Harpur Jazz Combo

The Harpur Jazz Ensemble and the Harpur Studio Jazz Band are thrilled to announce a spectacular evening of music featuring acclaimed pianist, Nick Weiser!

Join us in the Chamber Hall of the Anderson Center at 7:30 pm for what promises to be an unforgettable joint concert. The program is stacked with high-energy original big band compositions and thrilling, new takes on classic repertoire.

Be sure to catch the afternoon concert featuring the Harpur Jazz Quartet and Nick Weiser at 1:30 pm in the Casadesus Recital Hall. It's the perfect warm-up for a full day of world-class music!


These events are proudly made possible by the Karen and Robert Pompi Jazz Artist Series Endowment.


Free Admission.

ARTIST BIO

Dr. Nick Weiser is a rare kind of musician—equally at home as a classically trained pianist, creative improviser, and master jazz practitioner, unified by a commitment to using music as a bridge between people and communities. A pianist, conductor, bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, and scholar, Weiser has built a career defined by artistic versatility and genuine connection. Raised in the small town of Dighton, Kansas, he followed his passion for music to the University of Kansas and later to the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his M.M. and D.M.A. in Jazz Studies under the mentorship of Harold Danko, Bill Dobbins, and other influential teachers.

Weiser has appeared throughout the United States and abroad, performing at the Santiago de Cuba International Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, New York City’s “Prez Fest,” and Carnegie Hall. His collaborative and sideman work continues to grow, with recent and regular performances alongside ensembles such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and the New York Voices. He has shared the stage with artists including Dick Oatts, Byron Stripling, Bob Brookmeyer, Christian McBride, and Peter Erskine, and recently premiered Dana Wilson’s Concerto for Jazz Piano and Wind Ensemble. As a recording artist, Weiser appears on albums by tubist Justin Benavidez, trumpeter Frank Gabriel Campos, and his own trio, i3o. His forthcoming 2026 solo piano release will reflect insights gathered during a full-year sabbatical supported by the 2024 John Stites Jazz Award, during which he studied with more than twenty-five of the living legends of jazz piano across the country.

A devoted educator, Weiser is the architect and director of the Jazz Studies program at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he has served since the program’s founding in 2017. Under his leadership, Fredonia’s ensembles and students have earned six DownBeat Student Music Awards in the past seven years. He conducts the Fredonia Jazz Orchestra as well as the DownBeat award-winning Fredonia New Jazz Ensemble and Fredonia Jazz Flextet. His scholarship and creative activity were recognized in 2021 with SUNY Fredonia’s Hagan Young Scholar/Artist Award.

In the broader community, Weiser serves as President of the Fredonia Jazz Society, a nonprofit organization he helped establish to bring world-class jazz performances and educational opportunities to Western New York. Prior to joining the faculty at Fredonia, he taught at Ithaca College and Cornell University and has maintained an active private studio for many years.

Throughout all facets of his work—as performer, collaborator, educator, and organizer— Weiser remains guided by a belief in music’s power to elevate, inspire, and serve the communities that nurture it.

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