Thollem McDonas

pianist/comproviser, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area of Irish and Cherokee descent. Not long after birth he began studying the keyboard repertoire from the medieval to the 20th century. After graduating with degrees in both piano performance and composition he dedicated his time for years in grassroots political movements and ecological restoration projects before coming back to music with his full focus. He is currently touring perpetually, mostly as a soloist but also in collaboration with many other individuals and groups.
Listen to: For All Those Yet to Come from Gone Beyond Reason To Find One
music player
Thollem's extensive travels as a performer and teacher have covered much of the North American continent and Europe (he often leads listening and group improvisation workshops). He is a founding member of several innovative ensembles all of varying and disparate musics. In the past 6 years he has added 20 albums to his discography on 9 different vanguard labels in 4 different countries. His music is diverse, with each album and every concert exploring a variety of approaches and paths, resulting in dramatically different outcomes.

Thollem is a recipient of the 2009 US Artists International Award as the founder and Artistic Director of Estamos Ensemble as well as a CAP grant this year from the American Music Center. He was commissioned by The Limon Dance Company for a large-scale piece in commemoration of their 50th year anniversary. In September 2008 he was invited to perform the late works of Claude Debussy on the piano on which they were written, as well as his own comprovisations with Stefano Scodanibbio. "OnDebussy'sPianoAnd..." (Die Schachtel, Fall 2010) is the first album ever recorded on Debussy's piano.

Thollem has performed in theaters, art galleries, universities, elementary schools, concert halls, jazz clubs, rock clubs, festivals, warehouses, house concerts, streets, forests, riots and on television and radio. He has performed piano concertos with symphonies, played in West African drumming troupes, Javanese gamelan ensembles, an afro-punk band, with hundreds of free improv groups, and as an accompanist and a composer for opera and modern dance. His music appeals to a wide variety of audiences because of these rich and wildly disparate experiences. Currently Thollem primarily plays his own comprovisations he calls Eccentriclect Music, for people and everyone else.

Recent Awards: Meet the Composer: Creative Connections, 2007 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation: USArtists, 2009 - EstamosEnsemble, Director American Music Center: CAP, 2010 - 'AllForNow' debuted at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

photo by Kyle Murphy at the 2007 EdgeFest Ann Arbor Michigan
click on photo for hi res press copy

Mp3 samples:
Ancient Futures - MP3
A moment is only if? - MP3
Inbetween inbetween - MP3
House of old cold stone house - MP3














PRESS STORIES
Feature in Memory Select 2010
Feature in The National Examiner 2010
Feature Story in One Final Note 2005

PRESS QUOTES

"McDonas' piano are Defalla (driving rhythms and Iberian modes), Shoenberg (unresolved dissonances a mile high), the collapsing/expanding tempi of Nancarrow, and splatterings of Cecil Taylor..."
-Tom Djll, Signal to Noise

“The sound he gets is highly reminiscent of the brilliant (and brilliantly obscure)
Thymme Jones…a really different approach to the piano, to say the least.
The cats at Windham Hill would probably cringe in horror at what he's doing here,
but Sun Ra would have liked this guy.
Highly recommended for those interested in hearing the extremes of possibility when one man with unusual ideas sits down to beat the hell out of a piano.”
– RKF Dead Angel

"classical chops and an attractively extreme viewpoint."
-Greg Burk, Music Critic LA Weekly

"McDonas welds elements of jazz, blues and classical music into a mighty tower of song, then shatters his construct with the breathless bull-rush of a mystic improviser."
-The River Front Times

"Thollem has that rare gift of soulful equilibrium, which he alternates with digital dexterities that have few equals on the current scene."
- MASSIMO RICCI, TouchingExtremes

"McDonas is a pianist with highly developed technical skills at the piano. His flourishes and runs up and down the keyboard are executed with crystal clarity."
- Winthrop Bedford, Jazz Improv Magazine

“McDonas's piano playing is bright and expressive”
- J. Worley Aiding & Abetting

"My favourite moments doing my reviewer's job are like this, the very instant when you come across a genius and are among the first ones to realize and tell the world."
- Massimo Ricci, TouchingExtremes

T.D. Skatchit
Skatchbox Surveillance
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T.D. Skatchit
Skatchbox Blues
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Estamos Ensemble
JIMPANI KUSTAKWA KA JANKWARITEECHERÏ
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Thollem Mcdonas
on Debussy's piano and...
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Thollem McDonas
Gone Beyond Reason
To Find One
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Thollem/Rivera
I'll Meet you half way out In the middle of it all
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