Bio
Spending most of his childhood improvising piano fantasies based on songs by the latest pop culture sensations of the late 90's and 2000's, often times while playing upside down, it is a surprise that Carl Patrick Bolleia has amounted to anything more than a forgotten cameo on a canceled sitcom or the amateur wrestling circuit. However, despite his "best" efforts, he's been able to have performances and recordings acclaimed and featured by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Gramophone, New York Classical Review, Fanfare and performances throughout North America, Europe and China at venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, le poisson rouge, Philharmonie de Paris, Merkin Hall, NJPAC, Bargemusic and Spectrum.
He has collaborated with musicians of the The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and has recorded for Composers Concordance Records distributed by Naxos and MSR Classics.
His recordings have been hailed by Gramophone for “showing a heightened affinity for the music... savouring the novel, harmonic flights in Frederic Rzewski's “Down by the Riverside” and by Fanfare as “capturing all of the quirkiness and chameleon changes... it arrives like a blaze of light, and continues to glow magnificently.” Niederösterreichische Nachrichten heralded his Austrian premiere of Jinsil Lee’s, “The Beginning: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra”, as “The highlight of the evening...” and described his playing as “excellent... [which] received frenetic applause.”
Dedicated to advocating for and performing the music of our time, Carl has collaborated with and/or commissioned/premiered the works of Frederic Rzewski, Reena Esmail, Robert Livingston Aldridge, Whitney George, Peter Jarvis, John Link, Kevin Norton, Andrew Rudin, James Romig, Jeffrey Kresky, Hyun-Kyung Lee, Jinsil Lee, Anqi Liu, Jon Appleton, Steve Aprahamian, Tara Buzash, Christian Carey, Mina Choi, Eric Ewazen, Louise Fristensky, Darren Gage, Ron Mazurek, Chris Opperman, David Saperstein, Amir Shpilman, Andres Soto, Michael Sperrone, Robert Thomas, Marc Thorman, Jay Villnai, David Weisberg, David Wolfson, and Rolv Yttrehus and more.
Primary piano studies have been with Ursula Oppens, Min Kwon and Gary Kirkpatrick. Masterclasses with classical and jazz pianists ranging from Alan Feinberg, Nicolas Hodges, Fred Hersch, Warren Jones, Ya-Fei Chuang and Dr. Billy Taylor. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from Rutgers University where his dissertation was entitled, “A Taxonomy of Musical Gesture and a Hermeneutic of Narrative and Diatonic Continuity in the Piano Music of Charles Wuorinen”. He received the Edna Mason Scholarship and graduated with the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for Academic Distinction and Excellence in Organ and Piano Performance and the Arthur G. Humphrey Memorial Prize in Collaborative Piano.
Additional pursuits include the study of sacred music at The Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University and Gregorian Chant at the Wethersfield Institute, organ studies with Renée Anne Louprette and Vincent Carr, and the transcription and arrangement for the 125th Anniversary Promotional Campaign of Dr. Pepper. He began his career as a liturgical musician at the age of 13 and has served from monasteries in rural Illinois to cathedrals and churches in Italy, Barbados, and as Director of Sacred Music in the Archdiocese of Newark and Diocese of Paterson, currently at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Boonton, NJ.
He is on the faculty of William Paterson University, where he coordinates the classical piano program, and for his post-doctoral studies is pursuing the graduate diploma in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School where he studies with Peter Sykes, Richard Egan and Béatrice Martin.
He has collaborated with musicians of the The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and has recorded for Composers Concordance Records distributed by Naxos and MSR Classics.
His recordings have been hailed by Gramophone for “showing a heightened affinity for the music... savouring the novel, harmonic flights in Frederic Rzewski's “Down by the Riverside” and by Fanfare as “capturing all of the quirkiness and chameleon changes... it arrives like a blaze of light, and continues to glow magnificently.” Niederösterreichische Nachrichten heralded his Austrian premiere of Jinsil Lee’s, “The Beginning: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra”, as “The highlight of the evening...” and described his playing as “excellent... [which] received frenetic applause.”
Dedicated to advocating for and performing the music of our time, Carl has collaborated with and/or commissioned/premiered the works of Frederic Rzewski, Reena Esmail, Robert Livingston Aldridge, Whitney George, Peter Jarvis, John Link, Kevin Norton, Andrew Rudin, James Romig, Jeffrey Kresky, Hyun-Kyung Lee, Jinsil Lee, Anqi Liu, Jon Appleton, Steve Aprahamian, Tara Buzash, Christian Carey, Mina Choi, Eric Ewazen, Louise Fristensky, Darren Gage, Ron Mazurek, Chris Opperman, David Saperstein, Amir Shpilman, Andres Soto, Michael Sperrone, Robert Thomas, Marc Thorman, Jay Villnai, David Weisberg, David Wolfson, and Rolv Yttrehus and more.
Primary piano studies have been with Ursula Oppens, Min Kwon and Gary Kirkpatrick. Masterclasses with classical and jazz pianists ranging from Alan Feinberg, Nicolas Hodges, Fred Hersch, Warren Jones, Ya-Fei Chuang and Dr. Billy Taylor. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from Rutgers University where his dissertation was entitled, “A Taxonomy of Musical Gesture and a Hermeneutic of Narrative and Diatonic Continuity in the Piano Music of Charles Wuorinen”. He received the Edna Mason Scholarship and graduated with the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for Academic Distinction and Excellence in Organ and Piano Performance and the Arthur G. Humphrey Memorial Prize in Collaborative Piano.
Additional pursuits include the study of sacred music at The Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University and Gregorian Chant at the Wethersfield Institute, organ studies with Renée Anne Louprette and Vincent Carr, and the transcription and arrangement for the 125th Anniversary Promotional Campaign of Dr. Pepper. He began his career as a liturgical musician at the age of 13 and has served from monasteries in rural Illinois to cathedrals and churches in Italy, Barbados, and as Director of Sacred Music in the Archdiocese of Newark and Diocese of Paterson, currently at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Boonton, NJ.
He is on the faculty of William Paterson University, where he coordinates the classical piano program, and for his post-doctoral studies is pursuing the graduate diploma in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School where he studies with Peter Sykes, Richard Egan and Béatrice Martin.