Dan Tepfer (born 8 January 1982, in Paris, France) is a French-American jazz pianist and composer. He is best known for his 2011 album Goldberg Variations/Variations and his 2019 multimedia project Natural Machines.
Biography
Dan Tepfer grew up in
Paris, France, in a musical and scientific family. He received a bachelor's degree in
astrophysics from the University of Edinburgh and a master's degree in jazz piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in
Boston.
He currently lives in
Brooklyn, New York, where he works as a pianist and composer.
He tours around the world, with frequent appearances in Europe in particular.
Since 2009, he has released a series of critically acclaimed
recordings on the labels Sunnyside and
Verve Records, working in trio, duo, and solo formats.
One of his most frequent musical collaborations are duos with saxophonists, including his mentor Lee Konitz, as well as Miguel Zenón and Ben Wendel. Tepfer's project, Natural Machines, which combines video and audio technology with improvised piano playing,
Awards and honors
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2006: First Prize and Audience Prize, Montreux Jazz Festival Bösendorfer Solo Piano Competition
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2007: Winner of American Piano Awards and Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz, American Piano Awards
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2011: CHOC Jazz Magazine (France) for Goldberg Variations / Variations
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2011–2013: Rising Star Pianist, DownBeat
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2012–2013: Rising Star Pianist, JazzTimes
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2014: Charles Ives Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters
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2016: MacDowell Fellowship, MacDowell Colony
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2017: CHOC Jazz Magazine (France) for Eleven Cages
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2018: Fondation BNP-Paribas 3-year artistic development award
Discography
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2005: Before the Storm – with Richie Barshay and Jorge Roeder (DIZ)
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2007: Oxygen – with Richie Barshay and Jorge Roeder (DIZ)
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2009: Twelve Free Improvisations in Twelve Keys (DIZ)
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2009: Duos with Lee – duo with Lee Konitz (Sunnyside)
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2010: Five Pedals Deep – with Thomas Morgan and Ted Poor (Sunnyside)
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2011: Goldberg Variations/Variations (Sunnyside)
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2013: Small Constructions – with Ben Wendel (Sunnyside)
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2014: – live, with Lee Konitz, Michael Janisch & Jeff Williams (Whirlwind)
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2017: Eleven Cages – with Thomas Morgan and Nate Wood (Sunnyside)
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2018: Decade – duo with Lee Konitz (Verve Records)
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2019: Natural Machines – with real-time musical and visual algorithmic response (Sunnyside)
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2023: Inventions / Reinventions (StorySound Records)
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2023: Internal Melodies – with Miguel Zenón (Main Door Music)
With Billy Hart
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Sixty-Eight (SteepleChase, 2011)
Film Score
External links
