor and Hannah Watson, violins; Bonnie Yeager, viola; Dan Klinger, cello. The group combines jazz and classical traditions, presenting original compositions, existing jazz works, classical pieces rearranged and rewritten with jazz harmonies, and indigenous traditional songs reharmonized and adapted for the group. (Because of their length and intricacies the classical compositions are not represented here. They can be found elsewhere on Youtube and Diane's website. The indigenous are in the process of being recorded).

Octagon combines my work as a composer and arranger with my years of focus as a jazz musician in a jazz quartet setting, background as a classical and section string player, along with my research into other global musical traditions. When I include community string quartets that I rehearse and give master classes to, it also relates directly to my many years as an educator where I have coached string sections in all genres of music.

History

Diane Delin is a violinist, composer, recording artist and educator. Her jazz work has earned her the Downbeat Magazine's Critics Poll "Rising Star" category four times. She has been an active performing musician for more than 30 years. Her jazz performances include a range from Ireland's Cork Jazz Festival to Sunset-Sunside in Paris, Jazz Ahead in Bremen Germany to New Orlean's Snug Harbor to Chicago's Jazz Showcase; the Kingston New York Jazz Festival to the Chicago Jazz Festival; WTTW PBS Centerstage Live Broadcast, Taste of Chicago, Portland IN Performing Arts Series to Dubuque Iowa's Clarke College, libraries, school residencies, master classes for all ages, among many, many others. She performs as Diane Delin Jazz Quartet, Diane Delin's Octagon, Duality (violin and piano duo) and as a trio. Diane's five cd's (on Blujazz) have all placed on the jazz charts and received international press. In addition to her own groups, as a "sideman" Diane has toured as part of the string section in the Frank Sinatra Orchestra from 1991-94, and has been a section player for a wide range of artists such as Manhattan Transfer, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson, Garth Brooks, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and many others.

Artistic Vision

As a musician, I believe in serving the music, allowing it to take full form as we "step out of the way" in responsive collaborative creation. This video highlights myself as a musician and composer for purposes of this application. However, my writing and arranging in all my ensembles is very "democratic," interweaving improvisation and written parts among the instruments for the end goal of the music, not to necessarily feature any one. Through responsive collaboration, music becomes a living, breathing event where the audience becomes an equal participator in the experience of creation. It is my experience that their presence helps inform what arises each time. I perform music that I feel inspired and uplifted by, with the hope of conveying this to others. My full program repertoire includes cross cultural rhythms and influences, arranged and re-harmonized indigenous melodies with messages of unity from around the world, and cross musical genre influences. Ultimately, it is my wish and vision that the music builds bridges between musicians, audience, musical genres and cultures, to reach a place where, through our joined resonance, we can all better understand expressing our individual voices in an interconnected world

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

Educational outreach: I have presented city and area-wide residencies in urban and rural areas, that reached out to K-12, college master class, adult community schools and seniors in addition to a culminating concert. In assembly based environments we present "Jazz Talk" which is a participatory "informance" tailored to the appropriateness of the age group. I have also been a college educator for over 15 years in a diverse urban environment, while presenting many master classes and assembly programs in rural areas. We have presented music for the severely developmentally disabled, allowing them to touch instruments to feel vibrations, and encouraging rhythmic movement when able.