Current APA Fellows

The Cole Porter Fellow
Dan Tepfer

Critics have called New York City-based pianist/composer Dan Tepfer “brilliant” (Boston Globe), “one of tomorrow’s jazz stars” (Eugene Weekly) and “certainly among those clearly willing to play with familiar formulas and take new approaches, even as he incorporates strokes from the masters” (Jazzreview.com). His eclectic sound, which one French reviewer called “a resolutely fresh approach to the piano, somewhere between classical music and jazz” (La Terrace), reflects the diverse path that led him to a career in jazz.

Born in Paris, France in 1982 of American parents, Dan Tepfer started classical piano studies at the Paul Dukas Paris Conservatory at the age of six, and immediately began to explore improvisation. In high school, his developing personal style led him to perform regularly on the Parisian jazz scene, most notably with his trio Ønkjazz. He graduated from the Conservatory with the Premier Prix du Supérieur in 1999, while also studying with French jazz great Martial Solal. Pursuing his interest in science, he moved to the UK to study at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with honors in astrophysics in 2003. He played on a regular basis with the top musicians of the Scottish jazz scene, in particular as a founding member of the hard-bop quartet New Blue with saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski, which performed in both the Edinburgh and Dundee Jazz Festivals. In September 2002, he was a semifinalist in the International Marial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris. The same year, he was the first prize winner in the Edinburgh Festival Competition for classical piano performance.

In 2003, Tepfer was offered a scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he completed a master’s degree in jazz piano performance under the guidance of Danilo Pérez. In December 2003, he formed his current trio, which features Peruvian double-bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Richie Barshay, whom Tepfer shares with fellow pianist Herbie Hancock. The group has since toured through France, Japan, Peru, and both coasts of the USA, and has received strong acclaim from radio and press media for its debut CD, Before the Storm, which was voted one of the ten best albums of 2005 by Cadence Magazine. Tepfer also pursues an active solo career. In June 2004, he was featured on Radio France with a solo piano performance on the air in “Retour aux Standards” series hosted by Zavier Prévost; in December 2006, he gave an acclaimed solo concert in the prestigious Gilmore Rising Stars Recital Series in Kalamazoo, MI.

In February 2006, Dan Tepfer won first prize in the Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C., and in July, he was awarded both the first prize and the audience prize in the Montreux Jazz Festival’s Bösendorfer Solo Piano Competition. Now based in New York City, he studies with jazz pianist Fred Hersch and classical pianist Zitta Zohar, and is in demand both as a classical and jazz composer. He is also actively involved in jazz education, teaching along saxophonist Chris Cheek in the Providence, RI Wheeler Jazz Camp and giving masterclasses in many universities and conservatories throughout the world in the context of his international tours. Since moving to the USA, he has performed with jazz greats Steve Lacy, Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Bob Brookmeyer and Christian McBride.