BIO

Mick Rossi’s career has long been defined by the inability to comfortably formalize him or his work. Performing diverse and progressive work rooted in the New York Downtown scene at venues including the Knitting Factory, The Stone, MoMA, Spectrum (Outliers Series), and most recently on the faculty of The New School, Mannes and the Philip Glass Institute, Grammy Nominee Rossi is celebrated as “an exemplar of the cross-fertilization between jazz and classical music worlds" and "one of the most lucid, original and creative minds of the New York scene" (All About Jazz). He is simultaneously a twenty-four year veteran of the Philip Glass Ensemble as well as a long-time member of the Paul Simon band as pianist and percussionist, showcasing not only technical proficiency but capable of divergent idiomatic disciplines. He has appeared on thirteen recordings with Philip Glass, and nine with Paul Simon (including Koyaanisqatsi Live with the NY Philharmonic and So Beautiful Or So What respectively). Rossi has also conducted for Mr. Glass, including Book of Longing (Sydney Opera House), Einstein On The Beach (Olivier Award) and Dracula with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. Rossi has served as music director and curator of the MATA Festival, music director of the Public Theater's production of The Bacchae (dir. JoAnne Akalaitis), percussionist with Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson at Carnegie Hall and Tibet House, conductor and co-orchestrator of Renée Fleming’s Dark Hope, recently produced the recording of the Jon Gibson opera Violet Fire (Orange Mountain Music) and is featured on Glass’s “Three Cities.” Recent feature articles include The Sydney Morning Herald (“A prodigiously gifted musician and composer”) and Keyboard Magazine (“Pyrotechnics with Paul Simon”).

Mick Rossi’s music reveals a commitment to a strong classical foundation and rigorous approach to improvisation. Rossi’s recent accomplishments and commissions include his String Quartet No. 3 premiering at Merkin Hall performed by the JACK QT ("Bartokian and energetic” - NY Times), OMNI commissioned and performed by yMusic for the Festival of New Trumpet, and his twenty-third solo album 160 released by Innova (“A masterpiece difficult to label” - AAJ). New releases include Fallout — a remote bi-coastal recording in Covid-19 lockdown — with Johnnie Valentino, Mick Rossi’s Anti-Matter Live at Barbes, Drive (solo - live at MoMA), Cut The Red Wire and You Break You Buy (All About Jazz’s Must Have List for 2023) with Peter Hess and Matt Moran, Bangkok Cowboy with John King, and Variant — Rossi’s soundtrack from director Tony Leech’s feature Sci-Fi thriller. (continues below…)