JOHN STETCH (pianist) Born in Edmonton, Canada, Stetch began piano studies at age 19, after several years of clarinet and saxophone. Upon graduation at McGill University, he moved to New York City for many years and later upstate New York. Stetch has performed across Canada, The U.S., Japan, Europe, Ukraine, Brazil, and Israel. He has released 11 CDs under his own name, has 5 Juno Award nominations (Canada), and won the Prix Du Jazz at The Montreal International Jazz Festival. He has been frequently recorded by the CBC and NPR and has appeared on such programs as Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz and Weekend Edition with Leanne Hansen.

Stech has performed and/or recorded with Rufus Reid, Mark Turner, Seamus Blake, Jeff Ballard, Jim Black, Chris Cheek, Ben Street, and Javon Jackson. He has recently been collaborating with classical and world musicians such as Alex Fiterstein, Sasha Vassiliev, Daniel Binelli, and has been commissioned to write for The CBC Radio Orchestra, The Borealis String Quartet, and recently premiered his own Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano.

In 2011, he released Fabled States on Addo Records. It features twelve original and diverse trio compositions by Stetcc, displaying sounds from his own Ukrainian ancestry, the plateau of Tibet, classical music, quartertone tuning, free-improvisation, and the tradition of swinging jazz.

John Stetch is currently based in Brooklyn, NY, and also teaches at Cornell University.

His 2013 solo piano release Off with the Cuffs features his own arrangements, re-compositions, and improvisations on Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Shostakovich. The album was nominated for a JUNO in 2015.

Awards:

2009 - JUNO nomination for 'Contemporary Jazz Album' for TV Trio
2015 - JUNO nomination for 'Instrumental Album of the Year' for Off with the Cuffs