Bill Cunliffe and his Trimotif ensemble create an exuberant fusion of classical music and jazz, along with inspired improvisations.
Bill Cunliffe has been described by The New York Times as an “accomplished pianist and composer.” Ernie Rideout of Keyboard Magazine described Cunliffe’s playing as “inventive, melodic, and soulful.”
Cunliffe won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement of Oscar Peterson’s “West Side Story Medley”. In 2006 he was nominated for a Grammy award for his jazz arrangement of the Steely Dan song “Do It Again”. He won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces. In 1989, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award. He received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. He won a grant from the New Zealand School of Music and the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released a CD of Cunliffe’s jazz orchestra compositions. In 2005, he won the Philadelphia Jazz Composer competition sponsored by the American Composer Federation. In the 1990s, he was nominated for two Emmys for best original song on the television shows Another World and Guiding Light.
