Composer


Skyler’s original work explores the intersection of composition and improvisation, with an emphasis on creative mid and large sized ensembles. Living in the liminal space between structure and spontaneity, his music frequently features pairings of performers, and the juxtaposition of soloists in various settings.

Skyler is the recipient of a Jazz Road Tours Grant, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Skyler was commissioned by the Guilford Performing Arts Festival through their artist awards program for [Invisible Cities] Humanity, Memory, and Decay - A Suite for a Jazz Nonet, which premiered at the 2021 edition of the festival. His work has further been supported by Lower Manhattan Council of the Arts, Pathways to Jazz and The New England Musicians Relief Fund.

In 2017, he was accepted into the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop, a prestigious community of likeminded arrangers based in NYC, whose coaches included Andy Farber, Alan Ferber, and Ted Nash.

Skyler has also arranged for a variety of ensembles and guest artists with instrumentations ranging from big band to flute choir, and has adapted classical works into jazz forms. Credits include Kurt Rosenwinkel and the Philadelphia Ambassador Big Band, Steve Nelson and the WPU Big Band, United States Airforce Band of Europe, The Yu Nishiyama Big Band, and the Wesleyan'‘s Flute Fest 2019.

Skyler is available for commissions, adaptions, and transcriptions.

ELECTRONIC

Skyler Hagner’s electronic work explores permanence, transience, and fear. He uses these pieces to explore his own experience with imposter syndrome, worries about his career and life, and his physical presence on this planet. His electronic work frequently features vocal samples and dense acoustic textures processed in a variety of ways. Other times, he uses sonic photography techniques to create vivid landscapes and distorted aural memories of places he has been.