Nick Grondin. An experienced performer and award-winning composer, Nick Grondin has presented his music to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, including France, Germany and Spain.
Nick Grondin creates works for small and large jazz ensembles. His pieces for jazz orchestra have received awards such as a 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award for Mingus and The Shifter, the 2008 Down Beat Magazine Student Music Award for Magic & Mystery - his arrangement of Strawberry Fields Forever, and the 2007 Down Beat award for Best Extended Jazz Composition for Les Touches de Piano.
His large ensemble pieces have been performed by the New England Conservatory Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the Paris (France) Universities Big Band, the Macalester College Mac Jazz Big Band, the University of New Hampshire Big Band, the Portland (OR) Jazz Composers Ensemble, the Seacoast (NH) Big Band and the 9-piece NEC Jazz Composers’ Ensemble.
In 2008, Grondin launched the Nick Grondin Jazz Orchestra. With help from the 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Awards, he financed a recording of his pieces with the NGJO SongTeller – The Jazz Orchestra Project, released in summer 2009.
As a guitarist, he leads the Nick Grondin Group Septet, which performs regularly in the Boston area. The group is working on an album to be released in 2010.
An active educator, Grondin has been a guest artist and clinician with community and collegiate big bands, and has taught classes and coached ensembles at the New England Conservatory Preparatory and Continuing Education School. He has given guest lectures on his music at the Summer Youth Music School in New Hampshire and at Harvard University.
Nick Grondin received his Master of Music in Jazz Studies: Composition from the New England Conservatory of Boston (NEC) in May 2008, where he studied with Jerry Bergonzi, Frank Carlberg, Allan Chase, Michael Gandolfi, and Ken Schaphorst. He has participated in masterclasses with Dave Holland, John Hollenbeck, and Jim McNeely. Before coming to Boston, Nick attended the Edim School of Modern Music in Paris, France and earned his Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.