Vinson Valega

Vinson grew up in a musical family near Washington, D.C., studying classical piano from age seven until switching to the drums when he was 12. He played drums for three years in the All-County Jazz Ensemble during high school and subsequently held the drum chair in the University of Pennsylvania Big Band during college. After graduating from UPENN with a B.A. in Economics, Vinson came to New York City in the early 90's to study music at the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan, where he studied with Marvin "Smitty" Smith (former drummer of The Tonight Show Band), Vernel Fournier, and Norm Freeman (formerly of the New York Philharmonic).

Vinson has performed in many clubs in the New York Metropolitan area, including the Blue Note, Smoke, 55 Bar, Birdland, Jazz Gallery, Smalls, Cornelia Street Cafe, Cleopatra's Needle, Knitting Factory, Trumpets of Montclair, NJ, and Cecil's in West Orange, NJ, to name a few. An avid composer, Vinson also teaches privately and served on the staff of the Stanford Jazz Workshop in California from 1999-2001. He has toured throughout North America and Europe with his groups and others, and he appears on Matthew Fries' CD, Song For Today (TCB) and the Ganz Brother's release, First Steps (Extravaganza). Vinson also has four CDs out as a leader, Live@147, Consilience, Awake, and Biophilia, and received a "Meet the Composer: Metlife Creative Connections" grant to present his music to the general public in 2010.

In addition, Vinson has also worked with or played alongside with many of the great musicians in jazz, such as Grover Washington, Jr., Dakota Staton, Clarke Terry, James Williams, Donald Brown, Harold Mabern, Jr., Jamil Nasser, Ron McClure, Bob Mintzer, Russell Malone, Peter Bernstein, Mark Turner, Terell Stafford, Eric Alexander, Jim Rotundi, David Hazeltine, Joel Frahm, Dena DeRose, Vincent Herring, and Candido Camero, among others.

Download Vinson's Bio
Read Vinson's resume
Read Profile of Vinson & Consilience from the Astoria Times (Queens, NY) .pdf

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Vinson's Wikipedia Page
Vinson's essay - "Get Involved!"

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Other Bios

Vinson Valega
Anton Denner
Gary Wang
Terell Stafford
Chris Bacas
Jon Cowherd
Josh Ginsburg
Nicki Denner
Willie Martinez
Rolando Morales-Matos
Jennifer Vincent
Shai Hayo
Mark Miller
Julian Llanos
Matthew Fries
Greg Ryan

  

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