Photo by Steven Sussman
MUSICAL DIRECTOR | SAXOPHONE
Saxophonist, flutist, composer and educator, Don Braden’s jazz career spans 40 years. He has toured the world with Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, and others and performed on Saturday Night Live, at Carnegie Hall, Harvard University (where was an engineering undergrad), and countless jazz festivals and clubs. He has over 100 CDs as a sideman and 21 as a leader, the most recent his critically acclaimed Earth Wind and Wonder. Don has written 150 pieces for ensembles from duos to full orchestras, including one for Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and over 100 songs for jazz combos. His compositions appear on dozens of CDs, TV shows and indie films. In 2000, he received a Doris Duke Foundation New Works grant and adjudicates for them and for SURDNA, the Downbeat Student Music Awards, and others. He teaches at Prins Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands and at Montclair State University. He ran NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens for 15 years and also led the Harvard University Monday Jazz Band. Don believes that jazz is a great music style to study because it reflects so many important aspects of life, including creativity, discipline, teamwork, leadership, listening skills, democracy, supportiveness and improvisation. Don has been the music director of the Litchfield Jazz Camp since 1998.