America’s piano whisperer is coming to Cork

Marc Copland brings his gentle playing style to Cork at the weekend, writes Philip Watson

THEY call him ‘the piano whisperer’ and he’s coming to Cork. Master American jazz pianist and composer Marc Copland may not be trying to tame or train the piano, but he has spent a lifetime developing a highly individual musical style that values gentle exploration over flashy pyrotechnics, subtle textures over straight lines.

He has an uncanny ability to bring out the best in the instrument: pianos somehow seem more sympathetic under his fingers; mysteriously, the music sounds better.