7th Solo Piano Festival

Friday Feature Concert

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.

Set I
Michael Weiss
“…writes with thought-provoking originality” – JazzTimes
For over forty years, pianist, composer, and educator Michael Weiss has forged a formidable career working in the bands of jazz legends Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Frank Wess, Charles McPherson, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, the Heath Brothers, George Coleman, the Jazztet, Jon Hendricks, Junior Cook, Bill Hardman, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Mingus Epitaph Orchestra. He has also performed with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Clifford Jordan, Phil Woods, Pepper Adams, Ron Carter, David Newman, Gerry Mulligan, Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Donald Byrd, Joe Wilder and other high profile jazz recording artists. As a band leader Weiss has headlined at major jazz venues such as the Village Vanguard, Dizzy’s, Blue Note, Bradley’s, and the Detroit Jazz Festival. Television appearances include CBS-TV’s Nightwatch and PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center: The City of Jazz. NPR radio appearances include Marion McPartland’s Piano Jazz and Jazzset. Weiss was a 1989 prizewinner in the Thelonious Monk Institute’s International Piano Competition and won the 2000 BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute’s Composition Competition grand prize presented to him by Wayne Shorter. He is also the recipient of two Chamber Music America New Works grants. Weiss’ recordings as a leader are on the Cellar Live, CrissCross, SteepleChase, DIW, and Sintra labels and have received unanimous critical acclaim.

Set II
Dan Tepfer
“As a pianist, Mr. Tepfer combines superb technique with a complex set of impulses: He’s a deeply rational improviser drawn to the unknown.” – The New York Times
Dan Tepfer, born in 1982 in Paris to American parents, has recorded and performed around the world with some of the leading lights in jazz and classical music, from Lee Konitz to Renée Fleming, and released ten albums as a leader. For tonight’s concert, Tepfer will present the sequence of pieces he recorded on his latest disc: Inventions / Reinventions. He will perform each of Bach’s 15 Two Part Inventions, but will add a special ingredient: because the Inventions were originally composed as etudes for beginning students, Bach left out the more challenging keys. Tepfer completes the cycle by adding those more complex keys, inserting his own free improvisations into the gaps created in the sequence of Bach’s beloved compositions. Tonight, listeners will experience all 24 keys (12 major, 12 minor) in chromatic order, enjoying a linear progression of keys (C, C#, D, Eb, E, etc.). In this performance you will hear 15 of Bach’s pieces verbatim with free improvisations inspired by “Bach’s harmonic landscape” inserted into the spaces occupied by the 9 missing keys. Tepfer earned acclaim for his 2011 release Goldberg Variations / Variations, performing and improvising over the J.S. Bach’s masterpiece —to “elegant, thoughtful and thrilling” effect (New York magazine). Tepfer’s honors include first prizes at the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition, the 2006 East Coast Jazz Festival Competition, and the 2007 American Pianists Association Jazz Piano Competition, he has served as fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2014), the MacDowell Colony (2016), and the Fondation BNP-Paribas (2018).