Scott Tixier

Commercial Music, Jazz Studies, Strings, Violin
Associate Professor of Jazz Violin
Jazz String Lab Band, Director

333

Music Building

Scott.Tixier@unt.edu

Scott Tixier

Courses, Syllabi, and Curriculum Vitae

Scott Tixier is a French-American violinist, composer, and professor rooted in jazz improvisation, whose work bridges contemporary composition, cinematic sound, and cross-genre performance. A six-time GRAMMY® certificate recipient, he has collaborated with artists across genres including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Beyoncé, Hans Zimmer, and Jon Batiste, and was featured as a soloist in Batiste’s American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, documented in the Netflix film.
 
Originally from France, Tixier began his musical training in the conservatory system before immersing himself in the Paris jazz scene at a young age, where he developed his voice through live performance, improvisation, and mentorship. This dual foundation, formal classical study and lived experience in jazz, continues to inform his work as both a performer and composer.
 
He later spent over a decade in New York City, where he established himself as a sought-after artist across the jazz, pop, and recording worlds. During this time, he performed and recorded with leading figures of the international music scene, developing a distinctive sound recognized for its lyricism, rhythmic precision, and expressive range.
His work also extends into film scoring and studio recording, with credits including John Wick (2014), for which he contributed as both violinist and composer, as well as The Lion King and Charlie’s Angels, among others, including collaborations with composer Terence Blanchard on Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (Netflix). These experiences have shaped a compositional voice that moves fluidly between improvisation and structure, and between concert music and cinematic language.
 
His recent work marks a significant expansion into concert composition, including Ressemblance, commissioned by Tippet Rise Art Center and premiered at Wigmore Hall by Hilary Hahn on her international recital tour. His solo album Bonfire (Tixland LLC, 2025), a fully improvised work for violin recorded in a single take, represents a turning point in his artistic trajectory and has been described as both raw and transcendent.
 
Tixier has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, and the Paris Philharmonie, and has appeared on programs such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His recordings have been recognized by DownBeat and JazzTimes, with Cosmic Adventure named among the Best Albums of the Year.
 
Alongside his performance and compositional work, Tixier is committed to education. He is an Associate Professor at the University of North Texas, where he founded the Jazz Strings Program in Commercial Music, one of the first programs of its kind. He has presented masterclasses and residencies at leading institutions including Yale College, Princeton University, the Manhattan School of Music, and internationally.