Vijay Iyer (USA)

Opening Act at 8pm: Ronan Gulifoyle's Bemusement Arcade

Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” VIJAY IYER is an influential and shape-shifting presence in twenty-first- century music.

A three times Grammy Award nominee and four-times ‘Downbeat Magazine Jazz Artist of the Year’ winner, the New York based composer and pianist is revered across multiple musical communities, and has produced a consistently innovative body of work over the last three decades that has earned him a place as one of the leading contemporary music-makers of his generation.

Vijay Iyer, who is a one-time California Physics PhD student, draws his musical inspiration from some of the great composer-pianists - from Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk to Alice Coltrane and Geri Allen - as well as from the rhythmic traditions of South Asia and West Africa, and the African American creative music movement of the 60s and 70s.

His latest ECM Records label, ‘Compassion,’ made it onto many end of year ‘Best Album’ listings.

This will be a solo piano performance.

Opening Act at 8pm: Ronan Gulifoyle's Bemusement Arcade

Bemusement Arcade is the new quartet from Ronan Guilfoyle, one of the most prolifically creative figures in Irish jazz in the past 30 years. The band, which recently recorded their new album ‘At Swing Two Birds’ on Dublin’s Livia Label, will launch their work at this year’s festival. Guilfoyle, who has played with many of the greats, from Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano to Brad Mehldau, is joined in the quartet by young London saxophonist Sam Norris, guitarist Chris Guilfoyle, and Belfast-drummer Darren Beckett.