Avram Fefer is a New York-based composer, improviser, bandleader, educator, and player of multiple woodwinds. He has recorded thirteen albums as a leader, many more as a sideman, and has performed in clubs and festivals throughout Europe, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East. He has performed with legends like Archie Shepp, Bobby Few, the Last Poets, and the David Murray Big Band and in renowned off-Broadway productions such as Ivo Van Hove’s “Streetcar Named Desire” and Melvin Van Peebles’ “Sweet Sweetback’s Badassss Song”.

His own bands have included modern jazz greats like Marc Ribot, Eric Revis, Michael Bisio, Chad Taylor, Reggie Nicholson, Ben Allison, Michael Wimberly and Roy Campbell. He co-led the abstract jazztronica band Rivers on Mars with African-American cultural icon Greg Tate, and has been a long-term member of Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra and Adam Rudolph’s Go:Organic Orchestra.

Avram’s most recent albums, Juba Lee and Testament, feature a quartet with Marc Ribot, Eric Revis, and Chad Taylor. Both these albums have been garnering rave reviews from across the globe, including from NPR, Rolling Stone, and the NY Times and have led to numerous international festival performances.

He is actively involved in ensembles comprised of anywhere from two to thirty musicians, playing music that ranges from classic and avant-garde jazz to funk, fusion, conducted orchestral music, and a variety of Indian, Arabic, and African music.

If there is a degree of freedom and self-expression in it, he will play it.

Over the years, Avram has also enjoyed a variety of inter-disciplinary collaborations --- with painters, poets, dancers, and sound designers. In 2014 he initiated the Resonant Sculpture Project, a unique international series of solo musical interactions with the large-scale works of legendary sculptor Richard Serra. RSP events have taken place at Gagosian Gallery in New York, Paris, and London, and most recently, at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

In addition to performing, Avram believes deeply in the role of arts education and maintains a thriving private teaching practice in downtown Brooklyn.

Instruments:

Alto, Tenor, Soprano, Baritone Saxes

Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet

Flute, Alto Flute