Jed Distler | Composer & Pianist

Composer/pianist and Steinway Artist Jed Distler gained acclaim early in his career for transcribing jazz piano solos by Art Tatum and Bill Evans. As a pianist championing new music, his recitals have offered premiers of works by Virgil Thomson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Lois V Vierk and many more.

Distler’s presenting organization ComposersCollaborative, Inc earned a Guinness Record for world’s largest keyboard ensemble, featuring his works for 175 electronic keyboards. In 2021 Distler embarked on a multi-year project performing all of Mahler’s Symphonies in four-hand arrangements with pianists around the globe. He currently is composing 1, 827 Bagatelles for the 2027 Beethoven anniversary year. Distler has recorded prolifically for the high resolution Steinway Spirio player piano, while TNC Music released Distler’s solo piano CD “Fearless Monk.” (available from Bandcamp).

As Artist-in-Residence for WWFM.Org The Classical Network, Distler is the creator, host and producer of the 2017 ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award radio program Between the Keys. Distler contributes reviews and articles to Gramophone and Classicstoday.com, and has written numerous CD booklet notes for Sony/BMG and Universal Classics.

Guest Artist Residencies

Among Jed’s recent and upcoming residencies include Univerity of Nevada/Las Vegas, Colorado College, New York University, University of Kansas, Rovigo Conservatorio, Festival Musical Durtal, Cheatam School of Music UK, Brussels Conservatory and Cremona Mondomusica. These include piano masterclasses, lectures on topics including comparative listening, historic pianists, composers at the keyboard, schools of piano playing, as well as recital programs such as the Complete Songs of Thelonious Monk, all contemporary music, including original works, piano four hand collaborations with faculty or students.

Curating, Hosting, Competition Jury Work

As a long time concert presenter, organizer and curator Jed Distler is available as a consultant, curator, host, commentator and blogger for piano events that include festivals, competitions, concerts and broadcasts. Recent projects include comprehensive blogs for Gramophone covering the 2021 Warsaw International Chopin Competition and the 2022 Van Cliburn International Competition, plus seminars at Cremona Mondomusica, the Classical Bridge Festival and New York University’s Summer Piano Institute. Jed will be blogger and on-air commentator for the 2025 Warsaw International Piano Festival. In 2024 he serves on the juries for the Chicago International Piano Competition, the Chappel Medal Finals at the Royal College of Music (London) and the Manzo Piano Competition in Lombardia, Italy.

Composing projects

Jed is composing 1,827 Piano Bagatelles to be premiered in full during the 2026/7 season. This project commemorates the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in 2027. Each Bagatelle is dedicated to a different pianist or musical figure central to Jed’s life. The Bagatelles can be recorded or performed in any order, with as few or as many pieces as one pleases. Estimated total timing for the entire cycle is approximately eight hours. Plans are being made to underwrite a complete recording with the composer at the piano or with both the composer and additional pianists.

Jed’s once-act chamber opera Tools with librettist Luigi Ballerini is available for workshop productions. It had a first public reading in October 2019, and is now being fully scored for fifteen-piece chamber orchestra and six singers.

Performing projects

Since 2022, Jed has been performing Mahler’s Symphonies in one piano four hand arrangements with different pianists in the US and Europe. He is seeking to expand such collaborative opportunities, and to include further multi-piano transcriptions of orchestral and operatic repertoire, such as the Schoenberg/Rossini The Barber of Seville, additional Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich symphonies, Wagner’s Parsifal arranged by Engelbert Humperdinck, and Beethoven’s late string quartets.

Since 2012 Jed has performed iconic jazz composer Thelonious Monk’s complete songs as a continuous solo piano entity in concert. Modified and shortened versions of the complete Monk project are also possible. He recorded the complete Monk for the TNC Label. The CD/digital release entitled Fearless Monk is available from Bandcamp, and contains 29 of Monk’s compositions, while the remaining compositions in Jed’s performances are available only in download format.

Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus

Jed is now the acting Artistic Director of the New York City based Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus, a piano series founded by the late record producer and engineer Joseph Patrych to create an inclusive environment for emerging and established pianists alike to perform. The in-person concerts are also offered and ultimately archived as high quality live streaming events. It will be determined by March 2024 if the series will continue, and if Jed will stay on as official Artistic Director.

Radio Show: Between the Keys

As Artist-in Residence for The Classical Network and WWFM.org, Jed is the creator, producer and host of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson radio show Between the Keys. Since it began in 2015, Between the Keys has featured a wide range of repertoire, performers and genres in stimulating and varied programs that often include appearances by luminaries from the piano world. Jed’s guests have included Dick Hyman, Angela Hewitt, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Frederic Rzewski, Steven Spooner, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Benjamin Grosvenor, Geoffrey Burleson, Joanne Polk, Craig Sheppard, Norma Fisher, Orli Shaham, Jack Pepper, Jeffrey Biegel, Donald Berman, Vassily Primakov, Donald Manildi, Stewart Goodyear, Ann Schein, Inna Faliks, Martino Tirimo, Clipper Erickson and Lucas Debargue.

Starting in 2024, select Between the Keys episodes will be recorded live during the Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus for future broadcast, and also be made available as video livestreams.