Anton Kot

Musician and Multi-media Artist

"Drummer Kot dotted the performance with polyrhythms and a composer's wit. There was no groove domination—Kot played music, with the melody and harmony guiding his approach as much as the rhythmic qualities of a given piece. His composition Ripples was a true high point of the set" - Paul Rauch (All About Jazz)

About

Twenty-two-year-old Anton Kot was born in NYC and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and along the Connecticut coast. He has headlined at the 2023 Pittsfield City and Washington Heights Jazz Festivals, the 2022 Litchfield Jazz Festival, and the 2021 Bronx River Festival Streams of Black Music as a drummer, pianist, and composer. His star-studded acts have included saxophonists Don Braden, Albert Rivera, bassist Avery Sharpe, trumpeter Jean Caze, pianists Manuel Valera, Caili O’Doherty, and Tyler Bullock II. “One audience member called Anton ‘a highlight in the [Litchfield] Festival’s history.’ Praise well deserved.” - Vita Muir, Founder, Litchfield Jazz Festival - A Triumph at 27!, August 9, 2022.During the New Haven 2022 International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Anton played his twenty-five minute piano concerto, Let’s Try This, on the main stage with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) directed by Alasdair Neale. Anton was commissioned by the NHSO before the pandemic, causing the piece to evolve into a sonic representation of the varying phases of the Covid outbreak as it entered social awareness in 2020. Let’s Try This is a self-reflection where a pianist rediscovers their instrument under the stress of induced isolation. It was designed to be performed differently each time as a nod to the insistent volatility of Covid’s effect on daily life...

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Music

My Eyes Touched the Ceiling by Anton Kot (Feat. Summer Carmargo)

Going but Not Moving (Ari Hoenig, Cole Palensky, Warren Louie, Anton Kot)

Ripples by Anton Kot (Feat. Tyler Bullock II and Warren Louie)

Playing in a Corner by Anton Kot (Feat. Alan Broadbent)

My Favorite Things (Feat. Manuel Valera)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Feat. Esteban Castro)

Tell Me Why by Anton Kot (Live at the Litchfield Jazz Festival)

I Thought I Should Know by Anton Kot (Feat. Tyler Bullock II)

Tone Poem by Manuel Valera

Going but Not Moving by Anton Kot (Feat. Brad Shepik)

Ripples by Anton Kot, Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival (Feat. L Stop)

Let's Try This by Anton Kot, Live at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Commissioned and Performed with the New Haven Symphony

Clean Jawn by Tiger Diep (Feat. L Stop)

