Andy Wasserman

Andy Wasserman

New York, N.Y. USA

MARCH 2022 UPDATE:
Andy Wasserman’s 2021 album “PEREGRINATION” received a nomination here on SoloPiano.com for “ALBUM OF THE YEAR” in the JAZZ genre category - alongside these other talented solo pianists in this category, which includes Hakan A. Toker, Gregg Karukas, Jovino Santos Neto, Louis Landon, and Jon Puro. Sincere gratitude and best of good fortune from beautiful music goes out to all the listeners and staff at SoloPiano who continue to appreciate and support our artistry of solo piano music!

MARCH 2021 UPDATE:
Two of Andy Wasserman’s 2020 albums, “FLOWERS” and “THE SEVEN VERTICAL SCALES” received nominations here on SoloPiano.com for “ALBUM OF THE YEAR” in the JAZZ genre category - alongside great Jazz pianist Alan Pasqua’s beautiful album “DAYDREAM.”
Much gratitude and best wishes goes out to all the listeners and staff at SoloPiano who continue to appreciate and support our artistry of solo piano music!
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Contemporary Jazz Pianist and native New Yorker Andy Wasserman draws on an astonishingly diverse range of experiences in the music industry as a life-long professional musician.

The piano Andy’s main instrument and the heart of his full-time work in music as performer, composer, recording artist and educator.

His solo piano style fuses spontaneity, expressive nuance and subtlety, harmonic intimacy, rhythmic intricacy, and an eloquent spectrum of polished dynamic gradation. The development of Andy’s signature style and improvisational approach was lovingly guided through a 30 year long relationship with his mentor, piano virtuoso Dwike Mitchell.

Andy dedicated his life to the piano at age 9 upon receiving a birthday gift of “Closeup in Swing,” an album by Jazz master pianist Erroll Garner. His ears, heart, fingers and soul proceeded to open wide by absorbing the piano innovations of a variety of influential stylists, including other Pittsburgh greats Billy Strayhorn, Ahmad Jamal and Earl Hines - along with McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum and Bill Evans. Andy continues to be supremely inspired by the classical piano music of Chopin, Ravel, Bach, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev.

Wasserman’s original compositions, arrangements and instrumental performances on many recordings and soundtracks for TV, Radio and Film productions have appeared on the NBC, CBS and ABC networks, as well as Cable TV stations that include A & E, The Lifetime Network, The History Channel, The Travel Channel, TBS, Nickelodeon, The Turner Network, QVC and The Learning Channel. Internationally, his work has been heard on TV, film and radio produced around the world in countries that include Japan, Argentina, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom and France.

“Wasserman produced forays into the bright, the glimmering, the burning, the clouded-over, icy and distant, with use of falling phrases over shifting, widely gripped harmonies as well as blues-drenched, ringing major sevenths, ninths and elevenths…conjured thoughts of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock. While feelings of unity can be subjective, the rolling complexities in Wasserman’s works are beautifully, almost mystically woven together.”
—- New York City Jazz Record Magazine, January 2021 - NY@Night LiveStream solo piano concert review (excerpt)

As of November, 2021, Andy has presented 76 weekly Live Stream Sunday evening SOLO PIANO “Couch Tour Jazz Jam” concerts on his beautifully restored 1924 Steinway “M” Grand piano. Visit his official website ANDYWASSERMAN.COM to view these current and past performances featuring his original compositions and improvisations in a program entitled “The Listening Experience.”

These concerts and past performances stream simultaneously on ROKU TV and Amazon Fire TV. Track his upcoming livestream concert events online at Jambase, Bands-In-Town, Songkick, and Jazz Near You.

Wasserman established himself as one of New York City’s in-demand premier solo pianists over a 20 year period as a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. During that time Andy enjoyed an uninterrupted nine-year live performance engagement from 1987 through 1996 every weekend at the Steinway grand as a featured solo pianist in the Ambassador Room of Manhattan’s prestigious United Nations Plaza Hotel.

