The Tobias Meinhart Quartet is saxophonist Tobias Meinhart, pianist Julian Shore, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer JK Kim.

Tobias Meinhart

Born in a small village in rural Bavaria, Tobias Meinhart has spent the past 15 years carving out a career in the international jazz scene. Since his modest beginnings in Woerth, the tenor saxophonist has garnered acclaim in both Europe and the United States, earning a nomination for an ECHO award in 2016 and claiming residency at renowned New York City jazz venues such as the Blue Note, the Jazz Gallery, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Birdland.

Meinhart began his musical life as a drummer before switching to the saxophone at age thirteen. He found inspiration in his grandfather, a classically trained bassist who began playing jazz in many of the U.S. Army clubs after World War II. This early and intimate exposure to the music had a profound effect on young Meinhart, leading him to hone his skills and win first prize in Germany’s Jugend Jazzt competition. After touring throughout Germany with his quartet Fourscore, Meinhart went to study at the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland, where the renowned European saxophonist Domenic Landolf served as his mentor. His teachers included Adrian Mears, Jorge Rossy, and Wolfgang Muthspiel. He then went on to the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Bern University for the Arts to study with Ferdinand Povel and Andy Scherrer.

While still a student, Meinhart caught the attention of critics and audiences throughout Europe. His band won first prize at the 2009 Startbahn Jazz Competition and the Audience Award for Best Group at the 2009 Getxo Jazz Festival in Bilbao, Spain. Already endowed with more real-world experience than many musicians have long after leaving school, Meinhart graduated with honors and received a diploma in jazz performance and music education the same year that he won the prize at Getxo.

Shortly after graduation, Meinhart moved to New York City and immersed himself in the city’s highly competitive music scene. In 2012, he received his master’s degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music, where he studied with Antonio Hart, John Ellis, and Seamus Blake. That same year, Tobias returned to Getxo with his quintet, and he earned not only first prize for the band’s outstanding performance but also the Best Soloist award and the opportunity to open for one of his most forceful inspirations, Wayne Shorter.

Matt Penman

Originally from New Zealand, Matt Penman moved to the United States in 1994 to attend Berklee College of Music. In 1995, he moved to New York, where he maintains an international performing, recording, and teaching schedule as one of jazz music’s most in-demand bassists. He is an established member of the SFJazz Collective, an 8-piece composers’ collective devoted to presenting the original works of its members as well as arrangements of the jazz greats' oeuvres. The Collective features some of the finest composer/improvisers on the scene, including David Sanchez, Warren Wolf, and Miguel Zenon. In addition to his main projects, Matt performs regularly in Nils Wogram’s Root 70 and in trio with Aaron Goldberg. He has had many other notable collaborators, including John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Wayne Shorter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Werner, Dave Douglas, Chris Cheek, Seamus Blake, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Guillermo Klein, Rebecca Martin, Nicholas Payton, Fred Hersch, and Madeleine Peyroux.

Julian Shore

Pianist Julian Shore is known for his "deep maturity as a composer and bandleader" (DownBeat) and his work as both a versatile sideman and experienced bandleader. JazzTimes has called him one of the “leaders of the young jazz piano scene.” Bandcamp gushes, “His melodies are fueled by a powerful blend of contemplation and exploration. It’s just as easy to immerse yourself in any single moment as it is to be swept away by the entire epic journey.”

Based in New York, Shore has become one of the city’s most sought-after pianists. He has performed domestically and abroad with artists as varied as John Patitucci, Gretchen Parlato, George Garzone, Theo Bleckman, Chico Pinheiro, Brian Blade, Chris Speed, Sara Gazarek, Caroline Davis, Noah Preminger, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, and säje. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall; the Kennedy Center; the Blue Note; Jazz at Lincoln Center; and major venues and festivals across Europe, Asia, and South America.

As an educator, Shore remains active in a variety of settings. He was an artistic consultant for Herbie Hancock’s Master Class for masterclass.com and transcribed and notated hundreds of pages of Hancock’s piano performance for the course. He teaches privately at the New School and through the New York Jazz Academy, and he has presented workshops and masterclasses at universities and performance venues across the globe.

JK Kim

Jongkuk “JK” Kim is an award-winning, Billboard-nominated drummer, improviser, composer, and electronic musician from Incheon, Korea. He has become an integral voice in the contemporary jazz and improvised music scene in his home city and a rising star in the worldwide jazz community.

This tour/performance/show/event is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.