The 8th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival

The 8th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival: A two day celebration of solo jazz piano via concerts and educational offerings; in-person and livestreamHeadliners: Aaron Parks, Hey Rim Jeon, Jacky Terrasson, Alfredo Rodríguez; Emerging Artists: Yujin Han, Mathew MuellerFriday & Saturday, April 19, 20, 2024

Pricing: Full festival pass: $85-$130; Individual headliner concerts: $25 – $60; Saturday daytime pass: $65. All tickets are general admission and offered on a sliding fee scale (except the Saturday daytime pass).

Tickets for In-person Show Available: online at www.vtjazz.org (http://www.vtjazz.org/)
by email at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Livestream (presented by donation): www.vtjazz.org (http://www.vtjazz.org/)

Accessibility Questions: Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

April 19-20, 2024

A Weekend of Concerts and Educational Opportunities that Celebrates the Distinct Practices and Vocabularies of Solo Piano in Jazz Music

The Vermont Jazz Center’s Eighth Annual Solo Piano Festival

The Vermont Jazz Center celebrates the vital impact that the piano has played in the history of
jazz by hosting its 8th annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival on April 19 and 20, 2024. The artists
headlining this year’s festival are Hey Rim Jeon, Aaron Parks, Alfredo Rodríguez, and Jacky
Terrasson; emerging artists are Yujin Han and Mathew Mueller.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
April 19
7:30 – 9:30 PM: Headliner Concerts by Hey Rim Jeon and Aaron Parks

April 20
10 AM – 2 PM: Workshops presented by all headlining artists
· 10:00 am – Hey Rim Jeon – Embodying your Inner-ensemble in Solo Piano Jazz
· 11:00 am – Aaron Parks – Awakening the Music Within
· 12:00 pm – Alfredo Rodríguez – Glimpse into Jazz Improvisation
· 1:00 pm – Jacky Terrasson – Questions and Answers
3:30 – 4:30 PM: Emerging Artist Presentations by Matthew Mueller and Yujin Han
4:45 PM: Panel Discussion with all pianists
7:30 – 9:30 PM: Headliner Concerts by Alfredo Rodríguez and Jacky Terrasson

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Hey Rim Jeon
Born in Seoul, Korea, Hey Rim Jeon began piano lessons at the age of three. She is a now a full professor at Berklee, where she is the recipient of an Exemplary Mentorship Award and the co-author of a piano performance study guide. Jeon has performed throughout Korea and Japan. Media appearances include WNBC Live’s Weekend Today in New York, and BBC’s The World. Ms. Jeon is an active participant in the Massachusetts Conference for Women and the Korean Cultural Society of Boston.

Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks came to the public’s attention during his tenure with trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Born in Seattle, Washington, he began playing piano at a young age and by the time he was fourteen had enrolled in an early entrance degree program at the University of Washington. He has released numerous albums as a leader for Blue Note, ECM and Ropeadope Records, and has recorded with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dayna Stephens, Christian Scott, Kendrick Scott, Gretchen Parlato, Ambrose Akinmusire, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joshua Redman, Billy Hart, Ben Wendel, Eric Harland and many others. He currently lives with his family in Portugal.

Alfredo Rodríguez
Pianist Alfredo Rodríguez comes from a musical family. As a very young man, he played in his father’s band and studied classical piano at three leading conservatories in Havana. In a feature in Downbeat, Rodríguez discussed his belief that the accumulation of one’s life experiences and the evolution of spirit comes across in the sounds that are created when improvising musicians commit to a performance: “When we go onstage, we’re playing our lives, [expressing] the way we grew up, the way we think. All the positive and negative things that happen in our life, we transmit into musical sounds.”

Jacky Terrasson
Jacky Terrasson was the 1993 winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano
Competition. He is a two-time Grammy nominee and was acclaimed by The New York Times
Magazine as “one of 30 artists under the age of 30 most likely to make an impact on American
culture in the next 30 years.” He has recorded with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Michael Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Ray Brown, Cindy Blackman, Wallace Roney, Bob Belden, Leon Parker, Javon Jackson, Eddie Harris, Little Jimmy Scott and Ry Cooder. Terrasson regularly tours Europe, Asia and the United States, and appears at significant festivals including Montreal, San Francisco, Montreux, North Sea and Marciac.

Yujin Han
South Korean-born pianist, composer and arranger Yujin Han is a Presidential Scholar who has
been studying with Danilo Perez and Kris Davis at Berklee college of music in both the Global
Jazz Institute and Jazz and Gender Justice Institute programs. Through her studies at Berklee,
Ms. Han has developed her own compositional voice and explored creative harmonic approaches of playing. She performs in the Boston area.

Mathew Mueller
Mathew is a senior at Amherst College. He grew up in the New Haven, Connecticut region,
playing piano and singing in his Russian church choir. At Amherst he has been studying jazz
piano, music theory and composition. He will be presenting his senior music thesis, titled “The
Lowly Inchworm is My Hero,” on April 5th. The piece is built using voice messages and spoken- word recordings as compositional tools. Mueller co-leads and plays in Interstellar Mediums, a sextet comprised of alto sax, trumpet, bass, drums, piano, and vocals.

The Solo Jazz Piano Festival, now in its eighth year, is one of the cornerstones of the VJC’s programming

The Solo Jazz Piano Festival continues to be a unique opportunity for audiences to communicate directly with the artists as they share their spiritual and historical sources of inspiration, and offer tips on their methods of learning, teaching and practice routines.The VJC is honored to continue this important tradition in Brattleboro. The structure of this solo piano festival is unique and geared towards community building and garnering knowledge using the piano as a catalyst.

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