Diane Delin

Of jazz violinist, composer, recording artist and educator Diane Delin, JazzTimes Magazine says, "Her elegance and expertise are always obvious," while the LA Times comments, "Delin produces improvisations of considerable style and unmistakable integrity." St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert Hall gives her "Standing Ovation!" while the Chicago Sun-Times remarks, "Her playing has a toughness and stringency to go with its elegance and verve." Boston’s jazz critic Fred Bouchard adds, "She’s really a fine player with exquisite taste."

Some violinists emulate horns, and some have the gypsy violin-influenced swing style. In Delin’s hands, jazz violin cannot be easily classified; she has created her own unique voice on the instrument.

That voice can be heard in her four CD releases on the Blujazz label. Her most recent release, Duality, is an album of duets featuring her long-time cohort, pianist Dennis Luxion, who also appears on two of her previous CDs. Diane and Dennis, who recorded and toured with Chet Baker, and has appeared with Archie Shepp, Toots Thielemans, and Lee Konitz, developed a full program of duets. Realizing the interactive range it could offer both of them as artists, they featured their duets as part of their larger group performances, receiving great response. Doug Ramsey calls them "empathetic" in his JazzTimes review of those featured on her previous release, Talking Stick. Jim Wilke of Public Radio International’s "Jazz After Hours" received this new CD with "Beautiful! Their music has the style and sophistication of sonatas by Ravel or Debussy," while All About Jazz prints, "The duo creates a rich ambiance that has precedence in the work of Bill Evans and some of Chick Corea’s duo work, but has a sound all its own. The CD received four stars in the All Music Guide and was named in the top 10 Chicago artist releases of 2001 by the Chicago Sun-Times. Delin’s Talking Stick features her quartet with an eighteen-piece string section for which she arranged several songs. She has subsequently written a whole program of arrangements for the quartet to perform with string orchestra.

All of Delin’s recordings have received extensive international airplay, with several reaching the national jazz charts. Origins and Another Morning, released on the Blujazz label, primarily feature her original compositions.

A concert and festival-touring artist, Delin has received favorable reviews and feature articles in Downbeat Magazine, JazzTimes Magazine, Cadence Magazine, the LA Times, Jazz Improv magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Jazz Now Magazine, Jazz Review, St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis Riverfront Times, All About Jazz, Jazz Views United Kingdom, Vocero De Puerto Rico, New City Chicago, Rockford Register Star, Pioneer Press, New Orleans Times Piquiune among many others. She has also been asked to write musical equipment reviews for magazines such as Jazz Improv.

Diane’s recent performances include the Chicago Jazz Festival, St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert Hall, New Orleans’ Snug Harbor, Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, Taste of Chicago, Portland Performing Arts Series, Clarke College Performing Arts Series, and Chicago’s Symphony Center. She has played for President Clinton and the First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Delin also presents clinics, master classes and residencies. Her participatory educational program, "Jazz Talk," has been presented to thousands of students. She also leads clinics for educators, and has presented student workshops through Ravinia Festival’s Jazz Mentors Program. Her concert, festival and clinic appearances in the Midwest United States have been supported by the Illinois Arts Council’s Arts Tour Program since 1991 and the Heartland Arts Fund since 2001.

Diane Delin grew up in Evanston, Illinois She studied piano at age 6 and violin at age 9. Her first violin teacher was Samuel Aaron. She attended Evanston Township High School where she became concert master of the orchestra and soloed on the Bruch Violin Concerto with the orchestra in her senior year. She later studied jazz with saxophonist Joe Daley, and earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Northwestern University. She studied classically with Edgar Muenzer of the Chicago Symphony, and earned a master’s degree in community arts management from the University of Illinois, for survival techniques in the music world.

Although Delin’s jazz interest was first piqued by violinists Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti and country-swing violinist Vassar Clements, it was the Bill Evans Village Vanguard sessions that most inspired her to play jazz.

In addition to touring and recording with her own groups, Delin also does creative and commercial session work, including production and arranging. A recent project released in the fall of 2004, co-produced with Blujazz’s Greg Pasenko, features such artists as Frank Wess (of Count Basie), Ed Thigpen (of Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald), Lew Soloff (Manhattan Jazz Quintet & Blood Sweat and Tears), George Mraz (Joe Lovano and Tommy Flannagan) . As a "sideman" she has toured as part of the string section in the Frank Sinatra Orchestra from 1991-94, and has been a section player for Manhattan Transfer, Ray Charles, Brian Wilson, Garth Brooks, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Lori Morgan and many others.

Delin was among the musicians on the cover of Jazziz Magazine’s issue featuring women in jazz, and has even been sighted as a clue in United Airlines in-flight magazine Hemisphere’s crossword puzzle. Delin is also a member of the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Education), and a founding member of the IAJE String Caucus. She is a former governor of the board of the Midwest chapter of The Recording Academy (NARAS), and a member of the Chicago Local of the American Federation of Musicians. Delin currently teaches at her private studio and also at Columbia College Chicago and North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.