He was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and raised in Piscataway and Plainfield, New Jersey.[1] He attended public schools in Piscataway and graduated from Piscataway Township High School in 1976.[2] where he was involved in the music program under the direction of R. Bruce Bradshaw and Joseph T. Mundi. Following high school, he attended Princeton University where he received his B.A. in music and a Certificate in African American Studies. He attended graduate school at the University of Miami for a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy and to Columbia University, Teachers College for a Master of Education and Doctor of Education, both with specialties in Music and Music Education.
Family background
Branker's family is from Trinidad and Barbados, and he is a first-generation American. His uncle Rupert Branker was the music director and pianist with The Platters, while his Uncle Roy was a member of the Copasetics. Roy Branker composed music with Billy Strayhorn, another member of the Copasetics, and was mentioned in Duke Ellington's autobiography, Music is My Mistress. Anthony Branker's cousin, Nicholas Brancker, who spells his last name differently, is from Barbados and is a music producer.[3]
Music career
Branker has recorded for Origin[4] and Sons of Sound Records. His albums include Beauty Within (Origin, 2016),The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite (Origin, 2014),[5]Uppity (Origin, 2013),[6]Together (Origin, 2012),[7]Dialogic (Origin, 2011),[8]Dance Music (Origin, 2010),[9]Blessings (Origin, 2009),[10] and Spirit Songs (Sons of Sound, 2006).[11]
In 1999, medical problems from two brain aneurysms and the discovery of an arteriovenous malformation led him to yield his trumpet playing and forced him to take a leave of absence from teaching.[12]
Branker conducted trumpeter Terence Blanchard's score for A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). In 2014, Branker conducted Wynton Marsalis' "Abyssinian 200: A Gospel Celebration" featuring the Princeton University Glee Club and University Concert Jazz Ensemble. He has also led the Princeton University Orchestra in the world premiere of his composition "Ballad for Trayvon Martin" for Orchestra and Jazz Quartet featuring tenor saxophonist Ralph Bowen, as well as in world premieres of two dance works choreographed to the orchestral music of Claude Debussy's "La Boite a Joujoux (The Toy Box)" – including the U.S. Premiere of Debussy's "jazz overture" for this work – and John Alden Carpenter's "Krazy Kat." Branker has also conducted Princeton's Orchestra in performances of Ellington's extended orchestral compositions "A Tone Parallel to Harlem" and "New World A Comin'." In addition, he has conducted "The Sacred Concert Music of Duke Ellington" with the Hunter College (CUNY) Jazz Repertory Orchestra as well as with the Princeton University Chapel Choir, Glee Club and Gospel Ensemble, and has conducted the Ellington/Strayhorn collaborative adaptations of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" and Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2" for big band.
Branker has conducted several world premieres of commissioned works for big band, that have included Michael Philip Mossman's "John Coltrane Suite"; Bob Mintzer's "March Majestic"; Jimmy Heath's "For the Love Of"; Ralph Bowen's "Little Miss B"; Conrad Herwig's "Reflections of a Man Facing South"; Randy Bauer's "Wide-Eyed Wonder"; and Laurie Altman's "In Another Time" for orchestra, big band and vocal ensemble. Branker has also collaborated with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and Wycliffe Gordon, Loren Schoenberg, and Cecil Bridgewater on big band performances of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's Far East Suite and Ellington's New Orleans Suite at McCarter Theatre in Princeton.
Branker has appeared as conductor with the Jugend Sinfonie Orchester (Bremen, Germany), Israel's Kiryat Ono Symphonic Youth Band, Japan's Fukui Junior Orchestra, Estonian Academy of Music Big Band (Tallinn, Estonia), Tallinn University of Technology Big Band (Tallinn, Estonia), Hunter Jazz Repertory Orchestra (New York), Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts Jazz Ensemble, the New Jersey High School All State Jazz Ensemble, the New Jersey Intercollegiate Big Band, the Connecticut Western Region Jazz Band, and the Independent School Music Association of New York City All-City High School Honors Big Band.
Educator
Branker joined the jazz studies faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University as an adjunct professor. His responsibilities include two graduate seminars in Jazz Historiography (I & II), two graduate seminars in Jazz Composition & Arranging (I & II), a Jazz Theory course for undergraduates, and directing the Avant Garde Ensemble. Branker previously served as a visiting conductor at Rutgers . In 2016, he retired from Princeton, where he was a member of the faculty for 27 years, held an endowed chair in jazz studies, and served as founding director of Jazz Studies, director of university jazz ensembles program, and associate director of Musical Performance. He directed ensembles and taught courses in jazz theory, improvisation, composition, and performance.
In 2008, Princeton University received a multimillion-dollar gift to enhance the study and performance of jazz. As a result of this contribution to jazz studies, Branker established the Certificate Program in Jazz Studies at Princeton. During Branker's 27-year career at Princeton (1989-2016), the ensemble program featured two 17-piece big bands and small groups which have included the Jazz Composers Collective, Jazz Vocal Collective, Free to Be Ensemble, and Crossing Borders Improvisational Music Ensemble. The Princeton jazz program has recorded several albums under Branker's direction: Telling Stories (Free to Be Ensemble), Love Is What It Is (Jazz Vocal Collective), Onwards (Jazz Composers Collective), Blue/Yellow Dances (Jazz Composers Collective), Expanding Horizons (Jazz Composers Collective), Yesternow: The Princeton University Jazz Program 1989-2004 compilation CD (Concert Jazz Ensemble, Monk Mingus Ensemble, Ensemble X, Hard Bop Ensemble & Afro-Groove Ensemble), It's All About the Groove (Afro-Groove Ensemble & Fusion Ensemble), Sounds From The Free-Thinking (Monk/Mingus Ensemble) with guest trumpet soloist and former Mingus band member Ted Curson, Music From the Sacred Concerts of Edward Kennedy Ellington (Concert Jazz Ensemble and Chapel Choir), What's Going On? (Ensemble X), Mosaic (Concert Jazz Ensemble & Hard Bop Ensemble), The Sacred Concert Music of Duke Ellington (Concert Jazz Ensemble, Glee Club and Gospel Ensemble), Mean What You Say (Concert Jazz Ensemble), and 7 Steps 2 Heaven (Concert Jazz Ensemble).
Branker has attended conferences at, or been published by, the International Society for Music Education, International Society for Improvised Music, Research in Music Education, International Symposium on Assessment in Music Education, College Music Society, International Jazz Composers Symposium, International Association for Jazz Education, Foundation for Educational Administration (FEA) / New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association School Leadership Conference, New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA)], the Princeton University Regional Conference – "Big Ideas: Science, Innovation, and Discovery," and Down Beat magazine. Branker was named to the College Music Society's Advisory Council on Improvisation and has served as program scholar for Looking At: Jazz, America's Art Form, a six-part documentary film viewing and discussion series at the Princeton Public Library.[13]
Awards and honors
Three Gold Medals for Beauty Within, Global Music Awards.[14]
Rising Star Composer, DownBeat magazine, 2014, 2015
Keynote speaker for University of Jyvaskyla Music Education Research Seminar in Jyvaskyla, Finland
Discography
For the Children (RPC, 1980)
Spirit Songs (Sons of Sound, 2005)
Blessings (Origin, 2009)
Dance Music (Origin, 2010)
Dialogic (Origin, 2011)
Together (Origin, 2012)
Uppity (Origin, 2013)
The Forward (Towards Equality) Suite (Origin, 2014)
Beauty Within (Origin, 2016)
What Place Can Be For Us? A Suite in Ten Movements (Origin, 2023)
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