Dave Meder

Pianist, composer, and educator Dave Meder is one of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a broad musical palette recognized in the Herbie Hancock International Jazz Piano Competition and the American Pianists Awards. He offers a variety of flexible ensemble configurations to suit presenter needs: solo piano, duo with Texas-based / French-American violinist Scott Tixier, trio with bass and drums, or his full working quartet featuring Texas-based trumpeter and one of DownBeat Magazine's "Top 25 Young Trumpet Artists" Philip Dizack. All groups feature jazz standards and Dave's music, known for a strikingly postmodern sense of stylistic adventure, challenging audience preconceptions of "jazz." He is described as "inventing his music freely, bringing honky-tonk, swing, blues, rock-and-roll—in other words a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum—to bear" (All About Jazz, 2019), balancing “post-bop jazz harmonies with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication" (All Music Guide, 2021). Dave has released three albums to international critical acclaim and headlined stages or conducted educational residencies at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and internationally in Beijing, Tokyo, and most recently Egypt as a US Fulbright Scholar. Dave is a Yamaha Artist and a professor at the University of North Texas. Photo by Anna Yatskevitch.