Tomeka Reid
Described as a “New Jazz Power Source” by the New York Times, cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. She is a Foundation of the Arts (2019) and 3Arts Awardee (2016), received her doctorate in music from UIUC in 2017, and serves as the Darius Milhaud composition chair at Mills College.
Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader in 2015, with the Tomeka Reid Quartet. The quartet’s second album, Old New, released in October 2019 on Cuneiform Records, has been described as “fresh and transformative--its songs striking out in bold, lyrical directions with plenty of Reid’s singularly elegant yet energetic and sharp-edged bow work.” She co-leads the adventurous string trio HEAR IN NOW, and in 2013 launched the first Chicago Jazz String Summit, a semi-annual three-day international festival of cutting edge string players held in Chicago.