Vijay Iyer & Teju Cole: Blind Spot

Composer-pianist Vijay Iyer was named Downbeat Magazine’s Jazz Artist of the Year for 2012, 2015, and 2016. He received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and a 2011 Grammy nomination. He has released twenty-one albums, including A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (ECM, 2016) in duo with legendary composer-trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, named “Best New Music” by Pitchfork; Break Stuff (ECM, 2015) with the Vijay Iyer Trio, winner of the German Record Critics’ Award for Album of the Year; the live score to the film Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi (ECM, 2014) by filmmaker Prashant Bhargava; and Holding it Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project (Pi Recordings, 2013), his third politically searing collaboration with poet-performer Mike Ladd, named Album of the Year in the Los Angeles Times. Iyer is the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, and the director of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music.

Teju Cole is a writer, art historian, photographer, and the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of four books, each in a different genre: the novella “Every Day is for the Thief,” the novel “Open City,” the essay collection “Known and Strange Things” and, most recently, the genre-defying “Blind Spot.” His work has been translated into sixteen languages. His honors include the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Internationaler Literaturpreis from the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the New York City Book Award for Fiction, the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University, and the Focus Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Cole’s photography has been exhibited in India, Iceland, and the US, published widely, and was the subject of a solo exhibition in Italy in the spring of 2016. His debut exhibition in New York City will be presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery this summer.

Born in Malaysia and raised in Perth, Western Australia, Linda May Han Oh arrived in New York in 2006, completed her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music and quickly began working with jazz luminaries including Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, and Terri Lyne Carrington. She is currently the bassist with guitarist Pat Metheny. Her 2009 her self-released debut, “Entry” recorded with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire received great critical acclaim as did her subsequent two quartet albums for Greenleaf Music. Her most recent album, “Walk Against Wind,” released in April 2017 on Biophilia Records, landed her on the cover of JazzTimes Magazine. She is currently completing two additional albums – one reprising the trumpet trio of her debut, and the other an octet recording with strings. Oh is active in film scoring and volunteer work focusing on eco-sustainable living.

Patricia Brennan – 
Vibraphonist/Marimbist/Improviser/Composer

Originally from Mexico, Patricia Brennan has toured all over the world and has received numerous awards. Her search for freedom in her musical expression led her to find her voice through the vibraphone and mallet percussion in improvisational music. Patricia performs with Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and with Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus. Patricia has performed with many renown artists such as Vijay Iyer, Matt Mitchell, and Wadada Leo Smith. She has performed at Newport Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall. Recent projects include an ECM recording with Ensemble Kolossus. Patricia holds degrees from Curtis Institute of Music and NYU.