Art Hirahara Trio

Art Hirahara is a jazz keyboardist and composer based in New York, NY. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Art moved to New York in 2003 to be challenged by its pool of world-class musicians. Here he has honed his craft, performing in a wide range of musical situations ranging from straight ahead standards to time cycle-based progressive jazz to free improvisation. From the traditional to the avant-garde, Art has found a sound of his own that cuts across genres and boundaries. Art began his training in music at the age of four, studying with Sue Shannon, an unconventional classical piano teacher who taught improvisation and composition from the earliest stages of musical development. This provided the foundation for his awakening to jazz during his studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a degree in Electronic and Computer Music. During his junior year, he began jazz piano studies with the Cleveland jazz giant, Neal Creque. He then continued at California Institute of the Arts, where he was mentored by David Roitstein, Charlie Haden and Wadada Leo Smith. It was there that he immersed himself in world music, focusing on West African drumming and dance, Balinese gamelan and North Indian tabla. After his move to New York, Art studied at the Banff Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music program with Dave Douglas in 2004. Art has had the privilege to perform with Stacey Kent, Freddy Cole, Akira Tana, Rufus Reid, Don Braden, Roseanna Vitro, Dave Douglas, Vincent Herring, Victor Lewis, Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, Jim Black, Jenny Scheinman, Greg Cohen, Fred Ho, Sean Nowell, royal hartigan and Hafez Modirzadeh. He has performed around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East and extensively around the United States. In New York, he has played at the city’s premier venues, including Birdland, Smalls, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Jazz Standard and 55 Bar. In addition to performing, Art is an educator. He has taught master classes both domestically and abroad. He taught at the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory and was a performing member of NY PopsEd, an educational organization focusing on bringing music to elementary and secondary schools. Art's piano and compositional sound are an amalgamation of the varied musical influences he has studied and the wide range of leaders he has worked for. Art is constantly seeking new situations to challenge his musicality. Most recently has worked as a producer for recordings and musical director for various artists of different genres. Acoustic bassist Gary Wang has been living and playing professionally in New York for the past eight years. Growing up in the Boston and San Francisco areas, he studied classical piano for several years from the age of 6, but was more interested in playing guitar in local rock groups. As a young teenager, however, he became fascinated with jazz and switched to acoustic bass at age 17. While in high school, he competed twice in the Berklee School of Music High school jazz competition with the Andover High School small ensemble, winning 2nd place in 1989 and 1st place in 1990. In 1991, Gary attended Columbia University. He graduated in 1995 magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in Computer Science. While in college, he studied classical bass with Linda McKnight of the Manhattan School of Music and played in some of the school classical and jazz ensembles. It was only after graduating from college, however, that he decided todedicate himself to pursuing jazz music full time. Since 1995, Gary has worked with in the bands of T.S. Monk, Don Braden, Stanley Turrentine, Willie Williams, Dena DeRose, David Hazeltine, Jon Gordon, Matt Wilson, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Ambassadors band, among many others. He has also worked with or played alongside with many of the great musicians in jazz such as, Steve Wilson, Eddie Henderson, Vincent Herring, Geri Allen, Mark Turner, Kenny Werner, Roy Hargrove, Nnenna Freelon, Dianne Reeves, Ben Monder, Patricia Barber, Jane Monheit, Eric Alexander, Bobby Watson, Howard Johnson, Ronnie Mathews, and Don Sickler, among others.Gary has also appeared in many of the major venues in New York City, including Iridium, Sweet Basil, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Lincoln Center, and Town Hall, as well as many of the major clubs in other cities in the U.S., such as the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, The Kennedy Center and Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., and Yoshi's in Oakland, among many others. Gary has toured extensively with various bands in the U.S. and internationally, traveling to Europe, India, Canada, Japan, South America and the Middle East. He has played many of the major festivals in the world, including among others, Newport/JVC, Texaco, North Sea, Umbria, Montreal, Cork, Atlanta, Litchfield, Jazz Yatra in India and Montreux.In 2002, Gary was selected, along with saxophonist Virginia Mayhew and drummer Allison Miller, to participate in a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassadors tour. For seven weeks, the band toured many of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, and Ukraine, among others.Weblinks:www.myspace.com/garywangmusic Born in Grand Rapids, MI, Jay Sawyer is one of the most in-demand rising star drummers in New York City. He has shared the stage with artists such as Freddy Cole, John McNeil, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefon Harris, Donny McCaslin, Benito Gonzalez, and Shai Maestro among others. Jay is also a first call drummer for many up-and-coming musicians in New York including Itamar Borochov, Caroline Davis, Tomoko Omura, John Raymond and many more. He has toured extensively in the USA and Europe, including performances at the Montreal, Detroit and Chicago Jazz Festivals, Festival Eclats d’Email in Limoges, France and more. While attending Western Michigan University and the University of Illinois, respectively, Jay studied with some of the most well-respected jazz drummers including Billy Hart, Tim Froncek, Keith Hall and Dana Hall. Each nurtured his passion and skill for the art of jazz drums. As a result, Jay has become a passionate and gifted educator, both as a private lesson teacher as well as in a group setting.