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Cincinnati Native Fred Hersch Joins CCM for Philharmonic Jazz
Jazz pianist Fred Hersch, a Cincinnati native and Walnut Hills High School graduate, joins CCM's Philharmonia Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble for the annual Philharmonic Jazz concert at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 10.
Other Contact: Sandi Holdheide
Other Contact Phone: (513) 556-9484 
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music welcomes renowned jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch for an evening of virtuosic jazz and orchestral music at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 10, in Corbett Auditorium. A Cincinnati native and Walnut Hills High School (WHHS) alumnus, Hersch will perform with the combined forces of CCM's Philharmonia Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble. Rick VanMatre, director of jazz studies, and also a WHHS graduate, and Mark Gibson, director of orchestral studies, will conduct. Hersch will play his own arrangements of works by Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Strayhorn, Scriabin, Bernstein, Bach and Thelonious Monk, as well as his own compositions. The concert also features the premiere of a new arrangement by CCM student Nathaniel Beversluis, who was recently honored with a 2003 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award. CCM jazz faculty Marc Wolfley, percussion, and Chris Berg, bass, will also perform. This is the fifth annual Philharmonic Jazz concert since this concept was inaugurated in 2000 by Gibson and VanMatre as a collaboration between the two departments. Previous concerts have featured a wide spectrum of music for jazz ensemble and jazz-influenced orchestral works, as well as special guest performers and composers.
Fred Hersch is widely recognized for his ability to reinvent the standard jazz repertoire. Described by The New York Times as "a master who plays it his way," Hersch has recorded more than 20 albums as a solo artist or band leader, co-led another 20 sessions and appeared as a sideman or featured soloist on over 80 recordings. He received the 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition and two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. Hersch has collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists including Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Charlie Haden, Dawn Upshaw, Bill T. Jones, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Jeffrey Kahane, Art Farmer, Renée Fleming and more. He has played major solo concerts at the Montreal, San Francisco, Rome and London Jazz Festivals; Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Spoleto USA and Gilmore Keyboard Festival; and in Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and throughout Europe. Hersch's Live at the Village Vanguard topped the CMJ Jazz Chart for six weeks and received "Coup de Coeur" from the Academie Charles Cros in France. The French Academie du Jazz honored his Songs Without Words as its Disc of the Year. Leaves of Grass, a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry for two voices, premiered in select cities including Washington, D.C. He's currently touring with concert pianist Christopher O'Riley in "Heard Fresh: Music for Two Pianos." Aside from his professional endeavors, Hersch has acted as a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies, a cause to which he is especially devoted given his own 17 year struggle with HIV. He has produced and performed on four recordings for the charities Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The first of these recordings, Last Night When We Were Young: The Ballad Album, has raised over $150,000 for AIDS services and education. Mark Gibson is the director of orchestral studies for CCM, where he also serves as music director for the Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor for the Chamber and Repertory orchestras and the director of the Lucca Festival Ensemble. He also enjoys a distinguished international career, including a debut in Beijing as well as new productions of Rossini's Moïse at the Seoul Opera House and both Handel's Alcina and Argento's Casanova at the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. He formerly held the position of principal conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and has served as music director of the Eastman Philharmonia, the New York City Opera National Company and the Opera de Mahon, Spain. He has conducted throughout the U.S. and for the Korean Chamber Ensemble, the New Seoul Philharmonic, orchestras of Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga in Spain and the Bochumer Symphoniker in Germany. His work in the opera house includes productions in New York, Cleveland and the Minnesota Opera, among others. He has been a frequent guest at renowned summer festivals in Chautauqua and Spoleto U.S.A. Rick VanMatre is director of jazz studies at CCM and music director of the CCM Jazz Ensemble. As a saxophonist he has recorded with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, PsychoAcoustic Orchestra, Latin X-Posure, Cincinnati Jazz Septet and Cal Collins, and performed with artists such as John McNeil, David Matthews, Mark Murphy, Bobby Shew, David Darling and the Duke Ellington Orchestra led by Mercer Ellington. As a conductor he has directed big band programs for the American Jazz Radio Festival, National Public Radio and artists Joe Henderson, David Liebman, Eddie Daniels, Slide Hampton, Louie Bellson, Frank Foster and Kenny Garrett. He has presented performances and lectures for the International Association of Jazz Educators, Music Educators National Conference, North American Saxophone Alliance and has written for Saxophone Journal. He is a regular faculty member for the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Clinics and has taught at the International Summer Jazz Academy in Warsaw, Poland. As a classical saxophonist, he has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductors Leinsdorf and Penderecki. He has been named Best Jazz Musician by Cincinnati Magazine, Outstanding Jazz Educator in Ohio by IAJE and received the Ernest Glover Outstanding Teacher Award from CCM students. He received his master's degree from the Eastman School of Music. Parking is available in the CCM Garage at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for non-UC students and UC students are admitted FREE with a valid student ID. For more information contact the CCM Box Office at 513-556-4183, boxoff@uc.edu or www.ccm.uc.edu. The Castellini Foundation is the Jazz Series Sponsor. Philharmonia Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble Tickets |
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