"Wow, what a sound, beautiful . . . exquisite texture . . ." 

- Paul Bley, jazz piano legend

About

An important part of Boston’s Jazz scene since 1994, David Zoffer started his career in Pittsburgh, PA with televised appearances on keys and guitar beginning at age 12. Zoffer, now chair at New England Conservatory’s Prep/Continuing Education Jazz Department, and college faculty at Berklee and NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, began cutting his teeth on Pittsburgh’s classic jazz and rock scenes. 

Winning Jazz competitions in Pittsburgh led him to piano performances with Harry Connick, Jr., and Wynton Marsalis in New York, where he would later record and perform his originals and radical re-workings of standards on keys and guitar with Luciana Souza, Don Alias, Eddie Gomez, Bob Moses, Stan Strickland and Jeremy Udden at such venues including Iridium, The Knickerbocker, and The Bitter End. Zoffer has played numerous blues and jazz festivals ranging from Boston’s Regattabar jazz festival to the Reykjavik Jazz festival in Iceland. 

Zoffer’s arranging and composing has extended to jazz/classical crossover performances and commissions from the Boston Philharmonic, the Handel Hayden Society with performances in larger venues like the Berklee Performance Center and Harvard’s Sanders Theater. 

Several albums with his own instrumental compositions (such as The Beginning of the End Vols. 1 and 2, and Courage in Closeness w/Adam Larrabee) have been called, “Extraordinarily compelling…a stroke of brilliance” by Katie Debonville of Northeast Performer. One of his vocal CDs with his Zappa/Police/Stevie Wonder influenced group The David Zoffer Differntial (DZD) was top 10 on many US college jazz radio stations. A live show of the DZD, which has played major rock and jazz venues all over NYC and New England, was described as “a wondrous zone…an amazed audience… funky, syncopated…deep… thoughtful and tasty…” by Phil McKenna of Progressiveears.com. Zoffer’s tours supporting these recordings have led to international performances and radio play from California to Portugal including appearances on Voice of America radio and NPR. 

David Zoffer combines the soulfulness of a blues musician, the compositional chops of an academic composer (he is Oberlin Conservatory’s 1st Jazz Composition graduate), the virtuosity of a jazz multi-instrumentalist and the stylistic diversity, arranging detail and storytelling lyricism of a pop music mastermind.

"There’s great tenderness, sensitivity, and grace on this wonderful CD ...  it’s reminiscent of the masterful Bill Evans & Jim Hall duets in its level of musicianship and interplay." 

- Bob Moses, jazz and world music legend

Recordings

For information on lessons and live performances, please e-mail me.