“The Imagined Savior is far easier to Paint”

The jazz department of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp wants to focus on practical education, embedded in an international arts landscape. Every year it facilitates an international coaching project in which a number of outstanding students get the chance to play together with an internationally celebrated performer. This year they will work for a week under the direction of the American trumpet virtuoso Ambrose Akinmusire around the music of his latest album, The Imagined Savior's Far Easier to Paint.
 
Ambrose Akinmusire was asked to join Steve Coleman’s Five Elements, embarking on a European tour when he was just a 19-year-old student at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2007 he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and began performing with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding and Jason Moran. Four years later Akinmusire’s Blue Note debut When The Heart Emerges Glistening gathered rave reviews.
Ambrose Akinmusire brings his artistic vision to the next level with The Imagined Savior is Far Easier To Paint, his second release for Blue Note Records. Akinmusire takes a more compositional turn on this 2014 record, writing 12 of the 13 tracks and producing the album himself. The album has been highly praised, landing at number 3 on NPR Music’s Jazz Critics’ Poll for 2014.
 
Since the album release, Akinmusire has continued to gain international recognition. He received commissions from various jazz festivals, toured worldwide and won several international awards (including the Paul Acket Award and the Doris Duke Award).

Flagey, Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen