Adam Birnbaum Trio to Perform at UW March 26

The University of Wyoming Department of Music’s Jazz Studies program will host the genre-bending stylings of the Adam Birnbaum Trio at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall. The performance is free and open to the public.

Accompanied by Jorge Roeder on upright bass and Keita Ogawa on percussion, pianist Birnbaum delivers fresh modern arrangements of the timeless works of Bach that are faithful to the spirit of the original compositions. With improvisation, the music continues the rich jazz tradition of drawing inspiration from baroque masterpieces.

Birnbaum, a Steinway Artist and an assistant professor of jazz at SUNY Purchase, is emerging as among the top young voices in jazz piano. Since receiving a graduate artist’s diploma in jazz studies from The Julliard School in 2003, he has become a presence on the New York City scene as a leader and sideman, performing in such venues as the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Birdland, the Jazz Standard and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.

He also has performed on many national and world stages, including the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, the Rockport Chamber Festival and the Capetown Jazz Festival, as well as National Public Radio’s Jazz Christmas.

Birnbaum has released four albums in Japan and the U.S. His first release, “Ballade Pour Adeline,” received a Gold Disk award from Swing Journal as one of the top albums of 2006. His U.S. debut “Travels,” released in 2009, received enthusiastic reviews in noted music publications. Birnbaum’s recent release, “Three of a Mind,” featuring bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Al Foster, was hailed as “an eloquent dispatch from the heart of the contemporary piano trio tradition” by The New York Times, and received an Editor’s Pick and four-star review in Downbeat magazine.

As a sideman, Birnbaum’s wide-ranging versatility and artistry have enabled him to perform with a wide variety of ensembles. He has appeared as a sideman on more than 25 albums.

Birnbaum also is recognized as a composer and arranger. Born and raised in Boston, Mass., Birnbaum studied at the New England Conservatory of Music before moving to New York City and was among two pianists selected to participate in The Julliard School’s inaugural jazz studies program.

In 2004, he won the American Jazz Piano Competition and became the American Pianists Association's Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz and the first jazz pianist to present a recital at the prestigious Gilmore Rising Stars Recital Series. In 2006, he received the first “special mention” prize at the Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris. He has toured West Africa and Asia, sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.