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 June 16, 2008
Two Men, 88 Keys
With Pianists Daniel Lessner and Kai Akagi
Host/Moderator: Bill Cunliffe
7pm - 8:30pm
cropped.jpg) The Jazz Institute
Terrace Court on the second level of the
Paseo Colorado
260 E. Colorado Boulevard,
Pasadena
 Thus far pianist Kei Akagi is best known as a sideman but his list of credits and versatility are certainly quite impressive. Born in Japan, Akagi lived in Cleveland during a large part of his childhood (from age five twelve) before returning to Japan. He started classical piano lessons when he was five but was soon also interested in pop and rock music. Back in Japan, Akagi studied philosophy and music, playing piano at high school dances and with his college band. When he was 22 he returned to the U.S., originally to work on his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Within a month he was playing a gig with Bobby Bryant and Blue Mitchell and within two years Akagi had switched permanently to music. He spent most of 1979-85 as a member of a band coled by Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Since then Kei Akagi's associations have included Joe Farrell, James Newton, Allan Holdsworth, JeanLuc Ponty, two years with Al DiMeola, Miles Davis (1989-91) and Stanley Turrentine. He recorded a 1992 CD for Moo/Bluemoon and has long been a fixture in the Los Angeles area. His album roster includes 1991's Playroom, 1994's Mirror Puzzle and 2000's New Smiles Travelled.
 Daniel Lessner has thrilled audiences around the world with his dazzling performances and poetic interpretations of the great masterworks of the piano repertoire. Critics have hailed his playing as "brilliant and blazing" and have called him "a musician of pristine artistic taste and discernment."
Daniel began his piano studies at the age of four in Miami, Florida, where he performed his first public recital at age eleven. By the time he turned eighteen he had won over a hundred local and national prizes, including the Irene Muir Scholarship Award for the top young talent in the state of Florida and the First Prize award at the acclaimed Interlochen Music Camp’s Concerto Competition, where he performed the Macdowell Concerto #2 in D minor and Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 in C minor. He entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York City on scholarship to study with the renowned teacher Adele Marcus. While at Juilliard he won the Tchaikovsky Concerto Competition which he performed with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, under the baton of Massimo Freccia.
After receiving his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music, Lessner was chosen as a candidate for Juilliard’s doctoral program. He remained at Juilliard as an Assistant Faculty Member for two seasons.
Lessner has toured extensively in the United States and abroad, performing solo and chamber works in cities which include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Boston, Detroit, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Miami, Palm Beach, Helsinki Finland, and Stockholm Sweden. He has garnered top prizes in competitions including the Maryland International, the Gina Bachauer International, the Interlochen Concerto Competition, Miecyslau Munz, the Grand Rapids International, and the Van Cliburn Scholarship Award. He has also appeared as soloist with the Florida Philharmonic, the Miami Beach Symphony, the Queens Symphony, the Maryland Symphony, the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra and the Interlochen Orchestra.
A winner in the sixth Palm Beach International Piano Competition, he was the only American to reach the finals. Lessner was recognized for most outstanding performance in the works of Chopin and Liszt, and also performed the Goldberg Variations of Bach. As a result, the Orchestra de San Luis contracted him for a special concert tour throughout Argentina and South America, performing the Beethoven Concerto #4 in G.
In 1997, Lessner performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in a concert that included pianists such as Byron Janus, in the memory of their former teacher, Ms. Marcus.
Other career highlights include a tour in South America with the New York Philharmonia, performing solo and orchestral concerts on a Cunard Line Cruise up the Amazon River in Brazil, with stops in Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Lessner appeared as a soloist with the California Philharmonic at Disney Concert Hall, where he played Rachmaninoff'’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.
Lessner has been on the faculty at the University of Southern California as Professor of Piano. He also teaches privately in Los Angeles and gives Master Classes.
Lessner can currently be heard on United Airlines’ national advertising campaign performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in more than 10 ads.
On his website, DanielLessner.com, many of Daniel’s live concert appearances can be heard and seen, and future performance dates are listed. Lessner’s recordings are available on iTunes and CDBaby.com.
In addition to performing, Mr. Lessner enjoys a successful career composing music for film and television for his company Skanda Music. He has also worked as a record producer and as an Artist and Repertoire Representative for EMI Records.
Mr. Lessner is a Steinway Artist.
 Grammy nominated composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe is gathering nationwide attention with his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. After teaching at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio, he toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and working with Frank Sinatra. He then played and toured with many legends of jazz, including Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, James Moody, and Joshua Redman. Currently, he plays with his own trio, his group Imaginacion, and duets with the great jazz flutist Holly Hofmann, with whom he has recorded five CD's.
Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. His three albums for Warner/Discovery Records all charted in nationwide jazz polls. His books "Jazz Keyboard Toolbox, " and "Jazz Piano Inventions" published by Alfred Publications, are fast becoming standard reference books in jazz, and his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music, and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press.
As a composer and arranger, Bill has been performed by many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Reading (PA) Symphony, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. Among his works are a three movement "Romantic" Fantasy for piano and orchestra, a festive overture, "Viva Mexico," and numerous works for big band, orchestra, and choir.
Recently, the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released a CD of Bill's jazz orchestra compositions. He is currently composer in residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, in Pasadena, California, and Assistant Professor of Music at the Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance, at Temple University.
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