Vijay Iyer is a distinguished American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, and writer, celebrated for his innovative contributions to a diverse range of musical genres. Renowned for his multifaceted artistry, Iyer has been described by The New York Times as a social conscience and a multicultural gateway, reflecting his commitment to blending various musical traditions. His recent performances with the Manchester Collective, under the direction of conductor Duncan Ward, have showcased his ability to reinterpret classical works, including his transformative pieces inspired by Mozart. Notable works such as The Law of Returns and Crisis Modes highlight his creative prowess and have garnered critical acclaim. Iyer's collaborations extend beyond performance; he is also recognized for his role as a multimedia collaborator and system builder within the music community. As he continues to push the boundaries of contemporary music, audiences can look forward to his upcoming projects, which promise to further enrich the cultural landscape. With a career marked by significant achievements and a dedication to artistic exploration, Vijay Iyer remains a vital force in the world of music.

Composer

Pianist

“One of the truly great jazz musicians of our time,” (Stereophile), pianist Vijay Iyer brings his telepathic trio back to the Miner stage with music from his latest ECM album, Compassion.

EPSG:4326

Vijay Iyer Trio

SFJAZZ Center

Weidner Philharmonics 24/25 concert series opens with a program exploring freedom of expression and examining the power of using our voices to share our truth and be the change we want to see in the world.

Weidner Philharmonic Express Yourself

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

A multi-award-winning composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer, the American artist continues to make a vital contribution to music of many kinds through his protean activities: The New York Times has described him as ‘a social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway’. He joins with one of the UK’s most original and imaginative ensembles as well as one of its most exciting and internationally successful conductors. Mozart is on the bill in the shape of a fragmentary string quartet which Iyer turned into a new piece for the Brentano Quartet in 2011.


Vijay Iyer piano; Manchester Collective; Duncan Ward conductor

Wigmore Hall

Vijay Iyer’s new piano concerto, Handmade Universe, incorporates elements of jazz in a work written for Shai Wosner and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, presented here in a special partnership with Portland Chamber Music Festival. Violinist Jennifer Koh joins festival directors Wilhelmina Smith (SBC) and Melissa Reardon (PCMS) in Missy Mazzoli’s folk-inspired string trio and Mozart’s dark and brooding G minor Piano Quartet to bring the festival’s 30th year to a rousing conclusion.

Salt Bay Chamberfest Festival Concert 4

Lincoln Theater Damariscotta

Festival Concert 4

The East Coast Chamber Orchestra’s PCMF debut in 2022 drew raves from audiences: “The energy and artistry was astounding!” “Such virtuosic performances, and such wit and joy!” Well, they’re back, bringing with them Handmade Universe, a brand new work by Grammy-nominated composer Vijay Iyer that blends jazz harmonies with intricate orchestrations. A playful flourish of a string trio and a breathtaking arrangement of Bach's stunning Chaconne open the program, and the youthful vigor of Mendelssohn’s delightful Octet, written when he was just 16, brings the evening to a ravishing close.

Program III: Universal Resonance

University of Southern Maine

Join us for a wide-ranging conversation with PCMF Resident Composer Vijay Iyer, who the New York Times has called a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway." Winner of a MacArthur Award for "forging a new conception of jazz and American creative music," Iyer is unique for being an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, and cognitive scientist. His recent work Handmade Universe, written for the East Coast Chamber Orchestra and pianist Shai Wosner, receives its Maine premiere on the Portland Chamber Music Festival's "Universal Resonance" concert. Moderated by composer (and PCMF Operations/Production Manager) Sam Kyzivat.

Composer Conversation with Vijay Iyer

Mechanics' Hall

Portland Chamber Music Festival - Universal Resonance

Programs and artists are subject to change without notice. The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival follows all health and safety protocols required by Yale University.

Parker Quartet

Yale School of Music

Parker Quartet II

Garth Newel Music Center

Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. Inspired performances and exceptional musicianship are hallmarks of the Quartet, having appeared at the world’s most illustrious venues since its founding in 2002.

Groton Hill Music Center

Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. Inspired performances and exceptional musicianship are hallmarks of the Quartet, having appeared at the world’s most illustrious venues since its founding in 2002.

Blodgett Chamber Music Series Presents: Parker Quartet

Harvard University

“Trailblazing… one of his generation’s brightest jazz luminaries,” says Time Out New York of pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, who leads the Vijay Iyer Trio featuring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Now, the acclaimed group appears at the Bradley Symphony Center as part of the MSO Speakeasy series, a unique and intimate behind-the-scenes opportunity. Sit right on the stage as you experience a thrilling performance, complete with bar service and a drink ticket. You won’t want to miss live jazz in Allen-Bradley Hall, up-close-and-personal like never before.

