Accomplished American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and educationist, Martin Bejerano joins the Ziad Jazz Quartet this month as our first guest performer of the Virtual Jazz at the Bechtler season. Performing along side Martin on piano and Ziad Rabie on soprano and tenor saxophone will be Al Sergel on drums and Zack Page on bass.  

Born in Miami, Florida, Martin Bejerano has been active as a professional musician since the age of fifteen, when he began his performance career playing George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" concerto with the Mexican-American Bi-National Symphony while still in high school. A graduate of the esteemed New World School of the Arts, he received a full scholarship to attend Florida State University, where he studied classical piano with Leonidas Lipovetsky, and jazz piano, composition, and arranging with Bill Peterson, whom he cites as one of his most important influences. He then went on to receive a Master’s degree from the University of Miami, also under full scholarship. During this time, Martin won third place in the nation in the prestigious 1999 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, and was chosen to attend the famed Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Colony.

In the summer of 2000, Bejerano decided a move to New York City was in order to further develop his career. The move turned out to be a good one, and, in less than a year, he was asked to join the quartet of legendary jazz drummer and Grammy award-winning artist Roy Haynes. In 2004, their recording "Fountain of Youth" was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album--Martin’s first recording on a major label. In January 2002, Martin also joined internationally acclaimed guitarist Russell Malone’s quartet, touring and recording with the group for over eight years, while continuing to tour with the Roy Haynes Quartet to this day.

Currently, Martin heads the jazz piano department at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, teaching jazz piano, improvisation and composition, and continues to perform internationally. He is featured on several recent recordings, including the newly released Trio Miami, Straight Ahead from Havana with the Ignacio Berroa Trio, Armando Gola's Gola Elektrik and Roy Haynes’s Roy-alty. 

Registration

This program is free of charge. Registration is required. Registered guests will receive the link at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 10 and at noon and 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 2. Please register by Thursday, October 1.