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News Flash! Sorry to be so late in announcing this, but I just want to inform those interested that sheet music for four of my Christmas arrangements on Gabriel's Message is now available at www.newvoxmedia.com . Just click on "store", then "sheet music" and there it is. Although it's a bit late for this year, any of you intrepid pianists wanting to have a go at God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, Carol of the Bells, Adeste Fideles and The Christmas Song can get a jump on it for next season. Just one request; please let me know if you're performing any of them!
Pianist Matt Herskowitz is a unique new voice from within the nexus of classical and jazz traditions. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, Matt is concurrently a strikingly original jazz pianist, a stunning interpreter of the classics, and a composer of vast range and originality. Unwilling to divide himself into different musical personae and bewildered by the arbitrary segregation of jazz and popular music from the classics, Matt prefers to expound on their essential unity, combining them into a new mode of expression.Matts deft layering of jazz improvisation over written work has led him to many privileged collaborations. As composer, soloist and ensemble member, he performs and records regularly with Absolute Ensemble, a New York-based crossover contemporary chamber band. Their first release on Enja records, Absolution, which features Matt as composer and soloist on Serial Blues, was nominated for a Grammy in 2001. Matt was also featured on the Swiss television series Melting Pot New York on the recording of Serial Blues. Matts first solo recording, Gabriels Message (CCnC Records), features his original arrangements and compositions based on Christmas themes, and has received world-wide critical acclaim. His video-taped performance for the Bravo arts channel, featuring a mix of his original music and arrangements in jazz, pop and contemporary classical styles, has been aired regularly since 2004. In February 2005 Matt performed at the RIDEAU showcase in Quebec City, where he won the Prix Galaxie, given to best emerging artist. Recently, his album "Forget Me Not", with his band MaD Fusion, was nominated for a Félix award, Québec's top musical prize.In 2002 Matt composed an original film score for a silent avant-garde French short film, which was performed live with the film at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. His piece was one of six short films screened with new music performed live by Parabola, a New York-based ensemble specializing in new film music. Other contributing composers included renowned film composers Carter Burwell, David Laing and Stephen Endelman. In 2005 Matt performed again with Parabola music of Carter Burwell in two sound plays by the Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufman in New York and London. The show featured renowned actors Meryl Streep, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Hope Davis, among others. Matts other film contributions include the soundtrack of the 2003 Oscar-nominated animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville. His performance includes a raucous jazz-style improvisation on a Bach prelude, entitled Bach à la Jazz. Matt also recorded an extensive solo piano improvisation for the soundtrack of the film La Face Cachée de la Lune, directed by Robert Lepage.As a songwriter, Matt has collaborated with many artists and producers, including pop diva Lara Fabian and French pop-rock singer Sylvie Cobo. One of his songs with Ms. Fabian, Inévitablement, was released in March 2003 on the debut album of French singer Nolwenn Leroy, which was no.1 in France for several weeks. The song later became a single in 2004. Another of their collaborations, Avant, is now released on the new album of French singer Daniel Levy, Le Coeur Ouvert. Matt and Sylvie have just released their first album together, with Félix award-winning Montreal producer and saxophonist Charles Papasoff, on the Montreal label Disques Tempête.In 1998, Matt gave the Canadian premiere of his Chorale and Variations on a Theme of Dave Brubeck, an original piece for piano and chamber orchestra, with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal, broadcast on Radio-Canadas Chaine Culturelle. The piece combines jazz and contemporary classical idioms. Dave Brubeck, upon hearing the piece, contacted Matt, and has since played a very supportive role in the development of his career.As a winner of the Pro Piano Recital Series Competition, Matt gave his New York debut as a classical pianist in 1994 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Also winner of first prizes at the 1997 Orford Festival International Piano Competitions, Matt's performances there led to a recording of Glazunov's Piano Concerto no. 2 with I Musici de Montreal for Chandos records in 1998, which was hailed as by far the best performance on CD by Strad magazine. Matt currently tours extensively throughout Europe and Canada in solo and chamber recitals, and with his band MaD Fusion, a group which features original music and arrangements by himself and drummer David Rozenblatt. HRMaD Fusion has performed in Germany at the Hamburg and Bremen International Music Festivals, in France at the Rhino Jazz Festival, in New York City, presented by the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, at the Luzerne Music Center Jazz Series in Lake Luzerne, NY and in Naples, Florida with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet on the Classic Chamber Concerts series. Their first CD, Forget Me Not, was released in September 2005 in Montreal on the Disques Tout Crin label, where it has received much critical acclaim.Matt is currently based in Montréal, Québec, where he has lived since 1999.