Warner Grand Theater

We often hope that a single moment will last forever, yet a decade appears to go by ’too fast’ … TIME is a crucial decisive moment, a vast series of events, and everything between; it is the world’s most valuable non-renewable resource. Reflect on your personal experience with time, as the KAIROS PERCUSSION QUARTET explores numerous temporal concepts in the works of Weinfeld, Iyer, Seo and Reich.

What is TIME for…?

Edward Johnson Bldg

Join us for an unforgettable evening as Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate the Music of Andrew Hill at Harlem Stage. This sold-out event, taking place on Saturday, March 2, 2024, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, promises to be a remarkable tribute to the jazz piano legend Andrew Hill. Located at 150 Convent Avenue, New York, this performance is a must-attend for jazz enthusiasts and admirers of Andrew Hill's groundbreaking work.

Vijay Iyer, described by The New York Times as a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker, and multicultural gateway," returns to Harlem Stage to guest curate and perform. Iyer, a composer and pianist renowned for his innovative contributions to music, leads a stellar ensemble through his arrangements of compositions by his friend and hero, Andrew Hill. The ensemble includes notable musicians such as drummer Nasheet Waits, trumpet player Milena Casado, saxophonist Mark Shim, bassists Devon Gates and Reggie Workman, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and vibraphonist Yuhan Su, among others.

Andrew Hill's album "Black Fire," released in 1964, was a visionary work that has influenced generations of progressive pianists. Iyer's reflection on "Black Fire" highlights the album's unique and indescribable essence, which continues to inspire musicians and listeners alike.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with additional support provided by the Diana King Memorial Fund presented by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation.

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the music of Andrew Hill, reimagined and celebrated by Vijay Iyer and his talented ensemble of friends. While the performance on March 2 is sold out, a waitlist is available, and a donation of $40 or more to Harlem Stage grants access to livestream this concert, allowing you to enjoy this extraordinary tribute from the comfort of your home.

Eternal Spirit: Vijay Iyer & Friends Celebrate The Music Of Andrew Hill

Harlem Stage

Beethoven Violin Sonatas

Vijay Iyer is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway”. He received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, the Alpert Award in the Arts, and two German Echo awards, and was voted Downbeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year four times in the last decade.

Dakota

A group of today’s most rhythmically dazzling composers show that anything is possible in the hands of Sō Percussion—an ensemble that has “set the New York standard for percussion innovation” (The New Yorker). Hear New York premieres by MacArthur Genius and renowned jazz pianist Vijay Iyer; award-winning choreographer and percussionist Olivier Tarpaga, who will perform alongside the group; and the boldly imaginative multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón. The program also includes an original and evolving work by founding member Jason Treuting.

Sō Percussion

Carnegie Hall

Harry T. Burleigh was the first Black composer to be acclaimed for his concert songs as well as for his adaptations of African-American spirituals. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in New York, where his association and friendship with Antonín Dvořák inspired the Czech composer and then-director of the Conservatory to write his New World Symphony and “American” Quartet. ECCO—an ensemble featuring leading soloists and chamber musicians of today’s younger generation—illuminates the connections between Burleigh and Dvořák while collaborating with Israeli-born pianist Shai Wosner on a new concerto by MacArthur Fellow Vijay Iyer, co-commissioned by PCMS.

ECCO Shai Wosner, Piano

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

ECCO
Shai Wosner, piano

The critically acclaimed East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) is a collective of dynamic like-minded artists who convene for select periods each year to explore musical works and perform concerts of the highest artistic quality. Drawing from some of the world's finest orchestras, chamber groups, and young soloists, ECCO strives for vitality and musical integrity; a self-governing organization, each member is equal and has a voice in every step of the artistic process, from programming to performance. ECCO believes that the best musical experience can speak to all audiences regardless of age or socioeconomic background and performs accordingly across a wide range of venues. 

East Coast Chamber Orchestra And Shai Wosner, Piano

Washington Irving High School

The trio of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily first coalesced in 2018 in New York City; an unplanned, improvised performance that revealed their natural chemistry. Iyer, a pianist, composer, and MacArthur “Genius,” currently finds himself at the center of the galaxy of improvised music, guiding a storied career through continued evolution with new ideas and new collaborators. He finds worthy peers in Ismaily, a largely self-taught composer and musician who has mastered the electric and double bass, guitar, banjo, accordion, flute, drums, as well as various percussion and electronic instruments; and Pakistan-born, Brooklyn-based Aftab, the ascendant ambient musician and vocalist who was awarded the 2022 Grammy for Best Global Music Performance and is a 2023 United States Artists Fellow and a recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music. Their album Love in Exile is a sparsely recorded synthesis of their alchemical improvisation, an intricate yet minimalist universe built on a handful of Urdu couplets that, as Iyer says, “reveals not just the melody but the birth of a song.”

