Biography
Connor O’Neill is a guitarist, composer, and producer who is at the forefront of Philadelphia’s burgeoning creative music scene. He graduated with a master’s degree in jazz studies from the University of the Arts in December 2019. He also received an undergraduate degree from the University of the Arts in 2017, receiving the School of Music Jazz Award and the Catherine T. Quaile Memorial Guitar Award that year.
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O’Neill’s latest album, The Same Changes, Vol II, was released in August 2023. Its predecessor, The Same Changes, Vol I, was released in April of 2022. The albums feature entirely original compositions and arrangements which paint vivid experiences and reflections manifested as moments in time. His video for the song “Jessica” was featured on NPR Music’s Live Sessions video series that summer. O’Neill was a member of Jazz Philadelphia's first Core Cooperative, an entrepreneurship and wellness program focused on nurturing new artists in the Philadelphia jazz scene. In August 2018, Connor was a featured artist, along with vocalist Jessica Cantone, in The Gathering II, an event curated by Philadelphia non-profit Artsi. O’Neill participated in the Kimmel Center Creative Music Program from 2010-2015, in which he composed, improvised, and performed under master musician Anthony Tidd.
O’Neill engineered Mervin Toussaint’s album Lakay, as well as Lora Sherrodd’s album Lora Sings Markley, which were both released in the Fall of 2022. He was featured on Toussaint’s 2020 EP, Another Name for Everything, as a guitarist, producer and sole mixing/mastering engineer. O’Neill established himself as a skilled and inventive sound engineer with the release of Alex Delcourt’s The French Quarter in 2018. O’Neill recorded, mixed, and mastered the album single-handedly, giving the album a unique, personal sound.
O’Neill has privately taught guitar, music theory, jazz history, improvisation, and musicianship since 2014. He currently offers private studio lessons and has taught at Mobile Music Philly and the New Jersey School of Music in Medford since 2021. Students from these programs range from age 6 to 75. After tutoring over 20 peer students at the University of the Arts for three years, he received the University’s Excellence in Tutoring Award in 2017.