Ty Citerman

Bio & Press Kit

Down­load Ty Citer­man’s press kit here.

Ty Citer­man is a Brook­lyn, NY-based gui­tarist and com­pos­er who writes, per­forms and teach­es music across the spec­trum of jazz, rock and con­tem­po­rary clas­si­cal music. He holds a Mas­ter in Music (M.M.) degree in music com­po­si­tion from Brook­lyn Col­lege (CUNY).

Ty was award­ed a 2018 Brook­lyn Arts Coun­cil grant to sup­port the cre­ation of his newest project Bop Kabbalah+Voices, a trio with Judith Berk­son and Sara Ser­pa, who per­form his orig­i­nal set­tings of rad­i­cal Yid­dish labor poet­ry. He is a found­ing member/composer for the irrev­er­ent cham­ber jazz ensem­ble Gut­buck­et, and he leads the Tzadik Records-record­ing quar­tet Bop Kab­bal­ah. Ty has col­lab­o­rat­ed and shared stages with the Amer­i­can Com­posers Orches­tra, John Zorn, JACK Quar­tet, Kaoru Watan­abe, Dana Lyn, Glenn Bran­ca, Rhys Chatham, Jill Sob­ule, Ethel, the com­pos­er col­lec­tive Anti-Social Music, and many more. He recent­ly com­posed orig­i­nal theme music for the pod­cast “Trade­offs” and for the 2019 St. Anne’s Ware­house Laba­palooza! pup­petry fes­ti­val show “To Love What Death Has Touched” by Kevin White.

Ty has record­ed for Cuneiform, Can­taloupe Music, Enja, Knit­ting Fac­to­ry, NRW, and Tzadik Records. His music has been fea­tured on Nation­al Pub­lic Radio’s Sound­check and World Café Live, Radio Free Europe and numer­ous sta­tions across the world. He has per­formed at Carnegie Hall, Lon­don Jazz Fes­ti­val, Paris Jazz Fes­ti­val, Bel­grade Jazz Fes­ti­val, Jazz a Vienne, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Jazz Saalfelden and oth­er pres­ti­gious venues.

Gui­tar Play­er called Ty’s music for Gut­buck­et “kinet­ic punk jazz opus­es” that reveal “an explo­sive con­coc­tion con­tain­ing lethal dos­es of Ornette Cole­man, King Crim­son, John Zorn, Black Sab­bath, Stravin­sky, and Fugazi.” The Guardian (UK) wrote that Ty’s com­po­si­tion “Throsp% boasts a hyp­not­i­cal­ly creep­ing gui­tar riff and an atmos­phere of sus­tained men­ace” which “is not stan­dard jazz ter­ri­to­ry.” Down­beat and The Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald gave Bop Kab­bal­ah’s CD 4/5 stars; Jaz­zTimes called it “…one of the year’s most arrest­ing recordings…wailing with enough majesty to bring down the walls of Jericho.”

Ty has a vibrant pri­vate teach­ing stu­dio and is also on fac­ul­ty at Brook­lyn Col­lege and the Brook­lyn Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music. He has taught com­po­si­tion and impro­vi­sa­tion as a guest artist at the East­man School of Music, Cal­i­for­nia Insti­tute of the Arts, Uni­ver­si­ty of Min­neso­ta, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mis­souri and Dart­mouth Col­lege. Ty’s music is pub­lished by Bop Kab­bal­ah (SESAC), and he endors­es Tom Ander­son Gui­tars, Ped­al­train ped­al boards, Spec­traflex gui­tar cables and Reunion Blues gig bags.