BIOGRAPHY

Ashby Anderson, called a "skilled visionary and social entrepreneur" by Richmond's Urban
Views Weekly, continues to defy the definition of a jazz musician.  His projects are
monumental, including national and local commissions, documentaries, and the founder of
the Jazz Composers Alliance, Inc., Muse Creative Workspace, and the Richmond Youth Jazz
Guild.  Not satisfied to just composing, arranging and performing; Ashby, seeks to use his
knowledge and musical skills to impact the community and the legacy of Jazz.

Ashby is founder and CEO of the 5,000 sq. ft. studio/warehouse called Muse Creative
Workspace.  In 2006, Ashby saw something in an old produce warehouse in the heart of
Richmond's oldest neighborhood, Shockoe Bottom.  With a tremendous amount of "sweat
equity", Muse Creative Workspace was born.  The studio is modeled after the 1960s jazz lofts
of New York City with baby grand piano, drum set, acoustic bass, Fender Rhodes, and other
instruments for various projects and the community.  Muse Creative Workspace provides
rehearsal space for large ensembles, a music education program for local Richmond youth
aptly titled the Richmond Youth Jazz Guild, an art gallery, a classroom for the creative and
office space for Ashby's ever expanding imagination---even the Richmond Symphony has
rehearsed at Muse Creative Workspace.

The Richmond Youth Jazz Guild was founded by Ashby Anderson in 2008 as a way to bring
acoustic music and jazz back into the lives of youth in the Richmond metropolitan area.  In
February 2008, Ashby opened his studio, Muse Creative Workspace, to provide music
lessons for a longtime friend's son.  Within a few months Ashby saw the future of music
instruction and the opportunity to pass the torch of jazz to the next generation, thus the
Richmond Youth Jazz Guild was born.  To date, the Richmond Youth Jazz Guild has
successfully implemented music lessons for all instruments, produced several student
concerts, hosted three years of summer jazz camp, guided young musicians seeking college
admissions for music, produced a music composition workshop for aspiring young composers
and joined a national network of community music programs through renown Berklee College
of Music.

In 2001, Ashby founded the Jazz Composers Alliance, Inc. The organization became a 501 (c)
(3) non-profit organization in 2004 and serves as a forum for the creation, development, and
presentation of original works by jazz composers in Richmond, VA.  Under his direction, the
Jazz Composers Alliance, Inc.  has inspired a younger generation of jazz musicians to create,
explore and present their original music to the public.  More than 100 concerts or new and
original works have been presented in Richmond with more to come.  

An accomplished musician, composer, and performer, Ashby continues to develop cutting
edge compositions.  His ensembles, A Work of Art and new conceptualized Mosaic, all reflect
certain aspects of his creative process and serves as his vehicle for bringing his unique and
original sense of jazz to the audience.  Ashby's Cd's The Calling, A Work of Art, Celebration
of Life, Tonal Structures and the Historic Richmond Jazz Suite have all been independently
produced.  Each reflect a period in his compositional development which ranges from
experimental acoustic jazz, contemporary and traditional trajectories in music.  Ashby's music
has been described as "a frantic wall of sound, featuring threatening horn driven melodic
lines."  If that's not enough he's currently working on his own theory of music composition and
was awarded a music composition fellowship in jazz from the Virginia Commission of the Arts
in 2008.  The only jazz composer in Virginia to receive this award.  His works have been
commissioned nationally by Meet the Composer, Commissioning Music USA, National
Endowment of the Arts, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund and the Target Foundation.


Ashby views his music and entrepreneurial work as a labor of love that impacts his community
directly through services that educate, transfer and transform the community for the better.
"A tenacious artist."
        -Soul of Virginia Magazine
"He is a very accomplished
songwriter and pianist...his
unique usage of melodic
patterns is very interesting."
       -International Song Competition