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7th Solo Jazz Piano Festival
April 21, 2023 - April 22, 2023
FOR ALL MUSIC LOVERS, not just pianists, interested in both the practical and spiritual aspects of jazz and improvised music.
Full Press Release
Together we will hear six brilliant pianists perform and discuss their relationship to music, to the jazz lineage, to structure and to freedom. The VJC invites you to participate in a festival that showcases artists who have invested their lives and artistic practices in the sounds of the piano which spring forth with reverence and joy. CLICK HERE for full artist bios.
The Vermont Jazz Center celebrates the vital impact the piano has played in the history of jazz by hosting its 7th annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival. Michael Weiss, Dan Tepfer, Myra Melford, and Orrin Evans headline the event with emerging artists Shiyu Fang and Remi Savard.
The Solo Jazz Piano Festival, now in its seventh year, is one of the cornerstones of the VJC’s programming. The festival has presented some of the world’s top pianists and most important musical innovators of this generation including NEA Jazz Masters Toshiko Akiyoshi and Joanne Brackeen, acknowledged luminaries Stanley Cowell, Benny Green, Sullivan Fortner, Kenny Werner, and many others. The Solo Jazz Piano Festival continues to be a unique opportunity for audiences of all backgrounds to communicate directly with the artists as they divulge their methods and teachings through performances and presentations. The VJC is honored to continue this important tradition in Brattleboro.
Each of this year’s artists is highly regarded by jazz lovers around the world. They are all virtuosic in their abilities and have released numerous, celebrated recordings as leaders and side-people. But what sets this group of four apart is that each individual conveys a completely distinct approach to the instrument. Each pianist is a mature example of an artist who has developed an instantly recognizable vocabulary and personal style.
This year each concert will have an in-person audience as well as a livestream component. You may purchase in-person tickets above and/or donate to the livestream below. Full festival pass: $80-$120; Individual headliner concerts: $20 – $50; Saturday daytime pass: $60. All tickets are general admission and offered on a sliding fee scale (except the Saturday daytime pass).
Masks optional, light refreshment available.
Schedule
Friday, April 22
Feature Concert
7:30 Michael Weiss Performance
For over forty years, pianist, composer, and educator Michael Weiss has forged a formidable career working with the legends of bebop and post-bop and, as a leader, released five recordings to unanimous critical acclaim.
8:30 Dan Tepfer Performance
Dan Tepfer has earned an international reputation as a pianist-composer of wide-ranging ambition, individuality, and drive—one “who refuses to set himself limits” (France’s Télérama)– through performances and releases which find him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, coding and improvisation, digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart.
Saturday, April 22
Educational Presentations
10:00 Michael Weiss – “Harmony as an Expressive Devise and Storytelling in Jazz”
11:00 Orrin Evans – “Reharms Can be Fun”
12:00 Myra Melford – “Language of Dreams: Composing for Improvisers”
1:00 Lunch Break
2:00 Shiyu Fang, Emerging Artist Performance – Fang was awarded the prestigious Berklee Toshiko Akiyoshi Award, which recognizes exceptional talent in jazz composition. She is a part of the Jazz and Gender Justice Institute at Berklee.
2:45 Remi Savard, Emerging Artist Performance – Savard is an active performer in the area both as a bandleader and a collaborator working with local musicians. He is a graduating senior at University of Vermont studying music and microbiology.
3:30 Dan Tepfer – “From Bach to Natural Machines: Algorithms as the Shapers of Music”
4:30 Pianist Panel Discussion (Juried Questions)
5:30 Dinner Break
Saturday Feature Concert
7:30 Myra Melford Performance
The pianist, composer, bandleader and educator Myra Melford—whom the New Yorker called “a stalwart of the new-jazz movement”—has spent the last three decades making brilliant original music that is equally challenging and engaging.
8:30 Orrin Evans Performance
During his kaleidoscopic quarter-century as a professional jazz musician, pianist Orrin Evans has become the model of a fiercely independent artist who pushes the envelope in all directions through a style that postulates an environment of “structured freedom” that instigates the personnel to push the envelope in all his multifarious leader and collaborative projects.
