 |
|
|
photo: Lauren A. S. Hirsh Eric William HirshArt Form: Durham, NC Phone:
Samples of Eric William Hirsh's Work:
Featured Artist: Eric William HirshJazz pianist, composer, and technologist Eric Hirsh brings out the best in artists through collaborative performances that engage and encourage listeners. He is a 2011-–2012 N.C Arts Council Artist Fellowship recipient and a four-time recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award.
Hirsh performs regularly as a member of jazz/hip hop quartet The Beast and as co-director of 13-member salsa ensemble Orquesta GarDel. He holds a degree in Music and Physics from UNC- Chapel Hill.
During his fellowship year, Hirsh put more energy into his own chamber jazz compositions and also enjoyed a series of unique partnerships and performances. The Beast is actively involved in music education, presenting a custom curriculum about the history of African-American music from spirituals to hip hop. While the band most often brings this workshop to Durham and Chapel Hill K–12 schools, the quartet presented a special lecture-performance for adults at the North Carolina Museum of History as part of its 11th annual African American Cultural Celebration in January.
Duke Performances called on The Beast to kick-off its summer Music In The Gardens series at Duke Gardens, for which Hirsh orchestrated 12 of The Beast’s original songs for an expanded ensemble of eight wind, string, and percussion players.
Hirsh also was asked to serve as a panelist at the UNC Center for the Study of the American South’s Music On The Porch series, where he joined vocalist Kim Arrington and saxophonist Peter Lamb to perform and discuss the relationship between their jazz artistry and North Carolina culture.
Hirsh has reconnected with a contemporary classical practice by becoming a member of New Music Raleigh, a collective dedicated to high quality presentations of the works of living composers. As part of the collective, Hirsh performed in Mallarmé Chamber Players’ season-closing concert with a program featuring the competition-winning world premiere of the machine without horses by Duke composer David Kirkland Garner. |
