Tomeka
Reid
She // Her // Hers
[ID: Tomeka, wearing a dark blue turtleneck and skirt, smiles warmly while posing with a cello outside during the fall.]
Chicago, IL
2021 USA Fellow
This award was generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
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Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid has emerged as one of the most original, versatile, and curious musicians in Chicago’s bustling jazz and improvised music community over the last decade. Reid’s distinctive melodic sensibility, always rooted in a strong sense of groove, has been featured in many distinguished ensembles over the years. Reid has been a key member of ensembles led by legendary reedists like Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, as well as a younger generation of visionaries including flutist Nicole Mitchell, vocalist Dee Alexander, and drummer Mike Reed. She co-leads the adventurous string trio Hear in Now and in 2013 launched the first Chicago Jazz String Summit, a semi-annual three-day international festival of cutting edge string players held in Chicago. In the fall of 2019 Tomeka Reid received a teaching appointment at Mills College as the Darius Milhaud chair in composition.
Portrait Photo by Janet Mami Takayama.