Long-form Bio
Regarded as a "strong pianist" by New Music Connoisseur and "an uninhibited player [with] stealth and suavity...” by New York Concert Review, Carl Patrick Bolleia has performed as soloist, conductor and collaborative pianist at Carnegie Hall Issac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Merkin Hall, Spectrum, NJPAC, Marble Hall (Austria), Vianden Castle and Centre Cultural Larei (Luxembourg), La Plantation International Art Center Concert Hall (Beijing, China), Brevard Music Center (North Carolina), Northwestern University New Music Conference, University of Scranton Concert Series, The Intersection of Jazz and Classical Music Piano Conference at West Virginia University, South Oxford Space Brooklyn, and numerous engagements on the New Music Series at William Paterson University. 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.” He is adjunct professor of piano and collaborative piano at William Paterson University, and lecturer of music at Rutgers University where he teaches seminars in the Art of Collaborative Piano and 20th-21st Century Performance Practice, and conducts the modern music ensemble, Split the Lark. In 2017, he has given masterclasses and recitals at Carroll Community College in Maryland, University of Scranton and sponsored by Si-Yo Music, a recital and teaching tour of Beijing, China and Hebei Province.
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.
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, The State University of New Jersey Mason Gross School of the Arts, 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. He holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance from The City University of New York Brooklyn College where he received The Robert Starer Award for Performing the Music of Living Composers and the Bachelors of Music in Music Education from William Paterson University, as a Tami Cotsakos ‘71 Scholar, Legacy Scholar, where he graduated from the Honors College and received the Outstanding Musician Award and Music Scholar Award from the Department of Music.
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, harpsichord studies with Rebecca Cypess and at Amherst Early Music with Arthur Haas and Peter Sykes, 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.
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.” He is adjunct professor of piano and collaborative piano at William Paterson University, and lecturer of music at Rutgers University where he teaches seminars in the Art of Collaborative Piano and 20th-21st Century Performance Practice, and conducts the modern music ensemble, Split the Lark. In 2017, he has given masterclasses and recitals at Carroll Community College in Maryland, University of Scranton and sponsored by Si-Yo Music, a recital and teaching tour of Beijing, China and Hebei Province.
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.
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, The State University of New Jersey Mason Gross School of the Arts, 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. He holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance from The City University of New York Brooklyn College where he received The Robert Starer Award for Performing the Music of Living Composers and the Bachelors of Music in Music Education from William Paterson University, as a Tami Cotsakos ‘71 Scholar, Legacy Scholar, where he graduated from the Honors College and received the Outstanding Musician Award and Music Scholar Award from the Department of Music.
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, harpsichord studies with Rebecca Cypess and at Amherst Early Music with Arthur Haas and Peter Sykes, 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.