Brilliant Corners: A Silence Jazz Series – Tim Hagans

Sat April 25th, 2026
Door opens: 7:30 PM
Show: 8:00 PM

Brilliant Corners – Time Hagans’ Quartet

Brilliant Corners: A Silence Jazz Series

Seven intimate live performances featuring Canada’s finest jazz instrumentalists and a distinguished international guest Tim Hagans.

Where exceptional music meets meaningful community in Guelph’s Silence listening room—a space designed for retreat, connection, and deep listening.

Three-time Grammy nominated composer and trumpeter Tim Hagans performs and

records with his Tim Hagans Synesthesia band and as a guest composer, conductor

and soloist with the NDR Bigband and other large ensembles.

His most recent CD, A Conversation, an original multi-movement concerto performed by

Hagans and the NDR Bigband was an Editor’s Pick in Downbeat Magazine.

His CD Faces Under The Influence, A Jazz Tribute to John Cassavetes is a suite of 7

musical portraits inspired by characters from the films of John Cassavetes. The

recording features the NDR Bigband in Hamburg with Mr. Hagans as guest composer,

conductor and trumpet soloist. Downbeat writes: “Hagans himself shines as the braying

Richard Forst in Faces. Hagans suite underscores the sadness and confusion, empathy

and hope in Cassavetes’ gritty works with accuracy and honesty.”

Tim Hagans was nominated for Grammy awards for Best Instrumental Composition for

“Box of Cannoli” from The Avatar Sessions; Best Contemporary Jazz CD for

Re*Animation and Animation Imagination. Tim Hagans is the featured soloist on the

soundtrack by Howard Shore for the movie The Score, starring Robert DeNiro and

Marlon Brando.

In June 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius

Academy in Helsinki.

Tim Hagans has performed and recorded with Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Joe Lovano,

Bob Belden and Dexter Gordon. It was Thad Jones who encouraged Tim to write music,

and Hagans’ first composition appeared on a Thad Jones Eclipse LP.

For three years he was a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. For fifteen years he

was artistic director and composer-in-residence for the Norrbotten Big Band, traveling to

Sweden to perform, conduct and arrange projects with guests including Rufus Reid,

Randy Brecker, Peter Erskine, and Dave Liebman. The Avatar Sessions CD

features music he created during that tenure, performed by Tim Hagans, the Norrbotten

Big Band, and the above mentioned guest artists.

He was the recipient of the 2008 IAJE/ASCAP Established Composer

commission and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Composition Grant.

Other notable commissions include the Barent’s Composers Orchestra in 2009; NDR

Bigband in 2001, 2004, 2013, 2016, 2023, 2024, 2026 & 2027; Norrbotten Chamber

Orchestra in 2003, 2007 and 2014; and the UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki in 1997

and 2005. He has composed music for Christer Engberg’s play The Hostage and for

Jazz Baltica.

In 2007, he began performing and composing for the Michele Brangwen Dance &

Music Ensemble, a contemporary dance company dedicated to the use of live original

music in performance and the integration of musicians into the stage imagery.