Jazz Appreciation 101: Talk by Tony Makarome

Dr Tony Makarome teaches at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore (NUS). He studied at Berklee College of Music (composition) and received his doctorate from University of South Carolina (orchestral conducting). He was assistant conductor of the Columbia Lyric Opera (South Carolina), and music director of NUS Wind Symphony. His teachers include George Monseur, Attilio Poto, Robert Spano, Miroslav Vitous, Herb Pomeroy, K.R. Shyama, T.R. Sundaresan, R.Karthikeyan. He is currently a mridangam student of Guru Chettiharaveetil Haridas Sreekanth (Singapore Indian Fine Art Society). In 2019, Singapore Symphony Orchestra premiered his Indian music piece Jewel of Srivijaya. Other notable compositions include Rain Konnakkol which premiered in Baltimore in 2018, What Pattern? (2016) in New York City, Scifi Lounge (2006) in Bangkok and Name with No Street in Shanghai. His opera, Faybulous at Pawley’s Island Music Festival and his arrangements of Seven Steps to Heaven and Asiana were performed by Singapore Chinese Orchestra and China Broadcasting Folk Orchestra (Beijing). As bassist, he has performed with Louis Bellson, Quartet West (Ernie Watts, Alan Broadbent) amongst others. He is bassist and composer in the jazz-rock band, Varsha and has also performed as a mridangist in Chennai and Carnegie Hall. He is a leading pedagogue of solfége and jazz and has also published a popular article on konnakkol in music teaching in the Malaysian Music Journal. In 2019, he completed his diploma at the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society in Carnatic music studies (mridangam) and received the Vadya Visharad Award as top graduate of mridangam.