Brian McCarthy

musician

Saxophonist, composer, and arranger Brian McCarthy draws inspiration from the history of jazz, while maintaining a modern awareness. His debut nonet project, The Better Angels of Our Nature, began with a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council in 2014. Earning 4 ½ Stars from Downbeat Magazine, Brian Zimmerman called the work “a jazz album that makes a cavernous impression for its arresting beauty and conceptual brilliance.” Author and journalist Bob Blumenthal says the project “is both timeless (as is all great music) and could not be more timely. Brian McCarthy has assembled an ensemble of brilliant players and given them music of deep roots and resonant meaning.” McCarthy is endorsed by Selmer-Paris saxophones and D’Addario Woodwinds, has additionally released two albums of small group material, and in 2022 started a project jazz orchestra to feature a guest artist with all original charts tailored for them. McCarthy was awarded a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation Arts Endowment Fund in 2015 for his quartet album Codex (2017), and again in 2018 for his latest nonet project AFTER|LIFE. AFTER|LIFE was also awarded a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant in 2014 for his nonet debut of The Better Angels of Our Nature (2017) and in 2020 for AFTER|LIFE (2023). Brian is the Affiliate Artist of Saxophone at the University of Vermont and the Adjunct Director of Bands at St. Michael’s College.