Larry Koonse and David Roitstein

Larry Koonse:

Born into a musical family in Southern California, Larry has been playing the guitar since he was seven years old. In his early years he studied with legendary guitar master Jimmy Wyble, and at the age of fifteen he recorded an album with his father, guitarist Dave Koonse, entitled Dave and Larry Koonse; father and son jazz guitars. Larry was the first recipient of a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California in 1984.

Larry has received numerous grammy nominations for his work with Billy Childs and Luciana Souza. He has also toured with Seth MacFarlane, Billy Childs, John Patitucci, David Friesen, Karrin Allyson, Bob Mintzer, Luciana Souza, Natalie Cole, Tierney Sutton, Peter Erskine, Hubert Laws, Bob Brookmeyer, and Warne Marsh. Having been featured on over 300 albums Larry has recorded with Cleo Laine, Al Hirt, Jimmy Rowles, Bob Brookmeyer, Luciana Souza, Lee Konitz, Larry Goldings, Mel Torme, Alan Broadbent, Ray Brown, Bill Perkins, Toots Thielemanns, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, David Friesen, Warne Marsh, Charlie Haden, Natalie Cole, Seth MacFarlane, and many other jazz artists. His solo guitar work was featured throughout “Crazy”, a feature film chronicling the life of the great guitarist Hank Garland. As a leader Larry has made nine recordings and his recent recording, Conversations, features the great pianist David Roitstein in a duo recording of mostly original compositions. Larry has been a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts since 1990.

David Roitstein:

Pianist and composer David Roitstein is the Jazz Program Director at California Institute of the Arts. He received his degrees from the University of Miami. As a young musician in the culturally diverse Florida city, Roitstein performed and recorded with a wide variety of artists, from Cuban wedding bands to emerging jazz talents such as Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, and Carmen Lundy. He went on to work with many legendary singers including Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, and Frank Sinatra.

David moved to Los Angeles in 1981, and, together with the world-renowned bassist Charlie Haden, created the innovative and award-winning CalArts Jazz Program in 1983. In 1990, with the support of Capitol Records and EMI Music, he established the annual CalArts Jazz CD project. Since then, he has produced twenty-nine CDs at Capitol Studios, documenting original compositions by CalArts students. (http:// jazzarchive.calarts.edu)

While teaching and building the program, Roitstein continued to perform in clubs, concerts and tours, and as a studio musician for film, television and records. Recent recordings include Conversations (Jazz Compass 1024), a duo CD with guitarist Larry Koonse (Best Albums of 2015 – Downbeat magazine), and Americana (Jazz Compass 1001) with Larry Koonse, Scott Colley, and Kendall Kay. As a composer, he has produced two recordings of new works, featuring chamber music and jazz compositions. (https://davidroitstein.com)

In October 2007, Roitstein was designated the Mel Powell Chair at CalArts, one of four honorary endowed faculty chairs in the School of Music.