General Admission $20
Students/members: $15
Join pianists Nick Sanders and Dan Tepfer for two unique solo sets of captivating piano music.
Nick Sanders
www.nicksandersmusic.com
Nick Sanders' music has been described by Downbeat magazine as: “Entertaining enough to catch your ear, and intelligent enough to tickle your mind, Sanders’ sound is that of a stellar young musician carving out a unique place for himself in today’s jazz scene. Lean, acrobatic and endlessly inventive, Sanders’ style abounds with unexpected phrases and surprising flourishes—the kind of playing that never sits still. As a soloist, Sanders is a mad genius— hauntingly melodic and utterly unpredictable. Just when you think you’ve mapped his trajectory, he’s gone in a new direction, spinning off fresh, unconventional phrases.”
Sanders grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. He started playing piano when he was seven years old, focusing on the classical repertoire. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), a public performing and visual arts high school, graduating in 2006. While at NOCCA, he switched from classical to jazz piano and studied with the clarinetist Alvin Batiste. As a teenager, he occasionally played piano with Batiste, including performances at Snug Harbor in the French Quarter. Sanders later earned a bachelor's and master's degree on full scholarship from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he studied with the pianists Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, and Danilo Pérez. Hersch has compared Sanders to Keith Jarrett. He made his New York debut at age 20 playing with George Garzone, Ari Hoenig, and Peter Slavov at Cornelia St. Cafe.
After graduation, Sanders established residence in New York City. While at NEC, Sanders had formed the Nick Sanders Trio with two fellow classmates, bassist Henry Fraser and drummer Connor Baker. In 2013, the band released Nameless Neighbors on Sunnyside Records. The album was produced by Fred Hersch. Of the thirteen tracks on the record, ten are original Sanders' compositions. The album was included in The Times-Picayune's "2013 list of best jazz records". Sanders also toured in France at the Amiens Music Festival where he played multiple solo piano concerts.
In 2015, Sunnyside Records released the trio's second album, entitled You Are a Creature, which like their debut was produced by Hersch. In February 2015, the album was included in DownBeat's "Editors' Picks". In 2016 Sanders released a duo album with material ranging from 13th century music through modern times including classical music covers and originals, with the saxophonist Logan Strosahl which received 4 stars in Downbeat Magazine. In 2019 Sanders released his most recent piano trio album "Playtime 2050" consisting of all originals to critical acclaim. Currently, Sanders is composing new music for a solo piano album which will be released in the near future.
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Dan Tepfer
One of his generation’s extraordinary talents, 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). The New York City-based Tepfer, born in 1982 in Paris to American parents, has performed around the world with some of the leading lights in jazz and classical music; he has also crafted a discography striking for its breadth and depth, encompassing probing solo improvisation and intimate duets, as well as trio albums rich in their rhythmic verve, melodic allure and the leader’s keen-eared taste in songs no matter the genre.
Tepfer earned global acclaim for his 2011 Sunnyside album Goldberg Variations / Variations, a disc that sees him performing J.S. Bach’s masterpiece as well as improvising upon it — to “elegant, thoughtful and thrilling” effect (New York magazine). Tepfer’s newest album, Natural Machines, stands as one of his most ingeniously forward-minded yet; available now as a video album on YouTube and as an audio-only CD/download/stream via Sunnyside, this solo project five years in the making finds him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, between coding and improvisation, between digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart.
Tepfer has also composed for various ensembles beyond jazz. His piano quintet Solar Spiral was premiered in 2016 at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, with Tepfer performing alongside the Avalon String Quartet. Tepfer has received commissions from the Prague Castle Guard Orchestra for two works: the suite Algorithmic Transform (2015) and a concerto for symphonic wind band and improvising piano, The View from Orohena (2010). In summer 2019, Tepfer unveiled his jazz-trio arrangement of Stravinsky’s Baroque-channeling Pulcinella.
Tepfer’s honors have included the first prize and audience prize at the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition, first prize at the 2006 East Coast Jazz Festival Competition, and first prize at the 2007 competition of the American Pianists Association. He was voted a Best New Artist in JazzTimes (2010) and a Rising Star in DownBeat (2011). Tepfer garnered the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014; a MacDowell Fellowship, with a residency at the MacDowell Colony in 2016; and a three-year creative grant from the French Foundation BNP-Paribas in 2018.
