by Mike Telin

For many keyboard players, performing J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a daunting task, but jazz pianist Dan Tepfer has taken things one step further. Not only does he play the monumental work in its entirety, he follows each of Bach’s 30 variations with one of his own.

On Sunday, July 31 at 8:00 pm in the Maltz Center for the Performing Arts, Dan Tepfer will present his critically acclaimed project titled “Goldberg Variations/Variations” as part of the Cleveland International Piano Competition and Festival.

By his own admission, Tepfer’s upbringing was anything but typical. “I grew up in Paris, France with American parents, and outside of popular culture. We never had a TV, but I played a lot of music and read a lot of books, so the way I experienced culture was different,” the pianist said during a telephone conversation from his home in Brooklyn, New York. [Read more…]