Jed Distler

Composer and pianist Jed Distler's prolific output for concerts, film, cable television, and theater has been recorded, broadcast, and performed worldwide. His suite for toy piano, Landscapes for Peter Wyer, recorded by Margaret Leng Tan, is available on Point Records, distributed by Polygram. Recent commissions include a sonata for the award-winning violinist, Cornelius Duffalo, Mersey Killings for viola and Toy Piano, and a new song cycle for Music Under Construction, Haitian Cadavers, with texts by the award winning poet Thomas Lux. An opera, based on the John Waters cult film classic Pink Flamingos, is in the works with the author's blessing. Jed's evening length song cycle, The Death of Lottie Shapiro, for four sopranos and piano was hailed in the Newark Star Ledger as "a masterpiece, a song cycle without parallel in the serious music of contemporary America." He has also received numerous Meet The Composer awards.

Jed's piano recitals encompass a broad spectrum of twentieth century music. He has premièred works by Richard Rodney Bennett, Wendy Mae Chambers, Alvin Curran, David Maslanka, Frederic Rzewski, William Schimmel, Andrew Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Lois V. Vierk, among others. He conceived and programmed 100 Portraits for Virgil, the first complete performance of all the Virgil Thomson piano portraits in a day long, multi-media festival featuring thirty six performers, co-produced by the New School and Composers Collaborative, the latter for whom he serves as artistic director. Other recent projects include his transcribing and arranging twelve piano solos by the late jazz giant Bill Evans for the Jean-Yves Thibaudet's London records release Conversations with Bill Evans, released in March, 1997. Jed is currently recording the complete piano music of Alvin Curran, under the composer's supervision.

Jed is a contributing editor for Piano & Keyboard magazine, and contributes regularly to Pulse, epulse (Tower Records' online magazine), Piano Today, and Soundscapes. He also has regular columns in Gramophone and International Classical Record Collector, as well as contributing articles and reviews to International Opera Collector and International Piano Quarterly. A faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College, Jed also lectures on historic pianists.

For more pages on music, Jed Distler, and ComposersCollaborative, Inc. go to http://www.composerscollab.org/

Copyright © 1996-2002, Jed Distler, All Rights Reserved.