Daily Dose Of Jazz…

George Letellier was born October 11, 1957 in the United States. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in 1975, the following year he wrote his first compositions and arrangements. He began as a pianist playing in warm-up bands for artists such as Phil Woods, Gary Burton, and Steve Swallow. Returning to Berklee in 1983, he graduated two years later with a Superior Prix in Film Music Composition.

Moving to San Francisco, California he worked as a freelance pianist in the jazz and salsa genre from 1986 until 1990. His successful session work attracted film executives and he was hired to compose music for films and corporate videos. In 1987 George served as a music editor on the Academy Award-nominated short film Liru, and in 1988 in Oakland, California, established a film production company where he worked not only as a composer but a producer.

In 1991, Letellier moved to Portugal, accepting a job offer as a professor of composition in Porto, Portugal. There he composed two ballets and was a session musician. He collaborated with saxophonist Mario Santos and formed the George Letellier Quartet which toured all across Portugal.

By 1995 he relocated to Luxembourg and began working as a music composer, session musician and taught private lessons. With the Opus 78 Big Band, he collaborated in arranging the tunes of Frank Sinatra and turning them into large philharmonic ensembles for performing.

From 1997 until 2003, he went into education serving as Director of Jazz Studies at the Esch Conservatoire, wrote three publications on jazz theory and formed the original Consabora Salsa Orchestra with Harri Jokiharra. Since 2001, Letellier has taught jazz at L’Ecole de Musique in Echternach, Luxembourg.

Pianist, composer, and educator George Letellier continues to function as a session pianist, and has performed in hundreds of jazz concerts and theatrical productions in Luxembourg, the United States, Europe, and India.

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