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily: Love in Exile

McCarter Theatre Center

Grammy Award–winning vocalist Arooj Aftab makes Texas debut with the Love in Exile Trio, featuring two of her most trusted collaborators: polymath pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. Transforming sound into sculpture, the trio creates lush, haunting collaborative soundscapes of meditation and yearning. Their quietly powerful, almost telepathic communication lends itself to experimentation and creates a sound as described by Aftab as “about self-exile, and the search for freedom and identity, and finding it through love and music.”

Love In Exile

Bass Concert Hall

American Intersections

Piedmont Center for the Arts

The brilliant jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, Grammy-winning singer Arooj Aftab, and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily continue their brilliant, beautiful conversation. The trio met in New York City and dubbed themselves Love in Exile. Together they’ve forged a singular voice that takes their distinct backgrounds and vast histories of collaboration as a starting point. Individually, they’re extraordinary musicians who see through boundaries between genres and cultures without abandoning the particulars of either. Together, though, they’re artists painting in tandem, their music developing from wisps of piano and shimmers of texture, with Aftab’s voice whispering along the edges and commanding center stage—all without sacrificing their keen sense of interdependence. This is delicate, imaginative music defined by a sense of timeless beauty and sudden surprise.

The John Anson Ford Theatre

America/Beautiful is a project by pianist and arts advocate Min Kwon, in which she has commissioned a diverse group of more than 70 of today’s leading American composers to each compose a variation on “America the Beautiful.”

Kwon's hope is to paint a sonic picture of her adopted country in all of its sprawling complexity, and ultimately try to find the beauty at the core of the American experiment and its credo of e pluribus unum (out of many, one).

America/Beautiful: Min Kwon piano

Aspen Meadows Resort

America / Beautiful: Min Kwon piano

250 years later, Mozart’s music continues to uplift and entrance us, as well as a new generation of composers. Hear Mozart’s joyous Exultate Jubilate for soprano and strings (featuring Kearstin Piper Brown); the ultra-famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik; a new work by jazz polymath Vijay Iyer based on Mozart’s music; and Brahms’s lyrical passionate Piano Quartet in C Minor, in a genre invented by Mozart.

Inventing Mozart

First Presbyterian Church

Join us for an enchanting evening under the stars at Caramoor in Katonah, NY, on July 29, 2023, featuring the mesmerizing collaboration of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily in their new project, "Love in Exile." This unique performance, starting at 8:00pm, promises to be a night of lush, haunting soundscapes that explore themes of self-exile, freedom, identity, and the transformative power of love and music.

Brooklyn-based singer and composer Arooj Aftab, the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy, teams up with pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily to create melodic sculptures that are largely improvised, offering endless musical possibilities. Their performance at the fully covered Venetian Theater at Caramoor will provide a comfortable and immersive experience, with chairs provided for all attendees.

"Love in Exile" is a limited project anticipating an upcoming recording by the same name. It represents a collaboration between three singular talents, each bringing their unique abilities to merge into something simpler yet no less impressive. Aftab's semi-classical, Hindustani, minimalist compositions, Iyer's acclaimed music-making, and Ismaily's diverse instrumental talents promise an unforgettable night.

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the magic of "Love in Exile" at Caramoor, a venue committed to the health and safety of its audience, artists, and staff. Tickets are still available for this performance. Join us for a night of meditation, yearning, and musical excellence.

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily

Venetian Theater at Caramoor

THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT is an ongoing series of 81 commissions for cello, celebrating a rich tapestry of distinct and diverse compositional palettes. Each composer has been asked to respond to two paintings, Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera (c.1480) and Charline von Heyl’s Primavera 2020. This three-day residency at the Barge offers a curated survey divided into three thematic programs, featuring 17 works heard for the first time in NYC and world premieres by Tyshawn Sorey, Texu Kim, Layale Chaker, Analia Llugdar, and Aaron Jay Kernis. Works by Josquin des Prez and J.S. Bach offer a musical grounding through the centuries.

Eclectic Series: The Primavera Project / RITES OF SPRING / Matt Haimovitz

Bargemusic

Inspiring performances, luminous sound, and exceptional musicianship are the hallmarks of the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet. Renowned for its dynamic interpretations and polished, expansive colors, the group has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music.

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has been praised by the New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles.” In his solo program “Primavera”, he pairs unaccompanied Cello Suites by J.S. Bach with newer works that celebrate the return of spring.

Vijay Iyer

Composer, Pianist

Events

Past events

2 - 3 Nov, 2024

Vijay Iyer Trio · San Francisco Jazz

Sep 28, 2024

Weidner Philharmonic Express Yourself · The Weidner

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Mozart Effects by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in Song for Flint by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in New work by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in The Law of Returns by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in Run by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in Mutations: Air by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

Piano in Crisis Modes by Iyer

Wigmore Hall

About

Vijay Iyer hasn't added a bio