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About Extended

2022 TodayTwenty-one-year-old Anton Kot was born in NYC and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and along the Connecticut coast. He has recently headlined at the 2022 Litchfield Jazz Festival and 2023 Pittsfield City Jazz Festival as a drummer, pianist, and composer. His star-studded acts have included saxophonist Don Braden, Albert Rivera, bassist Avery Sharpe, trumpeter Jean Caze, pianist Caili O’Doherty, and Tyler Bullock II. “One audience member called Anton ‘a highlight in the Festival’s history.’ Praise well deserved.” - Vita Muir, Founder, Litchfield Jazz Festival - A Triumph at 27!, August 9, 2022.During the New Haven 2022 International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Anton played his twenty-five minute piano concerto, Let’s Try This, on the main stage with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) directed by Alasdair Neale. The NHSO commissioned Anton before the pandemic, prompting the piece to develop into a depiction of various phases of the Covid outbreak as it entered social awareness in 2020. Let’s Try This is a self-reflection where a pianist rediscovers their instrument under the stress of induced isolation. It was designed to be performed differently each time as a nod to the insistent volatility of Covid’s effect on daily life.The summer of 2022, Anton performed as a drummer for the Makanda Project featuring renowned saxophonist Chico Freeman and with Boston’s acclaimed, creative big band. He was drummer at Chelsea Table + Stage in NYC with vocalist Crystal Lewis and returned to Jazz at the Lincoln Center for a performance with Trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt; opening for Wynton Marsalis. This took place after a Spring 2022 NYU-Paris semester in France playing drums and piano at the famed Le Duc des Lombards and Sunset/Sunside jazz clubs in Paris with the NYU Paris Ensemble, pianist Laurent Coq, and saxophonist David Prez. He traveled to London, Venice, and Brussels; deepening his cultural understanding and global communication while collaborating with musicians at the Royal School of Music and Paris Conservatory.Before 2022Anton Kot and Friends shared his compositions as a headliner at the Bronx River Art Center Annual Sounds Performing Arts Festival in 2021. He was also the drummer for the NYU Steinhardt Vocal Performance Village Voices directed by Janis Siegel.In 2019, Anton toured Asia with NYO Jazz, acclaimed trumpeter Sean Jones and Grammy Award-winning Vocalist Kurt Elling. He held performances in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong including the National Taichung Theater (Taichung City), National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai (Shanghai), Shanghai Oriental Art Center (Shanghai), Zhuhai Huafa and CPAA Grand Theater (Zhuhai) and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center (Hong Kong). Wycliff Gordon and Jon Faddis joined this tour group on the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Anton was a member of the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra (JALCYO) led by Ted Nash and Tatum Greenblatt. While in the ensemble, he performed at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and the Appel Room with special guests Camille Thurman, Sherman Irby, Marshall Gilkes, and Marcus Printup. He was also the drummer in the Public Shakespeare Theater’s Off-Broadway, Such Sweet Thunder, featuring JALCYO at the New York University Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in 2018.In 2017, Anton shared the stage with Majid Khaliq and Eric Brown during the Harlem School of the Arts Fall 2017 Benefit Gala Honoring Alumni Ray Chew, Mary J. Blige, Renee Elise Goldberry, and Deborah L. Lee, hosted by Sunny Hoston at The Plaza on 5th Avenue, NYC.Award Winning Ensembles and OrchestraAnton’s ensemble, orchestral history, and membership include national award-winning recognition. The JALCYO received the Outstanding Specialized Big Band Award at the 2020 Charles Mingus National Festival, where Anton was a pianist, and the 2019 Down Beat Honors Ensemble Award when he was a drummer. They were also a finalist for the Savannah Music Festival (Covid interrupted).His Manhattan School of Music Precollege Ensemble, led by Jeremy Manasia, was also recognized by Downbeat Student Awards as Superior Honors Ensemble and where he was a Nana’s Way Scholar for Outstanding Talent and Academic Achievement. Anton performed in Jeff Fuller’s Neighborhood Music School Premier Scholar Jazz Ensemble for four years, that opened up for the Brubeck Brothers in New Haven. Through the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), he performed at the Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festivals (several ensemble recognitions). In 2021, Anton and NYU friends formed the group L Stop as Covid isolated musicians throughout NYC. The group was selected as the collegiate level winner to perform as a finalist at the Dirty Dog Café and then in the Detroit Jazz Festival. L Stop was also chosen to take part in the 2021 Jazz Aspen Snowmass (Anton was also a drummer in the Snowmass Orchestra in 2020 under Chuck Bergeron, Shelly Berg and Christian McBride).More AwardsAnton was a Resonance Fellow in 2021 with the Honeywell Arts Academy and returned to Wabash as a pianist to celebrate the opening gala of the Eagles Theatre. He participated as an All Star in Vail Jazz and was an invited NAfME All-National Honors All Star in Jazz Drums led by Todd Stoll and with Special Guest Pharez Whitted. Anton was the drummer for the Jazz Band of America led by Dr. Ron McCurdy and a recipient of the Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival Superior, Outstanding, and several Judges Choice Awards in Drums, Piano, and Vibes. Anton received several National Young Arts Foundation Awards, including the Silver Medal in Jazz Drums and being selected as a 2021 Finalist. He had been nominated for the 2023 American Pianist Award.Anton has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival as a selected drummer in the Berklee College of Music Global Summer Jazz Institute, and received the Billy Strayhorn Award for Upcoming Young Musicians presented by Vita Muir and Don Braden at the Litchfield Jazz Festival in 2017. At NMS, he received the 2020 Executive Director’s Choice Award for Excellence in the Highest Level of Music Performance and the Danko/Todd Award for Excellence in Performance, as well as highest-honors merit awards in piano/composition, performance, and drums. He was invited to study for two years in the New Haven Symphony Orchestra Young Composer’s Program led by pianist Michael Brown and privately for a third year under Alasdair Neale. Neale later commissioned him for a full orchestra piece after hearing his piece, Rise, during the NHSO Rise Gala. Anton’s NHSOYC compositions world premiered at Yale University’s Sudler Recital Hall for two years.Anton performed at Litchfield Jazz fundraisers and clinics with Doug Munro, Albert Rivera, Don Braden, Nicki Parrott, Nicole Zuraitis, Damian King, Solomon Curtis, Zwe le Pere, Dan Lipriani, and many others. He also took part in the UMASS Amherst, Jazz in July Festival as a drummer in an ensemble and big band led by Avery Sharpe and Jeff Holmes during the Summer Music Program. Anton participated as a drummer and pianist in the NYU Intensive Jazz Improvisation Workshop and Summer Jazz Festival with ensembles under Billy Drewes, Frank Kimbrough, and Jay Anderson at the Provincetown Playhouse, NYC.StudiesAnton is a Junior at New York University with Steinhardt, Music and Global Scholar Merit Awards. He studied privately with Lenny White, Ari Hoenig, and Alan Broadbent. His ensembles have been led by Chris Potter, Bobby Sanabria, Dezron Douglas, Lenny White and Brad Shepik. Beginning in seventh grade and through high school, he was also a member of the Wesleyan University Advanced Gamelan Ensemble and performed at the International Gamelan Festival in Solo, Indonesia with Masters Pak Sumarsam and IM Harjito, and Contemporary Composer Paula Matthusen. He also performed with the Advanced Gamelan Ensemble and Members of the Sultan Family and Ensemble at the Kraton Sultan Resort in Yogyakarta. He performed on gamelan instruments for Music and Dance of Yogyakarta, co-presented with Yale University and the Asia Society in conjunction with Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and the Royal Yogyakarta Court Residency; featuring the Wesleyan University Advanced Gamelan Ensemble directed by Pak Sumarsam and IM Harjito at the Crowell Music Hall, Wesleyan University, in 2018.