The most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade.

—Vanity Fair

“A living legend” (The New Yorker) within jazz’s piano pantheon, fifteen-time GRAMMY nominee Fred Hersch was also the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz musician. Amidst the demands of an internationally celebrated career, he spent several months in an AIDS-related coma in 2008. And yet, as he shared in an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air:”

“Certainly since the coma … there seems to be more relaxation, maybe more depth, more direct connection to what I’m playing. I realized when I was that far down that I really wasn’t done yet. There was more that I had to do as a musician, as a partner.”

He makes his Princeton University Concerts debut, as part of the new Healing with Music series, to discuss this profound relationship to music and share “Breath by Breath”—a suite of nine original compositions written during the pandemic, inspired by his longtime practice of mindfulness meditation. Through this combination of performance and conversation with series host Clemency Burton-Hill, we will come together to breathe in the life-affirming power of music, guided by an endlessly-inspiring musician who is a living testament to music’s ability to heal.

This event is presented by Princeton University Concerts. For a full event listing and tickets, please visit this link.