Eric Hirsh
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Eric Hirsh

Durham, North Carolina, United States | SELF

Durham, North Carolina, United States | SELF
Band Jazz EDM

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Durham hip-hop hybridizers The Beast transform for a special show"

The muscular rhythm section of Stephen Coffman and Peter Kimosh hold down irrepressible grooves, while overachieving keyboardist Eric Hirsh provides an array of effects and the occasional vocoder hook. - Independent Weekly


"Daily Tar Heel Feature Article About Eric's Latin Band"

“We do get a response from people who know the music and don’t expect to hear this kind of music here, from this area,” said Delgado, a lead vocalist. “They are blown away, especially by the quality.” - Daily Tar Heel


"7 Shakoris To See"

GarDel features some of the area's premier musicians, from jazz pianist Eric Hirsh (fresh off of a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead program) to dynamic, vivacious frontman Nelson Delgado. A tight band willing to take unexpected instrumental chances…GarDel passes its fun around. - Independent Weekly


"The Beast"

Pianist Hirsh also co-leads the Triangle’s leading Latin band, Orquesta GarDel, so he probably has more groove under his fingernails than most guests on any album combined. - 2012 Hopscotch Festival Guide


Discography

As A Frontman/Bandleader:
none yet

With Orquesta GarDel:
Lo Que Tú Querías, 2011

With The Beast:
Guru Legacy EP, 2011
Freedom Suite Mixtape, 2010
Silence Fiction, 2009
Catalyst EP, 2008
Belly EP, 2007

As A Sideman:
Greg Humphreys - People You May Know, 2011
Shana Tucker - SHiNE, 2011

Photos

Bio

Eric Hirsh is a jazz pianist, composer, and technologist whose mission is to use collaboration as a space for bringing out the best in artists so that they in turn might reach and encourage interactive listeners through their performances. Hirsh performs regularly as a member of jazz/hip hop quartet The Beast and as co-director of thirteen-piece salsa ensemble Orquesta GarDel. He has recently re-asserted his connection to contemporary music practice in performing as a member of New Music Raleigh, a collective dedicated to the works of living composers.

Hirsh is a 2011-2012 Composer Fellowship recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council, and a four-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Awards. Beyond his undergraduate training in Physics and Music at UNC Chapel Hill, he has received additional instruction at the School of Improvisatory Music in Brooklyn, and the Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

With The Beast, Orquesta GarDel, and leading his own jazz trio, Hirsh has been presented by Duke Performances, North Carolina State University Center Stage, The Stone in NYC, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Busboys and Poets, the North Carolina Art Museum, UNC Center for the Study of the American South, Lake Eden Arts Festival, Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival, and The Art of Cool Project.

For this Art of Cool Project submission, Hirsh steps out from his behind-the-scenes arranger and sideman roles to lead a jazz quintet featuring his original compositions, including new works developed under the Arts Council grant. A healthy dose of through-composed counterpoint, with the requisite serving of improvisation in the great jazz tradition, augmented by granular textures from a laptop.