Johannes Wallman Quintet

press release: After many months of virtual concerts, we are resuming in-person audiences this fall - safety protocols can be found on our website's homepage - gracepresents.org.

Johannes Wallmann, piano; Arun Luthra, saxophone; Tony Barba, saxophone; John Christensen, bass; Devin Drobka, drums.

Johannes Wallmann is a pianist, composer, and bandleader, and the John and Carolyn Peterson Professor of Jazz Studies at UW-Madison. Born 1974 in Germany and raised on Canada's Vancouver Island, Wallmann studied jazz piano and composition at Berklee College of Music and at New York University. Over twelve years in New York City and five years in Oakland, CA, he established himself as a versatile and in-demand sideman before moving to Madison in 2012. Wallmann has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and has recorded or performed with Brian Lynch, Ralph Alessi, Seamus Blake, Gilad Hekselman, and Kevin Mahogany, among many others. Wallmann is a Yamaha piano artist and the recipient of a 2019 Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts and a 2021 H.I. Romnes Fellowship.

He has recorded nine critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including his most recent release, Elegy for an Undiscovered Species (2021, Shifting Paradigm Records), which Midwest Record described as “Fresh and lush, it's delightfully mind blowing throughout.” DownBeat magazine has called Wallmann “a remarkable pianist and composer [...] his evocative compositions are brimming with melodic cogency and rhythmic pull,” named his 2015 album The Town Musicians an “Editors’ Pick,” and described his playing on his 2018 Shifting Paradigm Records album Day and Night as “confident, muscular and elegant.” The Wisconsin Gazette called his 2018 album Love Wins “one of the most interesting and accomplished jazz albums to come out in recent years. Love Wins has taken the uniquely American art form to the next step of its creative journey.”

This will be the first public concert featuring Grace Church's new Kawai concert piano, given in loving memory of Benjamin Webster with additional support from the Carpenter Foundation.