For more information visit Vijay-Iyer.com
Called by the Village Voice, "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Iyer has released ten highly acclaimed albums, most recently Reimagining (Savoy 2005) with his quartet, Simulated Progress (Pi Recordings 2005) with the trio Fieldwork, Raw Materials (Savoy 2006) in duo with Rudresh Mahanthappa, and the forthcoming Still Life with Commentator (Savoy 2007) with Mike Ladd. His numerous honors include the 2003 CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts, a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and project grants from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, Creative Capital, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, Arts international, and The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. The Downbeat International Critics Poll named him #1 Rising Star Artist and Composer of 2006. He has performed around the world with his ensembles at numerous international festivals and concert series, and has collaborated with artists such as Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Amiri Baraka, Butch Morris, Ethel, Miya Masaoka, dead prez, Karsh Kale, George Lewis, and DJ Spooky. He has been a faculty member at New York University, New School University, and the School for Improvisational Music. His writings have been published in Music Perception, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Current Musicology, and Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies. He lives in New York City