Vijay Iyer

Vijay Iyer (born Vijay Raghunathan, 26 October 1971) is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, writer and professor based in New York. The New York Times has described him as ‘social conscience, multimedia collaborator, systems builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway’. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artists fellowship, three Grammy nominations and the Alpert Award in the Arts. Downbeat, in its international critics' polls, named him Jazz Artist of the Year in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2018. In 2014 he was jointly appointed with tenure in the music and African and African American studies departments at Harvard University, as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts.