Eric Hirsh

ABOUT THE ARTIST"“Pianist and composer Erich Hirsh can play pretty much anything you throw at him. When he’s not leading his jazz quartet (Aaron Hill on saxophone, Peter Kimosh on bass, and Stephen Coffman on drums), he’s helping drive the progressive hip-hop of The Beast or the salsa shake of Orquesta GarDel. His original compositions have a propulsive thrust that combines a minimalist drive with the complex, expressive melodies. He’s one of the area’s best.” - Dan Ruccia, The Independent WeeklyEric Hirsh is a jazz pianist, composer, and technologist whose mission is to use collaboration as a space for bringing out the best in artists so that they in turn might reach and encourage interactive listeners through their performances. Hirsh performs regularly as a member of jazz/hip hop quartet The Beast and as director of thirteen-piece salsa ensemble Orquesta GarDel.Hirsh is a 2012  recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council Composer Fellowship, and a four-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Awards. Beyond his undergraduate training in Physics and Music at UNC Chapel Hill, he has received additional instruction at the School of Improvisatory Music in Brooklyn, and the Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. With The Beast, Orquesta GarDel, and leading his own jazz group, Hirsh has been presented by Duke Performances, North Carolina State University Center Stage, The Stone in NYC, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the North Carolina Art Museum, UNC Center for the Study of the American South, Lake Eden Arts Festival, Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival, and The Art of Cool Project.