Bard Faculty News

Eric Person

Visiting Artist in Residence

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Music

Biography: For more than 30 years, Eric Person has been committed to composing, recording, and performing dynamic and innovative music. His personal sound on alto, soprano, and tenor saxophone and flute has been featured on more than 50 recordings. He has taught and performed internationally, working with jazz legends Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Houston Person, and John Hicks, among others. He’s also performed with genre-bending musicians such as Ben Harper, Vernon Reid, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Will Calhoun, and Bright Dog Red. As a band leader, he fronts Meta-Four, Trio-kinesis, and the Eric Person Big Band. As a composer, he’s released 10 CDs.

For 15 years, beginning in 1982, he toured the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America with drummer Chico Hamilton. From 1994 to 1997, he was a pivotal member of the Dave Holland Quartet, performing at prestigious concert halls and festivals nationally and internationally, and with the group recording Dream of the Elders, which highlighted a sound that was light and ethereal, but also energetic. During the 1990s he also performed and recorded with the World Saxophone Quartet. In 1993, he released his debut CD as leader, Arrival. This was followed by Prophecy and More Tales To Tell. In 1999, Person established his working band Meta-Four; started his own label, Distinction Records; and released Extra Pressure and Live at Big Sur. In the 2000s, Person released a succession of CDs, including Reflections, Rhythm Edge, The Grand Illusion, Thoughts on God, and Duoscope. Bill Milkowski of JazzTimes called Person a “risk-taking improviser, accomplished composer, and inveterate swinger. His best outing to date, Rhythm Edge, presents an abundant sampling of this multifaceted yet underrated talent.”

BM, Empire State College; additional studies, St. Louis Conservatory of Music, Herb Alpert School of Music at University of California, Los Angeles. At Bard since 2022.

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