Ted Piltzecker Biography
From his website:

Vibraphonist/composer, Ted Piltzecker toured internationally with the George Shearing Quintet as well as with his own unique ensembles. He has recorded three albums as a leader. His debut album, Destinations, climbed to number eight in national jazz airplay, and his second release, Unicycle Man on the Equilibrium label (featuring Bob Minter, Harvie S, James Williams, and Dave Meade) remained on the Gavin Jazz Chart for months. The Victory Music Review calls it "a thoughtful recording filled with tasteful flair, the product of confident mature musicians who are committed to the ensemble." Jazz writer and critic, Nat Hentoff praised the album as "a lyrical, thoughtful, relaxing meeting of mutually appreciative improvisers whose time is timeless."

 His most recent recording, Standing Alone, a collection of standards for solo vibraphone has also been critically acclaimed. All About Jazz reports that "He fills the 43-minutes with expressive grace, maintaining interest throughout." Muse calls it "a simultaneously technically impressive and deeply relaxing listening experience."

 The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts have awarded grants to Ted in both performance and composition. His percussion music is available through Bachovich Music Publications, and his chamber works have been aired on National Public Radio’s "Performance Today" and the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s "Arts National."

 Ted has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan, William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, and the Manhattan School of Music. He is an associate professor at the Purchase Conservatory of Music, State University of New York, and he remains a popular clinician in universities across the country.

 For eight years, Ted directed the jazz program at the Aspen Music Festival where he regularly performed with many of the great names in jazz. (Jimmy Heath, Joe Williams, Clark Terry, Mel Torme, Ernie Watts, Hubert Laws, Slide Hampton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and many more.) Ted has performed in New York area concerts and clubs with guitarists Gene Burtoncini and Vic Juris, bassists Rufus Reid and Todd Coolman, drummers Lewis Nash, Dennis Mackrel, and Clarence Penn, pianists Jim McNeeley, John Hicks, and Bill Charlap, and with saxophonists Chris Potter and Javon Jackson. Jazz USA commented on his recording with the Shearing Quintet featuring John Pizarrelli for Telarc - "The vibes are glassy and glamorous - this is Ted Piltzecker, who always finds the right thing to say."

 Ted appears as a featured soloist in percussion festivals around the world, from Hannover's Deutsches Percussion Symposium and London's Percussive Arts Society (UK) to Brazil's Ritmos da Terra. He performed at Puerto Rico Conservatory, at the Festival in La Patagonia, Argentina, at the Festival Internacional de Percusiones in Monterrey, Mexico, at the Festival de Vibráfono y Marimba for the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, and at the Encontro Internacional de Percussåo in Tatui, Brazil.

His appearances with orchestras, including the Tucson Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Regina Symphony Orchestras have variously spotlighted Ted as a performer, composer, and conductor. European engagements as a jazz headliner include the esteemed UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki (guest soloist/composer) and several tours of German clubs and concert halls. His diverse performing interests have included tours with the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble of Tokyo, appearances at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York with organist Dorothy Papadakos, and concerts with classical cellists, Yehuda Hanani and Julia Lichten, violinists Calvin Wiersma and Rubén Gonzales, clarinetists Ayako Oshima and Dick Waller, and harpists Nancy Allen and Emily Mitchell.

 Ted is a graduate of the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. He is also a licensed pilot and unicyclist.