Cliff Colnot

In the past decade Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range.
One of few musicians studying orchestral repertory with Daniel Barenboim, Colnot is assistant conductor for Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries. He has been principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series since its inception, and he was recently named principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, an orchestra he has conducted since 1994. Colnot also conducts Contempo at the University of Chicago,  the Callisto Ensemble, the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras at Indiana University, where he was in residence fall 2005. He regularly conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) with whom he recently completed the recording of Richard Wernick’s The Name of the Game for Bridge Records.  Colnot also collaborates with the internationally acclaimed contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird and is assistant conductor at Pierre Boulez's Lucerne Academy.
Colnot is also a master arranger. His orchestration of Shulamit Ran's Three Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Piano was recorded by the English Chamber Orchestra. His orchestration of Duke Ellington's New World Coming was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist in 2000, and Colnot also arranged, conducted, and co-produced a CD, Tribute to Ellington, featuring Barenboim at the piano. He wrote music for the MGM/UA motion picture Hoodlum and has written for such rock-and-roll and pop artists as Richard Marx, Phil Ramone, Hugh Jackman, Leann Rimes, SheDaisy, Emerson Drive, and Brian Culbertson. He has been commissioned to write works for the chamber group Pinotage and the CSO Percussion Scholarship Group.
Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and in 1995 received the Ernst von Dohnanyi Distinguished Alumni Award. He received the prestigious Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University, where he earned his doctorate. The Chicago Tribune named Cliff Colnot a Chicagoan of the Year in music in 2001, and in 2005 he received the William Hall Sherwood Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. He has studied with master jazz teacher David Bloom and has taught jazz arranging at DePaul University. He also teaches advanced orchestration at the University of Chicago and film scoring at Columbia College. As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, and the Contemporary Chamber Players.