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Gregg Kallor

Gregg Kallor is a composer and pianist whose music fuses the classical and jazz traditions he loves into a new, deeply personal language. The New York Times writes: "At home in both jazz and classical forms, [Kallor] writes music of unaffected emotional directness. Leavened with flashes of oddball humor, his works succeed in drawing in the listener - not as consumer or worshipful celebrant, but in a spirit of easygoing camaraderie."

Kallor is the Composer-In-Residence at SubCulture in New York City, named one of Time Out New York's best new music venues. The first season of his residency featured world remieres of a solo piano suite, a set of songs with mezzo- soprano Adriana Zabala and baritone Matthew Worth, and a piano trio with violinist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Joshua Roman.

Kallor joined an all-star roster of musicians, including Joyce DiDonato, Anthony Dean Griffey, Isabel Leonard, Susanna Phillips, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, actors Sharon Stone and Ansel Elgort, and many more, for An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope. Kallor recorded two songs for the album, with Melody Moore - "One Child," which Kallor composed for this project - and Matthew Polezani. All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

Kallor's music videos are "a visual feast for the eyes," writes Feast of Music: "Espresso Nirvana" (think caffeinated hijinks) and "Broken Sentences," which features the 88 artist-designed pianos that Sing For Hope placed in parks and public spaces all around NYC from June 1-15, 2013, where anyone could play them. Gregg did. A lot.

Kallor's solo recording, A Single Noon, is a musical tableau of life in New York City that evokes moments of caffeinated bliss, embarrassing subway mishaps, and the buzzing energy of a city driven by dynamic, thoughtful, talented, and slightly crazy people. Fred Hersch calls A Single Noon "the work of an extraordinary pianist, a composer of great distinction and a true conceptualist... This ambitious and unique suite takes us somewhere that is very deeply heartfelt and dazzlingly executed. This is 21st-century music that has clearly absorbed the past and looks to a bright and borderless musical future." Kallor premiered A Single Noon at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 2011.

Kallor's previous album, Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs, features his song-settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, William Butler Yeats, and Christina Rossetti sung by mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala. Opera News wrote: "Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them."

Gregg Kallor: A Single Noon

Read "A Single Noon" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 22, 2013

Solo piano recordings are risky. Even the acknowledged masters of the form--Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarrett--fall flat from time-to-time. Somehow, outside of an interactive ensemble, magic seems harder to conjure. Pianist Gregg Kallor tries his hand at going it alone on A Single Noon, a nine movement suite, a musical ode to life in New York City.This is composed music, with improvisation, and sounds like a very refined recital. Kallor's take on the big city seems to focus on ...

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Album Review

Gregg Kallor: There's a Rhythm

Read "There's a Rhythm" reviewed by Dave Nathan

by Dave Nathan
August 23, 2002

Gregg Kallor, a young 20 something pianist out of Connecticut, has released his first album which focuses on his compositional creations, plus four standards just to show that he can handle those great perennials of American Popular Song. The outcome is salutary, laid back, elegant piano trio music lasting for almost 70 minutes. Judging not only from his playing, but from his writings about one of his somewhat more renowned peers, he clearly admires the style and approach of Brad ...

"Kallor's compositions and his touch are absolutely exquisite. The word "refinement" keeps coming to mind, and it is a refinement touched with imagination, verve and vision. Gregg Kallor, with this New York suite, A SINGLE NOON, has crafted a compelling and beautiful work of art." — All About Jazz
"Kallor is one of the rare artists who successfully straddles the divide between jazz improvisers and classical interpreters." — New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Kallor can carry a poetic mood right to the edge of sorrow, always sounding lyrical and moving without ever slipping into the lachrymose." — The Hartford Courant

"Kallor's compositions and his touch are absolutely exquisite. The word "refinement" keeps coming to mind, and it is a refinement touched with imagination, verve and vision. Gregg Kallor, with this New York suite, A SINGLE NOON, has crafted a compelling and beautiful work of art." — All About Jazz
"Kallor is one of the rare artists who successfully straddles the divide between jazz improvisers and classical interpreters." — New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Kallor can carry a poetic mood right to the edge of sorrow, always sounding lyrical and moving without ever slipping into the lachrymose." — The Hartford Courant

"A SINGLE NOON is the work of an extraordinary pianist, a composer of great distinction and a true conceptualist... this ambitious and unique suite takes us somewhere that is very deeply heartfelt and dazzlingly executed. This is 21st- century music that has clearly absorbed the past and looks to a bright and borderless musical future." — Fred Hersch

"[A SINGLE NOON] is a thoroughly inspired creation. The more I listen... the more I sense that Kallor is a rare talent." — Classical.net

"Gregg Kallor is one of the bright stars on the horizon. Both his versatility as player and genius as composer are enough to get sophisticated music enthusiasts salivating for more." — JazzTimes

"If Gregg Kallor The Composer was clearly inspired, Gregg Kallor The Pianist was equally apt at impeccably mixing sharp classical exactness with debonair jazz coolness. It is probably a safe bet to assume that A Single Noon was premiered at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 2011 primarily due to its solidly classical pedigree, but this totally engrossing "tableau of life in New York City" could easily headline The Village Vanguard too." — Classical Music Rocks

"The entire album resonates with the contrasting energies and vibes of the city, from the sun breaking over the park in the morning, to subway journeys and sidewalk strolls, caffeine-fueled conversations, and mellow evenings. Played with technical assurance, dramatic flair and sensitively nuanced shadings, Kallor subtly blurs the edges between improvisation and composed sections, classical and jazz, to provide a haunting and vivid portrait of "a life in the day" of the buzzing metropolis." — The Cross-Eyed Pianist

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