DAN KNIGHT
Steinway Artist, Composer, Educator
Dan Knight Steinway Artist, Pianist, Composer, Educator © 2021
Spontaneous. Energetic. Fearless. Mystical. Enigmatic. Dan Knight continues to defy description. Or categorization. As one of the world's finest improvising pianists - composers, he is one of the acknowledged master pianists of his generation. The range of his musicianship, reflected in his interpretations of both the classical and jazz "canons" and in his own inimitable compositions, is incomparable and unparalleled in modern contemporary music.
His early teacher, Matilde Ehrmann Maither, was a student of one of the greatest classical pianists of all time, the great Ignace Jan Paderewski. And his mentor and musical father, Dr. Billy Taylor, was one of only two protégés of the legendary jazz pianist, Art Tatum. (The other was the great Oscar Peterson.)
The "Encyclopedia of Jazz" (Rutgers University) describes Knight as combining "the passion and technique of Paderewski with the improvisational virtuosity of Art Tatum."
His compositions range from works for solo piano to symphonic pieces, from solo and ensemble vocal music to instrumental performance pieces and works for ballet and contemporary dance. They are frequently inspired by masterpieces of visual art, and often include both thorough composition and improvisation, in a powerful, seamless synthesis of creativity, spontaneity, and structure.
His life's goal? "To combat soullessness in all its forms, and all things which seek to injure the soul, through the restorative and redemptive power of Art." In the process of this undertaking, he has become the embodiment of what the poet Federico Garcia Lorca called, in a word, "Duende."
He's not a "young lion." Far from it, in fact. He's a full-fledged lion, at the height of his powers. And he roars.