Dave Izard

Keyboardist Dave Izard is a creative and versatile performer, composer and arranger, who can be heard playing a variety of instruments in a range of styles. He began his musical studies on piano at the age of seven. Following a period of disinterest, Izard became serious about music when a teacher introduced him to jazz theory and improvisation. He attended the Manhattan School of Music for the first year of his undergraduate studies, then transferred to Western Michigan University in 2002. There he studied piano with Dr. Steve Zegree and Fred Hersch, and was a member of WMU’s acclaimed vocal jazz ensemble, Gold Company, for four years. He also appeared in concert with the Gold Company Sextet, WMU Octet, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Lab Band, and the Western Jazz Quartet, the university’s faculty jazz combo. Izard has played with numerous extracurricular student and professional groups, including Drop 35, Four Finger Five, the AP Quintet, Keith Hall Quartet, Shawn "Thunder" Wallace Quartet, and the Kruziki Transatlantica Quintet, which received top honors in DownBeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards in 2005 and 2006. A native of New Jersey, Dave currently resides in Austin, Texas, where he works as a freelance performer, composer, educator, and accompanist.