Vanity Fair has called Fred Hersch “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade.” It’s a verdict that has not embarrassed itself with age. The Fred Hersch Trio performs at Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock on Saturday, August 15.
About the Show
The trio’s current vehicle is The Surrounding Green, their 2025 ECM release recorded with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Joey Baron. The Wall Street Journal has called this ensemble “one of the major ensembles of our time,” and the DownBeat Critics Poll voted them the #1 Jazz Group in 2019. The group’s Village Vanguard residency dates to 1997, which means these three musicians have been at this long enough that their approach to ensemble listening is not incidental—it is the point. The Maverick show is part of the Jazz at the Maverick series; no supporting act is listed.
Both the trio’s ECM session and Hersch’s 2024 solo album Silent, Listening were produced by Manfred Eicher, a pairing that speaks to a shared investment in space and sound. Hersch’s influences include Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, and Oscar Peterson. The decades of performing and composing since have produced something that those names explain but don’t predict.
Hersch’s reach beyond the bandstand is considerable. A Guggenheim Fellow in composition, he used that fellowship to write Leaves of Grass, a large-scale Whitman setting for two voices and octet that opened the 2017 Jazz at Lincoln Center season. He has taught at New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music; his students include Brad Mehldau, Sullivan Fortner, Dan Tepfer, and Ethan Iverson. A 17-time Grammy nominee, he has received Jazz Pianist of the Year honors from the Jazz Journalists Association three times and the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. The trio’s 2026 schedule runs from the Hudson Valley through the American Southwest and into Europe.
Venue & Logistics
Maverick Concert Hall is a 400-seat historic outdoor pavilion at 120 Maverick Road in Woodstock, part of the Hudson Valley cultural calendar. The outdoor setting is well suited to summertime jazz, and the show runs 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Tickets
Reserved Hall Seats are $65 and $40; partial obstruction seats $30 and $27; general admission (outdoors, uncovered) $25; students $10. Tickets are available via tix.com. Buy tickets