Fred Hersch Trio Makes Segerstrom Center Debut in Jazz Series This Weekend

The 2013 - 2014 jazz season at Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the debut of the Fred Hersch Trio this weekend, May 2 & 3 in Samueli Theater. Pianist, composer, collaborator and bandleader Fred Hersch has been called "one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation" by Downbeat Magazine. Vanity Fair calls him "...the most arrestingly innovative pianist over the last decade or so."

For these four performances, Hersch will be joined by his trio featuring John He?bert on bass and Eric McPherson on drums. It's a group which displays all the rhythmic daring, exceptional interplay, harmonic sophistication and passionate lyricism that makes it one of the era's definitive ensembles. The Wall Street Journal calls the Fred Hersch Trio "one of the major ensembles of our time."

Tickets for Fred Hersch Trio start at $59 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket savings for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236. The TTY number is (714) 556- 2746.

Hersch has earned a place among the foremost jazz artists in the world today. From the late '70s onward as a sideman to jazz legends including Joe Henderson, Art Farmer and Stan Getz, he has solidified a reputation as a versatile master of jazz piano, as well as a relentlessly probing composer and conceptualist. He is widely recognized for his ability to steadfastly create a unique body of original works while reinventing the standard jazz repertoire - investing time-tested classics with keen insight, fresh ideas and extraordinary technique. Whether unaccompanied, in duo, working with trios and quintets, Hersch has explored the jazz tradition to its fullest even as he opens new and undiscovered doors. Hersch's numerous accomplishments include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship as well as six Grammy Award nominations. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings, including more than two- dozen albums as bandleader/solo pianist.

Hersch leads his own trio and quintet and has ongoing special collaborations with other jazz and classical instrumentalists and vocalists around the world. A recent project features an unconventional line-up of piano, trumpet, voice and percussion; The Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra: Live at Jazz Standard came out in April 2009 on Sunnyside Records. Alive at the Vanguard, the Fred Hersch Trio's September 2012 Palmetto release, is "by turns thrilling, rollicking, tender, ominous or playful," states Ottawa Citizen.

Hirsch's September 2013 Palmetto release Free Flying with guitarist Julian Lager earned rave reviews including 5-stars from Downbeat Magazine. His career as a performer has been greatly enhanced by his composing activities, a vital part of nearly all of his live concerts and recordings.

Hersch has acted as a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies since 1993. He has produced and performed on four benefit recordings and at numerous concerts for the charities Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that have raised more than $250,000 to date.

Hersch has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor and on a wide variety of National Public Radio programs including Fresh Air, Jazz Set, Studio 360 and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Hersch has also been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer and six composition residencies at The MacDowell Colony. He conducted a Professional Training Workshop for Young Musicians at The Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2008. A committed educator, he has taught at The New School and Manhattan School of Music; he currently teaches on the Jazz Studies faculty of New England Conservatory and at Rutgers University. For more information, please visit www.fredhersch.com.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds Haynes and Boone, LLP for their support of this engagement and United Airlines, Official Airline of the Center. KJAZZ is a Media Partner of the Jazz Series.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is unique as both an acclaimed arts institution and as a multi- disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages, offering unsurpassed experiences, and engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center traces its roots back to the late 1960s when a dedicated group of community leaders decided Orange County should have its own world-class performing arts venue.

As Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization, Segerstrom Center for the Arts owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Founders Hall, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center's studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. A spacious arts plaza anchors Segerstrom Center for the Arts and is home to numerous free performances throughout the year as part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' ongoing Free for All series.

The Center presents a broad range of programming each season for audiences of all ages from throughout Orange County and beyond, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events. It offers many education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. These programs reach hundreds of thousands of students of all ages with vital arts-in-education programs, enhancing their studies and enriching their lives well into the future.

In addition to the presenting and producing institution Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the 14-acre campus also embraces the facilities of two independent acclaimed organizations: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is also proud to serve as the artistic home to three of the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale, who contribute greatly to the artistic life of the region with annual seasons at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

FRED HERSCH TRIO

Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Samueli Theater May 2 & 3, 2014

Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Tickets start at $59. The Box Office is located at 600 Town Center Drive Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and daily online at SCFTA.org, or call (714) 556-2787.

Information provided is accurate at the time of printing, but is subject to change. Segerstrom Center for the Arts is a private, non-profit organization. "Segerstrom Center for the Arts" is a registered trademark.

Pictured: Fred Hersch. Photo by Mark Niskanen.

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