Pianist, composer, and improviser, Donal Fox expertly fuses jazz, Afro-Latin, and classical idioms into intricate new works and electrifying performances. Praised by The Boston Globe as “unique and utterly commanding,” and by NPR’s All Things Considered as “one of our countries great composers and performers,” Mr. Fox de- and reconstructs Bach, Piazzolla, Schumann, Monk, Schoenberg, and more, adding propulsive grooves and using composed themes as springboards for glorious improvisational flights that blend baroque with bebop and twelve-tone techniques with twelve-bar blues.

With an encyclopedic ear, exquisite chops, and impeccable taste, Mr. Fox’s Confounding the Genre Police program draws on a vast repertoire that includes Orlando Gibbons, J.S. Bach, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Frederick Chopin, John Coltrane, Astor Piazzolla, Domenico Scarlatti, Federico Mompou, Horace Silver, Johannes Brahms, and many others. In June 2022, Fox performed to great acclaim at the Gilmore International Piano Festival. A Steinway Artist, Fox has premiered works at such prestigious venues as Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and served as the first African-American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony. Fox's fluency across genres has led to collaborations with the likes of David Murray, Oliver Lake, John Stubblefield and Hilary Hahn, along with the Richmond Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. 

"A composer, pianist and improviser who deftly draws from jazz and classical contemporary traditions."

The New York Times

"[Fox's] innovative amalgam of Baroque and bebop (with a little bit of Babalu) is unique and utterly commanding."

The Boston Globe

"His playing on the classics is superb, and on the pianissimo of the Dowland his fingers touch the keys with the delicacy of a butterfly alighting on a flower."

The Boston Examiner

"Art Tatum on the right hand; Johann Sebastian Bach on the left; Donal Fox in the middle."

Terrance McKnight, WQXR

Audio: Donal Fox Live on WQXR Emancipation 150

Audio: Donal Fox Live on Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon

“A true melding of jazz and classical technique, Fox’s bluesy, meditative and virtuosic style found its best expression with Duke Ellington’s ruminative “Reflections In D,” ending with a pulse…suddenly there were two encores.”

DownBeat

"Ingenious artistry... Fox improvises on several hundred years of musical tradition with aplomb and veracity."

All About Jazz

Donal Fox: Reflections in D at the 2022 Gilmore International Piano Festival

Donal Fox: Dolphin Dance - Maiden Voyage at the 2022 Gilmore International Piano Festival

Donal Fox: Variations on Ludovico Einaudi at the 2022 Gilmore International Piano Festival