Paul O'Donnell

Paul O Donnell is a composer, performer and lecturer at the University College Cork School of Music and Theatre. His areas of interest are Jazz, World Music and Popular Music. Over the last 25 years he has worked nationally and internationally with a host of jazz luminaries, including: Grant Stewart, Bobby Watson, Bill Berry and Jon Faddis. Paul has also recorded CDs in the genres of Jazz, Latin American and Popular Music. In more recent times he has created and led a number of Jazz/World Music groups, including: Enerjazz (2010), The Paul O Donnell Jazz World Ensemble (2011) and his most recent and current project POD Fusion (2012 - present day) which is an intercultural, collaborative ensemble focusing exclusively on Paul's own original work in the genres of Jazz and World Music. As well as his work with the aforementioned groups, Paul is also the keyboardist with TRASNA - another intercultural music-making project, which represented UCC, Cork and Ireland at the Shanghai World Expo in September 2010 and he is the founder and director of COLLAGE - a Soul/Pop ensemble which specialises in original arrangements of contemporary and classic popular music.

As a performer and a scholar my research interests lie in the music of some of the non-mainstream jazz pianists from the second half of the twentieth century. With the unorthodox and highly individual approaches of musicians such as Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Stan Treacy, Dave Brubeck, and Cecil Taylor in mind, I continue to explore possibilities in terms of the application of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic principles to my own jazz performance practice. In addition to this, I am also interested in stylistic interpretation and arrangement in Popular music and I continue to explore these areas through my ongoing work as leader/ musical director with "Collage", and as a solo pianist. I have also developed my web presence on the internet utilising such tools as Myspace and Youtube to display some of my recent live Jazz performances, and some of my work with "Collage", via both audio and video footage.