Pianist and composer Fred Hersch has earned a place among the foremost jazz artists in the world today. He is widely recognized for his ability to reinvent the standard jazz repertoire – investing time-tested classics with keen insight, fresh ideas and extraordinary technique – while steadfastly creating his own unique body of works. Described by The New Yorker as "a poet of a pianist" and The New York Times as "a master who plays it his way," Hersch's accomplishments include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition, a 2005 Rockefeller Fellowship for composition residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy and two Grammy® nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. He has recorded more than twenty albums as a solo artist or bandleader, co-led another twenty projects and appeared as a sideman or featured soloist on some eighty further recordings.

Hersch's 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 recently created Leaves of Grass, a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry for two voices and an instrumental octet; the work was presented in March 2005 in a sold-out performance at the new Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall as part of a US tour. His solo piano composition and chamber music, including 24 Variations on a Bach Chorale, Three Character Sudies, and Lyric Piece for Trio, are published by CF Peters. In a program titled "Heard Fresh: Music for Two Pianos," Hersch tours with concert pianist Christopher O'Riley and he has also collaborated with such outstanding classical artists as sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw; violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; and pianist JeffreyKahane.

A player who always seeks out new challenges, Hersch's output spans a wide variety of musical settings. A recent small-group release, The Fred Hersch Trio + 2 (Palmetto, March 2004), features trumpeter Ralph Alessi and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby in addition to Hersch's current trio members: bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits. Hersch may well have more solo recordings to his credit than any other jazz pianist of his generation including the award-winning 3-CD boxed set Songs Without Words (Nonesuch 2001).

Hersch has acted as a passionate spokesman and fund-raiser for AIDS services and education agencies. He has produced and performed on four recordings for the charities Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that have raised over $200,000 to date. The most recent, Two Hands/Ten Voices (Broadway Cares 2003), pairs the pianist with ten outstanding jazz, cabaret, and Broadway vocalists.

After graduating from Boston's New England Conservatory with Honor in 1977, Hersch relocated to New York City and quickly became one of the most in-demand pianists in town. As a sideman, he appeared with such outstanding jazz artists as saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, and Jane Ira Bloom; flugelhornist Art Farmer; harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans; vibraphonist Gary Burton; vocalist Kurt Elling; and bassists Sam Jones and Charlie Haden. Many of these musical associations were carried forward as Hersch became a leader and could incorporate them into his many special projects.

Hersch has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor and on a wide variety of National Public Radio programs. In addition to his Guggenheim Fellowship, Hersch has been awarded grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer, as well as four composition residencies at the prestigious MacDowell Colony. A committed educator, Hersch was a faculty member at the New England Conservatory for ten years, and has taught at The New School and Manhattan School of Music. He is currently a visiting professor at Western Michigan University.

His newest CD releases are Leaves of Grass, released by the Palmetto label in February, 2005; and Haunted Heart, with soprano Renée Fleming (Decca Records, May 2005). His next release will be a solo piano disc, Live in Amsterdam (Palmetto Records, February 21st, 2006).