Every time Fred Hersch sits down at the piano is an act of revelation, discovery, confession and evolution. An exploratory artist, eloquent composer, outspoken activist, influential educator and possessor of one of the most personal and expressive pianistic styles in improvised music, Hersch has led a singular life that has shaped one of the most acclaimed and influential voices in modern jazz. His remarkable and inspiring story is told in his much-anticipated 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz, published by Crown Archetype/Random House; in the feature documentary The Ballad of Fred Hersch, which premiered in 2016 to rave reviews; and in the confessional jazz-theater piece My Coma Dreams.

At the forefront of the music for more than three decades, Hersch has earned countless awards and accolades including ten Grammy® nominations, numerous acknowledgments from the jazz world’s most prestigious institutions and publications, and such recent distinctions as being named a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2016 Jazz Pianist of the Year. Hailed by Vanity Fair as “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade,” he stands as a defining figure in several different contexts, from breathtaking solo recitals and compelling duos to his gold-standard trios and innovative chamber pieces.

With more than 40 albums to his credit, Hersch can claim one of the most highly praised and consistently striking discographies in jazz history. His latest release, Open Book (Palmetto Records) is his 11^th solo recording, capturing the bold adventurousness and intense beauty that have made Hersch one of the music’s most renowned solo artists. He’s also led some of the most peerless trios in jazz; the Wall Street Journal proclaimed his longstanding group with bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson “one of the major ensembles of our times.”

Parallel with his prolific career in music, Hersch has worked tirelessly over the past several decades as a fervent spokesman and fundraiser for AIDS services and education agencies and as a committed educator, teaching for many years at New England Conservatory; he is currently a Visiting Artist at Rutgers University.

Learn more at www.fredhersch.com

Avik performed on Show 360 in Boston, Massachusetts on October 14, 2018.

Avik Sarkar, 17, is a pianist, cellist and composer, who is currently a senior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N), Cambridge, MA. He is a 2018-2020 Lang Lang International Music Foundation Young Scholar.

He studies piano with Mana Tokuno and Alexander Korsantia at the New England Conservatory (NEC), cello with Nancy Hair and composition with Prof. Alla Cohen.  He has been a piano student of Niva Fried for many years.

Avik’s piece, Mirror for Chamber Orchestra, won the 2015 Carlos Surinach BMI student composer prize, awarded to the youngest of 9 winners chosen from over 700 composers under the age of 28. His compositions have received awards and recognition from the ASCAP Morton Gould, Robert Avalon International, Tribeca, and National Young Composers competitions and he was a National Young Arts winner twice in a row. His piano trio, A Separate Unity, was premiered by the Juventas New Music Ensemble at the Emerge program in Boston. The orchestral piece Purvi was played by Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and won an honorable mention at the 2016 BMI student composer competition. He has had several other works performed by preparatory students of the New England Conservatory, at Keller and Brown halls.

Avik has also won top prizes at several international, regional, and state piano competitions, including The American Prize, Future Stars International, Forte International Music, New York International Artists, Louisiana International and Hartford Chopin International Piano competitions. He has won top prizes at NEPTA, MTNA, MMTA & Steinway Society of Massachusetts piano competitions several times. He has performed in recitals at Cadogan Hall in London, UK, Symphony Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall in New York City, and was heard on WGBH Radio, NPR, Boston.

Avik enjoys bringing music to the community and raised money for refugees in the Boston area last winter by organizing a classical music benefit concert through a From the Top Arts Leadership Grant.

Aside from music, he enjoys competition math, writing poetry and watercolor painting.