faculty
Ted Piltzecker
biography
philosophy
venues/tours
recordings
audio clips
Additional information and recordings can be found at www.tedvibes.com.
Vibraphonist/composer Ted Piltzecker tours nationally and internationally with his jazz quartet and duo, as well as with the famed George Shearing Quintet. He has recorded three albums as a leader. His debut album, “Destinations,” climbed to number eight in national jazz airplay, and his second release, “Unicycle Man” on the Equilibrium label (featuring Bob Mintzer, Harvie Swartz, James Williams, and Dave Meade), remained on the Gavin Jazz Chart for months.
The Victory Music Review called it “a thoughtful recording filled with tasteful flair, the product of confident mature musicians who are committed to the ensemble.” Jazz writer and critic Nat Hentoff praised the album as “a lyrical, thoughtful, relaxing meeting of mutually appreciative improvisers whose time is timeless.” His most recent recording on the Equilibrium label, “Standing Alone,” a collection of standards for solo vibraphone, has also been critically acclaimed.
All About Jazz reports that “He fills the 43 minutes with expressive grace, maintaining interest throughout.” Muse calls it “a simultaneously technically impressive and deeply relaxing listening experience.”
The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (Fellowship 2000) have awarded grants to Ted in both performance and composition. His works have been aired on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s “Arts National.”
Ted is a member the studio composition faculty in the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College. He has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan, William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, and the Manhattan School of Music. His educational activities are endorsed by Selmer Industries, and he is a popular clinician in universities across the country. For eight years, Ted directed the jazz program at the Aspen Music Festival, where he regularly performed with many of the great names in jazz (Jimmy Heath, Joe Williams, Clark Terry, Mel Torme, Ernie Watts, Hubert Laws, Slide Hampton, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, to name a few).
Ted has performed in New York area concerts and clubs with guitarists Gene Burtoncini and Vic Juris, bassists Andy McKee and Todd Coolman, drummers Lewis Nash, Andrew Cyrille, and Clarence Penn, pianists Jim McNeeley, John Hicks, Bill Charlap, and Harold Danko, and saxophonists Chris Potter and Steve Wilson. He appears as a featured soloist in percussion festivals around the world, from Hannover’s Deutsches Percussion Symposium and London’s Percussive Arts Society (UK) to Brazil’s Ritmos da Terra.
His appearances with orchestras, including the Tucson Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Regina Symphony Orchestras, have variously spotlighted Ted as a performer, composer, and conductor. European engagements as a jazz headliner include the esteemed UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki (guest soloist/composer) and several tours of German clubs and concert halls. His performance experience also encompasses world and ethnic music, ranging from the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble of Tokyo to the Chinese ensemble, Spirit of Nature.
Ted is a graduate of the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. He is also a licensed pilot and unicyclist.