Ashland, MA
Presenter Bio
Bob Pilkington is a trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator.
Originally from Louisville, KY, he’s been living and working in Boston, MA since 1974. He’s
been playing trombone for over 58 years, composing and arranging for over 53 years, and
teaching for 40 years. He studied performance and composition at the University of Louisville
School of Music and Berklee College of Music, as well as additional studies with Hal Crook and
Bob Brookmeyer. Other significant teachers include Nelson Keyes, Herb Pomeroy, Phil Wilson,
and Michael Gibbs.
Much of Bob’s career has been devoted to original music projects, both his own and those of
others. His own projects include the Landscape Orchestra, Excursions, the Continuum Jazz Brass
Band, Orquesta Tropical 2000, Fractal, Federator No.1, and Fusion Nouveau. He’s a resident
composer and orchestra member of the Jazz Composers Alliance since 1989. He’s also performed
with Antigravity, Fly By Night, Mark Harvey’s Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Fred Ho’s Green
Monster Big Band, the Darrell Katz Jazz Orchestra, the Ken Schaphorst Big Band, the Chandler
Travis Philharmonic, and others. He wrote in varying degrees for most of them as well. All these
are original music ensembles. At Berklee College of Music he regularly participates in concerts as
a performer/writer, including two annual department concerts featuring compositions by himself
and other faculty. He’s also performed with and/or written for a number of groups covering
styles such as avant garde jazz, traditional jazz, big band jazz, fusion, rock, pop, klezmer, salsa,
afro-pop, commercial music, and classical. He appears on over 40 released CDs, records, and
tapes from many of the mentioned groups as well as others. He most recently released CD is titled
“Lords of Time,” featuring fusion based composition by himself with his group Fusion Nouveau.
Bob is Professor in the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department at Berklee College of
Music where he’s been teaching since 1982. At Berklee he has been recognized with the Ted Pease
Excellence in Teaching Award and the President’s Award in Information Technology for his work
advancing Computer Aided Instruction in Music. His students can be heard in all areas of the
music industry and have won many awards (including JEN).
Thursday, January 5, 2023
11:00 AM – 11:50 AM US EST