Brandon Lopez is a bassist and composer living in New York City. His work deals with improvisation, finding new sonic possibilities on the double bass.

Collaborations with the likes Fred Moten, Gerald Cleaver, John Zorn, The Mat Maneri Quartet, Nate Wooley’s “knknighgh”, Satoko Fuji, Zeena Parkins, Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey, Standing On The Corner, Cecilia Lopez, Ash Fure, Joe Morris, Tyshawn Sorey, and many others.

Playing with the New York Philharmonic 2019 season as a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic in the premier of Ashley Fure’s “Filament” under the baton of Jaap Van Zweden. His solo work has been featured at the Met Museum in a live collaboration with silent films by directors Stan Brakhage and Germaine Dulac. His collaborative work with Fred Moten and Gerald Cleaver was critically acclaimed by publications of note and won Best of Jazz 2022 in the NYTimes. His most recent solo recording won best of 2023 in the NYC Jazz record. He’s been awarded the Van Lier Fellowship (2018) and Jerome Artist in Residence (2020) at Roulette Intermedium, The Artist in Residence at Issue Project Room (2018), commissions from the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation for the recording of SUN BURNS OUT YOUR EYES (2022), 2023 NYSCA grant for the multimedia piece NADA SAGRADA premiered at the Vision Festival, and an award in 2020 from the Doris Duke Charitable Trust.

He is currently a instructor of improvisation and double bass at the New School for Jazz.







From recent press:

“This is virtuosity in the sense that we hear on this record countless textures from Lopez—extended techniques, bowed strings that unearth wild harmonics, plucked rumblings, and low funk rootings—each conjured from a deep sense of what is being called for in a moment. This is virtuosity as vocabulary, a total command of texture, subtlety, and a depth that can be reached into. It is not the kind of soloistic performativity or frenetic get-it-all-out that characterizes so much free playing—but it is still free. “ - Cleveland Review of Books

“There are musicians who leverage their instrument’s conventional vocabulary to create works of art, and then there’s Brandon Lopez. The NYC-based composer and improvisor has crafted an entirely new language for the double bass. His is a sound rooted in many locations simultaneously, primarily those vast swathes that extend beyond tradition.” - Dusted Magazine

“Brandon Lopez is a complete and uncompromising musician.”- Citizen Jazz

“undeniably bad assed, precisely executed and lucidly organized” - The Wire