Jon Batiste

The American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, TV personality and sometime actor is genuinely talented. He has put in the hard yards – including a seven-year stint as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a current role as the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and seven Grammy Awards from 22 nominations, including an Album of the Year win. He has composed film scores, written a symphony, performed with just about everyone from Stevie Wonder and Prince to Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey … and on top of that he’s a brilliant pianist. This is one stop on a world tour, The Maestro Series, with relatively intimate and certainly stripped-down performances featuring just him and the piano. As he put it: “every performance [on the tour] will be a one-of-a-kind experience – spontaneous, immersive, and deeply personal”. Hopefully he’ll play some of his improvisations on Beethoven … Highly recommended.