New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Knitting Factory Management, the artist management division of Knitting Factory Entertainment today announced the signing of virtuoso jazz and classical artist Dana Leong. A San Francisco native, Leong received a double scholarship in classical cello and jazz trombone from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.
In September, Leong and DJ QBert will speak and perform at the closing ceremony of the World Economic Forum: Annual Meeting of the New Champions (aka the "Summer Davos") in Tianjin, China which will be followed by a week-long solo tour of China. His US tour dates resume in December with a Dana Leong Trio show in Palm Desert, CA. More info can be found here.
"We couldn't be happier to have Dana on board," said KFM's
Aaron Johnson. "He is a true virtuoso and one of the most exciting musicians and composers working today."
In addition to the World Economic Forum, Leong's web series The K-20 Forum will be hosting Dr. Connie Tomaino, executive director and co-founder of the
Institute for
Music and Neurologic Function and senior vice president for music therapy at CenterLight Health System. She will be sharing autobiographical ingredients that led to founding the Center for
Music and Neurologic Function. Dr. Tomaino and her work are prominently featured in the upcoming movie Alive Inside.
Adding even more to his busy year, Dana also guested on DJ QBert's latest release Extraterrestrial, both as a performer and co-writer and will headline Yamaha's Young Performing Artists Program. Dana will perform for the winners of the YYPA competition as well as conduct workshops and clinics designed to help the winners launch a professional music career.
Leong has performed around the world and in 2008 his quartet Milk & Jade toured Southeast Asia as part of a Jazz at Lincoln Center and U.S.
State Department- sponsored tour, The Rhythm Road: American
Music Abroad. He's collaborated and performed and produced as such diverse artists as Ray Charles, Barry White, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Bjork, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Ono, Paquito D'Rivera, Christian McBride, Dafnis Prieto, and Henry Threadgill, Lila Downs, DJ
A-Trak and DJ Qbert.
A prolific composer and arranger, in 2010 Dana wrote and premiered IdEgo, a new work for an aerial dance company Project Bandaloop at the
Orange County Performing Arts Center as well as an evening length work, Life After Dark, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City. Dana also played trombone and keyboards in Fela! on Broadway in 2010 and is the first ever Composer-In-Residence for The Museum of Chinese in
America in New York City. Leong was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.
