A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively
influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more
than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, a
collaborator, and recording artist. For this performance, Hersh and an
ensemble of 12 musicians reprise his iconic album Leaves of Grass,
setting the poetry of Walt Whitman to jazz. Fred Hersch is a
twelve-time Grammy Award nominee and he continues to earn jazz’s most
prestigious awards. Hersch is a committed educator—he has taught at New
England Conservatory, The Julliard School, The New School, and The
Manhattan School of Music. His influence has been widely felt on a new
generation of jazz pianists, from former students Brad Mehldau and Ethan
Iverson to his colleague Jason Moran, who has said, “Fred at the piano
is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He’s perfection.”