DACAMERA Presents Vijay Iyer Sextet On February 29

DACAMERA's continues its 2019-2020 jazz series with the Vijay Iyer Sextet at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, at 8 p.m. The Grammy Award nominee and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Iyer returns to the DACAMERA stage, bringing with him his signature style of jazz music.

Born in New York to parents who had immigrated from India, Iyer trained in classical violin for 15 years before teaching himself to play piano by ear. But, it wasn't until he was enrolled in the physics doctoral program at Berkeley-after having received a master's degree in physics from Yale University-that he began to think of music as a career, switching his PhD program to Technology and the Arts, focusing on music cognition in West African and African American music. "I don't see it as that odd a thing," Iyer has shared of his varied education. "In both music and physics, you are dealing with abstractions and manipulating quantities in your head and relating that to real world phenomena."

In addition to Iyer on piano, the Houston performance will feature the sextet lineup that played on the composer's critically acclaimed Far From Over album: Graham Haynes, cornet, flugelhorn, electronics; Mark Shim, tenor saxophone; Steve Lehman, alto saxophone; Stephan Crump, double-bass; and Jeremy Dutton, percussion, a recent graduate of the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (stepping in for Tyshawn Sorey).

The album received multiple recognitions as one of the best jazz records of 2017, as well as recognition as one of the 50 best records of 2017, but Iyer believes that the sextet has only improved and evolved since its release. As the success of Far From Over has provided the ensemble more opportunities to play together, the band has grown closer and more connected, ensuring each concert is better than the last.

DACAMERA's jazz music series continues with Dafnis Prieto Big Band on Saturday, Mar. 21, 2020, and the Cécile McLorin Salvant Trio on Friday, April 3, 2020.

Tickets for Vijay Iyer Sextet start at $37.50 and are available by contacting DACAMERA, 1402 Sul Ross, at 713-524-5050 or online at www.dacamera.com. Tickets for students and senior citizens are always half-price. $5 student rush tickets are available 30 minutes before the concert begins.

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