Cellist Tomeka Reid grew up outside of Washington D.C., moving to Chicago in 2000 to pursue graduate studies at DePaul University. There she worked in various AACM-related groups and eventually in ensembles led by established masters such as Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as by younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell, singer Dee Alexander, and drummer Mike Reed. She is also a co-leader of the string trio Hear in Now, with violinist Mazz Swift and bassist Silvia Bolognesi. Reid released her debut recording as a bandleader in 2015, with the eponymous recording by the Tomeka Reid Quartet (with bassist Jason Roebke, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara) that demonstrated her compositional and arranging abilities. She has been celebrated as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community, and although she is now based in New York, she still returns to the Windy City on a regular basis. Reid received her doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2017 and in recent years has been the recipient of many awards. She currently occupies the Darius Milhaud Chair in Music Composition at Mills College.

Website: https://tomekareid.com/

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