Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch is widely regarded as one of the most important jazz pianists of his generation, a seventeen-time Grammy nominee whose work as an improviser, composer, and bandleader has shaped modern jazz piano. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1955, he has been a regular headliner at the Village Vanguard since 1997 and has recorded more than 60 albums as a leader or co-leader, including a dozen solo piano records such as Silent, Listening (ECM, 2024). His collaborators range from Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano to Enrico Rava and esperanza spalding, with whom he recorded the Grammy-nominated 2023 duo album Alive at the Village Vanguard. A dedicated educator, Hersch has taught at the New England Conservatory, Juilliard, the New School, Rutgers, and the Manhattan School of Music, and his honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition and a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. His 2017 memoir Good Things Happen Slowly was named one of the five best memoirs of the year by the Washington Post and the New York Times, and he is a longtime advocate for HIV/AIDS causes.