Andy Wasserman is one of only a few people certified directly by legendary composer, theoretician, educator and orchestra leader George Russell to teach the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization - the art and science of Tonal Gravity. Russell is internationally recognized as one of the most significant, influential and seminal musical innovators of the 20th century, and his Lydian Chromatic Concept is viewed by many in the worlds of Jazz, contemporary classical and popular music as the most important theoretical development to emerge from the Jazz tradition. Maestro Russell was also Andy’s mentor in composition while earning his Bachelor of Music degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Wasserman currently gives one-on-one private lessons to students around the world from his online studio to anyone who wishes to learn The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization.

Andy’s unique and sophisticated thematic solo piano work has been produced on special edition TV/Film Music Library CDs as composer, arranger and instrumentalist, distributed around the world by both the Pyramid Music Library (SOLO PIANO, Vol. 1) and the TWI North American Library (SOLO PIANO, Vol. 2) through licensing deals with Premier Radio Network.

Additionally, Andy has been extremely active with work in the field of Holistic Music Healing (the therapeutic modalities of music) in private and public venues since 1974, and has released 22 CDs over the last 20 years.

His albums include KINDRED SPIRITS, UNIVERSAL BEAT, BEAD SONGS, HOUSE OF THE HEART, ANDY WASSERMAN PLAYS THE BLUES Volumes One and Two, TONAL GRAVITY POEMS Volume One, CONCORD, THE SEVEN VERTICAL SCALES, LUMINOSITY, WALK IN BALANCE, SONIC ARCHITECTURE, PATHWAYS, CHILDHOOD, FLOWERS, PROVIDENCE, INSIDE TRACK, POLESTAR, LOVE-STREAM, PEREGRINATION, TREE, and his latest 2021 release EXUBERANCE (with liner notes by Jazz poet and author John Pietaro).

The tracks from these albums are currently available on BANDCAMP, SOUNDCLOUD, APPLE MUSIC, and AMAZON MUSIC.

Wasserman’s publishing company Andrew Roy Music has a catalog of 35 of his original compositions that have been recorded and released for worldwide distribution. BMI maintains a catalog of 73 published works with Wasserman as songwriter & composer.

Many of his solo piano compositions and arrangements have been transcribed from recordings and posted on YouTube. These videos allow you to enjoy note-by-note transcriptions as they scroll, synchronized to the audio tracks.

Andy’s music has been distributed in the online streaming world since 2007. Andy’s 2021 digital music license with TuneCore and Repost streams and sells his albums through Spotify, Google Play, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Alibaba, Amazon Music, AMI Entertainment, Anghami, Boomplay, Deezer, Facebook, Instagram, iHeartRadio, Claro Música, KKBox, MelonPlus, Napster, NetEase, Pandora Plus, Resso, Saavn, Shazam, Sound Exchange, Tencent,Tidal, TikTok, Twitch, VK, Yandex, MediaNet, Simfy Africa, VerveLife, Gracenote, 7digital, Spinlet, Neurotic Media, Target Music, Claromusica, Zvooq, 8Tracks,Q.sic, Kuack, PlayNetwork, Touchtunes, Music Island, Joox, TimMusic, SoundTrack Your Brand, Zed+ and Gaana.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND SUMMARY

Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. Certified to teach George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept.

Studied abroad at University and L’Academie des Musique in Sion, Switzerland.
  
Graduate studies in Music Therapy at New York University.
  
Attended The High School of Music and Art and The Metropolitan Music School in Manhattan.
  
Mentored through intensive, long-term private study by:
Dwike Mitchell - piano
George Russell - composition, Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (The LCCOTO)
Papa Ladji Camara - jembe (West African drumming)
Jeannette Giguere - classical piano
Anne Dodge - classical and jazz piano

TEACHING BACKGROUND SUMMARY

Piano and theory teacher and mentor since 1979;
(All styles and all levels)
Current roster of 25 students per week: teaching ONLINE to students around the world.

Visiting artist giving master classes at Universities, Colleges and Festivals throughout the United States.

Presenting master classes, workshops, teacher-training and performing concerts as an arts-in-education curriculum specialist in over 2000 schools, working with K-12 grade students and teachers since 1979.

Andy is webmaster of PIANO LESSON CITY, an online private lesson music school specializing in customized and personalized instruction for all ages, all levels and all styles.

 

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