Dan Tepfer’s Natural Machines 2.O meets Big Band—MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble in Thomas Tull Concert Hall
Saturday, March 7, 2026/8:00pm
Thomas Tull Concert Hall, MIT
MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble
Frederick Harris, Jr. Music Director
Dan Tepfer, guest pianist/composer/technologist
On the heel of his Carnegie Hall premiere of Natural Machines 2.0 featuring piano improvisations in real time with symphony orchestra, Dan Tepfer—one of the most creative and innovative musicians of his generation—presents a new work with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble using his concept of algorithmic improvisation. This unique concert will also feature Tepfer’s own compositions along with music from the traditional and modern jazz cannon.
One of his generation’s extraordinary talents, Dan Tepfer has earned an international reputation as a pianist-composer of wide-ranging innovation, individuality, and drive—one “who refuses to set himself limits” (France’s Télérama). The New York City-based Tepfer, born in 1982 in Paris to American parents, has recorded and performed around the world with some of the leading lights in jazz and classical music, from Lee Konitz to Renée Fleming, and released eleven albums of his own in solo, duo and trio formats.
Tepfer earned global acclaim for his 2011 release Goldberg Variations / Variations, a disc that sees him performing J.S. Bach’s masterpiece as well as improvising upon it—to “elegant, thoughtful and thrilling” effect (New York magazine). Tepfer’s 2019 video album Natural Machines stands as one of his most ingeniously forward-minded yet, finding him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, coding and improvisation, digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart. The New York Times has called him “a deeply rational improviser drawn to the unknown.” His 2023 return to Bach, Inventions / Reinventions, an exploration of the narrative processes behind Bach’s beloved Inventions, became a best-seller, spending two weeks in the #1 spot on the Billboard Classical Charts.
Learn more about Dan Tepfer
Learn more about the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble
Seating Policy
Your registration through Eventbrite guarantees you a seat until 15 minutes before the event start time. 15 minutes before the concert start time, we will release open seats to the standby list. If you were not able to register through Eventbrite, you may join the physical standby line in the Thomas Tull Concert Hall Lobby up to one hour before the concert start time.
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